Keeps Me Alive

Unexpected Enemy
Dawn.

The time in which life began to flutter from the void known as "slumber" and make their move into the world of light. It was at this time that the sun began to rise over the world, casting its warmth and orange light over the inhabitants who welcomed its return.

Among them was Jason LaHote, a man with hair as orange as the star itself, who alone was awake out of his now seven person group. He sat on the edge of a cliffside, watching the sun rise as his mind drifted. Just yesterday, Iris, Blake, and his two grandchildren, Nozomi and Seika, had transported themselves after Jason due to his multiple month absence. As was typical of children led by a rambunctious squirrel, they hadn't thought their actions through and were stranded here with Jason, Giselle, Tsuruko and Solele, and Jason's companion Riskal.

His brown eyes narrowed in slight frustration; Iris and Blake could handle themselves, surely, but his two grandchildren were where his concern jumped to. He had no idea of their combat potential and wasn't sure how comfortable he was letting his own flesh and blood run into a situation where a creature that resonated "despair" in every fiber of its being was making a point to pursue them.

"How do I deal with these two...?" He muttered to himself.

Giselle approached Jason, though in a way that just screamed "don't touch me you filthy casual". "Talk to them like you would if you were their friend." Giselle only had one friend, truthfully; and he was long gone from this world. "That way, it isn't you lording superiority over them, and talking to them on the terms of an equal."

Jason craned his head back to see Giselle standing over him, with her general look of indifference. "That would require me to have had experience talking with 'friends' before," Jason replied pointedly, not in the least bit surprised at the cold woman's sudden appearance. And true to point; Jason may consider every guildmate his comrade, though multiple were more than that, he'd never had much experience talking to anyone in a casual, friendly setting.

"Then make shit up." Giselle was awfully blunt about that. "I do it all the time." Thankfully, Tsuruko was out of ear-shot so she couldn't hear Giselle's words.

Jason heaved a sigh, looking at the woman who was essentially his guide on this entire botched little trip. "It's safe to assume you had some issues as a parent," He concluded, standing up — it was amusing that he was taller than her, and yet all she had to do was push him off this cliff and her problems could be over. "Though I suppose there's a bit of merit to what you say; I'm just not sure how to handle having children thrown at me that I didn't even know existed."

"You just deal with it. It's not that hard." Giselle replied simply. "And yes, issues is putting it lightly."

Jason mulled over what Giselle said, before simply sighing to himself. He wasn't entirely sure if what Giselle had said was truly helpful — while he knew it had some merit, it wasn't something he could employ being as socially challenged as he was.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, Jason saw the other girls begin to wake up, and knew the time for conversation was done. "Bonding with you was as delightful as always, Giselle," He said with a curt nod as he made his way over to the girls who were awakening.

"I hope you choke on your own blood too." Giselle seethed. "Talking to you is like trying to cheer people up after Hurricane Katrina by saying it's like a big giant water park." Other words, not fun at all. It could be believed that Giselle hated Jason more than she did Amadam, but that was probably a lie. While she did have some respect for him, she just thought he was like that silver-haired idiot who used to hit on her daughter, albeit a fair amount more lifeless.

"Always the woman of tact," Jason replied without missing a beat, before wisely putting distance between himself and this strange creature that called itself a woman.

Blake was the first to wake up, yawning politely as she greeted Jason with a smile. "G'mornin'." She mumbled, clearly still half asleep. It was amusing to remember this was the feared demon, Gehaburn.

"Good morning," Jason replied, pleased to be talking to a woman who wasn't going out of her way to seem like a distasteful person.

"Anything on the to-do-list?" Blake asked, rubbing her eyes as she straightened the kimono she wore, before it slipped off and revealed her breasts to the morning sun.

"A fair question," Jason replied. "Let's allow the rest of them to wake up before making any plans."

"Zzzzzz...." Tsuruko, half asleep, turned over....And she fell straight onto her face; her head smacking against the ground. "No, Excellen, I don't want to feed you bacon while you're in the bathtub..."

"...What." Giselle looked at Tsuruko incredulously. "That Excellen girl is a bad seed."

For once, Jason and Giselle were in agreement. Passing over the sleeping mechanical construct — or would it be considered recharging? Did Tsuruko need to wound? — Jason knelt down near Solele, prodding the girl's shoulder with a deadpan expression.

"Rrargh." Solele growled in her sleep. "Frick the hell off. I'm tired. Let me sleeeeeeeeep...."

"Go away Dr. Peppers!" Iris yelled out with a shriek in her sleep. "Squirrels can detach their tails when threatened!"

With his eye twitching with slight irritation, Jason decided to wake up Iris first, and committed the simple act of stroking the girl's tail — her signature weak spot.

