"I've waited for you, Seigi Akane."
Was what the mysterious figure said to her. She felt how a shiver ran down her spine. She felt that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park if she were to fight this person in front of her.
She could tell that the figure in front of her had a lot of fighting experience.
She shook her head to get her composure again, she couldn't waver now. After all this was just another part of her soul.
"Well, even if your face is obscured by your hood, I am pretty sure that under there is a really cute face!"
The person just halted in her preparations for her awesome speech, she didn't expect that. She kind of did, but she would have never guessed that it would be actually happening.
She just facepalmed at this situation. Flirting with her out of nowhere, despite just encountering each other.
"Sigh, you really are just like her, aren't you?"
Akane didn't know how to respond to that, after all it was a bit painful thinking about all the friends her past-self left her with.
They must really have loved her dearly when they are able to forgive the shit she just pulled, especially Chara.
The two of them were lovers after all.
Seeing that Akane was in thought Red sliced at her with her rapier, Akane barely dodging it by a hairs breath.
(Undertale, Dummy! Remix, made by Emdasche, also known as Reds pacifist theme in that one fangame, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdzbmbG8mys)
"We are still fighting though, so don't get distracted."
Hearing this Akane started focusing on the fight, yes the person in front of her was obviously 'friendly', but that wouldn't change the fact that Red would slaughter her if she didn't take this seriously.
"How should I call you?"
Red pointed her rapier at Akane...
"It doesn't matter know, call me as you like in your mind."
...and rushed at her, taking a swing at her with her rapier at fast speeds.
Akane was barely able to follow the trajectory of the swing Red took, but mid-swing she observed something incredible, she observed how red was drawing a bit of a circle while she was taking that swing, but suddenly the single trajectory turned into four, surrounding Akane completely.
She felt a sense of dread as she observed that, four trajectories with only one swing. Dodging that would be near impossible if it weren't for one fact. The paths all followed a pattern, ending with a perfect cross after the swing.
All Akane had to do was step into one of the four free directions were no blade would hit her, dodging that was easy enough, but that was only one swing.
The next followed immediately after that, but this time instead of horizontal and vertical slashes, diagonal slashes followed all of that in an irregular order, so she just couldn't switch in between two movements, but had to read her movement.
This repeated for a total of ten times, before it was her turn again.
"Well, Red. Do we really have to fight? I am sure we can solve this peacefully!"
Red started swinging at Akane, this time a lot faster.
Of course, Akane easily dogged that, but the fact that she was rapidly following her movements, making it a sure hit if she doesn't move at least as fast as her needing the time to take a swing, made it a bit of a mental game for her.
Akane had to make sure to always change the direction of her movement, otherwise she would surely get hit.
"No. No, we can't. You tried to use my power without actually understanding it, harming your body in the process."
After thirty hits Red finally stopped.
She stood still for a moment, looking down on the ground. Her hood now completely covering her head.
"Your body is currently damaging itself, trying to assimilate with my magic forcefully without understanding its nature."
Red swung her head up, revealing two yellow glows coming from her eyes.
"So, I'll beat my nature into you forcefully until your body stops destroying itself!"
With that said, Red jumped at Akane, this time not attacking with speed or technique. This attack was one of raw power.
Red swung her rapier...
...and the space in the trajectory of the blade got cut in half.
"OOOOOOOH WHAT THE!!!!"
Akane was glad she dodged that. She would have taken severe damage if not.
Akane tried jumping towards her, actually trying to attack Red, but the space in the place of the cut was just like a wall, Akane couldn't pass it.
"What? Forgot how I fight? Well, I can't really blame you."
Currently still perplexed, Akane noticed how two Chakrams were flying at her, to be exact, alongside the border Red just created.
Akane dodged that, by ducking under it, Limbo-style. Few strands of her long hair got cut in the process, that was a bit too close for comfort for Akane.
"How long until you are satisfied with the training?"
Red threw her cloak back, revealing that she had a couple of bombs tugged under there.
She took one and threw it at Akane, while simultaneously cutting space in half in two places.
Akane managed to dodge the two slashes, but she completely forgot about the bomb, a few seconds before detonation she noticed that the thing was right in front of her.
Then it exploded, filling the entire space she was in with the blast radius of the bomb. It hurt, it most definitely hurt, but if there was one saving grace to note, the blast didn't compare to one of Katsukis hits if he put his back into it.
Still distracted from the pain of the explosion, Red didn't let go of this opportunity and aimed at the girl again.
No, not this time, this time she prepared to cut the entire space they were in, the only reason Red approached her was to make her notice that the next attack came.
Luckily, it worked and Akane noticed that the entire room was filled with white transparent lines with only a few gaps in them.
At first, Akane didn't knew what they were, but then she saw Red, about to swing.
In that moment she realized what was going on.
As all her braincells went to overwork, just to find a path to a halfway save space, her (imaginary) neurons fired in rapid succession to move her body to that space.
Akane looked at Red again, seeing that she started with her swing. She saw how the transparent while lines slowly turned white along the progress of her hit and in that moment Akane understood that she had to reach a free spot, unless she wanted to get diced.
Red took stance and then swung, filling the room with countless cutting noises, the lines all flashed white in that moment, before starting to fade.
She waited for the lines to disappear, to see what kind of state the girl would be in.
For a moment she couldn't believe what she just saw.
The girl was doing a one-handed handstand, twisting her body weirdly to avoid the lines her blade would follow.
She barely managed to dodge that attack.
Red smiles, this would be over sooner than expected. Once again, Red took stance and pointed her rapier at the girl.
