#LSO:AC

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter XII: Shark Teeth

Still, there wasn't really a lot of time to celebrate as, from what it seemed, his problems were not gone just yet. As he was about to relax, thinking that Agnes was destroyed by such powerful explosion, another blast shot off. Because of how much smoke there was, her shot was a bit off, allowing Ume some room to dodge.

Still, he felt the laser blast managing to scratch his side, burning through his shields and coat even further while managing to burn his skin rather badly. Grunting to himself, he would jump away a good meter or two from where she shot so she couldn't hit him again while looking down at his side. It was messed up pretty nicely, having a nice chunk of flesh missing; at least he wasn't bleeding. "Why can't I be as thick as Ryu? Dammit." Grunting to himself, he would look up before seeing Agnes walking from the smoke of the explosion, her armour mostly intact aside from some scratches on its metallic body.

"That was good. Damn good. Sadly for you, though, your friend ruined your attack!" Agnes would break into another laugh, rising her gun while keeping Ume in range of her gun. "Ryu smashed up my previous bot and I've seen what your blasts can do. So, obviously, I made this suit to be able to withstand smashing attacks."

"Would explain why you look so heavy and are so slow." He parried back with a chuckle, getting back up to his feet. "But that simply means that I got to cut you up instead, right?"

"As if you will have an opening to do that~" She hissed back, like a poisonous snake and not of the good type, before charging her gun once more. Taking a deep breath, Ume would start to run off to his left side once again, avoiding yet another blast even though he could feel how his legs were giving up on him.

Clenching his fists, he looked at her before deciding that it was time for some direct attack; after all, if the roof would come crashing down, he would be the one dying. "Hit or miss, huh?" He spoke to himself before pulling out a battery with a needle. Stabbing himself right in the shoulder, he would release a massive charge of electricity into his body, essentially giving him a massive boost of energy that he needed to use up very fast.

Biting onto his lower lip even harder, he would dash toward Agnes and past her before doing the same thing once again; before she knew, he was bouncing all over her, getting so fast that her visor had a hard time keeping up with him while accumulating energy from acceleration. Then, he would slam his feet into the ground as he stopped right in front of her, feeling several cracks running up the back of his legs.

Still, he would thrust his hand that was covered in electricity, cutting through her gun before it would drop down, successfully disregarding it. "Fool! You should've no-!" Yet his speech was cut off with a sudden...blade. From the hole that was left from the cut off the gun, a sudden blade would pop right out, stabbing him right through his shoulder.

As Agnes finally had her direct opening, she would twist the blade against his flesh, jerking the blade up as she would cut away at his muscles. Ripping away at his supraspinatus as his flesh was simply shredded away because of the 'ripping-tooth' edge of the blade. Reaching his bones, she would jerk even stronger, cutting away at his ligaments, she would rip his acromion bone from his clavicle bone as his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Then, using her other arm, she would clench its metallic fist before punching Ume right into his face, sending him flying against the wall. As he was sent flying off from the blade, resulting in only more flesh resting on her blade after he was off, Agnes was rather satisfied with her plan working. The room was filled with blood and her laugh while Ume smashed against the wall and fell down among pieces of rock, jerking slightly as a silent scream was stuck in his throat with all the blood running down onto the floor.

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter XI: Energized

As the smoke filled the area, not allowing the soldiers to shoot at Ume nor letting Agnes take a clear shot at him as well, he would turn back to the children with few caretakers who stayed behind to help them. Staring them down, he would shout at them to run off somewhere, disregarding his searing and smoking hot back. With them out of the way, he would hear a gun charging up as the smoke slowly started to clear up. "Tsk, she is stubborn, I will give her that."

As the electricity would start to dance around him once more, the detective would charge forward. Making a twirl like a dancer of sorts, he would allow the laser blast to miss him by an inch before taking aim at the confused soldiers in front of him. As they were just laying their eyes on him with their hands itching to their guns to raise them up, it was already too late.

Closing up, Ume would create a swirling mass of electricity in front of his fists, or more so around them, before punching the soldier in the abdomen. As the punches themselves had no real weight, mostly because Ume had pretty average strength, the electricity that he would send through the soldier definitely had more impact. Soon, the electricity would lightly sizzle around him before two shockwaves of electricity would mini explode from his back. As the soldier would bend over and collapse from the impact, his eyes would lay to other two.

As their guns were ready to shoot, Ume stood his ground before clapping his hands together. Rubbing them against each other, few strikes of electricity would zap his hands back and form before a small swirl would appear between his palms. Then, as the soldiers would pull their triggers and their energy blasts would fly at Ume, he would spear his arms out, stretching that mass of electricity in front of him.

Stretching it out like that, he would create a screaming line of the shield in front of him as the blasts shot earlier would hit the wall before being absorbed simply because they were weaker. As the wall itself started to get madder and madder, radiating with more pinkiness than before, Ume would collapse it back into the ball between his palms before squeezing it down like a dough, spreading it around between his palms. Then, swiping his upper hand horizontally across, a bunch of electric needles would come out flying at the two soldiers in front of him.

Hitting the mark for hundred percent, Ume just had to rub it in their face by swirling around with his back to them as his arms were in that weird stand pose as if he was an actor in the theatre who was receiving an applause. Then, he would clench his fists as all of those tiny needles would start to explode in their intense glory, sending waves upon waves against and throw the soldiers. Dropping down, the air would cause Ume's pink hair to flow in the air, adding this much style to his grin as he stares down Agnes in front of him who was watching and studying his this entire time. "My my, so much strength even though you just been blasted? Remarkable." Agnes spoke in her old voice, sounding quite amused even though her forces now were mostly destroyed. "Yet, it does seem like you are pushing yourself really hard, eh~?"

Biting onto the inside of his lower lip, he would clench his fists while trying not to look down at his arms; he didn't need to though. He could feel how his skin was cracking under the pressure of the electricity the more he used it. Electricity was the wildest of five elements and, sadly or not, he was not born with the gift of immunity to it. So, the further he would push himself, the more he would eventually destroy himself. But it didn't really matter now, huh? "Damn, I am really between a hammer and an anvil, am I not?"

With a sigh, Ume would shake his shoulders a bit before titling the head at his opponent. There was a moment of silence before Agnes would shot another blast into his direction. Dodging to the side this time around, the two soldiers that were left around her would start to shower him with more blasts, giving him almost no room for movement. As the blood would spill from his mouth and run down his lower lip, he would dash actually ahead, feeling the laser blasts searing through his clothes and burning his skin.

As more electricity would start to form around him, he would spread his fingers around before starting to dodge between Agnes and her soldiers, avoiding their attacks. "You might've gotten close, yet you won't have room for attack!" Quite full of herself, Agnes would laugh, shooting off another blast and nearly killing one of her mans while Ume was swirling around and between all three of them.

His body was feeling more and tenser with every moment of this whole charade; a blast hitting his leg there before his own electricity causing another crack to run along his arm there which caused a warm blood to run down his skin. Was really everything working against him?

Then, quite suddenly, Ume would jump up and bounce from the ceiling to create some distance between him and his enemies. Landing away from them, his breathing was hard as sweat started to build on his large forehead while his hair covered his face from his bent over position as he tried to catch his breath. As Agnes would bring her gun up once again, she would aim it at him before feeling some...pressure on it.

Blinking a few times, she looked down at the gun before noticing a thin and pink thread that was going across her, laying over her gun as it didn't let her move any further. Looking closer, she noticed how it actually looked quite unstable before noticing sizzles of electricity bouncing around it. "Room to attack? I had plenty of it~" Sassing her back with a tired grin, Ume would move his fingers around before pink threads of electricity would come into light.

They were nicely wrapping around his wrists, digging into his flesh bit too much for comfort before going to his fingers. Then there, from the tips of his fingers, they extended to his opponents; and now they could see. All the time he was dancing around them, he was planting them around as now they were all around them as if a thousand spiders decided to have one huge orgy all around them.

Utterly stuck between them, Ume would pull on them slowly, tightening them around the group as they couldn't move while his eyes were fixed on Agnes. "Incompetent." With those last words, he would clench his fists once again as all the threads would snap at once. With that, they would start to extend in an electric hell of their true glory, surrounding the group. And, because of how much he played there, it felt like the group was in one massive ball of swirling electricity. It was a simple yet deadly trap attack that was practice by every element master called Elemental Trap. But he wasn't done.

"Elemental Trap, Act II!" He then would shout before raising his hands up and then snapping his thumbs against his middle fingers, raising his thumbs then up. With that snap, all the sizzling would die down and the trap would look like a perfectly smooth ball of the pink energy before collapsing in a massive and inverted explosion with smoke and metal soon flying out of it as Ume stood there, watching, with more blood running down his chin.

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter IX: Stubborn

For a moment, there was confusion in the air as everyone kinda would stare at Ume standing there in his pose, looking at his opponent before Agnes would start to slowly laugh. "Oh goodness, and here I thought you were someone dangerous!"

Blinking a few times, Ume would simply title his head at this in the pure confusion that was obvious on his face while a kid that was behind him noticed something weird on his back; two vertical scars that were going along his back, perpendicular to one another.

"I mean, look at yourself! You burnt yourself out with protecting those kids against that blast!" In Agnes mind, this battle was already set. Taking such great hit head-on without any sort of protection was too much for anyone of his rank. Surely, she would worry if that would be Colonel as they would have the chance of deflecting her blast while still being able to fight on. But him, a nobody detective? He should be happy that he can put on his bravado after taking such blast head-on. "I mean, props for being able to stand straight and pretend like you can attack kid but you can't bluff your way out of that one!" Her laugh, crooked and old like herself, would soon spread through her soldiers as they would start laughing soon too.

Then, Ume would start laughing as well! Well, more like chuckling than anything. "Ah, I never was good at bluffing, true." He told himself, relaxing his body before suddenly going off like the spring; in a blink of an eye, he would move his fingers inside the electric orbs that an in the palms of his hands before throwing his arms out. Following that, he would draw his fingers out before ten spikes would fly out of those orbs much like he did before with the tank. Flying at the enemies, they would reach Agnes and soldiers around her too fast for them to really react before he would clench his fist, detonating all of them at once in a massive, electric explosion of pink wonder.

Ryu, breathing a tad heavy, would finally start to get really close to the very top of the tower, managing to cover most of the floors impressively fast. Swiping some sweat from her forehead before wiping her horn clean, she would look around the place before grunting to herself. "Why the hell would anyone need so many rooms? What for? They are all empty too!" Ignoring the fact that all ambassadors and workers were off for the day, the Oni would exclaim once she would reach the final floor, shaking her head. "Finally! Damn! Fuck!"

As she would curse under her breath her boots would smack against the floor heavily as she would across the room, walking toward the main hallway-room that had a final passage leading to the Empress' official chamber. Yet, before she could even go as far as walking halfway over to it, she would...feel something. It was like a rush of wing caused by strength and power of a person. Reacting swiftly, she would bounce off to the side before, out of nowhere, a swirling thing would be launched from the back, smacking into the spot where she was standing before nearly breaking the thick-glassed floor.