"Sweeeek!" Iris let out a playful yelp as she woke up. "Whassit, master? Are we finally going home? It feels like months!"

"While I understand the sentiment, no, we're not returning home yet," Jason replied, and this was true, simply by the fact that the group had no actual way to return. "As soon as everyone has awoken, we can start to formulate a plan." Jason cast a quick look at Tsuruki and Solele, and figured waking them up in a standard way would take the entire morning.

"Iris, can you please wake up these two, while I go tend to the children?" Jason asked, gesturing towards the silver and eggplant-tressed girls.

"Suresies~" Iris leapt up onto her feet as her big, bushy tail wagged non-stop. Pouncing around, she instantly began to wake the two up. "Come on, no more sleep time, we've been here too long!"

While everyone's beloved squirrel occupied herself with this, Jason walked over towards his sleeping grandchildren. Briefly pondering how many generations had to pass before none of his descendants had orange hair, he knelt down towards Nozomi, gently nudging the girl.

As one would expect, a few years of living in the apocalypse made one a very light sleeper, and the instant Jason's hand touched Nozomi's shoulder, the girl's eyes shot open wide and her palm instinctively closed around her grandfather's wrist. She then swung her palm, pointed forwards, towards his face as if to impale.

Without missing a beat, Jason's free hand flew up in a blur, batting the girl's frail hand away, which snapped her back into reality.

"Oh...grandfather..." Releasing the vicegrip she had on his wrist — which Jason proceeded to rub reflexively — she settled down. "I'm sorry about that; living in the future, sleeping soundly never was an option."

"That was my first assumption." Jason didn't hold the attack against the child; he'd seen worse. However, having learned from his mistake, he nudged Seika only once before quickly pulling back his hand.

"What the fresh hell is this?" Seika turned over as she rubbed her dreary eyes. "It's too late. I need to sleep more."

One could almost hear Giselle from a slight distance. "You damn people need to sleep less."

"But mum, you haven't slept for thirty years, it's bad for your health."

Sighing at the inevitably of the comedic inclusion of a sleepwalker, Jason — after several rough minutes — had managed to get Tsuruko and Solele awake, and thus the entire party was assembled.

"I suppose the only question now, is what are we going to do?" Nozomi looked at everyone curiously. "We only threw ourselves into this dimension to bring back grandfather — we hadn't accounted on an entire group of people, as well as having to deal with being trapped here afterwards."

"In short, we didn't think ahead, and now we're stuck going with the flow," Blake surmised neatly, leaning on Jason's shoulder. "Since the rest of you have been in this situation for longer than us, what's the plan?"

"We find that dragon bastard, kick his ass to high hell, and then get out of here." Giselle bluntly stated. "That's...pretty much all the plans summed up. It may take some time, but you just need to keep pressing forward, that's all there is to it."

"How eloquently put," Jason replied, his deadpan expression absolute.

"Ironically, it's not much different than what we usually do," Blake replied, smiling confidently. "Besides, I wouldn't mind fighting alongside Jason again." As if capitalizing on the lack of Wendy, she kept herself clinging to the orange-tressed man's arm; Jason, as was typical, was used to this and didn't raise an objection.

"Then shouldn't we get moving?" Nozomi suggested, as simply sitting around wasn't doing them any good in the first place.

"About time. Even though a year feels like a second to me, this has been a truly agonizing wait." Giselle tapped her foot as she lightly nudged Tsuruko with it, causing a metallic *CLANG!* to resound. "Come on, let's get going so I can send you back to your own time."

"Right, right..." Tsuruko scratched her head, her optic sensors scanning the area as she stood on her own two feet.

"Wait..." Jason muttered, and this simple sound caught the attention of everyone present. "We may not need to go looking for anything at all — I feel another darkness approaching us."

"Should we run?" Nozomi inquired, looking around as if she could see the 'darkness' her grandfather spoke of.

"That would be pointless," Jason replied, remembering how they tried to outrun the other being from before. "There's no point in trying that now; it'll be here momentarily. Everyone brace yourselves."

"SKREEONK!"

A cold air rushed through the area; it gave Tsuruko chills. An intense pressure she had never felt before was coming from a magic-circle before her. A pressure that froze both her body and soul… She felt like a frog that was being glared at by a snake…

A gigantic ominous thing started appearing from the magic-circle…

Head.

Torso…

Black-wings.

A cross…?

Someone was impaled into a cross. Restraint tools were intensely binding its body. There were so many restraining tools placed all over its body and there were creepy letters written on the tools! There were ones that were placed on its eyes and there were tears of blood dripping from them.

The moment its whole body appeared from the magic-circle, Tsuruko's breath stopped because of the bizarre existence. It had the lower-body of a……snake! No. There were scales on it. ……A skinny appearance like that of an Asian dragon. The upper-body of a fallen-angel and lower-body of a dragon! On both hands, tail, and all over its body, there were countless nails driven through! Even on its black wings.

