Rotten Apples

Chapter 1: The Rise Of The Shadow Witch

It's a dark night in the busy streets of Tokyo. A girl is on top of a crane and she's watching over the city. Her hair is a short bob and hazel in color. It flickers in the moonlight as the breeze brushes it. She hears a scream of terror. She immediately jumps up and starts searching for the source of it. She jumps from building to building and finds herself in a ghoul battle. A terrifying man with two spiked tentacles piercing his back is torturing a little boy.

"Why don't you pick someone who can fight back?" She asked.

"That someone isn't you then." He said and he fired a tentacle towards her. Much to his surprise the attack was blocked and with impressive force. The girl released her own Kagune, four bony tentacles with hard and sharp ends. She cut off the assailant's weapons and started thrashing them around violently. The attacker grew furious.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN BEAT ME???" He shouted and started increasing in size. His Kagune wrapped around his head and the right side of his body, enclosing his arm and granting him extreme power. He forcefully smacked his newfound weapon to the ground, creating a shockwave that left Hinami in the air. He reached out and grabbed her, then tossed her into a wall. Her kagune disintegrated as her brittle body slowly recovered from the injuries she just got.

"You shouldn't have acted so cocky. You would probably be spared. But now all I want to do is EAT YOU ALIVE!!!" He yelled and Hinami screamed. Butcher, the attacker, inched closer and closer as her little voice cracked over her screams of terror. Suddenly, a loud slash. A woman dressed in a black tuxedo came to her rescue. She had a pitch black Ukaku kagune. Two giant feathers that were solid as steel. She was ready to fire. A tonn of shards filled Butcher and forced him to back down. Hinami slowly stood up. Her rescuer was left with two thin quill spines.

"You hope to beat me with that?" He said and he strained his body. The shards dropped to the ground and disintegrated. He jolted at the woman, growling and drooling as he hit her over and over. She blocked with those two stems pretty well. She stabbed them through his body and lifted him into the air. The quills flared up and solidified again, firing more shards into Butcher's body. His kagune disintegrated.

"I'll let you live for now." She said. Butcher snarled at her and left.

"Thank you..." Hinami said.

"No need to. My duty is to fight for those who can't fight for themselves."

"What's your name?"

"Elsa Maria." She said and left. Hinami stood awestruck as she watched her saviour jump away. Elsa Maria wanted to follow Butcher. She found massive blood stains and soon she found the corpse of Butcher. His shoulder was cut down and parts of his body were dislocated. She heard footsteps. She jolted forward and turned around to see a boy with an okami mask. He let out a single red tail and whipped it around like a fox. Elsa Maria released her own Kagune. Her Ukaku feathers seemed to interest the ghoul.

"I heard you died a while ago."

"You heard wrong." He said and lashed at her. She blocked the strikes and hardened her wing, releasing hundreds of shards. The assailant blocked them and twirled, sending Elsa Maria backwards. He jumped up and thrusted his Kagune forward and Elsa dodged. She stripped her Kagune of its plumage and stabbed them through his body.

"You're clumsy, Amaterasu." She said as he plopped to the ground. The mask fell off and he was groaning on the ground.

"Why did you turn to Goat?"

"They rescued me... I had no other choice.." He said as he slowly got up. He released a new tail but something was off. He dropped to his knees and buried his face in his hands. When he revealed it, a devil's mask slowly covered his face. The tail he released sprouted smaller branches and he flexed them, creating a spiked appendage. Amaterasu forcefully swung it towards Elsa Maria as she jumped out of its way. She anchored herself into a building and assessed her enemy.