Editing BlazBlue:Phase Shift 4 Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 2===
Newly reorganized in the aftermath of the war, the Orbis Librarius Norma was poised to unite the whole world under its banner, and was currently working on establishing branches everywhere it could. They had a system in place to quickly handle any disputes over whose territory they were establishing themselves in, which kept things running smoothly.

The world, having survived the menace known as the Black Beast, didn't want to further destroy itself with wars of self-interest or other conflicts, so the OLN championed resolute propositions and ideals, skyrocketing their general clout.

What very few people knew was that all of the OLN buildings established all across the world were located above one of the world's many cauldrons.

The war with the Black Beast was over and the Mage's Guild had been completely absorbed.

Unable to get used to the new world order, Jubei and Hakumen had left Ishana and started traveling the world. They had one goal: the destruction of every single cauldron on Earth. The cauldrons were contact points to another dimension from which the Black Beast had been summoned. There was no telling what kind of tragedy could arise from continuing to meddle with them.

"If the world cannot survive without cauldrons, then it is no world of humankind."

That's what Hakumen said when he had set out for his first target. Jubei was in total agreement with Hakumen, so he chose to accompany him.

They hadn't even been married a year yet, so his wife Nine was stunned at his decision, but she allowed him to go on the condition that he would come back at least once per season to let his daughter see his face. Nine, too, must have had serious misgivings about the idea of letting the cauldrons continue to exist.

Jubei wanted to destroy all of them as fast as possible so he could finally relax and enjoy the rest of his life with his wife and daughter. He had been secretly thinking about that as they had left the area of the tenth cauldron they destroyed, but today, he wasn't sure how many cauldrons they had destroyed anymore. It felt stupid to even try and keep count at this point.

They hadn't chosen this cauldron today for any particular reason: it was just the closest, and it reeked of the Black Beast.

Ear-splitting alarms echoed through the dimly-lit corridor.

Flickering red lamps gave the passageway they followed a very serious atmosphere.

Hearing the footsteps and voices of nearby guards looking for the intruders, Jubei and Hakumen ran into the massive, air conditioned facility. This was the Orbis Librarius Norma's Asian branch of their geological survey department, located on the western tip of Asia.

Asia had suffered particularly severe damage from the Black Beast, so the OLN had established various different research labs across the continent to help facilitate its recovery.

Jubei and Hakumen hadn't snuck in for research data, though. Just like every other facility, this lab had a cauldron underneath it. As usual, the cauldron was very deep underground. The OLN had used it as a foundation when erecting the facility.

The pair eventually found an elevator leading down to it beyond a stack of fans that were liable to make their ears ring if they were to stay around them too long. Wrenching out a piece of the wall and crawling into the wire-lined interior, they descended deeper and deeper into the facility, with Jubei climbing down easily and skillfully while Hakumen just barreled down sloppily, not fearing the possible fall.

Finally, and without getting into a knock-down drag-out fight with the guards for the first time in a long time, they made it to the deepest level of the facility.

"Whew... we made it down pretty easy this time, huh?"

They could see simple measuring instruments placed around the circumference of the cauldron, but it didn't seem like the OLN was conducting any large scale research or experiments here. Keeping a close watch on his surroundings, Jubei stretched his flexible body.

"This place must have been created solely to suppress the cauldron. There are countless places like it."

Hakumen had taken Ookami off of his back so it wouldn't impede his movement, but he put it back on now as he spoke.

The OLN didn't want to let other organizations have cauldrons. Their intentions were clear even during the war with the Black Beast, when the OLN members could often be found spending comically long amounts of time studying maps showing the locations of cauldrons.

Jubei walked right next to the cauldron, where the OLN had installed a lid-like device that they could open and close.

"The cauldron's closed up right now."

"Naturally. With so few personnel, this facility has no intention of using it."

"Sure enough."

They barely had enough people to man the facility here, so they had probably just been unable to bear leaving the cauldron alone.

"The OLN's folks sure do work hard."

With mild exasperation in his voice, Jubei extended the sharp claws of both of his hands.

"Let's get this done before someone shows up looking for trouble. I wanna leave riding an elevator the normal way for once."

He may have been a cat beastkin, but climbing five stories up in an elevator shaft still wasn't an easy task. It would put a damper on his day, at the very least.

