PlagueOfUndeath

Reishi jumped into the air, grabbed Schizo's head and flung him towards the ground straight below her, and set herself up to land on his torso.

Since she was encased in ice, which wasn't exactly an abnormal occurance strangely enough, she had time to focus her mind, to raise her body temperature and prevent frostbite (OOC: This isn't a power, there's documented evidence that monks in some temples in Asia can actually do this)
While inside her own mind, she felt...an intrusion.
As soon as she was thawed, she knew who to attack: Schizo.
Mustering her strength, she leapt right at him and delivered an uppercut to his jaw.

"No, Sae is not a metahuman. Good thing you noticed actually. We, her team, are all extremely strong metahumans, but she is not. It's our responsibility to watch over her as well as her responsibility to watch over us. I've only known her since I started high school a year after her, and the same goes for Eichiro and Kenta. Knowing what she's gone through, we consider her to be stronger than all four of us combined.
"As for information? We have none. Like I said, no team has ever made it to a portal, and our information about the nature of them comes from people who studied the Rikti portals." Ryuji explained.

"HA!" Reishi got up, completely unphased by Coldfire's tossed aside from some dirt on her face.
She mustered all the muscle in her legs and jumped straight at Coldfire. He saw the attack coming, obviously, but to no avail. Any move he tried to make in front hit air...she was behind him already, both hands over her head ready to slam him back down to earth.
(Reishi's abilities use the principle of accelerated recovery time, allowing her body to reach, and slightly exceed, the maximum physical strength for a human through training, including 17 out of 19 years of her life spent traveling the world training. Her 'speed' is in fact related to her great strength: think of it like rocket thrusters. She isn't without her weaknesses, however...not like I'm sharin em right away But yeah she can't run at high speeds, only move short distances or jump really high)

Reishi took the blow easily. She stood up, cracked her back, and turned to face Coldfire.
"Omoshiroi ne..." she said.
Looking into her eyes was literally like looking into the eyes of an animal. Her next attack came quickly, an aerial roundhouse kick aimed at Coldfire's side. Reishi could definately move, small distances meant nothing.

Reishi skidded to a stop, and flung herself back at the hitman and the telepath, landing a solid kick on the hitman. She didn't stop there. She planted one hand on the ground and moved her legs to administer a mule-like kick to the telepath. Given her strength, they probably wouldn't be standing...

(OOC: She's not fighting Ryan, she's fighting Schizo.)

(OOC: Poor Schizo has two combatants literally flying at him...)

"Scanning..." ZERO announced, "Could you specify which 'Ukyo-san' you mean? My records show three registered workers in the Tokyo metropolitan area with the surname Ukyo, and another two with the given name Ukyo." (OOC: Ukyo, like quite a few Japanese names, can work as either a surname or a given name. And I mentioned the other two: Sae's brother in Akihabara currently in a holding cell, and their great aunt working as part of the war council. The two with Ukyo as a first name are just workers, unimportant to the story.)
"I think he means Sae," came Ryuji's voice. He walked up to the group, eating a bowl of noodles, "She wants to be alone right now."
Ryuji glanced at the assembled group.
"But if you're talkin about the mission, I'll assemble everyone. But I think YOU," he pointed at ZERO, "should go talk to her."
"What would I talk to her about? I've never met her..." ZERO said meekly, "Or have I? I don't know...I can't remember."
Ryuji patted her shoulder. He was a good deal shorter than her, despite being physically the same age.
"Trust me girly, just talk to her. She's in her room, if you know where that is..." Ryuji said.
"...I do now, Ukyo Sae is located at the-" ZERO was interrupted by Ryuji throwing his hand over her mouth.
"Just go, I've gotta talk to these guys anyway," Ryuji said.
"Ah...yes...okay," ZERO took off towards the east.

"OK, since we're gonna be going on a mission together, I think there's somethin' you should know about us. I can control temperature and slow down molecules. Essentially it boils down to making things cold. I'm considered a Class S metahuman by the SDF. Eichiro, whom you met earlier, is super strong and wields a hammer that can potentially smash atoms, not that he's used that. He's a Class A metahuman. Chihaya is a miko, and has a particularly strong resonance with the spirit world, enough to give her an S ranking as well. Kenta, whom I don't think you've met, is a reserve member with superspeed. He's considered Class B. Now...what classification do you think Sae has?"

Reishi entered the arena and saw the fights break out almost immediately.
She glanced around, sizing up each of the opponents. The Rikti seemed to be engaged in a psychic battle with another combatant.
"Mental battle...puh," she muttered.
Her muscles tightened and she launched herself horizontally at the person fighting the Rikti. She moved into a jump kick pose, aiming for the square of the man's back.

(OOC: It's late evening now, around 8:00 PM. The season is Summer, just like RL btw.)