Standing in front of all the glass that was flying up and down, Ryu titled her head to the side as she watched the knight rise up before her. The person was wearing a rather heavy looking armour that covered them practically whole, making one wonder how they could move so fast in it, while this person possessed an actual tail which was covered in a layer of armour plates as well. They were seemingly stacked one on top of another, allowing for flexibility and protection at the same time in her tail. As far as rest of the body went, it was average-ish; the person had thick synthetic clothes that were created for battle, a bit standard, with a bunch of armour pieces on top of her. Shoulder plates, boots. Areas around her knees and elbows were inflated, looking like some sort of bubbles in order to allow for easier movement. But looking at its square helmet with that spinning red crystal on the top and noticing those massive gauntlets with a bulging piece on her chest, Ryu was quick to realize that she was a paladin. They were rather slow and clumsy at times but had a massive destructive power.

"Oh, great, you just might help me with what I have," Ryu said, finally realizing who that was because of those jade hair and the colour of her armour that was black with red accompanying it. She flat out ignored the fact that this person attacked her, thinking that her position of major will help her deliver the message quicker. And, being a far descendant of Dragons, aka Dragonkin, there was no way she would be with the terrorist organization. "Could you-"

"You dare mock me!" Before Ryu could finish her sentence, the women would stand straight and turn around, meeting Ryu's eyes with a pair of her jade-coloured ones. Staring her down with the determination of true protector on her face, she would pull her massive spear from the ground before slamming it next to her, looking other over before huffing to herself in her energetic and aggressive voice. Now, it was hundred percent clear that the templar was waiting for Ryu specifically and attacked her on purpose, not because of some random mistake.

"Mock...?" Ryu would title her head off to the side, kinda just staring at the other as if she was spitting nonsense before blinking in a very slow manner. "You...don't think that I am an enemy, right?"

"Think? I know that you are one!" She exclaimed, jerking her head back a bit while trying to look as mighty as she could. "We get the report of an attack in the civil district and of the traitor approaching the Empress' tower before you, a mad Oni, attack an outpost and rush right into the tower!"

"But I am not a damn Elf!"

"No one said anything about Elves you fool! Do not try to play dumb!"

Realization would suddenly hit her; they were being played. Clearly, the person who seemingly warned this major about Ryu coming was working with the terrorist, deciding to seize this opportunity as their only chance of gaining some upper hand. Grunting louder and louder, Ryu would suddenly start stomping her foot on the floor before screaming out loudly. "Dammit! This is so stupid!"

Her opponent, on the other hand, wasn't as casual about the whole situation. Seeing that the other was still trying to mock her, she huffed and gripped the lance in her hand before charging forward. Managing to caught the Oni off guard just a bit, she would make a simple thrusting attack with her lance, aiming right for Ryu's chest for a lethal attack.

But, to her surprise, Ryu was no child when it came to fighting; managing to act surprisingly fast, her gaze focused on her opponent in a matter of seconds while her hand jerked to her katana even faster, pulling it out. Slicing it diagonally from the right side of her hip to the upper left part, going across her body, she managed to connect with the tip of the lance with the surface of her blade before using her opponent's simplistic movement to change the direction of the attack. As the lance would charge forward, it would thrust between Ryu's ear and shoulder, giving her the feel of air swirling around the spear from sheer acceleration it gained. "You got to be careful using such thing. You templars sacrifice speed for acceleration and strength."

Her golden eyes would stare into other's eyes for just a moment before Ryu would dip under the lance, closing the distance between herself and her opponent before jerking her hand to hit the templar in front of her with the tip of her handler. As all the sudden force behind her punch was a bit too much, the templar found herself falling back before slamming against the floor with the grunt. "And heavy armour doesn't help either, dummy." Sighing, she would look at the templar moving around at her feet before deciding to rush off again, thinking that meeting Empress was much more important than continuing this fight.

But then, out of nowhere, a vertical swirl of green fire emerged behind herself. Having no time to react this time, Ryu turned around barely in time to put her katana in front of herself, lessening the impact somehow. Feeling the fire burning against her dense skin, she hissed through her razor teeth before starting to slice and strike away, using her sword to simple cut the fire around her away. Once it would disappear, the templar who she knocked down was now standing, lance pointing at Ryu as a little bit of smoke was coming from the tip of it. Blinking a few times, she would suddenly grin before straightening her back, looking more...excited.

"Templar, fiery nature and green fire? Kick me into warp whole and call me stupid but I finally realized who you are." Of course, how was it not obvious before? Being heavily interested in joining military ranks, Ryu would spend a lot of time reading and discovering things, as well as study various famous warriors. And, while her target, the famous Junko Yūketsu, took a lot of her time in terms of studying and researching, she did manage to pull some information on other interesting individuals. "Famous orphan who is becoming one of the best-growing warriors in the Empire. The dragon, the wielder of green fire, the Jade Fury; Osnah Kincaid."

There was a pause as if Ryu was staring down her opponent with newly found interest and not a healthy looking interest. As both of them were quiet, suddenly, something red would start to swirl and dance around Oni's body. Soon, this redness would turn into a crimson aura that was consuming Ryu's body as a whole like one massive blood fire. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, this blob would explode, breaking the floor under her almost fully while the air itself got heavier around Ryu. Her fists clenched tighter as veins popped more on her body while her lips spread into an even larger grin. As her eyes stared at the women in front of her with mad desire, her pupils would appear smaller while a little bit of smoke would start to come from her mouth and nose as she would breathe. It seemed like, her aura looked hotter than the flame that was shot at her earlier. "Well, now I don't mind staying here and fighting." Seemingly forgetting about importance of her mission or misconception of the other, she slam her own fist against her own chest as the shock wave rushed through the air, going as far as even causing Osnah's hair to sway away from under her helmet; "As long as you stand, this Oni won't back away from the fight!"

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter VIII: 'Hero' arrives!

It was...less than pleasant inside. Whole orphanage house, which was once quite well looking because it was built with care and skill, was now practically in ruin. There were signs of battle as spots from lasers were here and there, some dead bodies laying around with parts of their bodies either burnt up or straight up gone.

For the moment, Ume felt rather faint. All the death that was around him, all the presence of lingering energies from people who were dead not that long ago really got to him...before he would feel livid. Like a storm, electricity would start to dance around his entire body as he rushed forward, eager to meet the doctor.

She, on the other hand, didn't even knew that he was coming nor would she care if he was. Why? Well, she was living the dream, that's why. Sitting in her newly made mecha-suit with a complicated and old looking mechanism at her back, she leads a force of trained terrorists through the halls, chuckling to herself as she typed various commands into the mecha.

People ran and tried to save children, hiding with them or trying to find a way out only to be blasted away by a searing light. "Now now!" Agnes would shout with her rusty voice, a grin from ear to ear resting on her face while she scanned the ear before noticing some heat signs behind the counter. "For the greater good and science, right?!"

As some of the men behind her would clench their guns in anticipation of what was about to happen, her tank of a mecha would bring its massive gun-arm up before the mechanism on her back would start to work. Looking pretty much like a glorified SWAT robot from old Earth shows, its body was much bulkier than of her previous robot, resembling human much less and, instead, looking more like a suit. It wasn't smooth either, with clear separation between each section as it looked like it was a plated piece of armor while the head, or helmet, was an eerie one too as it was smooth and black with only some occasional red light flickering on it top of it or on its display, one could not really tell.

Still, as the mechanism would start to roar, electricity would sizzle around the tip of the gun before a red beam of energy would shoot out, blasting away the cover of the people as their screams were soon muffled by silent serenity. As they would die, this hellish device would soon start to buzz once again, sucking all the energy their bodies release upon death like a vacuum, infamous inventions that caused Agnes to be kicked out of Kayaku's Scientific Association.

Laughing under the sound of occasional screams and the laser burning through everything on its way, Agnes was a bit out of it as this made sure that she would not hear approaching opponent. And what about her opponent?

Ume was already rushing through the floors like a bolk of lighting that he was. When occasional soldiers tried to stop him, they were greeted with him simply dashing through them as if they were nothing. Even though they tried to raise their guns and even shoot him, he would simply use one of his electricity techniques to defeat them with ease.

Taking a deep breath in, he would send his electricity through his body, feeling his muscles tensing up as the string around his head got tighter the more he would 'speed up' his brain. Dodging those shots as if it was just a morning stroll for him, Ume would focus large portions of electricity around his hands before punching the soldiers on his way.

Being very simply type of soldiers who had little to no special traits about them, as well as having pretty basic armour, his punches felt like mighty thunder strikes from Peria herself. Having no armour that was capable of absorbing this amount of energy, electricity would run through their bodies and fry them up much like one would fry up an old computer.

Running through them one by one, Ume's breathing would slowly get heavier and heavier as he tried his best to use only five percent of his powers at best to make sure he had the strength for Agnes. As, even though he was good at wielding such a chaotic thing as electricity, he could not attune himself with it, making every attack as dangerous for him as for his opponent.

Soon though, he would reach the last floor as a horrible picture opened up to his eyes. Agnes, using her suit, raised her massive gun and aimed it at some poor nurse who was using her body to try and shield few children that were shaking with fear. Then, the blast went off.

At first, all that the child could see was just red light and maniacal laugh of a crazy doctor as he could swear that his life was over. But then, daring to open his eyes, they would open wider and wider with every second at would he would see.

Jumping in at the very last second, Ume would stand between the laser and the group of people, hunkering over them while spreading his arms out to try and protect them. As the laser would burn through his coat and shirt, burning his beloved fur while searing his skin off his back, he would bite onto his own lip until warm blood would start to run down his jaw. Still, he knew that he could not let go because, if he would, Ryu would kill him.

As the red laser started enveloping his body, his own pink electricity started dancing around his whole body before concentrating at the point where the laser would hit him. Then, running from that point to his arms and along with them, his electricity would guide the laser to avoid him and all the children, showing his great control of the element.

Being so sure of her victory, Agnes almost choked on her laugh as all the soldiers around her gasped in disbelief once the laser would go off and Ume would be standing there; his clothes burned and his back scared as well, smoke coming off as the sweet smell of bacon filled the room. Still, moments after, he would slowly straighten himself with the sound of an old titan as it looked like any tiny movement would cause his back to collapse on itself and simply crush away as a pile of ash.

Still, turning his grimace into a grin, he would give a wink at ogling child before turning around to face Agnes and her soldiers; electricity still dancing around him as Ume stood there, doing his best job to strike his best pose while that crazy, excited look was dancing in his pink eyes with his hair waving and flying freely in the air.

"You call that a blast? Damn, I feel quite ashamed such crystals myself." He would mock her, grinning more as he could almost hear how Agnes would clench her fists inside her suit before more electricity started building up in his hands. Soon, two orbs would form in the palms of his hands once again, dancing in their pink grace before waves would start to build away from them, running along Ume's arms as he stood there, ready for attack: "I, Matsukura Ume, The Fuchsia Ion, will show you what a true blast is like!~"

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter VI: In enemy territory

Ryu grunted, jerking her sword from guard's arms before slowly walking onto the ship. This whole thing could've gone extremely bad if not for Sere's connections and Ume's speech skills. Initially, they were the only one left at the scene so cops simply took them in, planning to make them face the investigation and trial. But, getting a one on one meeting with the head of security, Ume managed to talk pursued her in letting them go; not without transferring quite a sum of credits from his personal account and giving her his contact information, of course.

