Terror Infinity Side B

Chapter 24, H.O.T.D 2

Aqua: "Those boots of yours can be said to be both your Volt Weapon and Hatsu. No, perhaps a better word would be to say a sign of your evolution, Kisara."

After the events of Shin slaying the L3 alone, Aqua holding back the legion of zombies, and the other members of Team Japan encountering and defeating a S3, everyone had regrouped behind the second line of defense. The first line of defense on the outskirts of the city had fallen, but from a strategic point of view it wasn't a huge loss for the human side. The reason was because the second line of defense was superior to the first. Tokonosu City had yet to construct a wall to cover the outskirts of the city due to budget issues and manpower. Tokonosu City even had a seaport to worry about being invaded from the waters by both monster and humans (Pirates), so their security problems were faulty on a large scale once the apocalypse set in and this would take a long time to remedy.

That's why the best measure they could make was to build a wall surrounding the inner parts of the city. A fifteen foot and three feet thick wall where it's residents and military lived with. This wall could be said to be the first true line of defense for the city and it's construction took many months of demanding labor from its citizens, yet even this wasn't a perfect fortification. The city was so large that they had to comprises in some areas. Still, despite the walls faults the second line of defense was a much safer and prime location to wipe out what remained of the legion.

It was early morning after of the 12th day of the mission.

The legion had finally fully broken into the city and were attacking the second line of defense, but the battle wasn't going in their favor. In the previous day the enemy side had lost over 1 million zombies and numerous evolved zombies. Furthermore, after the army of undead had endured the hundreds of traps to advance into the city and with what they suffered once they came within range of the heavily weaponry, helicopters, tanks, and the soldiers still sparing lethal magic bullets into the legion, the legion now is suspected to have only 1.8 million or so zombies from their initial plus 3 million, and by the end of today they will be reduced to around 1 million. In addition, a large number of elite evolved zombies were slain by the Walking Dead Unit, Team Japan, and the Enhancers of the human army.

This was great news!

From the eyes of the soldier fighting on the ground they could still only see a black mass of uncountable undead rushing towards them, but from a higher position in the military it felt that the battle was all but won. Soon the enemy would be reduced to 1/2 of its original manpower and the majority of the troublesome evolved zombies which could turn the tides of battle were all but wiped out. If there were any L3, S3, or Hunter Type 2 zombies still left they would all but certainly be guarding their bosss, the Mutant Variant Z3. The war aspects were looking so well that the Supreme Commander of the human army, Souichiro Takagi, gave Team Japan and the Walking Dead Unit some time off to rest. They were told to be ready to mobilize on a moments notice, but were allowed to rest to recover their full strength.

This was a military decision rather than a personal one due to family and friendly ties to the two groups. The battle was all but won, yet if something unexpected were too occur, it would be them who have the highest level of power in the human side to deal with the threat. The main characters were currently resting in their own tent, still exhausted from dealing with both a L3 and S3 and Hunter Type 2, and searching for two Hunter Type 2s who had escaped, and they were all worn out and sleeping their fatigue off. As for Team Japan they were doing the same till just recently, but with Hikari's magic buffs for stamina and healing repeatedly being used on them as they rested, were recovering very quickly.

Shizuka-sensei of the Walking Dead Unit had also come by after treating the rest of the team, and afterwards using her healing spells all but one of them had been fully healed. After she left Team Japan began discussing the battle with the S3. Specifically, the extreme speed Kisara showcased towards the end to finish off the S3. Shin and Aqua missed it, so they didn't have a full grasp of it, but for those present to that display of godly speed they too didn't have a full description good enough to explain what they saw. Only after hearing everything did Aqua make her judgment on what had occurred from her own experiences.

◆ Volt Weapon - Formally called Volt Texture, is the main weapon developed for the Pandora to fight the Nova and to utilise for personal usage. Volt Textures are materialized by concentrating energy through Stigmata to recombine matter into a solid structure, and are composed of elemental combinations between solid, liquid and gas elements. With Volt Texture, a Pandora can form weapons for battle and even clothing.

