To Re-enter [Wollongong][Australia War Arc]

Reserving post for Shani.

Shani ran towards the city of Wollongong, holding tightly to the blade she carried. Her black hair flowed behind her in the wind, her eyes focused on the area ahead of her. Death energy flickered around her, she could feel the destruction and malice in the place. War had come to this nation of Australia and Shani had made her choice. With a quick soul dash the young teenager finally got herself within the city limits and found herself within a small distance of the one person she hoped she would never meet again.

“You!”

The word left her mouth before she could stop it, a look of disbelief and fear on her face as she stared at the black haired girl before her. She raised her sheathed blade in order to be able to draw it if necessary, though her stance was obviously defensive. Remembering their last encounter, Shani wasn’t sure if this girl would attack her on sight or not. However, she did know that she didn’t want to take on that… that monster of a girl on her own. Deciding that she would rather play it safe than sorry, a soft white light started emitting from Shani as she activated her aura of light. Sure, this would make it impossible for her to hide, but she would need to use all of her power if she was forced to fight the one before her. Her eyes quickly scanned her surroundings, taking in all she could. For now she would wait for the other ones her to make the first move, but she did have one question for the black haired girl.

“Hey, you, what’s your name?”

((OOC: Sorry for the crappy quality of this post, I wish I could have done better for you two.))

Sagumi was the anomaly in the city of...wait...Wallawallabingbang right? No, that was the chipmunk song. Or was this the city of Wallawallabingbang and the song was Wollawallabingbang. Song lyrics were always just so confusing without a transcript. He could never understand how anyone understood that garbled gibberish and those metal songs that people used to listen to? They made even less sense, he could have sworn half of those songs involved someone going through a hardcore and incredibly loud asthma attack. Maybe they were secretly anthropomorphic cats that periodically had to cough up furballs mid song and they just decided to run with it. Yes, that one made a lot more sense, that had to be it. Speaking of giant balls of fur…

“Shify, is this place called Wallawallabingbang or Wollawallabingbang?”

“It’s Wollongong you insufferable buffoon, now keep it down, it’s hard to enjoy my bamboo leaves with your annoying voice on full blast, dumbass with your dumbass vacations to your dumbass places like a damn dumbass...dumbass.”

Sagumi had already lost all interest in what Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Sir Shify was saying and had effectively tuned out, despite his eyes still vacantly staring at what was a rather unique creature, which was impressive in a world full of incredibly strange, unique creatures being considered the norm. Sitting at the table, his tail aimlessly flipping back and forth through the seat back, was a four foot tall, bipedal red panda clad in a silvery suit of armor and looking very clearly ready to charge into battle one second and to be cuddled by overly touchy women the next. As he said, Sagumi and his furry compatriot were in the great city of Wollongong for what Sagumi had erroneously coined a vacation. Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Sir Shify wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the trip to to Wollongong, since they were going there simply because the name made Sagumi laugh, but he was hardly going to let Sagumi potentially have fun on his own, he regrets that decision. Given Sagumi’s unique circumstances in terms of immortality, he had to re-teach himself the current events and politics of whatever era he was born into and, quite frankly, he had stopped putting the effort in and while the pair of them were, thankfully, more or less left alone by the Monsuta controlled country, it was unknown if they were just that hospitable or if a man walking around with a gigantic animal was just something that wasn’t worth messing with would be forever unknown. The trip wasn’t all hospitality and roses however, they did have to search two and a half hours to find a restaurant that sold bamboo in their salads. That arduous quest for leafy sustenance was the most excitement they had managed to have all day, fortunately that was going to change...or unfortunately, they weren’t sure yet.

Sagumi had, naturally, picked an atrocious time to go on vacation. All across the continent of Austrailia war had broken out and it had now come to the city of Wallawallabingbang. The serenity of their less than peaceful meal was broken by an explosion outside, the sound of which reverberated through the city and caused both Sagumi and Shify’s heads to perk up. It was somewhat surprising going in how empty the streets were today when a couple days ago they were pretty bustling with life and the shop owner had been suspiciously nervous since they got there, but the second the sounds of the explosion reverberated through the room, things became substantially more clear...ish. The owner had vanished, pretty quickly and his shivering could be heard from under the counter. Sagumi craned his neck to try and see if he was alright while Shify had made his way toward the front door, his ears, eyes and nose pointed toward the origin point of the explosion. Other than the smoke, Shify couldn’t see anything involving who or what was attacking the city. Sagumi silently slunk out of the building, following behind Shify, as he certainly wasn’t going to waste the chance to skimp out on paying for their meal as he joined his friend in trying to figure out what was going on, it was then that they barely heard the garbled scream from the alley behind them, barely reaching their ears over the sirens.

“M-M-MONSTER!”

