Shattering Humanity-Chapter 137: Shelly Vs. Laban DaeMon: The Rebirth of Skalmönd
Shelly opens her eyes and sees the flaming sword of Madame Fryer in her right hand. She is back in the Initiation Arena, within Roronora City, the crowd still cheering for the Don Laban. From one knee, she looks around and sees Katsu, smiling across the heavily damaged court at the Don Laban. The DaeMon is furious that Shelly is wielding the flaming sword. The metal bars in the Don’s grasp get crushed from her pure strength and the smokey aura coming from her Eyelien is as stoked as when she was fighting Itsuka.
Don Laban: "That gahddamn sword. Those two gahddamn kids. Making a fuckin’ fool out of me in front of everyone.I’m gunna-...I’m...gunnaaa-!"
The sound of the shot clock buzzer goes off again and the door on the Don Laban’s side swings open. The Don, teeth grinding left and right, with her head down, slowly makes her way to the entrance.
Shelly gets up from her knee and grips Madame Fryer tightly. She turns to her right and swings the flaming sword at the steel grid bars and cuts an opening through the bars before turning to Katsu.
Shelly: "You go find ’Dipshit’. I now have so many more promises to keep, and knocking this bitch down a few pegs is part of them."
Katsu smiles and nods as he heads for the opening, before he leaves he looks at Shelly with a smile.
Katsu: "Hey, Shelly..."
Shelly slightly tilts her head in curiosity.
Katsu: "You really are so freakin’ cool. Your parents- No, both of our parents, would be so proud to see how strong and confident of a woman you’ve become."
As Shelly turns bright pink, Katsu hugs her. From behind Katsu, Madame Fryer looks up at her wielder blushing from the embrace of the man she loves and the blade burns blindingly brighter.
The Yang Vessel exits through the cut opening and runs along the side boundary line. He runs into the tunnel the Don had came out from. The Don Laban is now standing at the free throw line of her entrance side, literally fuming and audibly breathing in and out through her clenched teeth. Fists clenched, and blood drips from her palms.
Announcer: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you’re as turned on as I am, cuz we’re about to get this ’Alpha Cat Fight’ started! Once that buzzer goes off, only one fighter is leaving alive!
Are!?
You!
READYYYYYYYYY!!!!!??"
The crowd goes insane and the dome arena shakes from the sound decibels.
Shelly turns around slowly to face one of the DaeMon who killed her Valkyrie grandmother. She takes off her SunSwords left hip and puts it on the reflective hardwood. Without saying anything, Shelly uses the incredible strength in her leg to slide the 15 pounds (6.8kgs) of AIG towards her opponent over 30 yards(~27m) away.It stops perfectly at Laban’s feet. The Don looks down at the most updated version of the SunSword within Sanpaku’s arsenal, then back up at Shelly with a pissed off grimace.
A snickering Katsu appears from the tunnel, with the dropped golden sheath for Madame Fryer in his hand.
Katsu: "Shelly!"
The Don turns around and the shot clock buzzer goes off, the crowd roars as Katsu, the natural born thrower, heaves the solid gold scabbard and it perfectly spirals through the air. The Don watches it soar.Katsu runs back into the tunnel, confident in the accuracy of his throw, like a Quarterback running towards his bench before the receiver even catches a touchdown pass.
The Don, with her head turned away from Shelly, hears footsteps and turns to see the bottom of Shelly’s black high top sneakers already in the air, it lands right on the Don’s nose and Shelly uses Laban’s face to jump high enough to catch Katsu’s perfectly thrown sheath as it slips right through the bars.
The crowd, after seeing the Don’s face being used as a trampoline, goes quiet, real quiet.Whispers can now be heard throughout the crowd.
Whispering Female Audience Member: "Wait, am I trippin’? Or did that girl just drop kick Don Laban in the mug?"
Whispering Male Audience Member: "Aye, what’s the betting odds on that new cutie?...Gimme $1,000 on her."