Just looking at its appearance told Tsuruko how painful it is. …… A pebble demon dragon……that was being restricted……?

A crucifixation done to a criminal who has done something very serious….

The being looked like it was the personification of anger from the one who judged it. A creepy voice emitted from the criminal's mouth echoed throughout the city. From its mouth covered in fangs, there was blood and saliva coming out as well.

Pain.

Jealousy.

Suffering.

Resentment.

A sound that was mixed with all kinds of negative emotions.

A bead of sweat slipped down Jason's scalp as he took in the monstrosity. Once again, he found himself hesitating in the face of this new unknown — and this time, it didn't seem to be only him. While the waves of negativity were washing over on Jason clearer than anyone in the group, it was quite clear that very presence of this beast affected everyone on some level.

This creature was the universe's despair, appearing before them all heralding naught but death.

Nozomi, as if on instinct, clung to Jason's kosode; she had no idea what this creature was, but the sight of it burned fear into her very core.

Even Blake could feel her hair stand on end; a feeling she was by no means familiar with.

"Do you know what this creature is, Giselle?" Jason muttered, not tearing his eyes away from the horrifying spectacle even when he spoke.

"It's that idiot again." Giselle sighed; as if this was an everyday occurrence. "Of course you can't beat him, Just focus on dodging his attacks, and only try and counter when you have the chance. I'll try and get the Time Ring fixed up."

"Not the best odds, but they'll have to do," Jason muttered, visibly irritated with how easily Giselle waived his question and his own skill off to the side. However, he'd learned one thing on this little trip; Giselle is usually right, even if he loathed what she says.

"I suppose there's nothing to do but fend him off until the silver-haired creature has that ring ready," With a flash of ebony steel, Blake moved in front of Jason, wielding a curiously designed black blade with a silver edge.

"I see you took up a blade similar to my own," Jason noted the design was reminiscent of his previous Gehaburn sword, only smaller in stature, as well as possessing a thicker hilt with red markings lining it and three green jewels were a tsuba would be located.

"There are some superfluous similarities, yes," Blake turned towards her former captor, and flashed a flirtatious smile. "But my Tarisyl is forged from Orichalum, and thus it surpasses normal human steel! Now, why don't I make the first move, my Master?" With the last two words dripping with a playfulness not seen before, bat-like wings erupted from Blake's back and the girl took flight.

"A dragon like this...its weakest points aren't its thick and powerful hide...no, I need to strike for the eyes," Magical energy, vibrant and in emerald hue, coated the Orichalcum blade in an instant. Ascending towards the creature's vivid red eye, as big as her own body, Blake swung the sword downward towards the all-seeing ruby, the energy itself converged towards the tip of the blade before releasing and expanding, taking the form of an enormous, emerald dragon — a powerful, jade-hued creature — rushing toward's the true dragon's eye in a fury.

"Saikurō!" She cried, her voice reaching the heavens to declare the name of this special technique.

The enormous dragon simply roared, as the sound released from it's mouth dispersed Blake's spell.

Iris leapt upwards, trying to climb up the dragon.

Giselle just sat back and sighed, "Alright, do the opposite of what I told you, I don't give a fuck."

"Instead of chattering, why not focus on your Ring, Giselle?" Jason suggested icily, his eyes on his foolish guild members. With this creature, simply standing around wasn't the best option; it would attack eventually, and thus the first option was to wear it down while it wasn't making a move at all.

And besides, the Akatsuki guild had never made their career out of adhering to 'reason'.

"Saikurō was entirely deflected...?" Blake blinked in shock, floating around the dragon's enormous head, trying to find some kind of weak point. On a creature with such thick hide, the eyes were certainly a guaranteed weak point; but this dragon seemed to be different.

"Our attacks won't have any effect..." Jason thought; in spite of his earlier statement, all they really could do was stall until Giselle's ring was ready.

"Instead of telling me what to do, which you have no right to do, how about you become a tad more competent?" Giselle snapped back.

Tsuruko herself, looked up in surprise. "Where have I seen this thing before? ...Mum, why aren't you helping?"

"How many times have I told you!?" Giselle shouted at her daughter, focusing on the ring. "He and I can't hurt each other, it's how that idiot programmed us!"

Jason manifested a large black cleaver, Hagetsu into his firm grip, holding the blade aloft at his side. Focusing his magical energy into the blade, converging it all at the tip, he pointed it directly upwards at the draconic beast and swung it in an arc, releasing the familiar Pluvia Laminis — a torrential, upward rain of steel blades, towards the beast.

The dragon roared as it released a concussive blast of energy towards Pluvia Laminis- eradicating all of the blades in one fell swoop.