Once they would get back up to Tetryl Gekido, Sere would get them a cosy, and kinda small ship with which they would be able to fly off from the planet in search of that damn Elven terrorist. "My my, you are quite loud, aren't you?"

Sitting down in one of the back seats, she shot quite a glare at Sere who tried to be too sassy for his own good, practically grilling the poor guy right there and then. "I suggest to not say anything, she is still angry." Ume intervened, throwing a bottle of soda in Ryu's direction before closing the door behind him.

"Angry? What about? She got alive out of that explosion and managed to get from the cops. What to be angry about?"

"She didn't manage to fully defeat her. For Oni such as herself, it is annoying." He said with a chuckle, taking a seat at the front as he started the vehicle up uncomfortably before looking over at Sere as autopilot was turned on. "So, you said we can track that arm down?"

Nodding, young and flamboyant Siren would take a seat next to Ume, looking down at the screen of his datapad. "Yup. They are the Elven terrorist so they have a thing for using only 'authentic and old school Earth technology; therefore, it is pretty shit and is easy to be tracked." He said, going over all the information from any ship that left the territory of the planet in last few hours before finding the one with an unusually high reading of electricity. "There. Any planet leaving Tetryl Gekido is tracked, just in case. Tracker usually wears off in few hours, so no one would suspect anything. This should be enough for us to get them."

"Damn, they are serious about it, aren't they?" Ume sighed, looking at the datapad as well as he read that the ship was quite big and bulky, fitting a bill of a true military vehicle for transporting troops during emergencies. "Stupid for using such obvious things but hey, if left untouched they can get pretty dangerous."

With the ship set on its course, the three of them could finally relax a bit; or at least one of them could. While Sere was busy with tracking down the ship and making sure they would get the signal from the ship once they are close enough and Ume was busy checking on the news to make sure nothing happened to, well, anything Ryu was simply...sleeping. Laying on a bench that was meant for at three to four people, she could barely fit on it hugging her katana tightly as she was mumbling something under her nose with a pair of headphones on her ears, listening to some sort of music; it wasn't metal as one would suspect. It was almost peaceful, just drifting through space like that with nothing but void around them...until a ship would appear.

Signals would immediately go crazy, starting up an alarm as a massive cruiser appeared right out of nowhere above them. Before they could really do anything cruiser would shoot out a magnetic ray, capturing them and pulling them in. As Sere and Ume were already trying to think about a way out, imagining that those were pirates at best, Ryu would barely start waking up from her nap due to loud alarm.

There would be quite a lot of suspension before their ship would finally stop, indicating that they arrived at the hangar. Gulping down quietly, Ume looked over to his Oni friend to see how she was already pulling her sword out lazily. "Ry-yu dammit!" He exclaimed, jumping to her side as he was ready to place his hand on her hand to stop her, not like that would've worked. "You can't just jump out of here with your sword out!"

"I can't? I mean, clearly, those guys are not good so...Why not?"

He sighed, using his thumb and middle finger to rub the bridge of his nose as he leant back up. His hand would then move down, stroking his beard in a quite annoyed manner, almost pulling it off. "We are in the hangar, right?"

"Well...Most likely, yeah."

"That means that there are at least turrets outside. I don't doubt your skill, but going up against that would be at the very least stupid." He said before moving his own eyes to the door, glancing a gaze at it with his magenta eyes before looking back at Ryu. "Let's just...Try to get out first, okay?"

Strangely enough, Ryu seemed to actually listen to him quite willingly, pushing her katana back into it saya before looking at the door as well. "You gonna try to talk with them? You know that they will take our weapons away; probably will also shackle us."

"Worst case scenario they put is in a cage; and you know I can get us out even if that happens." He said, giving her a serious look before suddenly chuckling. "If things do get south, then we can blaze them to oblivion, yeah?"

Ryu chuckled herself, rubbing her tired eyes with her hand before giving him a nod. "Sure. But if they do anything to my katana, it's on you." Meanwhile, Sere was just shaking behind them, not understanding if Ryu had a personality disorder or if Ume had weird pacifying abilities.

Once their door was opened, they would take their first steps outside only to find themselves lost in a slight awe; the ship wasn't bad. It wasn't dirty, breaking nor ugly, which were qualities of the standard pirate ship. Metallic walls, bulky canons with soldiers standing right at the exit, hands on the triggers of their rifles. Their uniform green, bulky as well. The whole place looked bulky, old and...authentic. "You can't be serious..." Ume mumbled, looking around as they stepped down. Green colour, old look of the ship and weapons quickly allowed him to know that it was an old Elven ship; and with their recent discovery of Elven Terrorist organization, he managed to quite quickly put two and two together.

Things didn't get better when few soldiers offered them shackles for wrists and neck; another old Earth tradition of allowing captive to put those on themselves first. Looking back at Ryu to make sure she was calm, which she was, he slowly took them and gave them back to Sere and Ryu. Snapping them on, an electric link would appear among those shackles, tying them together and making sure that any rush movement would be punished with an electric shock of quite a few watts. Upon investigating them and taking away their only weapon, Ryu's katana, they would form around them before starting to quietly lead them somewhere.

As they walked, Ume observed and started chewing on his bottom lip, tearing skin off his lip as blood gushed onto his tongue while he realized that this terrorist cell was indeed not joking; in fact, if they had an actual cruiser with that much people on, they might actually be biggest Elven Terrorist organization out there. And that is at best; if they had more, they could've passed for an entire colony. Maybe even civilization?

His thoughts were cut short once they finally made it to where they were walking; the main deck. Bunch of Elven officers sat at the computers, calculating some sort of data. There was a nice path leading forward to a little spot that was set higher up with the main console. There, in front of a massive window for viewing, stood commander of the whole thing with his back to them. Turning around, he made his grand appearance while Ryu felt like puking from all the fake fanciness; if they were really fancy, they could've afforded a better uniform.

Turning around, the trio could finally see him in all his Elven...Glory? One might wonder if that could've been called that. He was dressed in some weird uniform that seemed like a mix between a suit and robe, being completely black and extremely strict with some pointy collar. His old, sleazy face along with some old Earthen military hat wasn't helping the case either. "And so we met!" His voice rang through the room, earning a sigh of annoyance from Ryu as the three stood in front of him. "I must say, it is formidable that you managed to track us this far. But this ends now."

"Aw, yes. Looking at this fleet, it would've been like fighting the army, no chances." Ume was quick to reply back, casting an impressed glance over the room and its soldiers. And even though Sere looked at him with worry, Ryu seemed completely unfazed by that. "I mean, we thought that it was just a few crazy people with some fancy scientist. But my, this is enough for the second coup."

His words seemed to reach commander's ears quite quickly, bringing a half-dead blush to his pale, saggy cheeks as he released a ringing laugh from within his chest. "Of course! One can only admire the strength of their opponent when they are cornered! But worry not my body, I had a special order from the head of our organization!" He exclaimed, extending his arm before clenching his fist. "You, while not an Elf, still are a human and quite capable one at it! So we decided to grand you a chance of a lifetime; chance to be on a winning side!"

Again with the old Earth customs of trying to win your opponents over; as if they were getting some weird pleasure from doing it. Like, if they managed to do it, it would prove just how graceful and amazing they are. Sure sure, this is why they never won a war with Oni; Oni don't take hostages, they start and end their business on the battlefield. "Oh? I must admit, my defeat is obvious but Empress Dratha is not an easy target. Would a cruiser be truly enough to take her down for good?" He asked curiously, managing to pull out unbelievable honesty out of his tone. His body still, his eyes looking curiously around the ship before landing on the commander once again. "Isn't she a, uh, Banshee?"

"That she is, my body, one of the darkest and most disgusting creatures ever! Their nature itself is wrong and perverted!" He seemed to have quite a strong opinion on that, as any Human or Elf of old times would, as he went on with his speech. "But this is why we have a brilliant plan; see, why do you think we needed those gems?"

"For firepower?"

"Of course! But we plan to get even more firepower! See, those gems are pure and strong, but there is energy much stronger", he would say before slapping himself on the chest, looking like he broke a rib or two; "Energy of a living soul!" He seemed to be proud, beaming with eagerness as if he was some sort of genius while Ryu slowly clenched her sharp teeth. "And what weapon could be better than the pure energy of living soul against such dark creature as Banshee, hm~?"

"But, gems don't exactly have living energy in them or anything like soul would have. Are there new gems you managed to-"

"Of course not! It's much simpler and therefore much smarter!" He exclaimed once again, his face stretching out to its limits in a quite wicked smile as he spread his arms out as if he was some sort of prophet. "We will use the unique destructive ability of those gems to gather energy from souls and compress them into a holy grenade!"

The realization which hit Ume not so suddenly, as he was expecting that but didn't want to believe that, caused a sharp breath to be drawn from his lips. Gathering himself up quickly, he would regain his composure before smiling like a child who just understood why two plus two is four. "That is simple...! But, that would take a lot of souls and massive attack on the city might be impractical..."

His voice, curious, trailed off at the end as he sank deeper into his thoughts, looking off to the side. "This is why we will attack very specific spot." He said, giving him a nod before pressing his hands together. "We found a perfect place located in a centre of Idria. It is always densely populated with innocent souls, so we limit the amount of corruption as well as any risk of accidentally killing Humans or Elves. And it is only a few blocks from Empress' palace too!"

"Oh...But still, bringing this marvellous device anywhere near Empress would be quite hard."

"It would be indeed! But we, of course, have it all planned out! A man of ours, an undercover agent, will make sure device will reach her safe and sound. And as he is not a dirty Banshee he will be safe from the explosion too~!"

As the man broke into a victory like a laugh, Ume bit only harder onto his bleeding lower lip before coughing softly to interrupt his laughing.

Catching himself and coughing into his fist, he smiled once again before extending his hand toward Ume. "But of course, where are my manners; I can see you for a bright individual that you are and I would be more than happy to welcome you among our rank, Mister Matsukura~"

He would sigh, looking back at Ryu just for a moment before returning his gaze to the commander. Bringing his arms up, holding them together and near his neck, he would chuckle softly. "It does sound tempting, but I think I will stay away from baby killing for now." Before commander's confusion could've cleared up, electricity started forming between and around Ume's hands, dancing wildly with bizarre pink colour. "Oh, and thanks for using old electric restrains."

Then, with a clap of his hands, a jolt of electricity would run along electric lines that connected his handcuffs and collar, disrupting it at once before blowing off mechanical locks on them. Even before they could hit the floor, said jolt would quickly travel to Ryu and then Sere, doing the same thing with their restrains. "G-Get them!!"

Before soldiers around them could do anything, Ryu grabbed the one closer to them before driving her knee right in their abdomen, knocking all winds out of them even though they were wearing armour, which broke by the sound of it, before grabbing her katana back. Ready to pull her sword out and start cutting fools, two massive turrets suddenly erupted from the platform on which the commander was standing, charging up respectful loads of energy to shoot at them. And even though Ryu was ready to cut them down, Ume quickly dashed against her, forcing both her and Sere down behind some sort of panel before blasts went off.