BEGIN PROGRAM
RUN: ZERO Interface Diagnostic
RUNNING...
RESULTS: No errors found
BOOT: ZERO A.I. Matrix
A.I. Matrix Activating
Scanning A.I. Matrix...
WARNING! FATAL ERROR!
Reverting to backup drive "NINGEN"
NINGEN active.

The once lifeless eyes seemed to fill with life.
"Where am I? Who am I?" came ZERO's voice. unsurprisingly, it was human.
She glanced over her own body, alarmed at the 'alteration'.
"WHAT am I!?" she began to panic.
"ZERO, do you know your mission?" the doctor asked sternly.
"Wh-What mission?! Who are you?!" she looked terrified.
"I don't understand! She should know her creator!" the doctor, too, was terrified.
"I'm sorry, doctor, but I couldn't allow it," General Sanada said, "I had Mr. Suzuki program Yuka's personality into her. We couldn't save all of her memories, but what you see before you is less a war machine and more an amnesiatic teenage girl."
ZERO/Yuka turned to face the doctor, "You...did this to me?! You...turned me into a robot?!"
"Y-you were comatose! You would have never woken up! We...rebuilt you, made you better!" he studdered.
"I can't remember my name, what I used to look like, anything...all I remember is...Sae...my friend..." ZERO was deeply confused, lost in her own mind, "I...somehow 'remember' military procedures, mathematics, heh...I can...recite instruction manuals from almost any vehicle ever made...but...but...who am I?! You...STOLE my identity!!"
"N-no! I-I didn't!"
"Weapon system transmit: ZERO-1" ZERO'S hand changed into an arm cannon, strangely similar to Allen and the others, but very different, "I should kill you...but instead I'll just make sure you can't do this to anyone else."
An electric current rushed from ZERO's cannon arm and connected with the doctor's head. He screamed and fell back, but was otherwise seemingly unharmed.
"What..? I...can't remember...how...how did I...how could I forget...?!"
"As my 'creator'," ZERO said mockingly, "You foolishly programmed your own brain into me. Well, since I know your brain so well now, it was easy to kill the brain cells responsible for creating me. Have a nice life."
ZERO prepared to leave the room, but was stopped by the general.
"ZERO...I apologize for what happened to you. Mr. Suzuki tells me recovering your memories is completely up to you. Just outside that room is someone who knew you as Shiratori Yuka. Her name is Ukyo Sae, and she's now your commanding officer. However, if you so desire, you may leave at any time, but I ask that you please help us close these gates."
"...Fine," ZERO said, looking sad.
"When Tokyo is restored, if you still bear any animosity towards me, I won't fight back," the general continued, "but for now, we have a war to win. Now go, get a good night sleep."
"...hey you, weird guy..." ZERO said to Allen, "You comin too?"

Asuka hit the ground, apparently defeated.
*POOF* 'she' vanished, and shinji felt a sharp blow to the back of his knee.
"Ninjutsu, hehe," came her voice.

"Ah, Ukyo-taichou, and you must be the commander of the new group that just came in," an elderly man, probably a veteren of World War II, greeted the pair as they entered a large conference room.
"This...uh, well he's not human, but he calls himself 'Allen'. They claim to be here to help," Sae explained.
"Ah, yes. Well allow me to introduce everyone. We are the commanders of the SDF operations in Shinjuku. I am General Sanada Hiroshi. This stately monk is Sakuraonji Kyutaro, the old bat over there..."
"HEY!" the 'old bat' interrupted.
"...is Ukyo Saeko, Ukyo-taichou's great aunt, and finally we have Kawasuma Tsukomu, civilian representative."

