Chapter Text
Who sells ice cream this late?
Tsukasa walked down the street. Above him, the stars shined and the broken moon was full. The boy licked at his cone, a bright pink scoop of bubblegum sitting on top its brown cone.
Then again, he thought, rounding the corner, Who buys ice cream this late?
He shrugged, signing the end to his one sided conversation. The night was calm, quiet, and peaceful. At the very least, it had been peaceful. Down the road, ahead of Tsukasa, a man in a black and red suit, fedora, and sunglasses was thrown out the window of a shop.
Tsukasa stopped walking, “I should do something about that…” he grumbled.
There was a flash of red as a girl leaped out the window after the man. She was petite and wore a black skirt and red hooded cape. The girl rolled across the floor and stood up. As she stood, her cape flowed in the wind, and what looked like a weapon began to unfold from her hand. At first it was like a box with too much mechanical detail, until it grew out, unfolding and sliding into an oversized scythe. From the hilt all the way to the tip of the curved blade, the weapon was lined with black and red detailing.
The girl lifted her head and tilted it to look at someone from inside the shop. She smirked before flipping the scythe above her and around her before letting it drop and stab into the street beneath her.
An annoyed voice spoke from inside the shop, “Okaay. Get her…”
Three men ran out from the shop, all of them wearing the same black suit, red tie, and ruby sunglasses; all of them also carried what looked like giant, red kitchen knives. Though, it was more likely that they were swords.
One of the men ran towards the girl and took a swing at her. In response, she jumped up and spun herself out of the way. She spun her body in a full circle and brought her feet right into the mans face, launching him back. The girl used her momentum to jump, pulling her weapon with her, and taking a battle stance with her back turned to the other two men who were running at her.
Tsukasa walked up to the store next to him, a small cafe that had yet to store their outside chairs. He took the liberty to sit down in one and watch the fight.
“Maybe I don’t have to do anything,” he mused, taking a bite from his scoop.
The girl pointed the base of her scythe away from the men and pushed a small button near her hand. In an instant, something fired from the scythe like a gun. The knockback from the shot sent the girl spinning to where she hit one of the men with the back of the blade.
“AAUugh…!” the man cried as he was launched into the air.
Quickly, the girl carried her momentum, brough the scythe up, and came down on the last man with the back of the blade.
“That one’s going to hurt in the morning.” Tsukasa joked. It was then that he noticed something around the girl, as well as her blade. He had noticed it earlier, but as the fight moved closer, her had realized what it was. With every attack and every swift movement, the girl had a trail of petals following her; red rose petals.
Another suited man came out of the shop. He had what looked like a rifle (honestly Tsukasa was guessing at this point, the weapons of this world were so odd) and began to fire it at the girl. She swiftly jumped back, so fast that it felt like Tsukasa had blinked.
In a flash, the girl fired another shot from her weapon and launched herself at the man. The man was launched a few feet into the air, the girl stuck her scythe into the ground once more, and she spun around, pulling the scythe with with her. Once she’d made a full circle, the girl bounced up from the scythe, pulled it around her, and smacked the man with the blunt end of the blade as he fell back down.
Tsukasa, in a rare moment of disbelief, was in awe of what he’d just witnessed. He stood up from his seat and began walking over. The man opened his mouth to call out to the girl, but hesitated when a redheaded man in a white jacket, black bowler hat strutted out of the shop. The man was holding a black cane and smoking a cigar.
The redheaded man glanced down to the goon the girl had just hit, “You were worth every cent,” he mumbled, “Truly, you were.”
The man sighed and walked forward to the girl. He removed his cigar and said, “Well, ‘Red,’ I think we can all say it’s been an eventful evening,” the redhead dropped his cigar and crushed it beneath his cane, “And as much as I’d love to stick around, I’m afraid this is where we part ways,” as he finished, the man held up his cane and pointed it like a gun at the girl. There was a popping noise when the end of the cane flipped open, revealing a hole and a cross eye.
“Pointing a gun at a little girl?” Tsukasa called out, still licking at his ice cream.
Both the man and “Red” turned to look at him. The man kept his weapon trained on the girl, but watched as Tsukasa sauntered towards them. The girl furrowed her brow at Tsukasa for but a moment before her attention returned to the man.
“Heroic types, really comin’ out of the woodworks tonight,” the man sighed, “Get lost, kid! Unlike little ‘Red’ over here, you don’t look like you’re packing much.”
“Yeah, that’s nice. Look, you’re gonna regret making me waste my ice cream.” Tsukasa replied before throwing said ice cream off to the side. He reached behind him to grab his ridebooker.
