The Dangerous Drive

Walking through the cozy streets of Four, Tsuruko realized that even after fourty-five minutes, Excellen still hadn't let go of her hand. Excellen's grip was actually incredibly tight—like the Exalted One had shoved her hand in a vice. "E-Excellen, you're hurting my hand!" Tsuruko yelped, prompting Excellen to swirl around and ask in a genuine tone,

"...Why does it hurt?" Excellen innocently said.

"It hurts when one person touches another with a lot of force! Hurting people's bad, you know!"

"...I-I see. I'm sorry." Excellen quickly let go of Tsuruko's hand, glancing away in an apologetic manner.

"It's fine, it's fine. You're new to this world, after all." Tsuruko brushed off Excellen's sudden bout of worry casually, only to hear an all-too familiar voice's soothing words enter her ears...

Turning around, on the televisions situated behind the duo was an all-too-familiar young woman. She was deceivingly young woman with a small and petite build; with fine, doll-like features and a beauty that seemed almost unnatural. Surprisingly, she had modest stature. She had fair skin, cobalt blue eyes and long blonde hair with three angular bangs tied into a ponytail. To Tsuruko, she resembled Excellen a fair bit now that she thought about it.

She was wearing a fancy outfit; the dominant colour for her "gothic lolita style" outfit was black and some parts of it were adorned with feathers. She wore a long sweeper with pink interior, sleeveless halter top with a black collar with silver studs and a silver feather pendant, lacy skirt, long glove on her left arm, thigh-high stockings, and shoes. She had aerials on the back of her right shoe and her left collarbone; certainly, this woman was Vita Zeppeli, the woman who's famous worldwide thanks to her exploits as a Wizard Saint; so popular that she got her own TV show!

''Backwater town where nothing happens... Don't let disguises fool you! Evil is coming from everywhere! Destroying all that we believe is good! My mother's ghost still haunts me now... Fortune abandoned by God... Nothing can bring her back to thee... Now I will seek to rage heaven's doors... There is no mercy, compassion in the world! Embrace the chaos! For in the end that is all! Now the universe is broken, lost its force... Turn your back on all you have loved... For it is... Gone in a second! Ultimate destruction! Gods are warring! Sorrow never-ending! Endless chaos! For an eternity! Welcome to the abyss!''

Tsuruko actually spent most of her time in the orphanage watching Vita's TV show. She'd picked up so much from this Wizard Saint-Idol Singer-Magical Girl Actor and to be fair, she was still a massive fan of the woman. "...Ehh! She's showing in Four!?"

"...I do not see the big deal about a singing slut wearing little girl's clothes and prances around in front of hundreds of people like she's high on bath salts." Excellen growled in a low tone, obviously annoyed.

"Ehehehehe, why are you so miffed?" Tsuruko poked Excellen in the cheek playfully.

"I-I might be." She turned away, hiding her embarrassment.

Tsuruko suddenly took her friend's hand once more, running off, "Oh, come on! I want you to see something!"

"Oh, Garren, it's a pleasure to see you." A smug-sounding voice reached Garren Straights', aka Gary's ears, as if beckoning him over.

The place which Gary had entered....was a small laboratory hidden away from plain sight; buried deep within the small rural town of Four. This was the location he wished to find—it was his objective.

The voice whom called him, belonged to a voluptuous young woman who couldn't possibly be above the age of her mid-twenties; she had long, light-pink hair which was parted on the side and ominous red eyes. She wore a black business suit topped off with the white labcoat of a scientist. This woman...was Doktor J, the head scientist of the Foundation of Humanity, a branch of the Magic Council who research mankind's origins to produce wonders. "...It's been a while, Garren." Her voice was equally mocking and seductive—truth be told, he wanted to punch her lights out.

"Yeah, yeah, you're getting on my nerves already. J, it's about time you spilled the beans. A few days ago I fought a loon calling herself the Super Galaxy King, and in that moment, my belt and hers had a sort of resonance—I could feel it creeping through my bones. Answer me this instant, or else you'll be eaten." Gary bared his fangs as his eyes flashed crimson momentarily.

J backed up, chuckling slightly, "It's slightly ironic. Ever since that accident as a child, you refused to show your true face to anyone, but I know your true self. Never the less, I shall keep your secret. Allow me to explain. It began in the current time with the Foundation of Humanity chronicle lab."

"There's more to the theory of human evolution than it appears, huh?" Gary asked the scientist in front of him.

"Correct. However, to continue, we go back fifteen million years ago...in order to decide who'd rule this world, a single knight representing humanity and a demon fought in a great clash. This single knight on the side of humanity, known as the Phoenix Knight, had achieved victory, and that is why Earth Land is so populated by humans. However, the demon couldn't be killed outright, so the Phoenix Knight had to let him slink off back into the darkness...but later on, he had spawned an entire race of demons, which the Phoenix Knight sealed into magic stones, but they continued to remain alive within said stones."