Hakumen drew the nodachi that he had just put on his back out of its scabbard and walked up to the cauldron. Just before he was ready to unleash one clean slash on it, however, the formerly silent and motionless lid on top of it began to open.

"Wha..."

Jubei, who was on lookout, was the second to notice when he turned to look behind him.

Rooms that contained cauldrons always had very high ceilings, no matter where they were. Far above the cauldron, there was what must have been a control room sticking out of the wall, inside of which a silhouette was visible.

"That's..."

Jubei flattened his ears back when he saw who it was.

"Terumi..."

Hakumen said that man's name with a low growl.

Possibly realizing that Jubei and Hakumen had recognized him, Terumi brazenly strolled out of the control room toward them. His unnaturally laid back and composed body language gave Jubei pause.

"What do you want?"

He was dressed in his usual long-hemmed coat, and his big hood was completely hiding his eyes. It had been at least two months since the last time they had seen this man. They had been looking for him ever since, but they hadn't caught wind of him until today.

"Yo. You two are really moving on up in life, going from being part of the ‘Six Heroes’ of the war to playing terrorists."

Terumi gave a throaty, sarcastic laugh as he looked from Jubei to Hakumen, hands stuffed in his pockets.

Hakumen reiterated his companion's question.

"He told you to state your business."

"Aw, c'mon, why the cold shoulder? I brought you guys some seriously huuuuuge news."

"News?"

Jubei's ears perked up at Terumi's uncharacteristic word choice. Terumi was indeed strangely knowledgeable about all sorts of things, despite how he seemed, but he wasn't the type to just tell you something without you wringing it out of him first.

Smiling delightedly at the puzzled Jubei, Terumi spoke like he was telling him some great joke he'd been saving.

"Nine's dead."

For a few seconds, Jubei was convinced that time had stopped around him.

He couldn't process what he had just heard. As he stood there with his mouth half open, he registered Hakumen shifting into a ready stance in his peripheral vision.

That little movement snapped Jubei out of it. He heard the sound of the cauldron slowly opening up behind him.

"Wh- why, did she die? What was the cause? Was she killed?"

Hakumen held Jubei back with one arm as the latter fired off a barrage of questions. From deep within the mask, Hakumen asked for the truth.

"Who killed her?"

Terumi smirked. He was smiling beneath that hood.

Without giving an answer, he kept on talking.

"Trinity's probably dead too. That means the only ones left are... Hakumen, Jubei, Valkenhayn, and that damned shitty vampire!"

He sounded like he was counting on his fingers at first, but it devolved into a scream at the end. Terumi yanked his hands out of his pockets and thrust them forward, and in response, chains shot out from either side of his body. The one on the left went for Jubei, the one on the right went for Hakumen, and they both cut a straight line through the air as they hurtled toward their targets.

"Kuh!"

Using his claws to repel the chain, Jubei jumped away. At his side, Hakumen cut down the chain aimed at him with one strike from his blade.

Switching to offense immediately, he swung Ookami diagonally at Terumi, but his slash landed an instant too late, cutting only the air where Terumi had just been. Terumi had kicked off the ground to launch himself backward and swung his arm wide as he landed. This time, he attacked Jubei with both chains.

"Grimalkin, to the side!"

Just as Hakumen shouted a warning, he suddenly felt a presence below him.

"...!?"

He tried to put his guard up, but he was too late. Snapping like a whip, Terumi's leg caught Hakumen on the chin with a kick.

A normal human's chin would've been crushed, but Hakumen endured the otherworldly impact, stumbling back several steps but not losing his footing. Blocking the follow-up round kick by raising one arm, he sliced upward with the nodachi held in his other hand.

"Tsk!"

Terumi bent backwards to avoid the attack and immediately threw a magic barrier up, but Ookami still left a diagonal cut on his chest. Only a shallow one, though.

Ookami no longer had the abnormal power from when Hakumen wielded it against the Black Beast with its core released. His so-called normal slashes would struggle to inflict any lasting damage on Terumi, whose body currently had abnormally fast regenerative powers.

Jubei, fighting the chain, wasn't having an easy time either. The chain chased him down relentlessly and caught hold of one of his claws as he tried to escape it. The claw was clearly at a disadvantage against the chain, so he immediately drew one blade of Musashi with his free hand and sliced down on the chain fast enough to split the wind.

"Yeah, figured I couldn't cut it...!"