"Dammit! I could've totally cut them down man!" She snapped at Ume, looking down at him as he looked back at the damage that the blasts created to the ship.

"I would rather you not, we still need you alive." He grunted out, clearly not paying her too much attention as he looked around before suddenly pulling a small oxygen mask out; no, not one, but two! "I, gladly for you, have a plan already." He said, pushing one to Ryu while pulling one on.

"Oh? Care to elaborate?" She asked, in pretty pissed off tone.

"They are waiting for us to pop out, both soldiers and turrets." He said, pointing out that all those guards didn't seem to follow them behind the cover nor more blasts came off after the initial ones. "You can cut one of them down, even two, but soldiers will still attack you from all angles."

"So what? Do you suggest to just sit or...run?" She said, pronouncing the last word with quite a disgusted tone.

"Won't work either. Gladly for you, their weapons old." He said with a chuckle, feeling the floor below them. "Their blasts are not made of pure energy because they lack proper crystals, so they use electric blasts of energy."

"That means it's just easier to cut them down, you idi-"

Quickly shutting her down with his hand, he sighed, looking at her. "No, it means that I got a plan." He would then look at Siren boy who was quite lost before lightly shaking him off from his confusion. "Sere, be a dear and run for the ship. Once you get it, fly in front of those windows, okay?" He said, referring to windows behind the commander before quickly adding; "And if you will think of running away, I mined the ship."

"You what...?! When? Where?!"

"I am quick with my hands." He simply brushed his questions off before sitting up, deciding not to go into details of his thieving youth. "When I pop out, run for the ship like hell, got that?"

Having no other choice, he could only nod even if he didn't like everything that was going on before he looked back to Ryu.

"I do hope that you won't mess that up."

"I won't. I already got everything down." Saying that Ume would get into position before simply...jumping up. Standing right in the open, all the guns and turrets would be on him the moment he would get out of the cover while Sere would start running, not without Ryu's kick to the ass.

As soldiers were searching around for Ryu, turrets would go off once again, two massive balls of swirling electricity flying right into Ume before connecting! As the smoke covered him, the commander would be quick to look away, expecting a man to be as dead as they get before something would catch his attention.

In the corner of his eye, he could see bits of pink electricity, just from before, swirling out of the smoke the more it would clear. Then, adding to his confusion, he would see Ume, safe and sound! But then, a bright light and a loud, shrieking sound would reach his ears, causing his face to cringe.

Ume would grin, standing there with pink electricity swirling around his hands, dancing along his arms as it ran along his coat while his hair waved around. Just before the blasts would've hit him, he would use his own ability, conjuring his electricity around his hands. Then, in almost slapping motion, he would destroy the blasts before they could even reach him, sending his electricity through them and overpowering them since they were made of electricity that was less potent than his, making it into a cake walk. "You really don't know anything about your enemies before meeting them, eh?" He called out, quite sassy, before bringing his arms up and out in a mocking manner as he stood in a pose. "And you also ruined my coat, so I guess I got to ruin something of yours." He said, referring to the bits of his coat that were near his hands that were a bit blown off due to electricity; the question was, though, was it because of their blast or because of his.

Still, as turrets were starting to recharge, soldiers would already point their guns at Ume, who would only laugh at their attempt. "Useless!" He would shout at them before bring his arms up, holding them together above his head. As electricity would start to get tenser bit by bit once again, he would then draw his hands apart and down, forming a triangle of pure electricity in front of him. As all the blasts were fired off, they could only hit the shield that he created while its master was safe behind it. "Ryu, put the mask on, now!" He said, putting his on as well.

Once he would see that hers was on, he suddenly would reach one hand behind, causing the triangle he made to start breaking up once he moved one of the hands away from its edge. But, as he would move it away, he would reach into cables that were exposed due to earlier shot, grabbing them. "I already said, your attempts are useless!" He called out one last time before suddenly sending electricity through those wires. Unable to drain the cruiser of its energy, he decided to instead pump it with even more energy.

Before anyone knew it, a loud explosion suddenly rang through the hallways of the cruiser, indicating the core was damaged as soon red lights with warning sounds came onto the screens. As the door behind them locked, the emergency gravity and oxygen generation turned on while the whole ship moved a bit inwards as it was blowing up from the inside.

As the soldiers tried to collect their guns and the turrets were completely off, Ume grinned, extending his hand out before placing his other hand on his right arm. Ball of electricity appeared in the palm of his hand once again, swirling and buzzing about before starting to shrink more and more. Tightening the grip on his arm, he grinned before the ball would reach an extremely small yet unstable looking size. "Lesser Ambisagrus Canon!" He would shout for Ryu only to roll her eyes at him as the ball would give off a single buzz before exploding outwards. HIs grip tightened, his whole body tensed up as the electricity started to run all around and over him. Biting his lower lip, the pink blast of electricity shot out, blasting everything on its way before easily rushing through the windows of the cruiser's cockpit, safely blasting anyone outwards or straight up killing them in the process; with their armour and lack of aura, it was the second.

After few more seconds, the electricity started slowly disappearing into the vacuum of space. As all the air got sucked out, Ume was practically ejected from the cruiser if not for Ryu which grabbed him by the arm, holding her spot by sinking her sword deep into the ship. Nodding, she looked at the hole that was left after the blast, noticing all the corpses, their bits and all the broken tech.

Pulling her katana out as the place stabilized, Ume was about to try to connect to Sere through his device before finally seeing him pulling right in front of them. He quickly opened the door, looking pretty worried behind the window of the ship. As the two would get on, he would blast away from there at almost lightning speed.

"Well, that was pretty hasty. What's wrong? If that is because of the mines, I kinda jo-"

"Did you not see? Or hear? Or, I mean, Goddess Itrix, I do want the favour of Empress Dratha, but this is too much." Sere would mumble, finally starting to calm down from all the shaking as he dropped his head against the control panel of the ship. Gladly for everyone, the ship was already on autopilot and his head was not hard enough to break it. Realizing that the two were quite confused, he coughed and quickly sat up, trying to regain his previous look of pure professionalism as he turned to them. "So um...You destroyed the cruiser."

Waiting out for a few seconds, he watched Ryu and Ume closely, allowing the information to sink in as they look at each other. "Yeah. I know." He would then reply as he looked back at Sere.

"You...excuse me?"

It was obvious that casualness of how Ume said it really shocked Sere, if not straight up annoyed him, as the detective simply chuckled and took a seat at one of the benches. "I pumped some intense electricity right into some old schooled ship. It all rushed to the cores of the ship, overloaded it and boom. What else you expected?"

"I just...I mean, you know-...Do you do this every day?"

Ryu would simply chuckle, sitting down as she started taking a closer look at her katana. "Not exactly. This was the first time but, you know, this wasn't anything special."

Sere's head dropped once again as he rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling. "I mean, I can control water but my skill stops at some fancy water show-off tricks. I just didn't know that out the difference in power was so..."

"It's fine. Comparing to main forces of main Empires, I would be lucky to be at least as strong as Major." He said, casually once again, while crossing his legs and pulling out some datapad. "Power can be different based on a lot of various aspects; technology one might have, aura, their race, natural skills, training. Sometimes someone weak can kill someone strong because their power is simply their counter."

"Oh, are you referring to story of-"

"Hey, Ume", Ryu would suddenly interrupt, not paying too much attention to stripper boy to her right as she brought her head up; "You looked pretty morbid at the ship. Do you know where they plan to hit?"

Just like that, Ume's expression would drop as he sighed, his eyes narrowing down on the screen in front of him. "A lot of pure souls, no chance of corruption, no humans, located at Idria city and is near Empress' building." He would then pull out a picture of a big, fancy looking building from some newspaper article as Sere's and even Ryu's expressions tensed up.

"You got to be taking a piss..!" Ryu growled, slamming her katana's saya against the floor as she looked at the image.

"Nope, it matches the information. They plan to attack the newly built orphan house and use kids' energy for their bomb."

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter V: Kozeriai

"You, an animal, dare to lay your hands on my perfect body?" A clear distaste and hatred could've been heard in her voice as she spoke, staring Ryu down while clinging the only fist that she had left. Clearly, if she had an actual face, she would've been spitting all over the place right now. But then her head moved down, noticing the katana that was still stuck in the ground next to her. Grinning on the other side of the computer that was controlling this body, she decided not to delay her revenge and went to grab the katana, aiming to attack Ryu with it. But she made a gruesome miscalculation, one which young Oni would not forgive.

Upon grabbing the handler of the sword and trying to pull on it, she felt how her android body refused to move as the sword weight was much more than one might've thought. And, because she didn't apply enough strength to pull it, it caused her to stagger, giving Ryu enough of an opening.

In a matter of a second, Ryu brought her arm back and made a powerful throw, sending junk that used to be android's arm right in her face. Managing to catch her off guard, she would pounce once again, launching herself from the floor. Closing the distance between the two, she easily grabbed her sword and pulled it from the ground, causing the floor to erupt from under them, sending her further off balance.

Taking a deep breath in, Ryu sent all of her aura through her sword and concentrated it in the tip of her handler this time. Taking a half-assed stand, she jerked her sword back before thrusting it forward, connecting with android's torso. Just like a magic trick, sparks would fly everywhere once it connected with her body, crushing her synthetic skin and breaking it apart. Seeing an opening, Ryu jerked her sword back out and threw it off to the side, sticking it into the wall. With her hands now free, she clenched her fist before delivering another punch in the hole that was left after an earlier attack. With a loud crack and wires ripping as electricity dispensed into the air, her fist punched right through android's body, creating a rather noticeable hole before pulling her fist out and jumping back herself, separating herself from the synthetic body that flew against opposite wall.

She would stand there, staring her opponent down which seemingly was not moving at all. "Well, this is not good", she mumbled quietly to herself while not moving her eyes even an inch away from the other, "either she is dead or planning something. Not sure which one is worst." As a few quiet moments passed, Ryu would hear a noise of something opening and closing; it was very faint sound indeed, something you can barely catch with your ear, but it was there. She made a mistake of moving her eyes left and right just for a second, checking her surroundings before moving her eyes back to droid's body.

Smiling behind the screen, the scientist in control of droid's body would laugh under her breath as she watched how her mechanical body managed to insert crystal she got earlier into the palm of her arm without the Oni noticing it. Deciding to take her chance, she quickly would input the code she needed, causing the body jump back to life. Extending her arm, she would face her palm at Ryu before borrowing her body slightly into the ground with magnetic surface of her feet.

Ryu blinked in confusion, seeing the white surface of her palm slowly starting to glow red more and more before tiny whisps of electricity begun dancing along her wrist. Finally catching up on what was going on, she realized it a bit too late to dodge as a massive blast of energy emerged from droid's palm in form of a ball, flying right at her. Grabbing her handle, she pulled her sword and decided to do the only thing she had time for; thrusting her katana in front of herself with blade forward, she braced herself before feeling the energy tickling her body as it started connecting with her blade. Breathing out though, Ryu would send her aura to the blade before the massive ball of energy begun breaking into two at the edge of the blade. Once sliced apart, it hit the wall behind her on both left and right sides.