Sagumi’s head lazily rolled to the side to see a man, human by the look of him, pointing the barrel of a firearm straight at Shify’s face. There were many mistakes that were made by the young man in that short window. First, he announced his presence after he had effectively got the drop on the “monster.” Second, he actually called Shify a monster. Sagumi, innocently stepped slightly back and to the side, away from what was about to come. Gun shots rang throughout the area, unfortunately they didn’t hit the monster at all. In a rage, Shify quickly dropped out of the trajectory of the bullet and closed the distance almost immediately, his sword performing a devastating upward slash and slicing straight through the rifle the man had been using. Once disarmed, Shify grabbed him by the collar of his vest and slammed him into the alley wall before repeatedly hitting him in the face with a flurry of furry punches of fury. “I…” right cross to the chin, “...Am not…” right straight to the nose “...A g’damn…” haymaker to the temple “...Monster…” elbow to the jaw “...you damn…” one more straight to the nose “...hairless ape!” Meanwhile, Sagumi idly watched the rooftops above them before noticing something that forced him to incessantly pester his rather violent companion.

“Um...Shify...I mean Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Sir your majesty Shify...this might not be the best time to do...Shify I think...oh damnit.”

More gunfire rang through the area, Sagumi grabbing ahold of the Red Panda’s cape just in time to yank him out of the alleyway and behind the cover of the wall as a hail of bullets slammed into the spot where the creature was just standing and following him to the wall, pinning Sagumi and Shify behind the wall and suppressing their movements. Shify, collecting himself and assessing the situation, naturally turned all the hate toward his human partner in crime who had managed to rip his cape straight off his back.

“WHY DO YOU ALWAYS GET ME INTO THESE STUPID SITUATIONS!? FOR VACATION I WANTED TO GO TO SOMETHING SIMPLE LIKE A WATER PARK, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, SUPER SMART SAGUMI NEEDED TO PICK A G’DAMN WARZONE. YOU USELESS SACK OF…”

“Ok now wait Shify, Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Sir Shify your divine majesty Shify, you’re right, it is my fault that we’re here, but in my defense, I’m not the giant raccoon that just savaged their friend.”

“RACOON!? WHY YOU [This long stream of expletives has been censored for our more innocent viewership, we apologize for the inconvenience, stay in school.]”

In a rage, Shify had exploded from his hiding place and immediately invited more bullets upon him, the small creature barely evading the storm of lead sent in his direction and he smartly swerved away, zig zagging away from his now pursuing assailants and giving Sagumi the distraction he wanted. As the squad of four humans pursued the anthropomorphic red panda, Sagumi slid backwards around the other side the building and silently scaled up the wall. Even if they were wondering where the second one had disappeared to, Sagumi was a trained ninja. They were not going to see him coming. Sagumi counted their steps, listening to their boots stomp on the roof tops as they chased after Shify, getting the timing down as his hand gripped the cape still in his possession. As soon as the last pair of boots would stomp down on top of his roof, Sagumi sprung into action, slinging the cloth in his hand up and around the man’s ankle before violently pulling, yanking him off his feet and pulling him toward and over the edge of the building. The man quickly tied the cape into a knot around his ankle and, in a flash, tying the other end to a particularly sturdy drain pipe, leaving the man hanging suspended before he quickly, using his wavedash to stick to the wall, crawled along to another face of the building. As the three remaining squadmates turned to respond to their fourth suddenly disappearing, Sagumi would very suddenly appear behind them. Before any could react to him, Sagumi’s foot slammed down on the joint directly behind the rear soldier’s knee, forcing him to buckle to the ground before delivering a strong chop to the man’s neck, roughly striking his carotid artery, the man was instantly rendered unconscious. As the other two were turning around at the sound of their teammate’s cry of pain, Sagumi dashed forward, executing one of his signature dashing elbows, driving the bony point square into the man’s chest. His body armor kept him from instantly dying, but a loud cry of pain came from him and blood trickled out of his mouth and his body slumped over Sagumi’s shoulder just as the final human leveled his firearm at Sagumi, hesitating to shoot him through his friend’s limp body. In that moment of hesitation, Sagumi shot the body toward the last man, forcing him to roll away from the human projectile. As soon as he righted himself, Sagumi was there. The man delivered one quick strike to his opponent’s armed elbow before placing his leg on the outside of his opponent’s body, rotating in and grabbing the human’s wrist in one hand and throwing a violent elbow into the bridge of his nose. Sagumi, using his grip on his opponent’s wrist, dislocated the joint before throwing the man over his shoulder, slamming him on to the ground and into unconsciousness. The red tressed man let off a soft sigh, looking down at the unconscious form below him and the shield embroidered across his back. It wasn’t a symbol Sagumi had seen before, which meant it couldn’t be especially old, last couple centuries at the latest.