"Now that I think on it..." Tsuruko sat there, as the cogs in her head began to spin. "...Why isn't it talking? Something's wrong."

"You know what this creature is?" Jason inquired, not the slightest bit surprised that his blast was deflected. It was convenient, if it was true, that Tsuruko knew the identity of this creature; Jason had the slightest hunch that Giselle knew as well and simply wouldn't ask if not prodded.

"Think so." Tsuruko continued to look up at the thing, her eyes glowing. "Though this one seems a bit...different."

"Different?" Iris shouted out as she continued to cling onto the dragon-demon-thing.

"It has the same feeling and magical aura, but something's off about it. It's like I've encountered it before, but not in such a state."

In the background, Blake was still finding no avail at this creature's hide, her frustration growing further.

"I suppose I should rephrase," Jason replied curtly; like mother, like daughter, unless you asked the question just as one needed it, neither Tsuruko nor Giselle offered more than they needed to say. "What is this creature?"

"It's probably a dragon." Tsuruko bluntly replied; almost uncharacteristically. "What else does it look like?"

"The Dragon King's inbreed cousin from hell." Momoko called out, as she fired at the dragon rapidly with her twin pistols.

"Well, that too."

The dragon let out another mighty roar as its wings began to glow a sickly green.

Jason grit his teeth; Tsuruko had far from answered his question, anyone with have a brain could see this creature was a 'dragon'. However, he had no time to dwell on the fact that mother and daughter were quickly becoming his least favorite people in the world; the magical power of this creature was skyrocketing past it's far incomprehensible levels.

It was about to launch an attack.

Charging up emerald energy, the dragon-thing began to suck eternano out of the atmosphere- instead it released several wingbeats, unleashing a powerful hurricane towards the group.

"Hold on!" Tsuruko declared, as the Phoenix Driver shone an illustrious golden as a large runic circle erupted from the belt and smashed into the hurricane, repelling it before retracting towards Tsuruko- the runic circle began to engulf her. When the ring passed over her, a large golden phoenix erupted from Tsuruko's chest and flew around her, engulfing Tsuruko's body in the lights of the stars; Tsuruko's true Soul Armour manifested—azure and silver, with crimson fang-esque attachments adorning her facemask—overall, it had the motif of a bullet train.

"Not bad for a mewling kitten," Blake commented from her airborne position, her eyes swiveling down to Tsuruko's now armored state. "However, you seem a tad rash, jumping in like that." After stating her commentary, Blake turned her attention back to the creature that needed it — this dragon. Even at the amount of magical power she was using, there had to be a way to dent it; some way, without drawing on further power. "With any armor, there should always be a weak spot to exploit; the question is, where in this dragon's scaly protection is there a weakness?"

Jason wasn't the least bit perturbed by Tsuruko's sudden transformation; he found the armor's design to be fairly over the top, but, as a polite individual, he kept that commentary to himself. He held Hagetsu firmly in his grip, a cold wind began to whip around it. This wind cradled eternano in its grip, leading the magical particles in a spiraling dance around the blade, merging with Jason's immense output of magical energy, converging onto the blade; within seconds, the magical power had bonded with the stainless black steel, forging a powerful new blade composed of shining with luminescent brilliance; one of Jason's newest spells, the Omegaensis.

Stepping forward, Jason vanished within seconds — far beyond any speed a High Speed user could hope to reach — closing the distance that separated himself and the coal-coloured demonic creature spawned from Hell itself in a matter of moments. Swinging his blade with pure brute force, Jason combined the immense enhancement of Omegaensis with a localized Ensistremor, creating an explosion of pure, unrestrained air pressure as he swung the blade alongside the underbelly of the creature.

The demon-dragon, instead, formed an solid azure barrier around its body- anticipating Jason's blow...

"That's it!" Tsuruko declared proudly. "I've zoned in on the finale." Tsuruko withdrew her gunblade, pointing it forwards. "Listen up!" She bemoaned talking outloud, whereas Team Daybreak always had unspoken plan guarantees. "Since it's covered itself head-to-tail in that barrier, it cannot possibly cover the whole body and it needs to have gaps in order to allow itself to fly and communicate with the outside world. The same goes for all of its energy attacks, they form its scales! I've noticed that its weakness is its glowing eyes."

Iris, recently leaping off of the being, asked, "Why cha think that~?"

"Because!" Tsuruko's voice suddenly lost the wind it had earlier. "They're glowing red!"

"Who'da thunk." Iris sighed, as she charged magical energy into her gauntlets.

"So everyone!" Tsuruko swung her gunblade back, backing up to get a running start. "ATTACK!"

Seika made a thrusting motion with her hand, translocating Jason's explosion moments before it impacted into the dragon's eyes, blinding it furiously. "Granddad, hit it with the blade storm attack in the eyes!"