She would indeed breathe happily out in climax of her trick working out, but it was not the time right now as the droid was not about to stop her assault just now. Soon, more balls were already flying out of her palm as if her arm was some sort of machine gun. "For fuck's sake!" Ryu cursed under her breath, starting to run to her left to get the higher ground on the platform nearby while starting to slice her sword at the upcoming energy projectiles. While the energy would still tickle and scar her body as it flew past her, she managed to evade most of the damage by slicing them all up as the droid would stand there, shooting and seemingly...Observing.

Upon finally gaining higher ground, Ryu would slice up the last of those projectiles before suddenly jumping up. Leaving herself in a quite open manner, she would bring her arm up and hold her sword much like it was a spear. Suddenly, the person who controlled the droid would get the readings of enormous amounts of aura gathering around the Oni before travelling up to her arm and then up to katana, wrapping around it in a shape of a spear none the less. With one few seconds to react, the droid brought its arm up and shot yet another projectile at Ryu at the same moment tensed all of the muscles in her arm, ready to throw her katana. Taking a swift beath in, she would release it before growling out in almost animalistic manner; "Rushing Wyrm!"

In that very moment, she would jerk her arm and throw her katana-spear as a swift sound rushed through the building; it felt like the air itself got separated from the very force of her weapon flying through it. Meeting with the energy projectile it simply penetrated right through it, reaching droid's body faster than the picture could reach the screen of person who was controlling it. In the very next moment, it would hit right in the hole that Ryu made earlier, easily flying through as there was no obstacle to stop it from penetrating through the wall behind droid's body. Once the tsuba of her katana would press against the body of the droid that was not broken, it would pull the body with the katana; slicing through the wall behind, it managed to lock the droid in one position dead on as it was fully stuck in the wall now managing to penetrate it completely, almost crushing the droid's body from its force in the process.

Sadly, even though it penetrated the energy projectile, it didn't slice it up and therefore it would eventually hit Ryu. Connecting with her body, she clenched her teeth as a low growl escaped from her lips, twisting her body a little bit as heat and electricity rushed over and through her in energy explosion caused by impact. As she felt her aura being easily penetrated and her muscles giving in under the pressure of the impact, she would fall down in a clumsy manner, hitting the floor under herself.

"Ah, finally. I was already starting to worry but nothing calms down an animal like a good energy blast~" She practically sang into her microphone, writing down data that she collected with one hand while operating the droid with other. She would then attempt to reach down and grab onto the handler of a sword, giving it a pull before realizing that the sword didn't even start to move an inch. "Ah, as expected; it is indeed crafted specifically to be one of a kind. Heavy and sharp, that is a really dangerous combination, my dear. You shouldn't be playing with toys like that!" She exclaimed with a giggle, looking up at the fallen Oni before realizing that she...wasn't there.

Her eyes would almost fall out of her skull as she started looking around, seeing how the body was simply not there as the smoke from the explosion cleared. "Hey, moron!" A vicious voice called from the above as the droid's head jerked up, looking at the Oni which was now holding onto the ceiling itself, sinking her sharp claws into its metal surface. Expecting some quirky line from her, she tried to get herself out of this situation before hearing something launching itself; or someone. Ryu would literally bounce herself from the ceiling, ignoring all the bruises and scars she got from overpowering effects of the energy blast she took head-on without any armour early, flying right at droid like she was some sort of damn torpedo. Once near her, she moved her knee to strike her before driving it into droid's head as Agnes, who was sitting behind the screen, saw how the charts were going crazy with simply how much force was being pumped into the body from this knee strike.

In a matter of moment, the droid's head would both jerk back and get smushed under the knee before its neck would break from so much force, flying back against the wall and hitting it before bouncing away. Ryu, landing safely on her feet, cracked the poor floor once again as she connected with it before grabbing her katana. "Fucking never", she started saying before sliding the katana out of the wall with just one hand like it was nothing, "think that one pity blast is enough to stop me!" Growling at her opponent she would clench her razor teeth in anger, waving her crimson hair away with a shake of her head before slicing vertically across the body with so much force that it felt like the air itself was sliced apart; but she was not down. As droid's body was not in half and its insides were exposed, she suddenly began slicing more and more, jerking her arm back and forth with every slice in a very choppy manner as the body would slowly break into more and more pieces as she screamed away in low, almost animalistic way; "Die! Die! Die! Die!"

As the body before her started crumbling down into mechanical mess she would slice to the right in her final move, catching the falling head and penetrating it as it was falling down, getting it on her sword like a nice piece of meat all the while breathing heavily; she looked like a dragon, almost breathing smoke from under her nose from pure rage that was boiling her blood while clenching her teeth so hard that they would break at any point just not to break into another growl. Bringing her left arm up to wipe away some of the hair off her face, she would straight her back and stand tall once again while looking down at the mess that was once droid's body. Finally starting to calm down slowly, Ryu would look down before deciding that she might as well take this mess to Ume since it was a pretty good lead; but once she would bend over to get the arm, she would see it starting to wiggle around like crazy before suddenly launching! With some sort of boosters at it back, it would start flying away, clearly trying to get to some point as the scientist was trying to save the crystals she managed to get.

"Dammit! You can't! This is just chea-" But Ryu could not finish her sentence as something caught her attention before she could run for the crystals. She heard a beeping noise and, upon looking back down, noticing a glowing light and some unsettling sparks around the wreck of the body. It didn't take her long to understand what it was before she cursed some more under her breath, looking for a quick way out before this whole place would blow up sky high. She began running, deciding that a door was too far away and that she couldn't cut through a wall since she had a droid's head on her sword, a very valuable piece of lead Ume might want; so she decided to go with a plan C.

As crimson aura begun building around her and her growl begun turning into a low scream of war, she tensed up and braced her whole body before running right into a wall! Slamming into it like a cruiser, she would break right through the metal while cursing as she felt the sharp ends running along her skin, scarring her a bit. Looking at Ume and fish boy, who were standing there in pure awe and confusion, she ran right at them before picking them both up by the waists as she then placed them over her shoulders; "Move dammit!" She screamed before pouncing from the ground, leaving a hole in a spot where she was before flying as far away as she could from the building.

In a matter of seconds, the bits of droid's body would finally explode, causing all the machinery insides to get on the fun as well as they all started blowing up one by one before the whole building started falling and flying apart as the fire rage outside, brightening the place. With Ume and Sere still trying to puzzle together what was going on as they looked at both Ryu and the place, the Oni warrior set herself up and looked at the building before snickering under her breath with a light sneer; "She even used old school explosions. That bit-" And it was then when Ryu heard a siren of police force approaching, clearly reacting to a massive explosion during the night. Blinking a few times, she dropped her head down, mumbling some more curses under her breath in Oni's tongue; they were quite nasty.

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter IV: Face to Screen

The first thing that Ryu would notice is that how hot the whole place was, literally very hot. And coming from Oni that meant quite a lot. Everyone was rushing back and forth, running from one assembly line to the other, managing twenty things at once while all the heat from people and machines simply kept on building up and up, causing this sweaty hell. It was clear that they were developing weapons and armour of sorts here, and as a skilled blacksmith, Ryu could've told that it was no 'softcore' weaponry. "So, I assume that you finally managed to get it?" A tall bodyguard elf asked, causing Ryu to look over at him before she quickly bit down on her tongue, remembering that she was supposed to play this silent and grumpy Oni guard role.

"Oh, of course,~! Here, my friend helped me smuggle it in~." Sere would quickly lie, wrapping his arm around Ume's neck as he pulled him closer while his soft smiled spread across his lips. Looking at Ume, he would lightly point down, causing him to sigh lightly before he would pull his guns out. He did not like this one bit but it had to be done if they were to get information; and honestly, since he just went from having only rumours to seeing actual terrorists in flesh, Ume was ready to pay that price.

So he pulled his guns, two magnums whose design only could rival with their heavily look before placing them down on the table in front of them. With barely anyone paying them any attention, he would start to pull and press on some buttons and triggers here and there, slowly taking the whole thing apart one by one before stripping them down to their core. At their base, they weren't even kinetic or laser weapons; they were conductors. Conductors for Ume's powers that helped him use the said blade with minimal damage to oneself. Inside, there was a mechanism that would conduct energy from him into the guns and in the centre of it all were two crystals. Those were Lilac Heuldines. Those little gems were from sorosilicate mineral family, close relatives of hemimorphites. Often, people who used any sort of energy techniques would use those little gems as conductors for their powers; sometimes even amplifiers. With their density being higher than any other gem of such sort by at least quarter of a gram per cubic centimetre, they were often the best option, even though quite rare in their own right. And those little, smokey lilac coloured square gems were extremely banned from any sort of public use. Often, you can get permission for weaponry with them only from Empress or, at least, Colonel and higher. Simply put, the idea of those guys getting their hands on them was...Scary. The number of weapons and things they can create with them was simply mind-blowing.

But, as Ryu was busy thinking all that over and Ume was busy trying to get over a loss of his guns, Sere was master of pretending; grinning wide, he would pat Ume on the back before stepping to the guard, flapping his long eyelashes as he blinked. "So, I believe that I deserve a certain payment for that, correct~?"

"Correct~" Voice rushed through the entire factory and even though machines were roaring to their fullest, everyone heard it. Putting stop to all their work in an instance, like some sort of toy soldiers, they turned around and took a proper stand to greet the person to who this voice belonged. And, while Sere knew too damn well who it was, Ume and Ryu were caught a bit off guard with this whole thing, Turning around, their eyes would lay on an android unit that was slowly approaching them. By the looks of it, said android was of either very old Earth design or very minimalistic; maybe both. It was purely white, from head to toes, a smooth layer of whatever made up its skin. Only lines of separation which could've been seen were those at her elbows, waist and such areas where the body would need to bend, twist and such. And even there, those lines were just a thing and black ones, barely noticeable due to the whiteness of the surface. It also had no face, instead, the area where the face was supposed to be was simply glowing a bit with an even whiter glow. It was naked and therefore its female structure could've easily been seen; probably the only thing that was out of the place were few cables which were going out of the back of her head and down to her spine, all wrapped in a nice synthetic cable-sleeve. "Do not worry about it, we already moved the payment to your account." The voice, that was seemingly just coming from it, was that of old women. She had a soothing and old voice, that of a mother, with a light British accent. And while Ryu only stared down her, clearly not liking its stereotypical female hour shape of a body, Ume had a weird...Itch. That voice was somewhat familiar to him.

"Aw, Lady Stoke, you have my gratitude for business well done~" Sere would quickly pick himself up, giving her even a bow of sorts as he took her synthetic hand and placed a kiss on it. And while he was doing a nice job of taking her attention of the two, Ume's itch only grew. If it was Stoke about which he was thinking, it wasn't good by the longest shot.

"Oh, stop it, my dear, you flatter me...So, where you managed to find those two?" She asked, her attention swiftly moving from the Siren that was too eager to get on her good side to a Human and Oni that were standing behind him. Jerking her hand from his grasp in almost disregarding manner, she walked past him while her head was aiming in Ume's general direction. "To find a high ranking defector nowadays? You clearly have my interest. What is your name boy?"