"...How?" Gary was surprised at how the demons could survive damn near everything.

"...Ahem. In any case, the scientists here at the Foundation of Humanity thought that the stones contained the secret to eternal life much like the Phoenix Knight has, and so we began our research. ...There was one problem. Through our research, the majority of magic stones were shattered, and their remains seeped through Earth Land, the demonic energies involved infected each and every single human to ever exist—it was just that strong. The demons had become something else—what we now call symbiotes."

"...Like Tsuruko said, they're demons born within people who're in despair, am I right? And they take people over?" Gary genuinely questioned her.

"That's correct."

"And you guys made the Driver Belts to combat them, right?"

"I suppose you could say that." Doktor J answered coldly. "It's more that, the Driver Belts are a medium in which the power of the symbiotes can be harnessed."

"Wait, so Tsuruko..."

"That girl, the one I've been monitoring, she is one of many to possess the ideal known as hope. With her hope, she has suppressed her inner symbiote and harnessed it's demonic energy to utilize magic with the Driver Belt as a medium. The Driver Belts function by merging the user's DNA with that of the symbiote to perform magic..."

"...!" Gary quickly glanced down at his Chimera Driver, which began to glow.

"You needn't worry about yourself. The Chimera Driver was created eons ago by a triad of alchemists in order to hold the power of the Chimera—a special demon whom can devour magical energy. In this case, the symbiote is sealed within the belt, and you're free, to an extent. Of course you still need to—"

Gary slammed his fist on the wall angrily. "I don't care about that, I know all about it! So you're saying that if Tsuruko continues to use her magic, her symbiote will take her over?"

"It's worse. Tsuruko Sejren is a unique existence. Her mere presence brings hope to all...but if she continues to use the Phoenix Driver to save people carelessly, then the despair of being a human sacrifice in the Sabbath will return to her all at once—and due to her good deeds, Tsuruko Sejren has built up an enormous amount of karma, which enables her to have massive amounts of magical power. As her descent into despair progresses, then the magical power she has amassed will erupt inside of her, causing her to transform into an existence akin to The Exalted One."

Gary clenched his fist in shock. "Then there's no choice. I won't let Tsuruko fall to darkness. She's too selfless. If she sees anyone in danger, she'll use the belt without a care in the world for her own safety. But, I'm worried about her. She can't shoulder that burden of bringing hope anymore, especially with her life on the life like that. I have to destroy the belt."

"Ta-da!" Tsuruko cheerfully exclaimed; though honestly, there was nothing to be happy about. They had arrived in a cemetery, as a grey rain of depression began to fall down upon the two. Nevertheless, Tsuruko remained in high spirits, clutching a bouquet of purple flowers in her other hand.

"....This is a bit sad, Tsuruko..." Excellen commented, obviously put off by the atmosphere of the graveyard. Quickly noticing an unnatural glow, an unusual stone was drawn to Excellen's hand—as if the will of the Exalted One had called it.

Tsuruko took Excellen's hand, telling her, "Come on, I wanna show you something!" She accelerated all of a sudden, dragging Excellen to a particular tombstone....however...

Tsuruko backed up in surprise. In front of her was...

"Ehh, Giselle!?" Tsuruko exclaimed. Really, she didn't expect Giselle Mercury here—at all.

Hearing Tsuruko's high-pitched voice, Giselle immediately ceased observing a certain gravestone and backed up, surprised herself. "...I-I was simply observing the quality of the crafting on the gravestones." Playing dumb, she asked, "Whose gravestone is this, Tsuruko?" Giselle placed her hand on Tsuruko's shoulder.

Tsuruko placed flowers down in front of the grave; for a moment, Tsuruko's eyes were lacking the lust for life that they were normally brimming with. "Ah, you heard, right? It's my dad's."

Startled for a moment, Giselle attempted to regain her usual composure before asking, "...Alphonse…hmm…Is your mother alive?"

"I don't know. But the nice lady in the orphanage is my mum!" Tsuruko said such words without a care in the world—maybe she never thought about it.

"…Yes. That was a careless thing to ask. I'm sorry." Giselle took another look at the gravestone with a longing expression, before beginning to walk off.

"Hey, hold up!" A voice called out—Tsuruko lost concentration, while Excellen backed up slightly.

"...It's that Gary Straights young man!" Excellen immediately pointed out, as Tsuruko stood up to face him.

"...Why do people keep finding me?" That was the only question on her mind. "Why are you here, exactly?"

Gary's expression was filled with uncertainty. "...Tsuruko, hand the Phoenix Driver over to me right now."