The man chuckled before spinning around and firing a shot at Tsukasa. The bullet was like a flare, it screeched through the air, and before he could react, the girl had fired herself over and tackled Tsukasa out of the way. It had happened so fast, Tsukasa was in a daze beneath the girl.
She, on the other hand, pushed herself up and quickly asked, “Are you alright!”
“What, of course I’m -” out of the corner of his eye, Tsukasa saw the redheaded man making his escape up the ladder of a building - “Hey! He’s getting away!” he yelled, pointing the ridebooker, now in gun mode, in the man’s direction.
The girl spun herself off of Tsukasa, freeing him to aim. Tsukasa fired off three shots, all of them only barely missing.
“Tch, damn.”
Tsukasa began to get up in pursuit and noticed the girl two steps ahead of him. She was already up and talking to an old man in the doorway of the shop.
“You okay if I go after him?” she asked.
The old man gave a meek, “Uh-huh.” before she sped off. Using her weapon again, she launched herself up to the roof.
Tsukasa groaned. There wouldn’t be enough time for a transformation, so he had to do this the old fashioned way. The man sprinted forwards to the ladder and began his ascent. As he climbed, he could hear what sounded like a giant plane from the other side of the building. This was turning out to be one weird night.
Tsukasa grasped the edge of the building just as he heard the man call out, “End of the line, ‘Red!’”
Tsukasa looked up, and saw the man toss a red gem down from… the airship he gotten in.
A lot can happen in 30-seconds, Tsukasa thought as he lined up a shot with the ridebooker. With half his body still over the edge of the building and both his hands on his weapon, he fired a shot. The pink blast of energy hit its mark and the gemstone made a massive explosion. Just as it exploded, another person jumped on this rooftop. A blonde woman, wearing a torn up black and purple cape, a black skirt leggings, and glasses, as well as a white blouse.
The woman had managed to protect her and the girl from the force of the explosion with a magic circle she’d summoned before her. It looked like ancient scribbles she’d conjured with the wand she held. Wait, no. It was too long to be a wand… Tsukasa shivered when he realized it was a riding crop. He scampered onto the rooftop and jogged up behind the two.
“Hm,” the woman adjusted her glasses and pulled the crop back, the circle disappeared as she did. The girl lowered her scythe and smiled like a child. The woman flung her crop out in a wide ark, a trail of purple energy followed it. The energy collected itself together and fired off at the airship. As it flew it split up into more and more beams that spun and twisted until they hit the ship. Their impact rocked the ship back and forth, making the man on it lose his balance and spin about.
The man disappeared into the ship. The woman reeled her riding crop back once more, energy coalesced around her and flowed to her weapon, and once again she flung it forward. This time a large circle rune formed above the airship until after a moment it was replaced by dark storm clouds that followed the ship. The woman brought her crop down and immediately, sharp chunks of ice rained rapid fire onto the ship, each piece of ice impaling where it landed.
Another woman came out from the inside of the ship, he face was shrouded in darkness, but she wore a red dress with a pattern that glowed and looked like fire. She waved her hands about and flames formed around them until she pushed a hand forward and fired a ball of flame at the blonde woman. Using another rune circle, the blonde woman blocked the flames. The flames splattered against the shield and fell to the wayside, but they weren’t done. A flaming screech erupted as the ground around the blonde lit up before a tower of flame actually erupted from the ground.
The blonde dodged as the tower tore at the roof. After she flipped back, the blonde woman waved her crop around. The pieces of the roof, which had been red hot, changed to a purplish color and collected together into the form of a spear. The blonde pointed her riding prod forward and the stone spear obeyed, launching itself forward.
The woman in the ship fired blast after blast, breaking the spear apart until it reformed into three more spears. The three of them snaked around the ship until they reformed to try and hit the ship again. As it flew forward, the ship lurched to the side and spear slid across it with a grating noise. The spear split up once more and began to snake around the ship again as well.
From the ship, the shrouded woman pulled her arms in, red and orange runes formed and circled around her. She launched her arms out and an orange orb expanded from her, turning the stone to cinders.
The girl and the blonde glanced to each other and their eyes met.Tsukasa looked between the two, confused as hell. The girl spun her scyther about as it folded in and reshaped into something much more gun like. She cocked it and fired, cocked it and fired, cocked it and fired. Each of the shots were blocked by the shadowy woman. In response, she then waved her hands at them.
A familiar screeching sound began, and Tsukasa looked the ground. The roof had lit up in four more spots. Quickly, he dove forwards and grabbed the two women right before the spots erupted into flaming towers like before. From there, the three of them could only watch as the airship closed, and flew off into the night.
The girl turned to the woman, “You’re a huntress!” there was a pause before she continued, “Can I have your autograph?” she squealed.