Editing BlazBlue:Bloodedge Experience Part 2 Chapter 11 (section)

===Part 4===

For a while, sound and sensation felt distant, and Naoto gasped for breath in the center of the shattered concrete crater, his whole body heaving. The blood vessels in his body had burst and were gushing out, soaking his forehead and back, and he almost lost consciousness. Blood was flowing from various places, and he couldn't tell where the sweat ended and the blood began.

A high-pitched ringing echoed in his ears. His blurred vision, which had been barely rising and falling with his breaths, gradually began to regain clarity. 

It was night. A round moon hung in the sky, wrapped in a light that seemed both silver and gold, casting a soft glow over the dark rooftop. The cold wind blowing in from nowhere felt refreshingly cool against his body, which was nearing its limit.

“Right...”

As he watched the sweat dripping from his forehead to his chin and then to the ground, Naoto finally began to stir his sluggish thoughts. He moved his creaking body and turned to look over his shoulder.

Not far away, at the edge of the crater, Raquel was sitting and looking over at him. A girl’s head rested on her lap. It was unclear whether Saya was alive or dead. Her pale pink kimono lay lifeless, completely rumpled.

It seemed like such a waste for something that should have been so beautiful. With that random thought in mind, Naoto awkwardly climbed out of the crater.

“Thanks, Raquel.” As he approached her, Naoto managed a faint smile. It was obvious to Naoto that Saya was alive. Although it was much lower than that of a normal human, there was a sufficient life force number floating above Saya's sleeping head.

Raquel must have been protecting Saya just as she had protected Naoto. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude when he looked into her large, golden eyes that were gazing up at him.

“Uh, are you okay?” It was Raquel he was more worried about. Naoto grimaced as he asked.

The number floating above Raquel's head had decreased significantly. Apparently, the absorption of life force by Soul Eater had stopped, and the decrease in numbers had also stopped. But the number, which was eighty million, had dropped to ten million.

Naoto didn't know how critical a situation that was for a vampire. But after losing that much, there was no way she could be fine. In fact, Raquel had looked quite strained during the battle with the bug.

Would she go into his shadow and rest as she had before? Contrary to Naoto's expectations, Raquel gently laid Saya down on the concrete floor and stood up with a calm composure.

“I’m fine. More importantly, Naoto, this girl—”

“Ah, yeah.”

With that, Raquel brushed past Naoto and began walking away. What was she planning to do? Prompted by her tone, Naoto moved to stand beside Saya and watched Raquel’s movements.

Raquel headed toward the massive corpse of the insect that had been thrown on the rooftop of the building under construction. Beneath the lifeless body, which had lost its strength and could no longer move, was the upper half of a human. It was Spinner, who had been crushed after failing to dodge the creature Naoto had thrown.

With a light jump, Raquel crossed over the crater and landed beside the crawling Spinner.

The distance between Naoto and the place where Raquel and Spinner were wasn't that far. It was about twenty meters, with the crater in between. But to Naoto the scene looked like something happening on the other side of the Boundary. 

“You’ve lost, Spinner Superior.” Raquel said quietly to Spinner, who was unable to crawl out from under the monster he had created.

Naoto remembered something he had completely forgotten. Raquel had been targeted by Spinner, but Raquel had also been targeting Spinner. Her goal was to obtain all information about the Azure that Spinner possessed. She probably intended to extract it from him.

Spinner, who was lying on his back, stretched his neck to look up at Raquel, who was standing in a position just out of reach of his outstretched hand.

"No…" Though his breathing was surely being constricted, Spinner responded calmly, almost serenely, a faint smile even appearing at the corners of his mouth.

It wasn't a look of defeat. Raquel frowned, puzzled. As if gazing at something dazzling, Spinner narrowed his eyes.

“No, Raquel Alucard. It seems you are greatly mistaken. I never thought I could win against you. Such an audacious notion is far too presumptuous. Didn’t I tell you? Or have you forgotten... about my law...”

His tone was gentle, yet there was an unexpected glimmer of something ominous mixed in. The air grew tense. Spinner deepened his smile and spoke with a hint of rapture.

“I said I want to have you.”

The moment Spinner finished that thought, suddenly, his shadow loomed large on the gray concrete floor, creeping up to Raquel's feet. Naturally, it was not a shadow cast by the empty moon. From the writhing shadow, something began to rise.

"Raquel!" Sensing something was wrong, Naoto shouted sharply. Raquel also sensed the disturbance, trying to pull her feet away from the eerie shadow at her feet. But those feet were ensnared by the countless legs that emerged from the darkness.

“Wha...!”

