Rotten Apples

Chapter 7: Garden of the Rose Witch

A green haired woman with roses is watering her flowers. She tends to every single flower, checking for ants and whatnot. She gently pours water to each one and clears it of dust. 

"This is an awful lot of roses for a battlefield." A little girl said as she entered.

"Oh hello, Kriemhild." The green haired woman greeted her. Kriemhild was wearing a fancy, fluffy tutu. It was black and purple in hue. Her dark hair had two pigtails that were bound up by silver sashes. She smelled a rose.

"These smell wonderfully." She remarked "Too bad they will all be trampled in your battle.  They will all smear on the floor and imitate blood. I wonder who's going to spill more." She said as she slowly plucked one with bulging eyes and a terrifying smile. Gertrud watched with horror as her beautiful roses are torn apart. Kriemhild lifted it up next to her face and let it fall to the ground like a petal from a peach tree. Gertrud dropped the watering can. She sprouted her kagune, two beautiful butterfly wings. Kriemhild clapped and giggled.

"That's the way I'd like to see you while you fight." She said and one of her eyes flared. The hair in her eye blocked the eye, but the red light seeped through it. She left the room and Gertrud undid her battle stance. Her dress is creamy in color, elegant and puffy. It has frills everywhere. She sits down on her red velvet armchair and awaits conflict. 

In the busy streets of Tokyo, Qwitz is wandering. Her RC transmitter is in place, rendering her the ability to detect the brain activity of others. She wanders down the street in awe, when she sees a girl with black pigtails and an awfully colored dress. Her pigtails are low, tied up with two puffy red velvet bands. She looks over at Qwitz, pretends to be scared and runs. Qwitz grunts. She wasn't able to see what she was against. She gave chase to the girl who was barefoot. Eventually, they arrived to an abandoned shack. She activated the quinque to see what's going on.

"Make it to the garden." This sentence was repeating in a worried tone. She ran after the girl to slowly see thorny vines crawl all over the place. She soon got into a massive, round room, full of roses. Qwitz looked around to see the girl she chased gone. She saw Gertrud.

"Welcome to my garden." She said and the passage behind Qwitz sealed shut. She started yelling.

"WHAT IS ALL THIS?!" 

"Please calm down. My name is Gertrudis, but I prefer Gertrud. The Rose Garden Witch, if you will." She said. Qwitz started sweating. The monarch butterflies in the room all took flight. 

"You're going down." Qwitz said. 

"Give everything a shot." The woman said. Qwitz charged into battle. As she was sprinting towards her, she got impaled by a thorny vine from below. She gagged up blood. 

"Crap I forgot she can detach her Kagune." 

"I am sorry this has to end this way." She said as she slowly walked down the isle. She drew her Kagune and shaped it into a massive broadsword. The other one manifested as a butterfly-wing-shaped shield. She cut the rose vine down and almost pierced through Qwitz when she stepped on the tip of the blade and did a back flip.

"Oh god. You might hurt someone with that thing." She said as her eyes lit up. She charged into battle again. 

"You might need your Kagune for this, don't you think?" Gertrud asked as she sliced at her. Qwitz grunted as Gertrud pierced the blade through her chest.

"At this rate, I'll run out of RC fast." Qwitz thought. She stepped back and cracked her neck. She jumped up and did a dropkick. The ground shattered as the Kagune traps around them flared. They all errupted and one of them struck a rose off of Gertrud's face.