Her sweet voice and elegant manner of speech clearly was not something that Ume has expected as he coughed into his fist, brushing a momentary blush that formed on his cheeks before quickly offering her a hand. Once his skin made contact with the cold surface of her synthetic body, something snapped in his head as he quickly bowed down as well, giving it a kiss as he tried to show his manners. It tasted of very strong cleaning chemicals. "It's Matsukura Ume, Ma'am." It took him quite some mental power to remember all kinds of manners he needed to do and, by the look of things, it worked?

She seemed relaxed and not tense as her voice was still smooth and soft, indicating that she at least wasn't angry with his performance. "Ah, I see. I do hope you are enjoying the stay here. This is not much, but worry not, it will be more soon~" Before he could really process the implications behind the grim statement, android would quickly turn around on her heels as she looked now at Ryu as the air felt a little...Heavier. "Hm...I do guess that taking Oni was bodyguard makes sense." She spoke in a pretty disregarding manner as, while her smooth voice was still the same, a clear shift in tone from nice to more displeased one was clear. Walking slowly over to her, as every step of her heel against iron floor echoed through the building, she would stare down at Ryu who, sadly or not, was staring back at her. "You are probably ashamed of yourself, eh? To be a bodyguard of some thug on such planet. Honorable race, huh?"

While Ume pieced things more and more in his head, trying to slowly step back and retrieve his gems from the table, the tension between the android lady and Ryu only grew and grew. Ryu, somewhat to Ume's surprise, was quiet. He expected her to snap back, but no, instead she simply stared her down with those eyes of hers; and it wasn't a usual stare, oh no. All the right muscles in her face tensed up as her pupils grew smaller, only causing her yellow iris to look that much tenser. She would bring her shoulders up, stretching her clothes to their limit with her body as she tilted her head to the side, giving Stroke back quite a disregarding stare as if she was staring at some sort of dirt on her shoe.

That would go on for quite a few moments as Ume could tell that the guard who originally allowed them in and Sere were already getting a bit sick as they had some hard time standing. Understandably so as Ryu's aura was simply oozing and building around her like a heavy blood-smoke; and Ume knew that, if she wanted, she could make at least half of all those people pass out with it if she really wanted. "Relax, was just a joke. I don't have time to be picking fights with Oni~" Stoke finally spoke, her soft and welcoming tone coming back to her voice even though her sentence by itself was quite disregarding. But, when everyone thought that the tension was over and that things could get a bit more relax, her body twisted around at troubling speed as she extended her hand out, clearly aiming for Ryu. "But I do have time for stomping filth away~"

Having no other option but to defend herself, Ryu quickly pulled on her katana, sliding it outside of her saya. In a matter of moments, she would put it between herself and the charging arm, aiming the dark blade at the aggressor. But, to her surprise, what followed wasn't a sound of metal being sliced up but instead a clonk as her hand connected with the blade, unfazed and unharmed. Unlike Ume and Sere, who were still trying to understand what was going on, Ryu was a bit faster at thinking; as she quickly realized that material from which that robot was made was quite dense, she already started thinking about all the possible counter-attacks she could've done.

Dragging her blade up along the palm of her hand, Ryu would bring her katana as high as she could diagonally before dropping it. Yet, instead of allowing it to simply drop on the ground, she quickly caught the handler of the sword with her left hand. Aiming the tip of the said handler now at the android, she would proceed with the attack, slamming it right in the abdomen of the android. And, to her actual surprise, android's body went flying across the factory, slamming into few machines on its way before hitting the floor. She knew that slicing her wouldn't work in that moment so she decided to try using impact damage of her blunt handler, and it worked just fine.

Noticing how guard, who allowed them in, already started edging his hand closer to the gun at his hip, Ryu stomped her foot onto the ground. As it cracked and crushed under her foot, crimson aura started building around her before its force and presence would echo through entire factory. In a blink of an eye, said a guard and more than half of the works would start to stumble around in very sick manner, some falling dead on the ground as ones who managed to be far enough fro Ryu simply started to run out from the back door. Ume, shaking his head, grabbed falling Sere who was clearly not prepared for such aura, yet he still was conscious. But, just as Ume tried to reach for the gems, he noticed how they simply were gone. "Are you looking for those~?" A singing voice rushed through the factory as android's body slowly got up from the trashed machines which it hit previously, showing off gems that she held in her hand. "I thought that I might as well grab them on my way here~"

"Oi!" Ryu barked back, staring down the android across the room while clearly addressing Ume. "Grab that cunt and run out of here. I am not planning on holding back right now."

"...Try to be fast. I am sure that police will be here shortly." Ume responded quickly and bit too casually, getting Sere up before rushing out of the door. He knew a bit too well that standing around fighting Oni was not a good idea; and standing around fighting Ryu was even worse of an idea.

For a moment, it was completely quiet and somewhat peaceful in the lonely factory before the sound of groundbreaking and metal twisting filled the whole place. Ryu's aura flooded place like a river which just broke its dam. As the crimson desire grew and grew around her, affecting the place around her in the very physical way, she threw her sword from her left hand to her right hand. And, upon landing into her palm, she gripped it tightly while finally initiating the battle.

Using her legs, she crouched down a bit before using all of her strength to bouncing herself forward. As the spot where she was standing broke down like nothing, she flew across the factory, clearly aiming for the android's body. Raising her katana up, she would perform a cutting action as the air itself seemed to part away from the edge of her blade. But android did not move, oh no, instead she simply extended her hand up. Once the blade connected with the surface of her palm once again a shockwave rushed through the factory, breaking any glass and less dense things that were in close proximity before Ryu added up to it by landing to the ground, breaking it as well.

As she clenched the handle of her sword with both of her hands, she stared at android with unyielding desire to destroy and rip her apart while her sharp teeth showed past her lips, pressing so hard against one another one might've thought that they would break each other. "Curious." Android mumbled in almost mocking tone, taking a good look at the sword that was pressed against the palm of her hand before looking down at Ryu. "So much force...Would that be over ten thousand newtons? And in such thinly compacted area as the edge of the blade? Remar-"

But she didn't have a chance to finish. Feeling like she had enough of that, Ryu would quickly drive her blade down before reversing it around in her hand. Now, instead of simply slicing it against android's hand, she would try other parts. In a matter of seconds, she would deliver over dozen slices, running her sword up and down and around against android's body. But all of it got only the same result, a clunking sound and her blade bouncing off the body of that stupid machine.

It was very clear that this was not working out but Ryu seemed to...Grin. As if confirming something for herself at once, she would drive sword down into the ground with another slice, causing the ground to crack around it. The impact caused, if you will, a tiny earthquake affect as the ground would start coming apart, breaking still stand of her opponent. In that very moment, Ryu would grab android's wrist, pulling her arm closer before driving her knee right against the elbow.

Silence rained supreme before a sudden sound of metal crushing and electricity bursting out of wires rushed through the place. Android, as if awaken from her studies by that sound, tried to jerk her arm back but Ryu had too tight of a grip. Seeing no other option, she suddenly extended her other hand and pressed it against Oni's side, releasing a blast of energy which sent Ryu to fly back across the room. Slamming against one of the machines, android looked down at her arm as a gasp left her speakers. She saw something she thought that was impossible; her arm was ripped apart below her elbow with Ryu laying against machine into which she slammed, waving the rest of her arm. "I figured you out, moron!" She yelped in quite a victorious manner, getting up while dusting herself off mockingly with android's hand. "Your body measures force and can withstand it. So I simply got to use as much force as I can", she spoke before slamming her hands together as she crushed the arm between her hands like it was but a can of soda, "and we, Onis, have no problem with that you bitch!"

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter II: Too Loud.

Once outside, the two would take the vehicle that was assigned to them. Almost immediately Ume would start to look around the whole thing form the inside and outside, noticing all the little details his eye could see from the first glance. While he was never a big fan of piloting or driving, he knew a thing or two about constructing things, preferring to know how fast and durable their transport could be in an intense situation. And as he would make some mental notes in his head while turning it on, Ryu would clearly be less interested in where she was sitting or what was around her in general as her gaze was focused on the katana that was resting on her lap.

Upon making sure that it was well kept indeed, she would pull on the handle of the thing, pulling the blade outside of its saya with the satisfying sound of the clear metal running along the surface. As her grin was practically stretching from ear to ear, she stared at the perfectly smooth surface of the dark blade before swiftly running her finger along the edge of the blade. A trail of blood would run from the light scar on her finger while the blade was as clean as ever, earning a nod from the Oni who was holding it.

"You know, maybe you could relax with the whole stabbing and slicing thing for now?" Ume said, carefully, while his eyes were focused on the area around them as he made sure to not bump into anyone accidentally.

"I am just checking. I want to make sure that those assholes didn't accidentally ruin my precious baby~" She chuckled, sticking her long tongue out and running it along the scar, covering it with a thick layer of saliva before quickly pushing the sword back into its saya. "So, where are we heading? Into some ghetto on the outskirts of the Galaxy to meet up with some fancy mafia bosses?"

Sighing through Ryu's chuckles, Ume would lean back and turn the autopilot of their vehicle for the general direction they were heading to before turning his head to her. "First, most mafia bosses actually stay as close to capital as possible. Second, there is only one place where we can possibly go; Tetryl Gekido."

"Oh, so we are going to a fancy shit hole. Nice~"

Ume chuckled as well, leaning back in his seat though not too fat since there wasn't a lot of space before looking at the front window, watching how they would start to slowly fly out into the open space. "Well, the information we seek is unofficial. We will be practically buying illegal intel on people we assume might be connected to the case as well as getting general information. And what place could be better than the jewel of underground world and even for all soft-core criminals?"

"Still surprised that Empress allowed such place to be in her Empire. And not only in her Empire, but right in the neighbouring solar system."

"Well", Ume spoke while pressing the button to allow the transport to enter into jumping mod so it would prepare for the jump to another solar system, "What were the options? Either she grants all shady people their own part in her Empire and keeps them under control or they rage around entire Galaxy."

Ryu bobbled her head left and right for the few seconds before nodding, leaning back as well while running her thumb over the part of her katana that separated handler with the blade. "Well, true. The place just rubs me the wrong way."

"Because you are Oni?"

"That too. Why do you think you rarely see any of my type there? Unless they overdose on drugs to the point of becoming vegetables, we dislike this whole thing with loud music and sex and shady assholes. Blech."

"Well, at least we are going to the good part instead of the worst, right?" Ume said, trying to lighten the mood somewhat as he could see the destain in Ryu's eyes already. People never usually liked criminal places, unless they themselves were shady, but it was different for Oni. Any, well, normal Oni always had a strong moral code. And while they could vary they would always have some common basis at their core, and those bases would almost always go against places like Kharda. "Just, try to relax, okay? We will go in, meet with certain Intel and get out."

"Yeah, that's what is always planned; yet it never goes as planned and-...Wait, you already found intel?"

He chuckled, shaking his hand left and right lightly. "Well, not fully? See, in rare cases when police force needs help from people in Tetryl Gekido, we contact information brokes. So we will meet with the one I heard my, um, coworkers refer to."

Ryu only grunted as the only answer, leaning back and placing her boots on the front panel of the ship's control area to show her utter destain with the plan. "Well, if something goes South, we can at least go with plan B."

"Which is...?"