Shelly plants a foot on the steel cage and backflips back off. She lands back down gracefully, 10 yards away in front of Laban and examines the custom gold sheath. There is no strap to keep it attached to her hip.As she is busy trying to figure out the odd scabbard, the incredible smokey aura from the Don’s Eyelien, begins to cover half of her face so only the side with rainbow sequenced tear drop tattoos are seen by the other eye users, but to Shelly, nothing is different except for an even angrier Laban, with a red nose and pain tears in her eyes.
Don Laban: "So this was your plan, huh Skalmönd? You waited until I found MY happiness in this miserable existence...?"
Shelly, no longer listening, simply puts the solid gold sheath against her hip and lets go. The gold holster for the first actual "Sun Sword" doesn’t fall to the ground. Instead, it "sticks" to Shelly’s black sweatpants and stays there. Shelly jumps and twists her hips, but the sheath doesn’t come off.
Don Laban: "...then after I’ve reached my peak happiness, you’ve come to take my sword and give me your old one that was modelled after it, in what, a sign of pity?Just to embarrass me in front of my people, and for me to lose credibility from them?"
Shelly then grips the golden holster again and pulls it off her hip easily then puts it back, where it stays.
She doesn’t say anything in response to the Don Laban.The descendant of the greatest unknown legend, looks up at the leader/Don of Roronora City. Without looking away from the mentally breaking DaeMon, she grabs the katana strapped to her back and slowly slides it out in front of the crowd. Putting it sideways in her teeth, she crunches down, with a smile, right on the soft handle of her reward for being the "HFF Academy’s #1 Combat Student".
She starts giggling uncontrollably with the black grip between her teeth, not breaking blue eye contact with her opponent.
There are "woah"s and "isn’t that like"s heard from the now stunned audience. With Madame Fryer in her right hand and her katana in her mouth, Shelly grabs the SunSword holstered to her right hip with her left hand and unsheathes it, completing the new trifecta.
Shelly: "Hahaha! Aye, Lahbahn! You beh-er geh reh-jiie, cuuhz Shkalmönd ish bahk and comin’ fah dat ass, Bitch!"
Meanwhile, as Katsu sprints through the long tunnel towards the locker room, he is also uncontrollably giggling. The muffled sounds of the roaring home crowd are no longer heard, like he predicted.His Anjell Eye leaves a blazing Yang aura trail behind him and there is a slight animosity to the echoing laughter of the Yang Vessel throughout the dim lit hall.
Katsu: "Haha, which one does this count as, Dad?"
{Flashback to young Katsu and his father throwing a football in the open field next to the usual playground.}
Katsu’s Dad: "There you go! See? When you said you sucked at catching, I knew you were over exaggerating. Don’t listen to those bullies that trash talk you when playing with your new friend. Just keep trying and one day, you’ll shut them all up. When comparing war and professional team sports, Katsu, while being on someone else’s soil, you will get heckled and hate from the people who live there and actually don’t want to see you succeed. And that’s understandable from both scenarios, right?"
Little Katsu nods in silence then throws a perfect spiral back to his lecturing father. Yuzai Takeshi catches his son’s throw and looks at the leather, egg shaped ball.
Katsu’s Dad: "But Katsu, let me tell you something, as someone who has participated in the ’silencing of an away crowd’ from both perspectives, only when I competed in sports, was there a few things sweeter, than making the home crowd go silent as the away team."
Katsu’s Father throws it back towards his son who bobbles the catch but eventually secures it. Young Katsu looks back up and his father has his head down looking at the grass, having a PTSD episode. He walks towards his Pops as the man talks to himself and Katsu can hear his Dad’s closing statement.
Katsu Dad: "...But in war, silencing the home crowd is never sweet and it should never feel good.Liberation should have the sounds of laughing and celebration. Silence in war is never a true sign of peace, and it only means nobody has won in the end. War, or fighting for anything other than one’s freedom only produces losing. No matter which side ’declares’ victory in war, we as humans have lost. We lost our way. Defeating oppression should be the only thing you’re willing to start a war over.
