Chapter 5: Separation.

An ofuda had hit the demon, causing it to let go of Indigo, who collapsed in a heap on the ground. She reached for the ofuda, but it already began to glow as a miko began to walk forth, chanting softly.

“Rin, hei, tou, sha, kai, jin, tetsu, zai, zen,” She seemed to be completely focusing, as the demon’s red eyes grew narrow, the pupil shrinking with every chant.

“You…think you can beat me? I’d like to see you try! You couldn’t purify me with a thousand ofuda and mikos chanting!” She screamed, and rei.bot simply opened her eyes.

“I will not cleanse you / I think others would prefer /You separated,” Electric blue eyes stared her down, as she returned to the incantation. The mixed screams of Makoto and the demon echoed through the room.

‘Get out of my head’

Her head was pounding, hands over her temples.

‘Thought you wanted me here, hmm?’

Bile was building up inside, and she could taste it in her mouth.

‘I don’t want you here, anymore. You’re only causing pain.’

Makoto’s skin began to crack in the back, her hands returned to normal.

‘But…the senshi…they’re taking away your powers…’

Makoto’s eyes began to bleed from the iris.

‘You’re lying.’

The ofuda burned as if it were going to cut through her brain, and she let out another scream, yet rei.bot continued to chant, her words echoing through the minds of Makoto and the demon.

‘Would I ever lie to you?’

“Rin.”

‘You’ve been lying all this time.’

“Hei.”

‘Honestly, Jupiter-sama!’

“Tou.”

‘Don’t you pull that shit out of your ass.’

“Sha.”

‘Makoto, Shit NATURALLY comes out of my ass.’

“Kai.”

‘JUST GET OUT OF MY HEAD, DAMN YOU!’

“Jin.”

‘When my mission is done and you are the strongest.’

“Tetsu.”

‘I don’t want to be the strongest. I want to be myself. I don’t want to take the lives of my senshi, especially when I end up having them haunt me afterwards.’

“Zai.”

‘I’m afraid I can’t do much else. I remain loyal only to you. The other satellite senshi are pulling away at you, and I cannot allow that to happen. I cannot allow you to suffer, not anymore.’

“Zen.”

There was a loud crack as the skin broke. Blood spattered everywhere, and a demon slowly continued to rise from Makoto, as if she were a grave. Long hair seemed to stick to her body as it was covered in blood, a torn fuku that looked like Jupiter’s very own seemed to barely clothe her, and her red eyes seemed filled with malice as she pulled each of her hands from Makoto.

“You’re all vermin. Filthy little vermin whom I’ll kill off one by one,” She began to laugh as she finally jumped away, and concentrated. Soon her whole body was no longer bathed in blood, and the long black braid fell past her shoulder, a dark purple fuku with a green bow and green toward the bottom, with dark purple boots that resembled Makoto’s was evidently what she wore. She smirked, “But I have to kill the power stealers first.”

Indigo stirred, her eyes slowly opening as she sat up, half groggy for a moment, but stopped when she looked at the demon standing there, eyes wide.

“Sailor…parallel…” She never finished the sentence, as she had forced a magma tunnel to combat the vine-covered asteroid that was headed her way. The female struggled, and smirked, “You’re not bad, but I can do better.”

The senshi never knew what hit her next as suddenly a large amount of vines had reached through the magma tunnel, and suddenly Indigo was covered in a mess of vines. As they continued to travel, crashing into Euri also, though it was only her left side. The vines slowly, one by one began to peel apart, small blades falling from each, and after a few layers were removed, something began to roll right toward Shinji’s feet. Looking up at the Green lantern were two lifeless gray eyes, and a mess of black hair, a defeated look on the face of a head without it’s neck.

Io was dead. No matter what you said or did, she was dead.