Chapter 249: Pre-Volume Finale Recap: ’Before The Fall’(Takamagahara Side Part 1)

Zoram: "The first actual Child of Seiõr, was a lonely human woman named Ymir.

Ymir would sit on the grassy cliffs on the tall shores of Scandinavia, underneath the largest tree in the North, flush with leaves in the short summers and even when the temperature was below freezing, the tree that sheltered Ymir, stayed full of leaves in the winter. Overlooking the beautiful blue sparkling ocean.

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Young Jormungand: "Dad, I wanna be a professional basketball player AND football player, can I?! Can I?!"

The encouraging father chuckles and his hand reaches over, tussling the hair of his son.

Jormy’s Dad: "Well Jormungand, your mother named you after a mythical beast that could infinitely grow, so you have the name to be anything you can think of, and more. If you see something you want to be, or see a way to make this world safer and easier for your sister, become ’that’. From one man to another Jorm, try to make the lives of the women around you easier. I promise, they’ll make your life easier in return. I did it for your mother, and she gave me both you and Drakaina, as reminders of her wonderful existence."

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Aiden"...Mrs. Zoram, is it possible for you to demonstrate Seiõr Storage within appropriate ’containers’?"

Zoram nods.

Zoram: "I presumed you would want proof Doctor, and since the Seiõr must ferment within its ’container’ for at least 15 days, I took the initiative and made our first batch ahead of time."

She walks over to the desk and reveals a heavy duty red and white lunch pail. She presses down the top button and folds down the top half. Inside, is a one gallon plastic bag full of kidney beans that are lightly pulsing light and another one gallon plastic bag full of cashews nuts, also barely pulsing light.

Shelly ooks at Katsu who is star-eyed looking at the stash of beans and nuts.

Shelly giggles. Her photographic memory kicking in, making her remember one of the most famous of the heroes that Katsu would watch when they were kids.

Katsu: "Really!? Beans?!? Beans that specifically replenish our energy?!? That’s- That’s exactly like...!!!!"

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Saku and Itsuka have matching strength ’SeiõrSnowShields’ and smile at each other but then Saku’s eye makes a distance *CLICK* like a key unlocking a door and a ’rubbery’ arm with a gloved hand flys between them and then retracts back in the direction it came. They follow the gloved hand back to Jorm across the street, his eye popped off and a huge smile on his face as he yells across to them.

Jorm: "Big Bro Saku! Big Sis Itsuka! I did it, I got my power!"

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Daisuki: "Okay! I guess it’s about time you guys head out and see what you hauled in after your personal conquering over Don Laban and Roronora City."

Shelly and Katsu nod then stand up. From across the table, Saku also stands up.

Saku: "I’m going too. I want to see if Laban actually changed for the better, or if she was just using crocodile tears to make me feel bad for her."

Itsuka gets up as well, looking at her Captain.

Itsuka: "Then I’ll go too."

Saku looks at her toned legs that got injured in her 1on1 with the DæMon, one month ago.

Itsuka: "It’ll be a good starting test to see if she truly has changed. If she apologizes, then that’s a step in the right direction."

Saku gives her a snide smirk

Saku: "You know, she’s probably listening and watching us all right now in either anticipation or as a way to catch us slippin’. Actually..."

Saku pops off his Anjell Eye and a Yin aura is expelled from it. He chuckles and then relaxes it back to the base-kit.

Saku: "Yea, she was spying on us, but for what purpose I’ll let her keep that a surprise."

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Don Laban DaeMon: "SAKIIII!!!!!!"

The little high pitched voice of her daughter doesn’t carry far enough for her mother to hear.

Princess Rebekah: "Mama! Don’t get too close! Wait!"

Saku rolls his eyes at the approaching sign of affection and he braces himself for the unwanted encroachment into his personal space.

However, once the Don of Roronora is about 5 feet from her beloved Yin, Itsuka appears between them. Her crystal purple SeiõrShield is flaming around her tone, fit body. Her 7th and 8th abs barely showing over her waist line, out of rage, and her hair is back to the double curls when she first joined the group.