Even with the final goal being peace, in the end Katsu, the planted trees of the losing side, watered by the blood of those defeated soldiers and unfortunate civilians, the surviving trees are forced to live in a forest/society they don’t agree with or they reject the current world as it is. Being the ’complex organic computers’ that we are, if someone has been programmed their entire life, to process a version of the system as the ’wrong way’, are they to blame when they fight against the ’oppression’ they see in the system?Even if it’s not truly oppression, but seen by the losing side as such? While the new system is actually better for the majority of the world?"
Young Katsu looks over to see a young smiling Shelly walking over to them, holding her father’s hand. Katsu smiles, and being a child with adult sympathy not yet properly ’programmed’ within him, gives the football to his Dad and runs over to the arriving father and daughter.
It does make the veteran snap out of his mental breakdown and turn to notice his good friend/ war buddy, approaching with a child of his own. Katsu’s father and Shelly’s father smile towards each other and give a wave.
{End Flashback}
Back on the "Main Stage", Shelly is locked in and prepared to fight the Don Laban. The Don looks down at the SunSword, taking her eyes off Shelly, and lets out a "tsk".
She bends down and grabs the grip of the sword, but as she begins to pull the orange blade out of the holster, the top of a black sneaker connects with the chin of Laban and sends her flying into the metal cage behind her.
Don Laban: "Ah, you fuckin cheap shootin’, Cunt! How are you that silent while being so fast?!"
As she falls back to the hardwood, Laban looks around for her opponent, but Shelly is nowhere to be seen. As soon as the bottom of Laban’s white sneakers touch the floor, a sweeping leg kick from Shelly gets the Don airborne. As Laban goes to put her hands out to catch her fall, Shelly pulls the golden sheath away from her hip and holds one of Laban’s hands back to stop the instinctual save.
Don Laban, caught off guard by the incredibly advanced, intuitive, and disrespectful sword skill, falls to her face. There are a couple of scoffs and behind the hand chuckles from the audience being heard.
The Don Laban gets up and is visibly getting more and more red from being embarrassed.
Don Laban: "Don’t... fuckin...laugh..at ME!!"
A blood red aura of Seiõr shoots out from the body of a pissed off and crying Don. Her Eyelien still emits the half face smothering smoke aura. The strong Seiõr energy being expelled from the Don is creating a slight gust of wind that lightly blows Shelly’s hair.
Most of the crowd begins clearing out of the stadium screaming, their fight or flight reaction activated from the intimidating force of their feared leader.
Shelly, able to see the ’SeiõrShield’ of the DaeMon, doesn’t flinch. She observes the aura of her enemy and thinks to herself.
Shelly(thinking): *I knew it! She has control of Seiõr that isn’t snowing! How much stronger does that make her?"
As if on que, while unknowingly staring at a fading after image of the Don, Madame Fryer protects the right side of a surprised Shelly from the attack of a SunSword. Shelly quickly looks to see the blue eye and 2nd Stage Eyelien of the Don, smirking at her, horizontally in the air. A white sneaker surrounded by a blood red aura, connects with the other side of Shelly’s head and sends her skipping across the basketball court.
Before slamming into the cage, Shelly regains her balance. A high pitched squeaking sound of her sneakers sliding on hardwood is heard and black marks are left on the unwaxed flooring.
Shelly ducks, while putting her SunSword in its holster and avoids the swipe of a blade but catches an aura emitting knee to the chin. But instead of flying, Shelly takes it ’on the chin’, staying grounded. She lets go of Madame Fryer, letting the sword float on her own.
To Don Laban’s chagrin, Shelly then starts throwing a barrage of punches at the DaeMon’s stomach, making the black haired woman, cough up spit and drop the SunSword. She tries stepping back while Shelly continues adding more punches and even some spin kicks to the relentless combo.