He was fighting a Nox Nyctores, and one that still had a functional core to boot. This chain was capable of stabbing straight through the Black Beast.

Knowing that was the case, Jubei instead cut his own claw away from the chain with Musashi, escaping from the chain's binding spell. Drawing the other blade of Musashi without missing a beat, he connected the two sides into one sword.

From behind him, he heard a thunderous roar. With a glance over his shoulder, he saw that the cauldron had finished opening up, baring its simmering, lava-like contents. A deep-seated assurance that that was not something of this world flowed through his body.

Its presence flowed through Terumi in a more literal sense, further increasing his strength.

"Dieeeeeee! Hyaaaa-hahahaha!"

Drunk on his own blood lust, Terumi laughed as countless black, snake-like things appeared from beneath his feet and reared up, combining into one. Clearly possessing far greater mass than Terumi himself, the massive thing could easily swallow Jubei and Hakumen whole.

The black snake struck down with its mouth wide open, looking like it was going to slam its head into the ground. Jubei immediately tucked and rolled, just barely managing to jump away from it in time. Hakumen tried to block it with his sword instead of avoiding it, and he took a glancing blow on the side of his mask that sent him sprawling on the hard metal floor. The slash he made while still halfway through standing back up managed to fend off the snake's next attack.

Terumi had made some distance between them, and he stood there with a smirk like a gash across his face on his lips, shoulders shaking as he chuckled.

"Being next to a cauldron really makes a difference... Kehehe, this way, the two of you together are barely enough to make me break a sweat."

"Rgh, what the hell... I know he's using Ouroboros, but his reaction speed's way faster than normal."

Jubei muttered as his shoulders rose and fell from breathing hard. He had found himself out of breath at some point. He'd been completely at the mercy of the chain for a while now, and apparently it was taking its toll.

Hakumen, having taken a hit from the massive head, shook his head lightly and finally brought his sword back into position. He was sensing something unusual from Terumi as well.

"He is strong..."

Perplexed, Hakumen put his thoughts into words.

"Ahhh, I'm having so much fun. Oh yeah, by the way, about that scary wife of yours."

Lazily fending off Jubei and Hakumen's counterattacks, Terumi spoke with utter contempt.

"Come to think of it, she bit the dust in the exact same place as where I beat your little brother to death. You'd better hurry up and die, or your little bro might cuck you! Hyahaha!"

"You son of a bitch..."

A thrill of murderous intent ran along Jubei's spine. With a quick breath, all feeling left his body at once.

His red eye burning with hatred, Jubei charged forward.

"Uwoooooooooooo!"

Shouting from deep within his belly, he swung his double-bladed sword down on Terumi's head from above. Unfortunately, he evaded the blade, but Jubei followed it up by springing off the ground and diving in between Terumi's arms.

"Guh!"

The tip of the blade caught Terumi in the stomach, slicing him open. It was then that Jubei realized he wouldn't be able to kill him this way. He'd have to cut Terumi into pieces so small that he couldn't move before tossing them into the cauldron, at the very least.

But even that was too good for him. Jubei would never be satisfied, no matter how many times, no matter how many dozens of times he beheaded and dismembered this man. It would never be enough.

"Grimalkin!"

Paying Hakumen no heed, Jubei pounced again. In exchange for a deep cut on his arm, Terumi summoned a chain out of thin air to bite Jubei's leg and slam him into the ground. Jubei never felt the pain, though. He was back on his feet in an instant, brandishing his sword.

"Go to Hell... you bastaaaaaaard!"

He jumped, and he slashed. Carefree in the face of the reckless attacks, Terumi occasionally let himself eat a slash so he could pay it back twofold.

A snake-headed chain appeared and tried to bite out Jubei's one remaining eye as he was trying to stand back up. One second before that could happen, though, a nodachi swung down on it and smashed it to the floor.

As it did, the sharp blast of wind it generated restored some sense to the out-of-control-Jubei.

"I... I'm sorry, Hakumen."

"Tell me, Grimalkin. Do you want to defeat him?"

Hakumen raised his blade, turned his back, then asked that question.

For a moment, Jubei struggled to understand what that wide back was asking him, but then he gave his answer straight from the heart.

"Of course I do. How could I ever let him get away with this? How could I! After what he did to Nine, to Tomonori... and now he's making their deaths into a joke!"

The very words felt like they were setting his guts on fire.