The shadow quickly took form, overpowering Raquel's voice of astonishment.

It resembled... a spider. 

Though it was less massive than the enormous, grotesque insect from before, the sinister atmosphere it exuded was even more overwhelming.

Its black body had a vague outline, making it difficult to distinguish from the shadow. Eight white, bone-like legs, which seemed to have no flesh, stretched from the dark abyss and crawled up the concrete floor.

Those legs moved skillfully, grabbing Raquel and dragging her into its depths. It was trying to swallow her into the gaping maw of shadow.

“What... what is this power...?” Raquel, restrained by the bony legs, struggled to break free. But her feet sank into the shadow as if she had stepped into a swamp.

"Raquel! Run! Hurry!" Without understanding what was happening, Naoto started running urgently. He ran straight towards Raquel, crossing the broken and unstable ground. His injured legs felt like weights. He had never realized how bothersome it was that his wounds wouldn't heal. He seemed to have gotten used to his half-finished body. Stumbling and nearly falling, Naoto stretched out his arm with all his might.

Raquel also stretched her thin arm towards Naoto from between the cage-like bone legs.

"Nao...to..." It was the first time he had heard her voice begging for help. But before she could finish, the spider closed its eight legs like the mouth of an insectivorous plant, completely swallowing Raquel into the shadows. He could almost hear the sound of her being gulped down.

Having lost his target, Naoto leaned forward and fell to the ground. His outstretched arm had only grazed the edge of the shadow.

“No… this can’t be happening…” Naoto’s mind struggled to keep up with the shocking situation unfolding before him. He stared in disbelief at the writhing shape of the spider creature.

Raquel was gone. Not a single strand of her golden hair was visible. Instead, the eight bones opened again with a strange movement, returning to the shape of a spider's legs, and the shadow that had swallowed Raquel slowly climbed up onto the spider. The shadow writhed and took the form of a man. Spinner.

Looking down, Spinner was no longer under the giant bug's corpse. With his upper body protruding from the spider's body, Spinner pulled out a long, thin arm from the writhing darkness and spread his long, thin fingers wide, gazing at his hands with a smile.

"I have it... finally... ah, at last, what I have long sought..." The words came out in fragmented sighs, like whispers between the chimes of a bell. Spinner's thin, bony fingers trembled slightly as he crossed his outstretched hands over his chest. His eyebrows furrowed with intense pleasure. 

His form could hardly be called human. His upper body still had the form of the man, Spinner Superior, but his lower half had lost all semblance of humanity, merging with the bony legs of the spider that crawled from the shadows. Half human, half monster. His appearance, which seemed to belong in a myth, filled Naoto with an intense feeling of disgust.

"Hey... you... what the hell did you do... to Raquel!?" Stumbling to his feet, Naoto shouted, shaking off the disgust that seemed to bind his whole body. He didn't understand what was happening. Whenever Naoto had questions, it was always Raquel who answered them. 

But now Raquel was gone, and in her place was the strange man who had swallowed her, answering Naoto's questions.

“It’s exactly as it appears. I have absorbed Raquel Alucard, the key to reach the Azure. Her soul will slowly melt inside me, merging with mine until we become completely identical. We will fuse… yes, we will become one. I will merge with everything she has and eventually reach an unknown mystery…” Spinner sang as if it were something wonderful and sweet. And he probably truly believed it. “Oh, I never expected to obtain it so soon. Thanks to Soul Eater, I was able to create a special insect designed to capture Raquel Alcard.”

“Special insect…? So you weren’t after that huge thing after all…” 

No matter how it had come to be, the insect that Spinner had carefully nurtured during their battle was the key to swallowing Raquel and merging with her.

Defeating Naoto wasn’t particularly important to Spinner; it was merely a diversion. While he watched Naoto desperately running and struggling, he must have thought, Come to me, Raquel Alucard… while licking his lips.

Spinner spread his arms wide and looked up at the sky.

"Now... I can hear it, I can feel it... I see the Gate. Distortion, open your mouth now and guide me… to the chaotic emptiness where everything swirls… to the ‘Boundary’!” He proclaimed loudly, as if some divine being were present.

His voice and words became powerful, causing a dark red magic circle to appear beneath the spider legs. The magic circle glowed dully, and its light flickered slowly like the heartbeat of a formless monster. 

Something was stirring. A black mist surrounded Spinner, creeping in from all directions. It gradually began to gather beside him, starting to swirl like a whirlpool in the void. The vortex grew larger and larger.

Naoto frowned at the sight. He felt a sense of dread. Something very bad was about to begin. Above all, if this was the result of absorbing Raquel… it was terribly, terribly, unbearably unforgivable.

