Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 1===
On a certain day a year after the final battle with the Black Beast, a single girl walked down a long flight of stairs.

Her curvaceous body; flowing, glossy hair; and the direct, sharp look in her eyes were instantly recognizable even at a distance. She was beautiful, but her unapproachable aura was overpowering.

Her name was Nine.

The triangular purple hat on her head was the symbol of the Ten Sages, formerly the highest governing body of the Mage's Guild which had been dedicated to the protection of all the world's secret history. After the war she was heralded as a hero in addition to the praise she already received for her uncommon beauty and talent, becoming known as a Great Magister and an unparalleled genius.

She was a woman, and an older sister... but she was also a wife, and a mother.

At the bottom of the long staircase was a magically controlled elevator, and she used it to descend to an even deeper level. At the end of a high-ceilinged corridor stood a stately wooden door. Nine stood before the door alone and opened it, walking in once it had finished swinging. The high-heeled shoes she was wearing made a stiff clacking sound with every step.

Beyond the door was a large, circular hall.

Its domed ceiling was even higher than that of the corridor behind her, and a strange engraving that looked like a coffin supported by branches sticking out of the walls decorated its center. The floor was like the polished surface of a mirror, and mosaic tiles created a pattern like a swirling flame in the center of the room.

There was nothing noteworthy in the room other than that.

Except, of course, for the tall, thin man standing alone with his back turned toward her, his arms dangling limply at his sides.

"I never expected you would just show yourself like it's no big deal, instead of me finding you."

Nine's cold tone made small ripples in the air of the massive room.

Sluggishly, the man turned to face her voice. He wore a long, yellow coat and had green hair. His bangs were long enough to cover his eyes, so she could only see half of his face. The bridge of his nose, his pallid skin, and the way the corners of his mouth turned up in a snake-like grin were his defining physical characteristics.

"It's been such a long time, Nine-san of the Ten Sages. How long has it been since the last time we met...? I can't quite remember, actually."

"I've got a mountain of questions for you, Yuuki Terumi."

At the mention of that name, the air in the room froze over.

The man called Yuuki Terumi gave a lifeless smile that was at odds with the tension between them.

"Is that so? What a coincidence, I actually have quite a lot I want to ask you as well. But before that... let me correct you on one thing."

He tilted his head, seeming to be earnestly trying to convince her of something. He pointed to himself with a long finger with prominent knuckles.

"I am Kazuma Kval, not Yuuki Terumi."

Watching him intently, Nine's eyebrows furrowed. She crossed her smooth, bare arms beneath her ample chest. This was a habit that she often showed when she was annoyed.

"Spare me the nonsense. Yuuki Terumi and Kazuma Kval are the same person at the end of the day."

"No, really, I know this is complicated, but that's not quite right. But, well, I guess thinking that was your fatal mistake after all, so it's no surprise that you don't believe me."

"What do you mean?"

Nine's eyebrows twitched slightly at the words 'fatal mistake.' Her face clouded with suspicion as she asked her question, but Kazuma just casually shrugged his shoulders and moved right on to another topic.

"Let's just both get down to business then. I called you all the way out here because I have a lot of things I want to tell you. Please, ask away, and I'll answer anything that I know the answer to."

Nine's unwavering gaze revealed how little she trusted him, but she didn't refuse him. She rose to Kazuma's provocations with a provocative glare of her own.

"Hm... alright then. I'll play along with your charade."

"Then, by all means."

Glancing at Kazuma as he urged her on, Nine maintained her composure by brushing her hair over her back.

"First question. Where did you take the heart?"

She was careful to not let emotion creep into her voice, sounding as disinterested as possible. Her voice came out a little too strongly, however, and it reverberated off the walls of this room that was a little too big for just two people.

Kazuma looked startled, his mouth opening slightly as he lightly grabbed at his hair.

"Ah, so you noticed that after all... I didn't think that would be the first thing you would ask me, I'm a little surprised."

Or so he said, but his voice was utterly carefree, not revealing even a shred of tension.

Nine felt like he was making fun of her with that attitude of his, and it was pissing her off.

"Answer the question. I'll tolerate your little game, but idle chatter is one thing I won't put up with."

Kazuma wore a strained smile. Nine took it as him saying that he was the one who was annoyed, not her, and she dug her nails into her crossed arms.

"Terumi-san took the heart. Apparently he had been wanting to get his hands on it for a long time."

"Why?"

"Who knows? It seems like he was making something, but I don't really know what it might've been. I've never been much good at alchemy..."

Kazuma's jaw slackened unambitiously, and he seemed to be trying to placate Nine.