"Now let me cut right to the chase, for the past three weeks we've been doing battle with these demons. As it stands, we've already incurred losses rivaling those of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings combined. Until recently, we didn't even have communications. Now, our intel on the portals is thus: We know they are heavily guarded by demons that make the everyday riffraff you saw out in the city look like ants and cockroaches. It is also understood that humans who have been infected immediatly move for these portals. We need to close those portals, and the only way to do so lies within the portal itself."
"Now, we want to hit them fast and hard, and trust me when I say there are a LOT of demons at those portals. We want to send Ukyo-taichou's team into the portal with one of your tanks. The team will consist of...Ukyo Sae, Hyoumura Ryuji, Oda Eichiro, one miko of the leader's choice...likely Chihaya..., ZERO, any troops you, Mr. Allen, deem fit to enter the portal, and one other person: Takatani Chiyoko," the old man read from a list in front of him.
Sae turned pale when she heard the last name, but forced herself to understand that this was war. One question plagued her mind, however.
"Who or what is ZERO?" she asked.
"Allow me to answer that," a stubby, balding man and a little boy came into the room through a door to the side. The boy was pushing a dolly containing a large container, resembling a casket.
"ZERO is the prototype of my research team's work on Rikti technology. It uses modified teleportation technology to summon a vast array of weapons from an armory in Akihabara. Plus, it's not bad to look at!" the balding man explained, "Boy, throw the switch!"
The boy moaned and pressed a button on the container. With a loud hiss, the container opened up. Inside was...a girl. Her hair was white, and she was equipped with armor strongly resembling that of many other cyborg girls from various anime series.
"At least she's not wearing a maid costume..." Sae muttered.
A moment later, ZERO's eyes opened. They were clear blue, with a certain coldness about them.
Something bothered Sae though. The girl looked...familiar. Then she remembered.
"Yuka?!" she gasped.
"Indeed...that was her name before. She was comatose after the Rikti attack, and was listed as an organ donor," the doctor grinned evilly, "of course, she ended up donating everything but her bones to this project!"
"What...have you done?!" Sae demanded.
"I merely gave her new life! I tried to save her memories, but the human mind can be so...fickle," the scientist explained.
Sae was infuriated at the latest developments. First Chiyoko would be on their possible suicide mission, and then she finds out her friend whose injuries inspired her to volunteer for the SDF...has become some scientist's pet project.
Sae, tears streaming down her face, stormed out of the room.
"Anyway..." the old general began again, "We'll be ready to go tomorrow at noon. And don't worry about her, she's tough."

No sooner did Shinji's foot touch the mat than Asuka was behind Shinji, back to back, and jamming her elbow into the center of his back.

Sae just stared at them for a moment.
"You actually believe I have the clearance to tell someone I can't see about the country's most guarded secret? Here," she handed the...well she didn't quite know what he was...a small PDA that all SDF officers kept.
It was a list of disclosure information regarding anything Class B and above.
It was translated into English and Japanese and put into layman's terms rather than lawyerese
1) Do not reveal information to anyone without the proper clearance.
2) If you haven't heard of their company before, don't reveal any information
3) Only reveal the information via methods that cannot be traced.
4) Never reveal Class A, S, or SS information to anyone you cannot physically see.

With that she handed the phone back to Allen.
"Not only that, but there's no way in hell I'm ratting out my friend to anyone. If you want to know who this person is, you'll have to talk to the guys on top, because her safety is more important to me than anything right now. OOPS!" Sae had let her friend's gender slip, "Ah English is so clumsy!"
(OOC: Sae speaks with a pretty thick but understandable accent, I'm just too lazy to write all her dialogue in Engrish )
"Ukyo-taichou!" a soldier called.
"Hai?" she replied.
"\We're having a mission briefing in the main building! The higher ups heard about the tank and want to stage a raid on the Ginza portal\!"
"Yokatta! \Should I bring these guys? They own the tank\," Sae asked.
"\Of course, we need their help after all\," the soldier, clearly higher ranked than Sae, replied.
Allen and his crew would notice at this point that the soldiers had little regard for actual rank other than the jobs it entailed, but a very high regard on national secrets and loyalty.

"Well as near as we can gather," Sae said, "It IS a 'who'. Whatever is behind this has plans. The zoologist guys say these things don't behave like animals. Plus, something had to open the portals, and there has to be a way to close them. "Unfortunately, no one has actually reached a portal alive. Each one is guarded by demons we haven't even identified yet. And size doesn't matter, as you can see from Vharsuun's power.
"As for what happened? Well that's easy: a bunch of portals opened up in parks and residential areas and then a bunch of demons came through. At first they were focused, taking out cell phone towers, television stations, and several small shrines. If it weren't for...uh, actually I'm not allowed to mention that person's name unless you have the appropriate clearance. Which being a foreigner brandishing any sort of firearm immediately disqualifies you for. Only reason I know this person is because I went to school with them. And don't try looking that up, the school databases were fried. Literally."

Meanwhile in the Akihabara Police station, the band Bastion was holed up in a jail cell, being lectured on public disturbance.

Asuka walked over to the fighting mat, and turned to everyone else.
"If anyone wants to fight me hand to hand, no weapons, I'll take you on," she said.

(OOC: Hey don't worry, as I mentioned Akihabara is full of em )

The three miko that were being taunted by the mage stopped and looked at him incredulously.
One of they stepped up and looked him in the eye.
"Okay punk, first off my two friends here don't speak English, second you need to talk to a catholic priest or visit a shrine to get holy water, we don't carry it around. Third, there's no tigers around here, the zoo was cleaned out right away during the RIKTI invasion. Fourth, the only lily petals we have are, again, at the shrines and temples. Fifth, get your own wine," she pointed to a bar not twenty feet away, "and finally, you're annoying."
With that, she stomped off with her friends.
Eichiro, overhearing the "conversation," walked up to the mage.
"Their jobs are very, VERY stressful, and some of them get...snippy. Generally if you want something you can't get yourself, ask a police officer or security guard," Eichiro explained, "And don't bug the monks either, unlike the miko they can get pretty violent."