"Physical persuasion?"

In a matter of but a few moments, their ship would finally reach the solar system, finishing their jump. Light from the system's burning red sun would quickly hit their eyes as truly bleak and empty solar system opened before them. Being mostly on the outskirt of the Kasai's Empire territory, whole placed had almost nothing. You could see their cool star which desperately was trying to make up for its lack of heat with bright, bleeding red colour. There were two planets, one of the worst planets in the entire Galaxy, with one of them being a haven for pollution and another being...Well, an example of what might happen when pollution mixes with some sort of energies. Pollution on itself is already bad, but when enormous amounts of it mixed with some sort of dark energies unleashed there hundreds of years ago? Well, it still looked like a decaying mess. Truly, this was a place which only mad villain who was trying to build most secure base ever would not pass by. As far as its neighbouring planet? Well, it was a prison for criminals who broke laws in their other prison. Where Tetryl Gekido tried to be somewhat civilized, this was the place where they sent worse of the worse...And people higher-ups didn't like occasionally.

Noticing all the grunts that Ryu was making, as well as how loudly she was making them, Ume quickly guessed that his fellow Oni friend was less than happy to see this system by itself, let alone all the corrupted planets. So he quickly turned to the planet, aiming for the port which would lead them straight to the heart of it all.

While having his own sense of justice, Ume couldn't help but admire the whole thing in a weird. There it was, another polluted plant filled with criminals and bunch of no ones. And there, somewhere to the South, was a massive crater. Crater, which land was ripped out of it and suspended into the air, with a behemoth of a building resting on top of it. And all of the lights made the really easy job of making the place seem, well, noticeable. You wouldn't just see from space, no, people who would fly too close to Kharda would often get signals on their radars; the whole place was as big, and armoured, as a middle-class warship. It was, like, flying corrupted castle among polluted hell; and Ume couldn't help but to admire it in a weird way.

But his admiration would end there since, as soon as they would finally go through the defense field and make their way out of the ship, the reality would kick in; almost right away, sights of all kinds of provoking and shady people hit their eyes along with the guards armored to the teeth, who acted as local 'police', along with all kinds of crazy smells and loud music. Grinding her teeth against each other the best she really could, Ryu simply showed her displeased with the whole thing once again. Luckily for both of them, and guards most likely as well, they were allowed to keep their weapon. They were warned that even slightly questionable action will be quickly resolved with any sort of needed measurements but hey, at least she had her katana. Now Ume just hoped that she wouldn't use it.

As they walked, Ryu would actually bend her back forward and hunch over from the pure annoyance, looking around the place. To the left, a bright shop with all the questionable types of drugs and substances. To the right, a huge 'theatre' that would provide any type of sexual services with drugs from, probably, that very shop. NJot like they didn't have those theatres back at home, but at least there they were...Better. Plus, all the raging lights really weren't helping. And, while she had protection from lights in a face of her lovely glasses, music and all the voice were still a problem.

Nevertheless, Ryu would be awakened from her begrudging slumber by quite a punch to her shoulder from Ume which seemed like he was trying to call out for her for quite some time at this point. "Ryu! Club!" Those were only words that she could somewhat understand, following his finger up at the huge and yellow sigh of the upcoming club that they were approaching. It looked like most of the music was raging exactly from there. So, naturally, Ryu would brace herself for another wave of sounds before making a quick turn there.

To her, pleasant, surprise the sounds were actually gone once she was inside. Well, not completely gone, but much quieter. Too quiet compared to what was happening outside. "U-Uh...Did my ears pop already?"

"No, this is how they work, as simple as that." He said, getting in as well before quickly providing the security robots with the special access-key they had. "They make it much louder on the outside to attract people, you know?" Once the key card was approved as the one of the higher class, showing that Ume and Ryu had resources to potentially spend, two robots would lower the yellow barrier in front of them, allowing the two finally walk inside.

Following her sheriff friend, she would look around the place, seeing all the people with all the music and all the lights and drinks and everything and...And it was just so annoying. It was really the type of thing that would make Ryu want to grab and smash something nearby. But she had a feeling Ume wouldn't really let her. "So, who are we meeting?"

"I will have to go look around for them, that would probably be our best guess. You can relax here for now. Or, you know, try to?"

Replying only with a grunt of her own, she would quickly depart from Ume to head to the bar of the whole place, deciding that she might as well get herself a drink while she waits for him to do his shady stuff. "Police force my ass." She mumbled to herself, practically pushing people away from her as she headed to the bar if not for the fact that people were already moving away from her. Even if you weren't really a fighter of any sorts, feeling Ryu's aura was still quite easy and very much enough to avoid her by a long shot. Alas, finally reaching the bar, she would take her seat at it while leaning on the table, wondering if people around here really felt comfortable being all cramped up like this. "Oi, I will have melon soda, big."

Confusion on the bartender's face was more than obvious as he looked around and back to Ryu, wondering if she was already drunk to make a sure order. Yet, once her piercing eyes would shoot through him with the intensity of dragon ready to attack, he would simply give her a nod and quickly pop a bottle of melon soda, pouring it in one of the fancy glasses around before quickly placing it near Oni lady which was oozing with kill desire.

She made her payment and simply took the glass, bringing it to her lips before allowing the bubbly liquid to fill her mouth. Rushing against her tongue, biting it with its buzzing substance and filling her with a sweet aroma of summer melon, Ryu would swallow down the drink while finally feeling the tiniest bit better. She even thought to herself that, if she blacks out everyone and everything around her out and focuses on that screen on top of her with some anime playing on it, then maybe she can even spend this time somewhat peacefully. But, it looked like Cosmos had different ideas for her.

"Darling, have nobody told you that you suppose to order alcohol in the bar~?" A sickly sweet voice rang from the right before a guy took a seat next to her with his, how it looked like, bodyguards standing right near him. "Here, let me help you~" It wasn't enough that he looked like he fell out of slug's anus with his gelled hair and fancy outfit, no, but that was voice was like Nolxux's honey.

Feeling quite sick already and seeing a glass of alcohol being moved closer to her, Ryu would simply and slowly move her cold and dead serious eyes over to the boy before grabbing the glass with liquid inside of it. Yet, instead of drinking, she would suddenly drop right at his feet before moving her head away with the same amount of care with which she started it; so none.

"Aw, you are a fighter, aren't you~?" The boy kept on going, leaning in closer as a weird grin appeared on his lips. "I like the fighting type. They always act the most submissive in bed~"

This was essentially reaching the point of ridiculous as Ryu couldn't tell if she was in just a shitty bar or shitty fanfiction. Still, taking another sip of her drink, she mostly ignored his comment. "Say, have you ever had a girl trying to put her pocket knife through your hand?"

"Oh? Why want me to help get yours out of your pockets~?"

Taking the final gulp of the drink, she simply moved the glass away so it wouldn't get harmed before looking over at him. After few more silent moments of staring, her hand quickly wrapped around the base of her katana before pulling it out. With swift and satisfying sound, the blade ran out of its saya before she tensed her muscles up, bringing the whole thing down like a meteor of sorts as the blade ran right through boy's flesh and the bartender's table with ease. Running the blade right through the wrist of his hand, and therefore right through his palm's artery and radial styloid, she made sure that he was not only stuck in this position but also the bleeding would look like there was a whale dying there.

Deciding to capitalize on the guards' confusion, who were as incompetent as they boy himself, Ryu quickly rose up from her seat and placed the palm of her hand on the back of the head of one of them. With the strength of ten mammoths, she would jerk his head down, slamming it right against the metallic table so hard that the lights under it begun flickering and spastic out. As his body falls on the ground, face a bloody mess full of metal and glass bits, the other guard was smart enough to drop the gun immediately and make a run for his life.

But just when she thought that her little problem was finally done, she heard a few people pulling out guns right at her all around the place, those obviously being a security of the club itself. "Ah, come on, you saw that he started it." Ryu groaned out before grabbing the handler of her sword, swiftly pulling it out and allowing the boy to fall on the ground as blood just kept on gushing out. "Better take care of rich pants over here. I sliced through quite a lot of veins there, he can bleed to death and all."

"Ma'am, place your weapon down and allow us to take you to the chief of security."

The fact that those nobodies were speaking in such monotonous and boring tone already pissed Ryu off, but the fact that they asked her to give up her sword so soon after she just got it really tipped her off. With a jerking motion, she got the blood off her blade before placing it on her shoulders, looking at the guards around her a slowly, crimson blood aura started building around her. "Oh? Well, you welcome to try and take me."

Yet, just at the very moment one of the security personnel tried to take step closer, a loud clap rushed through the place. As all eyes moved to its source, Ume walked out along with a person who was responsible for said clapping. It was a guy who's clothing couldn't be tighter and more revealing. One might confuse that purple haired freak of nature as some sort of exotic dancer, but based on response everyone gave him, it was clear that he was bit higher than that. "Darlings, please, do lower your guns. She is a friend of my dear guests, so allow us to relax."

"Yes, Sir Àsma!"

Ryu grunted as she kept her sword where it was, turning around and looking at Ume, who shot her quite the confused look mixed with a bit of disappointment because she couldn't keep things calm for even few moments before looking over at the guy. "And you are...?"

The purple haired Siren smiled at her, giving her a little bow before giving her a few elegant blinks with his curled eyelashes. "Seredine Àsma, owner of this lovely place and your friend's intel. But you may call me Sere. Say, shall we move to my office~?"

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey-Chapter I: Unusual routine

As the energy rushed through the machine, its parts would slowly start working at the regular paste, starting to heat the area slowly up. Soon, moment by moment, a little area within the machine would heat to the extreme degree as the rock inside, a piece of seemingly shiny ore would start to crumble. Soon, it would be nothing more but a liquid, dripping along a mechanism into a little waiting area where it would soon be ready for shaping and any sort of manipulation.

"Okay, this one is almost done!" A loud voice rushed through the working area of the local blacksmith station that was nicely resting near Empire's most important building, the Royal Square where all the important government individuals rested. Said voice was low yet not without a feminine touch to it, definitely having an elegance of sort to it even. Not a regular elegance though but more of a...Rough one. Like a mountain, it clearly rang with dominance and strength and just like a finest of swords it pierced through the area with ease; if one would listen for long enough, they even could be lucky enough to spot pattern of arrogance in it as well. "It will be ready tomorrow, you punk." She called to the two young soldiers standing at the counter from the back of the working area, sparkling a fair bit of black dust over the molten ore. A light steam would come off from it before the dust would spread through it as the whole thing then would be quickly placed into another machine. That one was more round and smaller, as well as quieter and cooler. A synthesizer, obviously, which was turned on by the blacksmith.

She would proceed to pull off her apron, which was loosely tied anyways, before turning off the lights and allowing the machine to work over the night. Sighing, she walked out from the back door, locking the shop with her eye scan before looking at the synthetic sky. "Well, it's just getting dark so might as well allow myself something to drink." A young Oni mumbled to herself, pulling out a pair of round, black glasses before quickly snapping them on as she started walking off. She smiled, enjoying the feeling of how air rushed through her messy hair, giving them some volume as she walked while her boots lightly hit against the floor. So what if she was looking out of place with her shirt whose sleeves were cut off in pretty messy manner or with her tight jeans that were made of elastic, synthetic material instead of real, expensive and organic materials? First, Ryu thought that her black shirt with its white-grey design looked pretty minimalistic; and who cared that it was an anime girl in the embrace of tentacles? And second, people should try to be Oni and wear organic tight jeans and then talk to her. Hell yeah, she was presentable as hell!