Her IceEye popped off in 2nd Stage, with a grey aura and an aggressive expression, gripping her sole SunSword.

Itsuka: "No! I won’t let it happen! I thought I was okay with this, but you’re not going to touch MY Captain."

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Don Laban: "’All is fair in love and war’, daughter of Iôunn. Just know, you’re only fated to meet with Skalmönd’s rebirth because of her final SeiõrSpell. Without that, you would’ve never met my Saki. So take this bit of advice, from a woman who has lived over a thousand years, if you can’t handle war, you shouldn’t fall in love. Cuz eventually, you’re going to lose someone you personally consider irreplaceable. Good luck, enemy General."

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Drakaina: "By helping humans get revenge, the feeling of satisfaction and happiness that the humans thought they would feel, were consumed by the Erinyes Angels instead. Explaining the psychological phenomenon that happens with those who get their revenge, but still don’t feel happy afterwards. The Erinyes were the first ’energy vampires’ and their divine interference was a self sustainable cycle.

Once ’justice’ was served, the Erinyes ignored those no longer fueled by revenge. Instead, they continued the cycle of hate, by helping the innocent, who were negatively affected by the ’justice’ of another. The Erinyes Angels continuously aided the next human willing to do anything, especially the victims willing to give up their humanity, for revenge. Usually their divine intervention ended up killing the exact same individual they had previously helped."

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Don Laban: "When I had the mentality and physical size of an 8 month old baby, Eir put the deceased Heiðr in the two person emergency boat and watched it drift away. Once far enough, with a single flaming arrow, she launched it at the wood boat and watched it engulf in flames. With me, slowly but actively growing, in my phallic mother’s arms, we watched the Yin half of my complimentary force into existence, disappear from both of our existences."

Shelly: "So how did you end up being part of the group that killed my ancestor?"

Laban smiles at Shelly’s interest.

Don Laban: "I see you’re invested in the story, Skalmönd. Do you and the child of Iôunn perhaps feel guilty for what your ancestors did to their own children?"

Shelly and Itsuka raise an eyebrow at the attempt to guilt trip them.

Itsuka: "Nice try DaeMon, but Shelly and I both know our connections to those clans were exiled and didn’t partake in the creation of DaeMons or DæMons."

Shelly: "You see Laban, we don’t feel guilty for the things done in the past by people who so happened to have looked like us. Even if our unchosen lineage has a dark, dirty, and unforgivable past, our lives are our own lives. If someone can’t separate two different individuals, just because of their immediate appearance, that’s none of our problem.

We can only do our best as humans, is to ignore the irrational finger pointing, and help those who deserve it. Not those who look to get payback."

Itsuka has a beautiful lip ringed smile while letting her rivaling vice captain’s speech.

Don Laban has her arms crossed, smirking at the "true ruler of Roronora City".

Shelly: "Do I avoid men who look like the man who killed my mother? No.

It’s all about the information we store and what we force our sensors to process as definitive information. So miss me with any ’unable to empathize’ shit, DaeMon. If we all as humans kept complaining about how the negativity of the past, is effecting the present, then how do we move on towards the future?"

Katsu smiles at Shelly’s words with his arms folded on the table, and his head on top.

Don Laban(sighs then chuckles): "Well Skalmönd, I gotta tell ya, your ability to talk someone’s ear off about the "philosophical justice" of the universe definitely got passed down. A couple of my homies would probably get really irritated from that sentiment but we’ve gotten off track.

So, a whole week after my parents left the shores of Scandinavia, my Valkyrie mother had docked her ship on the shores of this continent. Unfortunately, my older sisters were already waiting for her. As if they had know where she was heading and teleported there, but I later found out they had ran across the water using Seiõr and avoided the storm I was born in, entirely. They killed my Valkyrie mother but before the final strike she told them that I had killed my Völva mother during birth. So they kept me alive out of that respect alone.

