The Innocent Malice

Never Blooming Hearts

The illusion shattered again. The heart-shaped witch continued to lash out at the crucified Pleiades, making a puchi puchi sound over and over, like a pumping heart.

"Stop it, Airi!" Kazumi called out to the witch, "I don't want to fight!"

"Kazumi!" Kaoru yelled. "Kazumi!"

Kazumi screamed Kaoru's name, but later screamed as another barbed wire went straight through her legs and chest. The witch flew closer to Kazumi. The twin defibrillators on the witch elongated and were heading straight for Kazumi's head...

"Ka-!" Kaoru yelled.

"Kazumi!" Satomi screamed as well, blood dripping down her face. Kaoru and Satomi looked in wonder at what they saw next. The geyser of blood coming from Kazumi's face was not red, it was black.

Kazumi had chomped on the witch's defibrillator.

The witch fluttered away from Kazumi, blood squirting from the side of her head. Kazumi felt different. Her teeth were now fanged and shark-like, but why?

The defibrillator fell to the floor. The witch shot more wire at Kazumi, and flew around in a daze. One long vein erupted from the witch, pumping blood as it shot straight towards Kazumi. Vines shot from the platform where the witch was, and forced her to stay there. Seeing this as a chance, Kazumi grabbed the vein tightly. The witch started to pump very quickly, and was looking like she would burst...

Kazumi ripped off the vein, releasing gallons of black blood, and broke free of the crucifix. Her shark-like teeth were ready to chomp the witch into pieces, and her feral eyes gleamed with fury...

Her now webbed hands grabbed the witch's red body, tearing off red flesh and blood. She growled like a wild animal, and the Pleiades looked on in horror. Blood, both black and red, flew across the scene.

Then, her earring bell glowed red-purple and rang. Kazumi immediately stopped, and gasped. She wobbled off the witch and into the floor, spreading her arms out like when she was on the cross.

Kaoru, still on her crucifix, yelled: "Kazumi!"

Her feral eyes, sharp teeth, and webbed hands returned to normal. Kazumi looked at the witch. "Airi...loved Yuuri," didn't she?" Umika and Kazumi exchanged glances, and Umika looked downwards at her feet instead of her friend. "She was really sad...because she lost her friend."

Kazumi looked at the witch, and thought of how much suffering Airi was going through. And she wanted to end it.

"Yuuri can't be brought back to life," Kazumi murmured as she ran up to the witch and hugged her pulsing red body. "But, I'll bring you back, Airi." Kazumi's face and outfit was now stained with the black blood, and she hugged her tighter.

"Kazumi, get away!" Umika screamed, but Kazumi didn't listen to her.

"No," Kazumi replied. "Airi will come back. I'll bring Airi back!"

The defibrillators at the top of the witch flashed as something rose up from the flesh. An oozing figure, her eyes burnt much like the witch's, emerged. Pale blond hair slowly rose from the body, and she blinked, her eyes now human. Veins pulsed under her eyes. The spoon charm swung like a pendulum in the air. Runes came out of her mouth, and they screamed the last spell she said.

"Il...Il...Trian..go," Airi said, her speech slurred and drunken, the triangular magic flying out of her hands. Kazumi stepped backwards, looking on in horror as Airi coughed the black blood of the witch.

"Sto-," she said, "Airi..."

A long, black whip shot from Saki's hand, and curled around Airi and the witch, trapping them like a spider's web. "Saki?!" Kazumi yelled as the whip broke off the girls' restraints, and sent them falling to the floor.