Nine's brow furrowed deeper than ever. Resisting the impulse to give into emotion and resort to violence, she bit down on her lip with her canine. She breathed deeply until she was able to restore enough composure to control herself.

"Next question. If you're Kazuma Kval, then where did Yuuki Terumi go?"

"He's still inside this body, just staying quiet deep inside it. This was always going to be a difficult conversation, after all."

Kazuma placed a palm on his chest as he spoke, smiling thinly.

A dull light flashed across Nine's eyes, but she didn't press that question any further. That wasn't the important part.

"In that case, third question... Were you the one who released him from Mind Eater?"

Her voice had a tone unlike what it had been for any of the previous questions. It had suddenly dropped an octave, and it sounded very threatening. Her eyes flashed sharply, and she should have been quite daunting, but Kazuma nonetheless replied with exactly the same expression he had during his previous response.

"No, I wasn't."

"Then who did it...!"

"Someone you know quite well."

He shot that answer right back at her, the unpleasant thin smile seemingly stuck to his face. Nine finally lost her temper and let blatant anger flare in her voice.

"Don't screw with me."

Kazuma shrugged his shoulders.

Nine partially uncrossed her arms and continued her questioning, ready to summon a lightning bolt on him at any moment.

"What... are you planning to do with the Master Unit?"

"...What's that?"

At this particular question, Kazuma's previously easy going demeanor stiffened up. He had been answering all the previous questions immediately, seemingly trying to rile Nine up, but at this one he suddenly had to pause... and he suddenly gave a very mediocre answer.

She had found a lead she could pursue. The light in Nine's eyes said that she wasn't going to let him get away, and she pressed him further.

"You said you'd answer all my questions, so get to it. Why are you trying to meddle with the Master Unit? Is it for the same reason that Relius Clover and Shuichiro Ayatsuki summoned the Black Beast?"

Her voice echoed around the circular chamber as she questioned Kazuma like she was cross-examining a witness, driving him into a corner.

Kazuma kept his silence for a while, but it wasn't long before he dropped his shoulders with a big sigh.

"Haaa... I should've expected no less from the Great Magister Nine. I didn't expect you to have worked it out all the way to there. I'm sorry I underestimated you."

He hung his head in regret so far that it looked like his neck would break, but as he did, his ears picked up the barely perceptible sound of footsteps coming from a hidden corner of the chamber. With a few steps, the owner of that sound came out from where they had magically hidden themselves in the shadow of a thick pillar before timidly asking a question of their own.

"The Master Unit? Summoning the Black Beast... what are you talking about...?"

The dainty, sweet voice trembled in bewilderment, and Nine whirled around to face it.

"Trinity!?"

Her brown eyes had shined with a light that showed that she was itching for a fight up until then, but now they were stained with confusion so deep that they seemed to be a whole different color.

The third member of the conversation who had just suddenly revealed herself was Trinity. She drew attention with her soft platinum blond hair and warm green eyes, making her the polar opposite of the unapproachable Nine.

She clutched a long, thin staff in the white hands that were peaking out of her voluminous sleeves. It was the Nox Nyctores that Nine had made for her, Arma Reboare: Muchourin. Its core was sealed, so now it was nothing more than a staff that could help with magic control, but to Trinity, it had become a precious possession that she couldn't be parted from.

Her eyes clouded over with confusion as she hugged her precious staff to her chest, and Kazuma looked disappointed. He tilted his head like he was watching a child do something senseless.

"Why are you coming out already? We were going to have you wait a little longer then surprise Nine-san by you coming out when I called you."

"Ka- Kazuma-san...!"

Trinity rushed over to Kazuma's side in a panic. She gripped the staff so tightly in front of her chest that her hands turned white.

"You said that you would answer all of her questions, right? What is the Master Unit? And you said that the Black Beast was summoned..."

Trinity's cheeks went pale at the dreadful sound of what she was saying. Her morality was rejecting the idea that something that horrible could have been intentionally brought into this world.

Another thought came to her mind right after, one that made her hang her head and hug the staff closer to her chest.

"Why did you give such a half-hearted answer just now? Didn't we call Nine here today to tell her all about what we're planning to do and get her to cooperate with us?"

"No way..."

Nine muttered low and quiet.

The realization that came to her mind was so shocking that she couldn't get her voice out properly. With her eyes opened wide in astonishment, Nine clumsily turned to look at Kazuma. She didn't want to believe that it was true, but she had no choice but to admit it. It was written on his face.

"You can't mean, that the one who released Terumi from Mind Eater..."