Volt Weapons are instruments of war wielded by Pandora to combat Nova, and even more often, their own kin. Volt weapons manifest in a wide variety of melee and ranged weapons, varying from swords to spears to GPS tracked homing lasers. A special class of Volt Weapon exists, called Stigmata Satellite System or SSS. Type-SSS are usually projectile-based weapons and can float near their owner, although they cannot move independent of them. Volt Weapons trump conventional weapons in sheer damage output, effectively being the best choice to confront Novas.

Each Pandora is shown to have her own unique Volt Weapon. The Pandora's' style of combat often depends on her type of weapon. Volt Weapons can be disabled or broken by other Volt Weapons, but can be re-materialized at will by the user. A Volt Texture and weapon's base power is proportional to the number of Stigmata one has. A Pandora can increase the mass of their Volt Texture when materializing a Volt Weapon, which increases the attack power of the weapon and allows the Pandora to shatter her opponent's weapons.

◆ Hatsu - Hatsu (Release) is the technique of freely releasing the aura cultivated by Ren and is the last one of the four fundamental Nen techniques. From simple abilities like Gon's Jajanken to crafty abilities like Hisoka's Bungee Gum, every single one of them makes use of Hatsu. It is truly both broad and deep. It is the release, or transmission of one's aura so it can be projected to carry out a certain function. In essence, Hatsu is one's personal expression of Nen that creates a special and unique paranormal ability (Colloquially called a Nen Ability). A good Hatsu should reflect a person's own character; one can never truly master Nen if they only copy other people's abilities.

Kisara: "Volt Weapon and Hatsu, is it? I've been studying Pandora's after I exchanged for the Stigmata Implants, so I know what Volt Weapons are from reading the Freezing Manga, but I could never form one and it wasn't one of the exchanges either. The description of my enhancement just said I could make one. At least I wanted to make Volt Texture clothing, but I couldn't even do that. As for Hatsu, I've been practicing the Nen training steps you have taught me every day since back in Greed Island, Aqua. I've trained my Nen for a increase in Aura, but I've had no luck of making progress with my Hatsu. You saying these silver boots are my Hatsu?"

Kisara raised her legs which were bandaged from the knee caps down. She had almost fully healed by this time and skin was less burned then before, but her legs had yet to fully recover and she couldn't walk on her own just yet due to intense muscle swelling. The earlier they were so red and swelled up that it looked like she had entered the Second Stage of Unlocked Mode and her bones were fractured, but now they had swelled down to her normal size and bones had healed for the most part. This could be contributed to Sachi and Shizuka-sensei's handiwork and without them, Kisara would still be enduring great pain from ripped skin, swelled red muscles and fractured bones.

Everyone present were gazing at her legs at that moment after being raised and next they saw a glittering silver light flowing around her legs and soon began to physically materialize into boots. From the outside they had a very metallic like appearance and looked uncomfortable, but for Kisara wearing the boots she felt like her legs were enveloped in soft clouds. Also, it might have been her inner girl talking that was normally hidden underneath her samurai perosna, but Kisara also personal like the very slim and stylish appearance of the silver boots and had no complaints. She especially liked the constantly flowing purple wavy lines she failed to notice the first time they manifested.

Aqua: "...Those wavy lines on your boots that are in constant motion are without a doubt the aura from Nen. Then like I suspected Kisara you are just like me. My Hatsu didn't manifest as a regular Nen ability, but one that fused together with my other enhancements. The same has now happened to you, but it's less chaotic and straight forward due to you only having two enhancement paths, whereas I had three and developed into a Specialist type Nen user when I was originally a Enhancer type Nen user. For you its the Stigmata Implants of a Pandora from the world of Freezing and the Nen from the world of Hunter X Hunter. Kisara, you were originally a Materialzation Nen user, so your Hatsu, Nen ability appeared as a manipulation of the Volt Weapon of a Pandora. That's what your silver boots are."

Shin: "So it's like that. Interesting, but I've read Freezing before and-"

Hikari: "I'm sure you've read it front page to back with their clothes ripping off every 5 pages."

Shin: "...That's like only in the Anime because sex sells! Just like the Manga H.O.T.D isn't as bad as the Anime. The Freezing Manga isn't that bad too. It's actually very exciting story with strong female roles that can even draw in guys to read with great interest and... No, I won't be distracted here (Everyone looked at me with eyes saying '"That's far too late"). What I was originally trying to say was this. In the original Freezing Manga there wasn't a boot, or footwear type Volt Weapon. Is that because of Kisara's Nen as well?"