As if I had any control over the situation."

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Saku: "Welp, I don’t know if what I saw with Princess Rebekah’s ability can be changed, but within 6 hours, MamMon DæMon is gunna have an small army of Seiõr users pull up here in Roronora and she’s gunna try making outlandish demands."

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Katsu: "And sometimes, ’the Main Character’ has to be the bad guy for the sake of peace for his friends. I don’t think I’d be able to even pretend to be the bad guy. So I was worried about, who’s ’the Main Character’, Shell?

We’ve already lost both our sets of parents, Shelly. I’ve been given a special ability that can control these alien monsters that killed them. When I snapped on Saku, it was the morning after we got our ’blessed abilities’, and I wanted him to know, even if he IS ’the Main Character’, he better not test you and I together. Because in the end, we would end up killing him if he did. Beating his ass like we did in the press box of this city’s stadium was just a taste for him."

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Saku stands behind his sobbing vice captain, he reaches his hand out to touch her shoulder but before he can, her words make him pause.

Itsuka: "You don’t have to pretend like she’s wrong. Just to pity me, Saku.(sob) She right, what have I really done for you since we met? (sob) I hurt you before I knew your name.(sob) My eye ability is useless.(sob) My body type is unattractive and gross.(sob)"

Unknowingly, because of her closed tear filled eyes, she doesn’t notice Saku has circumvented to face her. Then, to her and everyone watching’s surprise, Saku buries his face in her chest making Itsuka stop crying.

Saku grabs her hand and slowly places it on his own head.

Once she realizes what Saku is doing, the tears begin to swell up again, but this time from a completely different emotion.

Itsuka: "Sa-ku...?"

Saku: "I’m home."

The beautiful, physically fit woman can no longer hold in the tears and snowflakes. She wraps both arms tightly around his head, pulling him closer, and cries tears of love while everyone watches with smiles, except Laban. Who has her arms crossed.

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Jormungand: "You really do know how to find a bright side to things, huh? It’s no wonder your in Big Bro Saku’s Division. And aye, if it makes you feel any better, I appreciate you, Big Bro Dom. Even if the girls don’t."

He holds out his human fist and Dom connects the fist bump.

Dom: "Thanks, brotha."

Jorm gives him a friendly back hand to Dom’s chest and points his thumb in the direction they came from.

Jorm: "Let’s go catch up to the rest of the group. I had Drakaina tell them you were taking a massive shit from all that food you ate. Plus, I ain’t trying to make my sister worry more than she already does, haha!"

The two Izanami members stand up from the curb and Dom smiles.

Dom: "Bet."

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Saku: "But now I’ve realized, you were right earlier, about your mindset towards atonement and the bigger picture of someone’s unselfishness. If you’re doing good deeds for others around you, even if it was just for my acceptance, I’m okay with that. Cuz sooner or later, you’ll realize the happiness you’re feeling isn’t just because of your feelings towards me.

Making others happy in general, that is the actual fuel towards being happy in this existence. If we’re all content and helping each other in the end, who am I to reject your methods? Just promise me two things, here and now, Laban."

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Laban grabs the SunSword from Saku’s hip, surprising everyone witnessing.

Shelly grips her katana on her back, Madame Fryer unsheathes herself, and Itsuka grips one of her SunSwords.

Saku turns back to face the DaeMon but goes silent seeing Laban, without hesitation, put the back of her left hand and wrist, against the red hot blade.

Her sizzling skin can be heard and Drakaina hides her face behind Jormungand.

Laban’s entire hand becomes engulfed in flame as Saku grabs the DaeMon’s hand holding the handle of the burning sword, pulling it away from her. Parts of her burning flesh stick to the blade and burn as is tears off from the muscle.

Saku: "The fuck are you doing?!"

Laban doesn’t even flinch from pain. In a badass way, she quickly flicks her wrist, extinguishing the flame, splattering some blood on the ground, and revealing the disgusting, unsettling damage done.