Reishi grinned widely at those words.
"Battle Royale...omoshiroi ne..." she whispered to herself.

(OOC: Shinjuku is indeed a city within Tokyo. Tokyo is more like an american county than just a city. There are wards and such within Shinjuku, but the majority of it is rubble. To be precise, the "Shinjuku" area in this ruined Tokyo refers to the area around Shinjuku Station. Just like Akihabara is technically within Chiyoda (or was it Tokyo?) city, and the closest major shrine is in the Ochanomizu area, but the area is called "Akihabara" because it centers around said area and train station. Add to that it's all but run by a group of guys that built giant robots who wouldn't accept any other name. Any other encampments around Tokyo would be named after either the district, temple, or shrine used as the focal point. Conversely, the same logic is applied to demon nests and portal sites. Also, there's not as much impact from landing at the jump sites as you would expect, performing a jump generates a kinetic field that dampens the jump and landing.)
Sae looked panicked.
"Vharsuun is...probably the most powerful demon we've run across. He's usually found around the Inokashira park area, but he's been sited elsewhere. He usually targets large groups of metahumans. He's one of the many reasons we stay in squads of less than ten now. He singlehandedly killed six of my teammates, and did this to me," Sae explained.
She unbuttoned her blouse and showed a large claw mark on her back, which would fit the size of Vharsuun's hand.
"I was lucky to live," Sae was suddenly downcast.
"Sae-chan..." Chihaya put a hand on her shoulder.
"Anyway, welcome to the Shinjuku encampment, nicknamed 'Yamato' by some of our more patriotic members. You'll find any services from medical treatment to food inside the station. We also have several hotels requisitioned for use. If you need ammunition or anything else militaristic, the quartermaster should be able to help you, so long as you fill out the required forms. And don't try raiding the armory, we've taken the precaution of hiding all the weapons around kabuki-cho, and all the ammo is kept in a safe."

"I don't know," Sae said, "We've never transported something this big before."
She turned to Ryuji and gave him a signal. Instantly the broken parts of the ice walls reconstructed themselves.
But the walls didn't do any good. What came next...
Covered head to toe with black armor, a vaguely human shape.
"CHIHAYA! \Hurry up! it's Vharsuun\!"
The ice wall shattered, and any and all ammunition fired at him didn't even make so much as a scratch.
"\Why's he so far from Inokashira?!\" Eichiro screamed.
At the last moment, just before Vharsuun could reach them, the incantation finished and the group was catapulted in the air, landing in the Shinjuku jump point.

"CHIHAYA! \Begin the incantation!\" Sae ordered as she unholstered her guns and began firing at the advancing Oni.
"Roger! \It'll take me a bit longer, I've never transported something this big before,\" Chihaya replied.
"Fantastic," Sae muttered, "Ryuji, buy us some time."
Ryuji leapt in front of the group and moved his arm up from his waist in a wide arc.
Instantly a massive wall of ice surrounded the group. The oni weren't deterred, however, and began smashing the wall.
"\I can't hold it for long Sacchan\," he said. (OOC: Sacchan is what Ryuji calls Sae.)

Akihabara station.
This stretch of sidewalk located just outside the east side of the station, where lines of cabs used to line up, now replaced with makeshift battlecars, like something out of a Mad Max movie or something, had once been a popular street performance area. (OOC: I'm not making this up, it really is) but since the attacks, no one had played a single note there.
A new band, 'Bastion', would change that this day.
"\Ready guys\?!" Takamura Shiina, vocals, called.
"\As I'll ever be\," came Takamura Kouhei, guitar and Shiina's brother.
"\This should be interestin'\," Ukyo Shuji, bass and Ukyo Sae's younger brother.
"LET'S ROOOOOOCK!" Pan, drums.
And so they played. A smooth sound, remniscant of the great bands of yesteryear. Nostalgic, but at the same time fresh and new. They had no special powers (Well, Pan could belch the Japanese and Roman alphabets...) and no combat training. They were only musicians.
Yet, to the people of Akihabara, the hordes of people that gathered to listen on that dismal street amid the roaming giant robots and battlecars, it gave them hope. Old and young stood before the band, basking in the unique sound of the band.
For the hour they played, before the SDF broke up the concert, people had forgotten about the invading demons, had forgotten their sorrows and fears, and had remembered the music of days past.
Bastion had several original songs, some of which they did play during the concert, but their intent was to entertain people who had been fighting for their lives for the past three weeks. They played songs from Atreyu to ZZ Top, Rock and Pop and J-Pop songs from the past thirty years.
And they attracted attention, not just from the audience, but from the SDF higher ups, who had been looking for a way to raise morale...

The crushed wrist reassembled itself, forming a more loosely assembled but still functional wrist.
(OOC: Hehe...rock devils are tough...)