"You bastard... You used Raquel for something you don't even understand!" He raised his voice, trying to rouse himself. Naoto scolded himself for nearly succumbing to the pain and fear that threatened to overwhelm him, and he charged at Spinner. 

Fortunately, the sensation from earlier still lingered. His fist, drawn back, instantly turned red, stained with Raquel's blood. But… just before reaching his target, Naoto’s right arm abruptly vanished.

“...Huh?” 

With a heavy thud, what had once been his arm transformed into a mass of blood, falling at his feet. It happened in an instant. Without any pain, Naoto’s right arm, from the shoulder down, was gone, revealing a black, smooth cross-section devoid of flesh or bone.

He stopped short, frozen, just a step away, as Spinner quickly extended his arm and pressed his palm against Naoto's abdomen. In the next moment, a force erupted from that hand. 

"Ugh..." A blow far more powerful than any clumsy punch struck Naoto's abdomen, gouging into it. The upward thrust from below completely took Naoto's breath away for a second, violently shaking his crammed internal organs. 

“Geh, gah... oeh, *cough*!” With his lungs and stomach convulsing, Naoto collapsed to his knees, coughing violently. He had only taken one hit. Yet his brain was fading and his eyes were welling up with tears.

"There's no need to be so flustered, it's only natural." Spinner looked down at Naoto, who was doubled over coughing, from a higher position than before due to his monstrous transformation. "That right arm of yours was made from Raquel Alucard's blood, wasn't it? But Raquel Alucard has been absorbed into me, and your connection to her has weakened. Thus, the benefits of her blood have also lost their power. It’s as simple as that..."

"Damn it... then!" Biting his lip once, Naoto stepped forward again. Pivoting on his armless right side, he swung his leg horizontally, trying to kick the bony leg to pieces. But at that moment, a strange creature lunged from the ground and bit into his supporting leg. 

It was so sudden that he couldn't tell if it was an insect or something else entirely. All he could see was a bulging eye that seemed on the verge of popping out and a disturbingly perfect set of pure white teeth.

“Ugh…”

Suddenly, his knee buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to support himself. He didn't want to think about what had just happened, but his mind understood all too well. Memories of the time he had lost his arm in the abandoned apartment complex flooded back. A heavy, distant pain asserted itself behind the shock of loss, throbbing insistently.

He knew, but he couldn't help but look. Naoto looked at his lower right limb over his shoulder with his armless right side. His right leg had been bitten off just above the knee. A moment later, thick blood began to flow from the wound, as if it had been forgotten about. 

Spinner looked down at him with a mocking smile. “Do you remember what I just said? Your connection to Raquel Alucard is fading... Her existence is gradually merging with me. ...Heh, the benefits you received from her were not limited to just your right arm, you foolish trash.”

The grandiose voice spoke the truth. Naoto would have been dead without Raquel's help. Thanks to her, he had gained an arm made of her blood and the regenerative abilities of an immortal body. If that connection was gone, then Naoto was no longer immortal. The unhealable wound and the lost leg meant a severance from Raquel.

"It can't be..." Crawling on the cold ground, Naoto pressed his hands down and forced himself to rise, despite the pain. Just because his connection to Raquel was weak—no, precisely because it was weak—he couldn't just lie there like this.

There were many things he had received from Raquel. His right arm was one. His resilient body was another. But more than anything, he had been given life. As long as Naoto existed, the connection between him and Raquel had not been severed.

Naoto was still alive. Until that connection faded, struggling and fighting back was the least a "servant" could do in return for the precious "master" who had shared such a grand thing as life. It was a troublesome situation—like an accident waiting to happen, filled with various troublesome conditions— but thanks to Raquel, Naoto could still be "Naoto Kurogane" today, just like yesterday.

As long as they were connected, he should be able to pull her back.

"Uoooooooh!"

Forcing his separated body to move, Naoto planted his feet on the ground. He pushed his heavy body up with his left arm. But that arm was suddenly seized by a pitch-black jaw with sharp fangs.

It was too late by the time he realized it, and Naoto collapsed into a pool of his own blood. He felt nauseous from the smell of his own blood. He tried to get up, but there were no more arms to support him. The right arm was gone from under his shoulder, and the left arm was gone from under his elbow, and neither would respond to Naoto's will.

Struggling without arms in the red puddle, Naoto was like a fish washed up on the beach.