“Hey Shify, I mean Second Sea Lord Vice-Admiral Sir you divine majesty Shify esquire, do you recognize this sym...oh...you’re not hear, well thanks for all the help Shif.”

A rumble echoed across the city soon after that drew Sagumi’s attention to the skies. Massive warships were descending upon the city and Sagumi had no idea if they were aligned with these humans or not. The man let the victim’s arm fall limply to the rooftop before resolving his next course of action. He needed a better handle on the situation before he got further involved and he didn’t see any better way than by investigating the giant death machines, “YOU CAN GO TO BLOODY ELL SAGU…” and with that the man kicked off the roof and sped upwards toward the fleet of star wars rejected ship designs, his wavedash allowing him to slide on the air as if it were solid ground and fly upward toward the fleet. He wasn’t sure what he was going to find, he hadn’t seen anything like these ships before, despite being wowed by the engineering advances in the modern era once again. He wasn’t an especially technologically savvy individual, so even beginning to fathom these creations was a bit beyond him. At most he understood how to use these things once he had been educated but the actual act of building them? Well above his pay grade. Consequently they fascinated him. It was probably that fascination that almost got him killed. That and his general inability to sense energy. It was in his peripherals that he notices the many, many glowing lights miles below him on the ground, just in time to notice the multitude of beams of energy hurtling up toward him and gulp anxiously. Sagumi shot one quick look behind him at the fleet of ships, he wasn’t going to be able to escape that was and the energy blasts covered too much area for him to dodge to either side. He would have to go through them.

Quickly calculating his movements, Sagumi contorted in the air, positioning himself upside down and his face staring down one of the streams of energy. Exhaling gently, Sagumi raised his hand before him and a trigger shield formed between himself and the stream staring him down. The man rotated his ankles to the side before simultaneously twisting and pushing off the solid foothold he had in mid-air as his shield contorted from a straight panel into a lance, forming to a point and curling back to cover his flanks. The man, now spinning rapidly in mid air, slammed straight into the stream of energy, shield first and corkscrewed straight toward the ground, through one of the lasers. The corkscrew motion cut through the energy and caused it to roll off the shield, allowing it not to take the full brunt of the blast by redirecting most of the energy instead of simply absorbing it as the arrow of a man hurtled toward the ground, shredding through the projectile. Sagumi rode that form until he burst through the tail end of blast, letting his barrier disperse and letting his body fan out, slowing his descent before his body elegantly crashed in to the ground, kicking up a large wave of dust that would spread through the surrounding area, his body creating a miniature crater from his impact. Sagumi, as the dust settled, turned his unmarred form to what was left of the large fleet that he was previously approaching and seeing only a falling mass of wreckage, whatever he blew through having obliterated the entire armada. A sharp whistling noise escaped him as he looked up at the remains.

“Well now that just felt unnecessary and way too overkill, so many more effi…”

Sagumi’s voice caught in his throat as he turned toward the source of the attack. The source herself was somewhat impressive, even he could feel the power radiating from her small form and it was hard to not be impressed that such a small looking child generated such force. Of course, that was before one considered that she most definitely wasn’t human and might not be much of a child at all. Appearances were becoming so very difficult to trust nowadays. She was not what caught Sagumi’s voice however, he had no trouble speaking to children regardless of how inhuman they were. No, it was the woman who was behind her, the woman whose spitting image had haunted his subconscious and his nightmares for as long as he could remember. Sagumi’s body instantly and visibly shifted from his cavalier, devil may care outlook to one of sheer defensiveness and rage as her squared himself to the dark haired woman. Hatred did not even begin to describe how he was feeling. It was a maelstrom of disbelief, anger, pain, eagerness, righteousness, loathing, and outright unquenchable rage. This was a side of Sagumi that only one person had ever seen before and her spitting image was right in his view. There was no way his torturer was in this world, she simply couldn’t be, but nevertheless there she was, right there, right in front of him and by the same token, Sagumi himself shouldn’t be in this world either. It wasn’t his, he didn’t belong, but here he was and as was she. Sagumi’s body relaxed, ever so slightly, as he steadily regained his composure and turned his gaze to the small girl. If they were here together, he would have to go through both of them and if he was right and the small girl was able to conjure the attack he just saw, he wasn’t going to get through her without difficulty. Sagumi spoke, his words mimicking the same jovial language he had used moments earlier, but the stern and tense tone in his voice betrayed his compromised mental state.

“I don’t have any quarrel with you, despite you almost shooting me out of the sky, quite rude by the way, but I intend to kill the woman behind you, probably painfully. If you’d be so kind to step aside, it would be very much appreciated. There are five humans with a shield embroidered on their back, all unconscious, about a six kilometers west from here, I don’t know if they’re one of your’s but two probably could use immediate medical attention. You might want to get someone to tend to them soon. Now please, move.”