"We are far from over. Do you still have the endurance to go through with a fight with me?"
Akane was breathing heavily by now, but unexpectedly, this was just so much fun that she didn't care.
"I am far from exhausted! Bring it on!"
Giving each other a smile, the two girls continued with the fight for a while.
For them, the fight would seem to last for a very long while, but in the real world just one and a half hour would pass until Akanes awakening.
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A long time passed since the beginning of the battle, both of the girls were tired from it, both of them were ready for the final attack.
"Akane, I'll accept you when you manage to survive this attack. After all, a true friendship is only one when you beat the ever-living crap out of each other at least once!"
Something was wrong with that reasoning, definitely, but both of them accepted that as it is. They might have been influenced by a certain fish lady too much.
And so Red started her final attack, it wasn't really anything special or flashy, the way to describe it would be a desperate last strike back.
Red just threw everything in her repertoire at the enemy.
She just threw her bombs and chakrams all over the place, flailed her rapier in all kinds of ways she knew, restricted the room for movement more and more, until she finally reached a stage of no escape for her enemy.
But instead of striking, she sheathed her sword in that moment and fell on her knees, seeing this, Akane also fell on her knees.
The battle finished.
"Gasp, gasp. I took everything you threw at me now, right?"
"Yeah, we finished that battle."
"So, my body will stop hurting now?"
Red needed a moment to answer that. Yes, Akane would be able to use her kind of magic more easily now, but the fact that she still needs 'mana' to use magic staid the same.
"Maybe? Well, if I am honest I don't think so. What you need is some magic circuits, especially your eyes need them. You always feel some kind of strain when you are actually using them, right?"
Akane nodded. Yes, her eyes always were in constant pain, even when they are in single-color mode, with the exception of grey. The only reason why the regular single-color modes did nothing was because she could 'easily endure it'.
Her eyes would only start to bleed if she kept them up for a day straight, while using them on the strongest setting, that especially counted for the 'unity' eyes.
"Well, the reason for the pain is simple, you use your nerves, your neurons to expel the mana, your soul essence, resulting in the pain. Soul essence is considered a lot more information than the electrical signals going through your nerves, so your nerves get overloaded by all the information, damaging them."
Akane nodded, that was some important information. No matter how resilient or strong once body is, when your nerves are damaged they won't recover easily.
"So, I've been usurping my nerves as magic circuits, resulting in my neurons overloading, causing me massive pain?"
Red nodded, that was what she said.
"Well, yes that was indeed what I said."
"Well, as nice as all of that new information is, it still wouldn't explain why I got such a high fever."
Once again Red needed a moment to think for the reason why she suddenly started overheating for no apparent reason.
"Well, I think it's because of the same reason why a human will suddenly get a massive fever if they overwork themself and their mind too much. Their conditions deteriorate, they get tired, their neurons are overstrained, additionally there is that magic overload in your nerves that doesn't get converted properly, so maybe that is turning into heat energy? Don't quote me on that though! I am only using magic. I am no expert in it!"
Akane didn't pursue this topic any further. She might be a bit of a knowledge maniac, but she knew that if she were trying to force someone for answers they didn't know off nothing decent could possibly come out, so she put the topic regarding this situation on hold.
"Well, despite all of that, I still don't know your true name. I mean I have been calling you 'Red' the entire time here, but a proper name would be great, or did I hit the nail in the coffin with your name?!"
Red was a bit surprised by the sudden action of the girl, she suddenly stood up and grabbed her hands before saying all of that, but she just couldn't be mad at her, this was just the same as her and so she had to chuckle.
"It's a bit embarrassing, but I am Scarlet. Red Scarlet, it's a bit embarrassing, right? My family name is Red, while I have been called after a shade of it."
Akane stood up and locked eyes with her.
"There is nothing wrong with that! Why should you be ashamed of your name? I think Scarlet sounds lovely and besides, I am sure that this is the naming convention of your family, right?"
Scarlet had to laugh wryly after hearing that. She had to think of her parents, Crimson and Vermillion. Yes, being the Red family was a bit embarrassing.
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In another part of her soul:
"God. Fucking. Dammit! Why can't I enter that part, why is that closed up? I see her on the other side, I see her walking the shining path, but I can't interact with her in any way, I can't help her!"
Chara was currently punching an invisible wall over and over again, until her hands got bloody. She was frustrated that she couldn't protect the girl in front of her.
She had all of that strength, but it was just useless in this moment.
"Hoh? How about I give you some..."
The being that appeared behind Chara got immediately stabbed into their forehead, falling over. Dead.
"How mean of you, stabbing one of my spare bodies. I am sure..."
Once again knives flew into that silhouette, another one appeared, but just got annihilated the same moment.
"How dare you piece of shit show up before me? You are just a parasite that occupies the soulcore of Frisk. Anything you say is trivial and useless, simply because..."
Chara hit her chest, the position where her heart should be, making it start glow red.
"...no matter the problem, no matter the wall, no matter mountain. My soul burns brightly to overcome these obstacles, that just counts all the more for that girl. Now piss off, you piece of trash that invaded this place without permission. You'll get purged sooner or later."
The only reply was a chuckle.
"You better don't regret your choice."
Red, inspired from the Undertale fangame that was kind of hot shit in the community in the years 2015-2016.
The Fangame is called Undertale Red and it's really cute and well made, you should give it a try after reading this chapter!
https://gamejolt.com/games/UTRED/321329
Man, my Gacha addiction wants to make me pull, but there is no item that I want from the current banner. I feel conflicted.