"Oh yes, it was Trinity Glassfille-san. She was quite impressive actually, it took some time but she really did manage to nullify it."

Kazuma's chest puffed up a little as he expressed his pride in her. Like he was giving a full formal introduction, he waved a gesture towards Trinity with his hand as he said her name.

"Ah, I guess there are some after effects, though. Terumi-san and I aren't very well synced right now. That's not exactly an inconvenience for me, though, so I don't mind at all."

Kazuma bent his elbows and wrists a few times to show that there was nothing wrong with his body, at the very least.

It seemed like Nine couldn't even see him anymore, though: she was just staring at Trinity with a look of utter shock.

"Trinity... why...?"

“I'm sorry, Nine, but please hear me out. If you had left Terumi-san under the effects of Mind Eater, he might have used Mind Eater himself to control Kazuma-san and attack you..."

Just the thought of it alone scared Trinity, and her soft hair swayed as she shook her head to push the idea out of her mind.

Her eyes dampened with sadness behind her round glasses.

"You've got the wrong idea, Nine. You think Terumi-san and Kazuma-san are one in the same, but they really aren't. Kazuma-san has his own thoughts, and his own feelings."

Trinity remembered everything that Kazuma had said during that conversation they had had just before the final confrontation with the Black Beast as she spoke.

"I know that we needed Terumi-san's power in the fight against the Black Beast, but the war is over now. Can't we give this body back to Kazuma-san already?"

Her words carried a hint of accusation as she stuck the end of her staff onto the ground. A pleasant, beautiful sound like what a musical instrument would make rang out across the room.

As the sound faded away, Nine followed in its wake by slowly parting her lips.

"I see, that's what this man told you?"

Nine smiled as she whispered softly, not a hint of her previous severity on her face. In fact, she sounded quite peaceful.

"Y- yes..."

Trinity nodded, but her face showed confusion.

Nine hung her head like every ounce of strength had just left her body. She didn't have any words of reproach left in her, so she just let herself sink into a deep sigh. Nine just shook her head weakly. She put a hand on her forehead and fluttered her eyelids like she was trying to bear some great internal weight.

"You really are such a... such a... nice girl."

With nothing but affection in her voice, she managed to raise her head again. Nine touched Trinity's lovely hair. Compared to her own smooth, flowing locks, Trinity's hair was always so fluffy and soft.

"Kazuma Kval... no, Yuuki Terumi!"

All she did was turn her body 90 degrees. In that short of a span of time, Nine's face changed from affection to fury... no, to pure loathing.

"You'll pay for this. You'll pay, you hear me!?"

As she was turning, lightning sprung to her open hands and a thunderous sound boomed through the chamber.

In the same instant, though, a chain with a snake-like head on the end appeared behind her and stabbed into her shoulder like it was taking a bite out of her.

"Ugh, aaaa!"

Nine screamed in agony. The sudden pain made her lose concentration on her magic, and she fell onto the hard floor.

Watching her best friend hold her shoulder as she shakily tried to get back to her feet, a half-frantic Trinity reached her arm out to her.

"Nine... kya!"

A chain crawled up her tender waist and held her fast. She was bound so tightly that her bones were creaking, and her hands were stuck so firmly to her sides that it made Muchourin fall powerlessly to the ground.

"...W- why... why are you doing this!?"

She looked like she was about to collapse, but Trinity, on the verge of tears, planted her feet and looked at Kazuma.

Kazuma, however, was walking over to where Nine lay on the floor, and didn't return Trinity's gaze.

"Hrg... finally showing your true colors, are you?"

Nine knelt on the floor, holding her shoulder so tightly that her fingers were sinking into it. Unfortunately, she wasn't born with a talent for healing magic like her little sister, so she had to settle for a spell that killed the pain.

Looking down on her as she struggled pitifully, Kazuma turned the corners of his lips up in an exasperated smile.

"I'm sure you understand just what kind of a mistake you've made at this point, Nine-san. You were convinced that Yuuki Terumi and I were the same person. Well... that wasn't really wrong, but you certainly never expected that we would be able to separate ourselves."

Kazuma stood before Nine and pointed at her with his index and middle fingers pressed together. He then spread his fingers apart like he was making a peace sign.

"Just before you cast Mind Eater on him, he split his consciousness from mine. As a result, Mind Eater took full effect on Terumi-san, but I was left totally unaffected."

His index finger represented the Terumi half and his middle finger represented the Kazuma half. They may have been connected by the same 'hand,' but they could choose which one was at the forefront.

"If that's the case... then this time, I'll just make both of you my menservants for the rest of eternity!"