Perhaps sensing that behind his back, Hakumen gave an exceedingly calm answer.

"Then use that. You may not have your brother's sword with you, but you do have his eye."

A gasp. Jubei breathed in hard, turning his attention to the right side of his face that he'd kept covered with an eye patch for years. The eye that had been gouged and ruined by seithr had long since been removed from the socket. In its place, he had the artificial eye of Tomonori that he had received from Rachel.

"But even if I use this, we still won't be able to do any damage to him..."

"All you must do is catch hold of his true form for an instant. I will take him with me, body and all."

"Take him with you? What the hell are you planning, Hakumen!?"

"Hey hey hey, what've you two been whispering about? I'm feeling pretty left out over here～."

Terumi spread his arms wide, and two chains peaked up over his shoulders.

"Save your buddy-buddy time for the afterlife!"

The chains whistled straight through the air, but all of a sudden they jumped through space and appeared below Jubei's feet.

"Shit!"

"Use it now, Grimalkin! You still have family left! Do you intend to let your daughter die as well!?"

Another chain that had jumped through space aimed for Hakumen's back, but he cut it down with Ookami.

Intermittently attacking him with the chains, Terumi swung kicks down at Jubei with his higher stature. Jubei crouched so low that his hands touched the ground, jumped, and escaped.

In the moment that he was recovering from his landing, Hakumen's words hit so close to home that it made him dizzy. If he were, in this very moment, to run away somewhere where no one could see him, he might have cried. His left eye was burning and growing damp.

What had become of the small, precious life that Nine had left behind?

"Konoe..."

Whispering his wife's name, Jubei put his hand on his eye patch. Hakumen knew what he was about to do.

There was no other option.

"Open, Sekigan!"

He howled out to steel himself. Throwing the eye patch away, he opened his atrophied eyelid.

The moment he did, Terumi's appearance changed before him.

He wasn't a tall, thin man. He could hardly even be called human. He looked like an indistinct black shadow holding the vague shape of a human, with a face-like segment floating on top. He was a hazy and indistinct existence, bearing a passing resemblance to Take-Mikazuchi.

"Wha- huh...!?"

Terumi cried out, his voice trembling. He looked down at his own body in a panic, then glared at Jubei's right eye like he had just figured out the secret behind a cheap trick.

"Tsk, that damned vampire again!?"

As he shouted in anger, Hakumen closed the distance between them faster than a rushing gale and sunk Ookami straight into his chest.

"Ookami cannot cut through the spirit of a monster... but for as long as you're manifested in physical form like this, it can have some effect on you by interfering directly with your body and mind together."

Speaking like he was muttering a curse, he left Terumi skewered and grabbed him by the neck before breaking into a run. He bent his knees deep and launched himself... jumping right in.

He jumped into the cauldron, where the bright red, lava-like substance swirled about.

"AaaaAAAAAAAA, this ain't a joke, don't friggin' screw with me! My body... my vessel's gonna disappear...! Let go, you sonuva bitch let me gooooooo!"

"Close it!"

Reaching for the rim of the cauldron, Terumi was trying to crawl out, but Hakumen grabbed his arm and dragged him back in.

"Grimalkin!!"

"...Forgive me, Hakumen!"

Shaking off his regrets, Jubei jumped all the way to the control room, breaking the thick glass with his sword and rolling inside. He didn't know how to operate the mechanism, so he just flipped every switch in sight. Apparently one of them was the right one, because the cauldron's lid began to shut.

"You damned caaaaaaaaat, open it! Don't think you've pulled a fast one on me, you bastard!"

He kept on roaring in resentment, but his shadowy hand was no longer on the rim of the cauldron.

"I'll be back...I'll be back for all of yoooooooooou!"

With that, Terumi's voice finally stopped.

Jubei couldn't hear Hakumen's voice.

The cauldron was shut. Just moments before, firelight had colored even the high ceiling bright red, but now there was nothing but a metal box wrapped in lonely gray.

Standing with the cauldron before him, Jubei was awash with remorse.

He never wanted to run away and let someone else sacrifice themself in his place ever again. He had carved that resolution into his heart, and yet here he was.

"Dammit... Damn iiiiiiiiiiiiiit...!!"

Jubei, the last man standing, let out a wail, and as he did, the sound of him punching the control room floor rang out alongside it.

Over, and over, and over again.

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