But her thoughts were soon caught off by another voice calling out to her and, judging by the fact that it was loud as all hell in such fancy area, it could've been only one person; "Ryu-sama~! Finally, I found you!" Ryu sighed, turning her head to greet a source of that light voice which clearly didn't match the person's look. It was none other but her, well, friend, Matsukura Ume. Come to think about it, it was probably her only real-life friend, which was weird since the guy was a fancy sheriff while she was a blacksmith. True, she was a very high ranked blacksmith, but blacksmith none the less; she always thought that he simply loved the way she forged his guns so much that he simply made it his mission to make her his friend. "Finished earlier today, eh?" He asked, finally stopping near Ryu with his dreads being done in their regular high ponytail with his furred coat resting on top of his baggy shirt. Even though he was quite annoying, sometimes, with him around Ryu felt a little less...Out of place? He was dressed casually in his same pop style and those jeans and boots. Hell, he didn't even have one of those fancy vests that they assign to any high-ranked individuals of the police force; well, he did have augmentations that would turn on his hard light armour when he was in real danger but beyond that? He looked more like sheriff wannabe if you would ask Ryu.

"No, I ended my shift at the regular time."

"Oh...! Well, um." Ume stumbled on his own words, simply looking at Ryu as leaned back and forth on heels of his feet. "Um...Wanna go grab a dri-"

"Yes." Ryu finally replied back, dropping the serious face that she was putting on before flashing a grin that showed off a row of her sharp teeth. Turning around, she gave Ume a pat on the back that nearly knocked all wind out of him before starting to walk once again while realizing that she should go a bit easier on the guy as he still seemed to get pretty nervous pretty fast in social situations. Then again, it was fun.

A peaceful silence of the park was broken by a sudden pop rushing through the air as soon the place was filled with a fresh and cool smell of sweet melon soda...Accompanied by a muttered curse told in obviously Oni dialect. "Love the drink but those bottles obviously hate me." She mumbled, shaking her hand to shake any soda that got onto her hand from the newly bought ramune bottle.

"The trick is to not do it stupidly, you know?"

"Oh really? And how do you do it smartly? Share your wisdom with me, please~" Ryu said with an over the top sassy tone, turning to Ume as she stared him down a bit while he took his sip of green soda. Smiling softly, he simply stared off into the sky before receiving a light poke to the side of his head. "Exactly, can't bullshit your way with me." She said before the two would break into a soft laugh.

"You know, it is always nice to relax like this."

"Yeah...Still coming over tonight? They just released a new episode. It is said that the two will finally kiss."

"I wish I could but...There is an issue." He would say as his tone shifted to a bit more serious one while Ryu could notice a skin around his eyes tensing up as his stare got bit heavier. Sitting up a bit, the gunslinger would take another sip before sighing deeply as he looked at his fellow Oni. "This is something I actually wanted to talk to you about."

"Hey now, you know me, I won't get involved in your shit. You are the cops so you take care of your psychos and thieves." Ryu quickly declined, chuckling to herself as she leaned back against a tree a little. "Plus you know me, the galactic game is just two years away and tournaments are about to start in just five months. I want to be sure that I won't get kicked out for some stupid reason like last time." She said, remembering how she was literally bumped out of it for simply failing to fill the damn paper up properly.

"Ryu, it is serious. We are talking matter of Empress life and death." Ume suddenly spoke in pretty calm and straightforward tone, earning a raised eyebrow from Ryu. Even though two were friends, sharing such information with someone who wasn't from the force and was a lot ranks lower than he was, well, unheard of. Yet he did it with such an ease and Ryu felt that he at least deserved a little less disregarding answering. "Plus, if you will help me with this, you will definitely get into the games. Hell, maybe you will manage to jump straight to Empire Forces."

In the very next moment, Ryu would practically pounce at her poor friend, wrapping her arm around his neck as she pulled him closer with a wide grin on her face that made her look like a shark that just found its prey. "Why haven't you said so earlier~?!" She said in almost menacing manner, a fire burning in her eyes as Ume coughed on air once he felt her cutting off any possible way for him to breath.

"I-I am really glad that you care about Empress' safety so...M-uch...!" He said back with a forced grin before being finally released from such a grip. Coughing up, he rubbed the back of his neck with a light groan while checking his ear plugs to make sure that they were still there. "Woof...Well, that wasn't hard." He joked lightly before standing up.

"So, like, is it an open case? Have you warned Empress and all that?"

Ume sighed and looked around before lightly leaning down closer to Ryu while allowing his pants to hug his hips and show off his bottom to the whole world. "Well, we are afraid that if word gets around that we know the terrorists might start moving faster. So this far, no, information is very unofficial."

"But you said we. Who else knows?"

"Well, Sir Qimaer does. He is the one who told me about information he found."

"Qimaer...Q-I-M-A-E-R...Oh!" Ryu exclaimed, slapping her hands together in a loud clap that could probably crash a rock. "Ojiisan Toji! Yeah, I remember him. He is pretty cool."

Ume sighed, running a hand through his thick beard while shooting Ryu quite tired look. "Yeah, though I did ask you not to call him that."

"Why? He is old enough to be a grandfather, he has grandchildren and he has damn huge ears even for an Elf. Plus, I am not part of your Police Force, so I don't really need to be all fancy and respecting."

Ume blinked few times before finally standing up, ending show that was his butt for a few onlookers before giving Ryu an approving nod. "Got it...I will be the one speaking."

It finally started getting late once the two finally made their way to the Colone Qimaer's station. Being, mostly, in depart of protection the ground instead of space, he was residing not too far from where Ryu worked, therefore allowing the two to get there quite fast. After signing few official papers to confirm who they were, Ume and Ryu would finally enter his office. The moment they walked in and could barely close the door, an unusual looking Elf quickly burst into a loud and hefty laugh, spreading his arms around before practically pouncing at Ume, giving him quite a hug. Elves weren't usually beardy and big therefore a lot of people would often mistake Colonel for some sort of Viking looking Human with his wide shoulders, strictly blue uniform and thick, white beard that matched his shortly cut white hair which nicely exposed his pointy ears, the only thing that showed an Elf in him. "Oh boy, am I glad to see you~! I hope the trip here was good!"

Ume, barely being able to take a breath in to stay conscious, only could smile back out of politeness while Ryu stood in the corner, watching the scene in front of her while barely keeping down the laugh. "I-I am glad to see you too, Sir Qimaer."

"Sir? Nonsense!" He said, quickly placing poor sheriff down before pointing at the closed door. "We are practically alone here, no need for formalities son!"

"See? I did tell him that he could relax but you know him, Ojiisan Toji~" Ume could swear that he saw Ryu shoot him one of those asshole-sassy looks when she addressed the Colonel in a way that he asked her not to. Yet he couldn't really respond due to fact that Colonel himself was quick to engage in conversation and also due to loss of oxygen in his lungs.

"Ah! Lady Fujima! I am really glad that you decided to come here as well!" He said, offering her his giant bear hand. It was greeted by her hand before the sound of hands slapping rushed through the office as the two shook their hands while exchanging quite the eye contact.

"Well, you can say that our breathless friend here knows how to convince a women."

"Ah, of course! Let us get to business then!" Eriladar said, walking over to his table and taking a seat in his large seat while looking over at both Ryu and Ume, who took their seat on the opposite side of the table. "I believe that he already informed you of the situation?" Receiving a waving hand as an answer, he nodded before looking around, making sure that there truly was no one before his warm smile dropped and his face took a more serious look in an instance, showing off all the wrinkles that appeared on his face with age. "While information has no official data to back itself up, I assume that there is a terrorist group that wishes to attack our dear Empress Dratha."

"She has, like, whole Empire to protect herself. How can they actually do it?" Ryu said back with a chuckle while crossing her legs, causing her muscles to huge her shirt tighter. "Better question should be, how can they be preparing for such huge attack without being noticed?"

This earned a heavy sigh from Eriladar as he looked off into the window, looking at the layout of the city before speaking quietly. "Leech Gambit Canon." The words rushed through the room as Ume's eyebrows narrowed, already knowing the information, while Ryu simply groaned while dropping the smug smile on her face. "I and Ume believe that they plan to make a quick attack on innocent village somewhere off from the main area, gathering all of their energy before using it for the massive blast shot."

"And the worst thing is that we don't know who is behind the group this time nor where they might attack or resign. Therefore, we can't go public about it." Ume quickly backed Eriladar up, looking over at Ryu. "Colonel can't investigate, he is too big to be unnoticed...In terms of his rank." Hearing a soft chuckle from the Elf, Matsukura decided to continue; "This is why you and I go there. We won't cause suspicion."

Ryu took a deep breath in, looking down at the table as she remained quiet for some long, irritating moments before casually shrugging her shoulders. "Sure, I am in."

There was a moment of quietness before Colonel would smash his hands against the table, causing practically all things to jump up a tiny bit before breaking into another laughter. "That's right! That's the spirit! Then I believe that you two already know where you are heading?"

Before Ryu could say anything, Ume nodded and got up, adjusting his coat. "We do, Sir. Now let's go, I will explain the details on the way there."

"Perfect. Then feel free to use a special craft. I can't grand you anything too fancy but you can use sheriff's craft for it...And oh! Before I forgot!" The Elf would quickly get up, walking over to a massive chest-like box that was standing in his office before opening it with some digital password in some Elf dialect. Reaching inside, he would speak to Ryu with his back to her, having quite excited tone. "Ryu, dear, do you remember the katana you crafted for previous Galactic Games?"

"Ye. I also remember how I wasn't allowed to keep it since I am not part of 'trained forces'." She said, applying quite a ridiculous tone to two last words to emphasize on how displeased she was with the fact that she wasn't allowed to keep a sword that she crafted for herself. She even got that fancy ore that only could be found on her home planet, which made things that much worse. "Why though?"

"Well, things might get...Heated in there. And Ume already has his assigned weapon to deal with it. So I felt like it was natural that you should be granted a...Means of defence as well." He would pull away from the box before turning around, holding quite hefty looking katan in his arms that was currently resting in its dark crimson scabbard; or, to be more precise, its saya. "I pulled on few strings, saying that you were interested in training to be part of army forces and therefore wished for your katana. So-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence though as Ryu would quickly pounce forward, grabbing her sword from his hands before giving him a quick and strong handshake. "My gods, you are one of the good ones, aren't you?!" Receiving a soft blush and another loud laugh as the reply, Ryu would grin like a bloodthirsty {blood zombie}, staring down at her katana before lightly pulling it a little bit out of its saya with a satisfying click. She would stare at the dark surface of the metal as Ume sighed softly, imagining that things probably will get violent more than once. "Now this is good~."

[cephalonram]

Ludicrous Space Odyssey: Assassination Arc

This is the name of the first arc. I will probably post all the chapters relating to this chapter under tag “LSO:AC” because why not.