Nine punctuated her scream by swinging her arm. She launched countless projectiles of light straight at Kazuma's torso. The point-blank attack sent Kazuma's body flying and he hit the ground hard without so much as a cry of pain.

Kazuma seemingly wasn't moving a muscle, yet nevertheless, a chain suddenly crept out of thin air next to Nine's ear and wrapped around her arm and up her body before constricting her neck, apparently as an afterthought.

"Ah, ufh..."

Unable to rip the chain that was restricting her breathing off of herself, Nine's face contorted with anguish. The chain crawled up the soft flesh of the nape of her neck and pulled even tighter, and Nine couldn't get a single sound out of her mouth.

"Please... please stop, Kazuma-san! What are you doing? I..."

Trinity shouted out louder than she ever had before.

Kazuma got up with leisurely slowness and dusted off his clothes as if to recover his pride. Any wounds that he may have gotten from Nine's magic attack had already closed up. Back on his feet, Kazuma looked over his shoulder at Trinity. He showed her his open palms like he was a performer about to explain a trick.

"Surely even you are getting an idea of what's going on here at this point, right? It's exactly what you think it is."

The answer was already there in Trinity's head.

Trinity only asked because she already knew, and knowing that, Kazuma put it into words for her.

"It was aaaaall a lie. What a shame for you."

His regret and his apology. Saying that he 'had fun' and that he 'wanted to come back.' Every word they had shared with each other before the final battle. The warmth she had felt in his body when they held each others' hands. Every single moment he spent with that sincere look on his face.

Every last one of them was a lie.

"No, way..."

Shocked. No other word could describe the sound of Trinity's voice as it escaped from her lips. All the strength had abandoned Trinity's knees and she had fallen to the floor, and Kazuma just laughed at her in pity.

"You really never learn, do you? I'd already betrayed you once before, you know."

Putting his hands on his thighs and leaning over, Kazuma peered down at Trinity as she cried with her face turned skyward. Little gaps in his bangs showed occasional glimpses of reptilian yellow eyes. They were filled with pure joy and pleasure.

"But hey, chins up, you two, don't be so miserable. It's never too late to learn from the mistakes of the past, after all."

Kazuma happily chatted away with a certain good-humored attitude that he had never shown in his student years. His tone, expression, and demeanor were clearly Kazuma, but the faint chill of Terumi permeated his every action.

"To hell with... your, mistakes of the past... this won't, be enough to..." Kazuma lifted his head in response to the broken voice. Nine, not caring that she could hardly even breathe, was putting all the power her body could muster into trying to break out of the chains.

Kazuma's shoulders started shaking uncontrollably at the sight.

"Oh no, please, come on now, this is one of the Nox Nyctores that you made yourself, you know? Are you trying to tear it off?"

"Ngh... I am the one, who made it. Do you think, I can't...?"

As soon as she finished her sentence, he thought he heard a sharp, distorted sound coming from the chain.

That wiped the smile right off of his face, and he scrunched it up instead.

"Oh, dear... you're just so scary, Nine-san. There's no sense in playing around here all day... so how 'bout we just get right down to show time～!"

Mid way through his sentence, a smirk split his face. It was like someone had flipped a coin to its opposite side.

There was no mistaking who had spoken that line.

Tracing his teeth with the tip of his tongue in ecstasy, Terumi raised his hand.

Nine tried to burst out of Ouroboros. Trinity could do nothing but look on, dumbfounded.

And Terumi recited a chant like he was singing a song.

"Restriction 666 released... Dimensional Interference Field deploy..."

As if responding to his voice, the ground beneath them began to tremble slightly. There was no way it was an earthquake. They were deep below Ishana, so if this room was shaking, it could only be because of the artificial cauldron that the mosaic tiles on the floor symbolized.

"BlazBlue, activate!"

Heat rose from the nonexistent flames of the pattern beneath their feet. Trinity reflexively shrunk in on herself. Nine felt an unpleasant sensation creeping up her body from within, and she knew it wasn't the heat.

The man standing before her immediately gave her the answer to what it was.

"Drag 'em in, Ouroboros!"

Terumi gave the chain a hearty tug as he shouted an order at it.

Nine felt like her guts were being pulled along the floor.

"No... way...?"

Nine struggled against the chain, looking desperate now. The chain seemed to be drawing some kind of power from the cauldron, however, and Nine was trapped even more completely than she was before. She got pulled a little further. As for where she was being pulled... all she had to do to find that out was look down.

The inside of the cauldron.

"Ple- please don't do this, Terumi-san!"