Don Laban: "Even if my Eyelien heals my largest organ faster, and it protects me from blood poisoning, the scar that’s left will be proof of my loyalty to you..."

She lifts her head and with her eyes wide, Laban smiles, a slight tilt to her head. Her charred, blood squirting, and burned hand next to her face. The graphically horrific injury squirts blood across her face.

It gets in her right Eyelien, however unlike either of Katsu’s unusually detailed concerns, she doesn’t flinch anyway.

Katsu looks surprised because of the outcome and moves his gaze to Saku. The Yin Vessel is emotionless, looking at Laban’s hand.

Katsu’s nose twitches in anger.

Katsu(thinking): *Sakuuuu!!!!*

Don Laban: "...It will be proof of my loyalty to you, until the day I die...My...Sa-kiii."

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Shelly: "Thank you Madame Fryer, at first, I came here to ask if I could actually measure up to the ’greatest’ ever heard, seen, or told. But now, I promise I won’t stop fighting those DæMons until I am."

Madame Fryer sees Shelly as her old friend Skalmönd, the original goddess of Seiõr is hanging on her ever word like Odin currently is.

Shelly/Skalmönd: "I couldn’t imagine losing all the friends I have now and with a goddess as my witness, I swear, I’ll die protecting them if I have to."

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Katsu: "If only you could fathom Saku, what I’ve been trying to do.

Over.

And over.

And overrr."

{2.8 Light-years away from Earth, in open space}

The infamous ice dragon Leviathan flaps his wings as if using them to propel himself through empty space.

With it’s pink and purple checkerboard patterned right Eye of Wisdom, the monster smiles a large spikey toothed grin as it "flies" through space to continue it’s plan.

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Saku: "Drakaina, get down!"

All of a sudden, the sound of a gun goes off from MamMon’s side and the girls behind a pissed off MamMon, scream.

Esau, with an enraged expression has a smoking gun pointed at Laban.

The bullet travels the 50 yards and in slow motion, the hot lead passes Saku’s ear, then Laban casually tilts her head to easily dodge the bullet, it travels over Dom fallen on his ass, and Jorm raises his remaining human hand to protect his sister’s face but it barely goes through his fingers.

The bullet is heading straight for Drakaina’s head.

*CLIIIIINK!*

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MamMon DæMon: "Since you have clearly planned for this to be a short meeting, I’ll cooperate. Just don’t expect this disrespect to go unpunished.

Once I defeat your beloved ’Shelly’, and remove her head the same way I did with Skalmönd’s, I’ll remind you of this moment before killing everyone within your precious Sanpaku."

Her smooth right hand with gold painted nails extends from out her cloak, it drips blood from her palm wounds caused by Lil Lævateinn. Katsu sees her injured hand and thinks of something, pulling his hand back, confusing the DæMon.

Katsu: "Oh yea! Hold on, this will make it legit!"

He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out his pocket knife with Respect engraved on the handle. Without second thought, he makes a slight cut in his palm with it, blood drips from the wound and he reaches back out to MamMon’s hand.

Katsu: "Now, it’ll be official, so you better show up and don’t chicken out once you foresee your unavoidable ’L’."

MamMon chuckles at the gesture and connects their open wounded handshake, mixing their blood.

MamMon DæMon: "Good Luck, you vessel for all of the truest and purest evil."

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Aiden: "When I first arrived at the Sister Mountains and enrolled in the academy, Katsu was my first friend and Shelly obviously became my second immediately after.

At first, I thought he was being too careless and overconfident. But once I saw Shelly take out every challenger, even teachers, during combat training and then win a sparring match, against ten other students, without a single hit from any of her opponents, I knew why Katsu always smiled."

Sol turns her head to look at Aiden, still fixated on his thoughts. Her scarred cheek pressed against her knee.

Aiden: "Katsu really does want to end everyone’s suffering, you can tell by the look in his eye...

Well, at least the human one..."