The less than 100 of the remaining 20,000+ people in the audience, watch in amazement at the young blonde woman, using no Seiõr, to fight back against one of the most feared and evil creatures to ever walk the Earth, and not using a weapon but just her fists. The Don tries to hold her arms up to defend herself, but as she goes to do so, something is preventing her.
Laban looks down to see Madame Fryer has sheathed herself and floated between her arms and face, undetected, while in her scabbard.
She catches a right jab from Shelly then weaves two punches but Shelly kicks the Don right underneath the knee, making the Don lose balance.
As a last resort the Don tries to fall to the ground, but like her fight against her first opponent in Tomodachi Town, Shelly’s ruthless strength, speed, and fighting style keeps her defensive opponent upright, no matter which way they try to fall.
But Shelly gets surprised when the Don decides to throw her head forward and sends a headbutt directly at Shelly, connecting with a loud *SMACK*.
The Don finally gets to fall and Shelly’s eyes go all white for a moment but like her fight with Itsuka, she doesn’t fall to the ground and quickly regains full consciousness while shaking her head.
A drip of saliva falls from the corner of Shelly’s mouth and katana as she looks down to see the Don Laban on one knee. The DaeMon’s blood red aura is not as potent as when it popped off.
Shelly then holds her hand out to the side and without looking, the sheathed Madame Fryer floats into her grasp. Shelly puts the sheathed blade to her hip where it stays and she takes out the katana in her teeth.
Shelly: "Huh, seems like the reason you all had to gang up on my Valkyrie grandmother, was because even with that evil Seiõr you’re using, you still can’t beat my lineage on your own."
From the Don Laban’s side, maniacal laughing begins to come from the currently losing fighter.
Don Laban: "hahehaha... HAhahHahHehehahaHAHa....HAHAHAHAHEHEHAHAHA!"
Shelly keeps her glare on Laban, while the ruler of the post-apocalyptic Roronora City seems to be losing her sanity. She puts the katana back in her teeth and puts her two fists up, ready to detect an after image.
The Don with her slight blood red aura covering her body, is hunched over on the floor, still laughing.
Don Laban: "Haha. Hey, Skalmönd, do you know why was I born?"
Shelly doesn’t answer the Don’s question.
Don Laban: "My mothers, they created me and my other sisters for their own selfish purposes. We weren’t created out of love, but out of hate and fear. I was created to be a weapon, Skalmönd.
I have been alive for over 1,000 years now, but at the time, we were just kids when we found out we weren’t actually loved. Just being lied to by our own parents. We were forced to fight and hurt each other for practice.When our bodies weren’t doing excruciating training, our minds were forced to study Seiõr control. We had so many expectations put on us at birth, and we weren’t happy."
Shelly’s intimidating glare goes to a Below Sanpaku, while listening to the guilt tripping DaeMon.
Don Laban: "But you...
You, the reincarnate of Skalmönd, from what I remember when you were just a baby. From what I’ve heard you tell your Squad, using my eye ability. From the acts of love not only by your biological parents, but from people who don’t share a drop of the same blood with you, you’ve had someone to love you and sacrifice for you your whole life! 1,000 years before you were even born!"
The Don Laban finally looks up, with tears in her eyes and a deep blue aura from her Eyelien replaces the usual grey smoke. Her body aura begins to change color as well and matches the color coming from her alien eye. The sad blue aura feels stronger than the previous blood red energy and, again, the force of the Seiõr energy being released creates gusts of wind within the stadium. This time, the gusts reach the remaining audience.
Don Laban: "It’s all because you ’Children of Love’ have to exist. The Yang forces of this world, like you and your boyfriend, are the common denominator for my cursed existence. Now I’ve decided, after I kill you and that Yang Vessel, I’ll give his blessed eye to Rebekah, and once she can control all other Eyelien users, we will finally start the genocide of all the Yang energy in this world!"