Trinity's cry of grief echoed around the chamber.

Nine's consciousness was fading fast, but she kept on struggling and straining. She tried to cast a spell, but she just couldn't get her voice out, and she couldn't connect her mind with her mana either. Ouroboros had already yanked her voice and her focus out of her and chucked them into the cauldron.

As she lost more and more control of her body, Nine bit her lip and glared at Terumi, filling her gaze with more hatred than ever before.

"Kehehehe, now that's what I'm talkin' about. That face, that one right there. That's EXACTLY the face I always wanted to see you make!

Hyahahahahahaha!"

Laughing shrilly, Terumi planted a kick in Nine's head. Nine, still wrapped up in the chains, rolled across the floor with a dull thud. Her triangular purple Ten Sages hat had just barely managed to stay on her head this whole time, but now it finally went flying.

"Hehyaaaahahahaha! Look at you, you call yourself a Sage!?"

This time he stomped down on the back of her head and started mercilessly grinding his heel in.

Nine never stopped glaring at him all the while. She couldn't so much as lift a finger anymore, but she used the last of her strength to move her blood stained lips.

"............"

But she couldn't get any sound out.

Her lips shut after failing to deliver her final words, and she went as still as a wax doll.

"...Ah, ah... Ni- Nine..."

Trinity just watched it all happen, and a rattling sob escaped her throat.

Hearing her faint voice, Terumi turned around dramatically. Stomping violently with his black-booted heels, he made his way to Trinity.

"Man, you really saved my ass this time. Thanks a lot, Trinity. It sure is great having such a kind friend!"

He started lightly slapping her cheeks, soaked in tears flowing from her wide-open, upturned eyes. For the first time ever, Trinity wanted to get away from those hands, and so she turned her head.

Like he was chasing prey that was trying to escape, Terumi grabbed her by the chin and yanked her head back up to face him. As the tears kept flowing down her face, Trinity wisely glared at him. No matter who or what she was looking at, she always faced them with a gentle smile in her green eyes, but now she was gathering up every scrap of hostility she had within her and putting it into this look.

"Oh, man, I'm shakin' in my boots! Kehehe, you call that a glare? Clearly you've never been on the receiving end of one of Nine's real glares. Talk about a scary mug."

"Why are you such... such a..."

"Huh? Hey, what, why don't you go on and say it? Hey, hey, c'mon!"

Terumi pulled her hard by the chin, but Trinity didn't have the heart to finish. She felt like there was a weight stuck in her chest that was going to strangle the sobs right out of her, along with all the air in her lungs.

"Oh, yeah, almost forgot to pay you back for all your help." Pretending to have just remembered something, Terumi stood back up. As he looked to the ceiling and spread his arms wide with palms up, a single chain appeared.

"Here's your reward... I'll send you to the same place as your beloved best friend. Go kiss and make up in the Boundary or something, Hyaaa-hahahahaha!"

Laughing with a voice so shrill that it shook the air around him, Terumi gave the chain another forceful pull. Trinity was attacked by that same sinking, dragging feeling.

"Welp, I'm too busy to hang around here much longer."

As Trinity felt a strange sensation of something crawling up from inside her and contracting her entire body at once, Terumi punted her. After giving Trinity one last look of contempt as he sent her tumbling head over heels across the floor, he strolled away, the rough sound of his footsteps ringing out as he went.

Sinking. Sinking. The mosaic tiles felt like a hot wind as they touched her cheek. Her consciousness dimmed and she could hardly move a muscle.

From her spot laid out on the ground, Trinity could see the already entirely immobile body of Nine. Between them, Muchourin rested where it had rolled across the floor.

She apologized over and over again to Nine's face-down body, but Nine couldn't hear her anymore.

She sank deeper.

Suddenly, a thought came to her.

Take-Mikazuchi's core, which the Nox Nyctores used, was made up of an incredible number of human souls. If the Nox Nyctores functioned by tapping into the power of those souls, then... if she were to give a new soul to Muchourin, which was currently sealed off from soul power, then it would return to being a full-fledged Nox Nyctores... probably.

If she moved her own soul into Muchourin and restored it to its status as a causality weapon, then maybe she would get a chance to atone for her foolishness one day.

Her soul was being pulled into the Boundary.

She didn't have time to deliberate.

"I'm, so sorry... Nine..."

If she was just going to disappear anyway, she'd rather set fire to her regrets and atone for an eternity instead.

Trinity managed to move her body a tiny bit, wringing out every dredge of strength she had left to pull herself next to Muchourin.

She began to chant an incantation in the faintest, weakest of voices.