"Hmm. You’ve become quite the sight. Like a dying caterpillar," Spinner said dismissively. At his feet, skeletal legs made dry sounds as they rearranged themselves. Naoto, forgetting his screams, could only expel harsh, ragged breaths. He didn't know which of his senses was in pain. He could feel himself rapidly weakening. But he was still alive.

"Raquel... give her back..."

Gritting his teeth, Naoto tried to keep his consciousness from fading as he struggled in the blood. Spinner looked down at him coldly.

"What a pathetic sight... To think this is the man Raquel Alcard presented to me as a condition. Understand this with your own body. You are nothing more than living trash, writhing at my feet, waiting to be discarded."

Spinner frowned as if looking at filth, and a needle formed at the corner of his mouth where the tattoo was. A muddy shadow stretched from beneath the bony spider legs that tapped on the ground, wrapping around Naoto's remaining left ankle. It tightened with a relentless force, binding him like garbage.

"You lowly sinner," it hissed, "this is your punishment."

Lifting him high enough for their gazes to meet, Spinner leaned in to look at Naoto's bloodied and tormented face.

"For you, a mere piece of filth, to have spoken to and touched the one chosen by the Azure... it is a defilement, a sin." The shadow tightened its grip around Naoto's ankle, the bones creaking under the pressure. "Every breath you've taken while associating with Raquel Alucard is a stain upon existence. Don't expect a quick death. No, you will witness everything... the fulfillment of my lifelong ambition to reach the Azure's wisdom, and the slow decay of your own powerlessness."

As soon as Spinner finished speaking, Naoto's body, held taut by the shadow, was violently swung from side to side. With a force that seemed more playful than lethal, he was slammed into the hard floor.

A pool of blood splattered across Naoto's face, staining it crimson. He was lifted again, blood dripping from his matted hair. This time, he was flung sideways, crashing into a makeshift scaffolding. The impact caused the pipes to buckle, striking his back and head, but the pain was almost nonexistent.

The back of his head felt numb, and his vision blurred. He couldn't comprehend his situation. 

(What does he mean, "witness everything"?)

Naoto muttered weakly in his flickering consciousness. He felt like he was about to die.

The black vortex that was swirling beside Spinner, like an entrance to something, had somehow grown much larger. He wondered if this was the “lifelong ambition” that Spinner was talking about. 

If this torture continued, Naoto doubted he would survive long enough to see the portal fully open. 

(No, I have to do something. I have to save Raquel.)
But as he thought these words, his consciousness slipped away into darkness.

—

A voice.

Deep within his sinking consciousness, Naoto heard a voice calling out from somewhere.

It was that voice. The voice of the man he didn’t know, who had suddenly asked him such an intrusive question.

"What now?" Naoto thought. He wondered if the man was going to complain about him being worthless.

That’s right. What a sight I’m in. Sinking into a swamp of consciousness without sensation, Naoto mocks himself. He was weak. Overwhelmingly so. He couldn't even save the girl who had tried to help him, and now he was being hacked to pieces.

"I don't want to end like this..." he muttered.

A voice seemed to be asking something. But perhaps he was losing himself even within his own consciousness, for he couldn't understand what was being said. He couldn't hear.

"But, yeah," Naoto thought with a mind as frayed as thread. "If someone's going to save me... if they're going to let me stand again... and if they're going to give me enough strength to beat the crap out of that annoying bug-man, I'll gladly take whoever's hand, no matter who they are. I would never want it to end like this.”

Though he didn't say it out loud, he felt like screaming these words into the darkness. At that moment, someone's consciousness suddenly drew near. He felt like he was being pulled towards it, so strongly that he thought he was hallucinating. But he wasn’t. 

As the presence of whoever it was drew closer, a pair of pitch-black arms extended from the depths of the darkness, where even his own form was invisible, and struck Naoto's chest with a heavy thud.



With that impact, Naoto woke up. His body jolted, trembling. Spinner, who was about to slam him to the ground, stopped in surprise.

The transformation began immediately. The blood that had been steadily dripping from Naoto's severed left arm and right leg stopped. In its place, a dark substance began to ooze out.

The rough, black mist, like a mass of shadows, smoothly and unhesitatingly shaped itself as if it were pouring water into a predetermined groove. The darkness rapidly solidified into an arm. Then, the damaged leg was restored.

"What the..." Spinner gasped in bewilderment. As if hearing that voice, Naoto's eyes snapped open. But they were not the usual soft, brownish black he was born with. They were red, as if blood had dripped into them and stained them a different color. As if seeping in, the blood-soaked black hair turned white.

Naoto's body moved. A realization struck him with the clarity of a taut string. Suspended in mid-air, he folded his body and sprang up. Grasping the viscous shadow that clung to his ankle with his newly revived hand, he pulled with all his might. With a sound like clay tearing, the shadow snapped.

Having forcefully gained his freedom, Naoto flipped his body a short distance to the ground and landed gracefully on his hands like a cat. A black insect flew out from Spinner's shadow, aiming for a landing. The insect bared its sharp fangs, intent on claiming Naoto's newly revived arm.

But Naoto crushed the insect with a single punch, his arm moving like a spring. Rising as if propelled by the impact, he closed the distance without hesitation.

Naoto's foot, launched high into the air, came crashing down onto Spinner's shoulder. Spinner, unable to counter a blow with the force of a swinging axe, stumbled back a few steps, dragging his spider-like legs.

With only a slight distance between them, Naoto swung his arms wide and pulled them back forcefully. A dark red substance gathered in the palm of his outstretched hand. Its viscous texture closely resembled the blood that had been spewing from Naoto's shoulder and thigh moments earlier.

—

The trembling red creates a long, slender handle, at the end of which resides a large blade. A big scythe was born. Naoto’s pitch-black arm grabbed the handle.

“Blood Edge...” Spinner’s mouth uttered in astonishment, as if in disbelief at what he was seeing.

True to its name, what Naoto held was indeed a blade of blood. 

A blood-soaked blade.

In the next moment, faster than a blink, Naoto's scythe flashed. The scythe, arcing through the air, plunged deep into Spinner's body, slicing through flesh and bone in one swift motion. The sound of breath escaping burst out of the black man's chest. Dragging a wet sound, the sickle forcefully scattered the blackened blood around it.

One more strike. And another. And another. The sickle repeated its slashes, mercilessly cutting apart Spinner, or what was left of it.

With yet another slash, Spinner was forcefully pushed back, his body staggering and retreating. All but three of the eight bone legs that supported its body were shattered, spread out like broken pieces.

"Ga... ah..."

His body, carved up by countless intersecting wounds, was so mutilated that it was a wonder it still retained a human form. It was spewing an enormous amount of blood, staining his white hands.

Spinner's blood was pitch black. The soot-like blood flowed down its misshapen lower limbs, staining even the shattered bone legs. He could neither unleash insects nor manipulate shadows. The fierce assault, surpassing any movements a human could make, embodied the phrase “faster than the eye could track,” leaving Spinner no room for resistance.

What had changed this powerless boy? Spinner couldn't comprehend it. It was incomprehensible. 

Before Spinner, still unable to fully accept the mercilessness that had befallen him, Naoto leaped lightly, closing the distance in an instant.

Black arm, black leg, white hair, red eyes.

"...Be devoured by the darkness..." With a thin opening, a feeling emerges, whispering softly. In response to that whisper, Naoto, who had seemed possessed and expressionless until then, felt a spark of emotion ignite within him.

"You… bastard!" His eyes widened in rage, and a feral killing intent filled him. With a mighty swing, his scythe sliced through the night in a crimson arc. The blade plunged deep into the black man’s flesh, tearing him open.

"Gah, gah, aaaah, aaah!" Spinner let out a distorted scream. But Naoto paid no attention to the sound or the dark blood splattering onto him. Discarding the bloody scythe, he thrust his arm into the gaping hole in Spinner's body.

What he found was not the flesh or bone of a living being, but a deep, pure black darkness. And so, Naoto understood immediately.

Raquel is in there.

For a brief moment, he felt the sensation of flesh, but soon his arm was submerged in an unfathomable darkness. Naoto, undeterred, rummaged through the depths of the darkness, which was clearly deeper than the thickness of Spinner's body, searching for his goal.

From the writhing body of Spinner, shadowy arms extended, grasping Naoto’s arm and shoulder. Instead of tearing him away, the countless arms attempted to pull him deeper into the fissure.

Struggling against the desperate force, he continued to push his arm further inside. At last, the sensation of smooth fabric brushed against his fingertips.

(There!)

For just a fleeting moment, he made contact, but he wouldn’t let it slip away. Naoto sank deeper, submerging his shoulder into Spinner, and desperately reached out to embrace what he had touched. The familiar texture of a slender, delicate waist. In the clinging, swamp-like darkness, Naoto held it tightly to his chest.

"Raquel! ...Come out, Raquel!" He shouted, shaking her violently. With a savage force, he tore away the shadow-arms that clung to his hair, clothes, and arms. Then, with all his might, he pulled himself free. "I won’t let you take her!"

With all his strength, Naoto kicked fiercely at Spinner with his remaining leg. 

[[File:BE2-4.png|frameless|right]]