Aqua: "Probably. Nen is a intuitive and emotional power. The idea for one's Hatsu will just appear for the Nen user as they train, not usually in the midst of battle, but what happened to Kisara was that she wanted to become faster. Faster than anyone. With that mind set dominant as she chased the S3 when her two powers were at their peak, her Hatsu emerged to best answer her thoughts."

Sachi: "That sounds like a cheap answer that only passes in fiction, but it's good enough and it doesn't really matter. The result is that Kisara's speed had jumped up a few tiers."

Kisara: "Yes. There's no apparent effect just by wearing these silver boots-"

Shin: "Ah, lets not call them silver boots. This conflicts with Aqua's ability "Silver Fang". Let's go with... "Sephiroth Boots"! Good name, right! Sephioth relates to the Tree of Life which is present in many religions and has connections to heaven. Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu has the meaning of heaven and divine. Christianity also has the Tree of Life and which is a theme in the Freezing Manga. Lastly, Sephioth is a badass character in Final Fantasy! Its a perfect name!"

Aqua: "No one cares about the name right now, Shin... although I have to say it's quite nice. When I asked for your opinion on a official name for my transformed state you came up with "Silver Fang" for the obvious reasons. Glad to see you put the same level of effort and creativity into both names. REALLY. QUITE. NICE."

Shin: "...Sorry Kisara. I interrupted you before. Please go finish what you were saying."

Kisara: "Ah, okay. What I was saying before there's no apparent effect just by wearing... "Sephiroth Boots". I have to channel a great deal of Nen into the "Sephiroth Boots" to gain a effect. At full power... I say I can keep them active for 3 second. It's a very short duration of enhanced speed, but its worth it. When active, I feel that a special kind of Nen coats my entire body, making me much lighter. Not just that, but there's a major boost in speed when I'm using Accel. I have yet to try it with Illusion Turn, but there should be improvement there as well. The only downsides I can see are the burden it places on my body at my max speed and just how fast I'm moving. To explain the latter, if I wasn't executing Kuzuryusen to slay the S3, a technique that has been ingrained into my mind and body through God, I might have missed the S3 all together. I don't have the reaction speed to use "Sephiroth Boots" at my greatest speed, or the physical ability to turn or maneuver at such high speeds."

Sachi: "I feel that Kisara's description is under selling those boots, but all we need to know if that she becomes incredibly faster. Shin, we still need to test out her new power, but you might want to hold back a little when you're hitting on your next woman. You might not even be able to see Kisara's sword crashing down on you."

Shin: "...Yeah, but fear not. Aqua can already tear me apart in her transformed state and Hikari is someone who can spy on me at anytime and possibly brainwash others in the future. Komaru is... Komaru. The point is that if I was sacred of death, I couldn't hope to get out of bed in the morning."

Aqua: "..."

Hikari: "..."

Shin avoided the glares of certain people in his group and looked towards the silver boot on Kisara's feet and felt excitement. If the description of what Kisara and comrades held true then Team Japan had just reach a new height again. Kisara was already the fastest member of the team and someone Shin never wanted to fight head on just like with Aqua, but now her speed had reached a whole new realm. Shin had deep down felt that it was only a matter of time til Kisara grew to become the strongest in close combat with her high speed attacks and master swordsmanship, but with the addition of the "Sephiroth Boots", long as she learned to wield this new power that prediction won't be too far off. Shin had grown more confident in himself after creating the Scarlet Bullet and defeating the L3 by himself, yet seeing the progress Kisara had made in his absence made him more so certain it was a matter of time till he was surpassed. Even the fact the team could defeat the extreme Agility Type S3 Evolved Zombie without either Aqua or himself present gave Shin endless confidence. Together there was no wall or enemy they couldn't overcome. Shin truly started to believe this... but reality would all too soon prove how fragile they all were in God's Dimension.

Hikari: "Hey, Kisara's progress is nice and all, but what about the new main mission to kill the Z3 leader? If our assumption about the war between the zombie legion and our side are correct, the legion will be wiped out by tomorrow. The Z3 will certainly attempt to retreat at that point. How will we handle the escaping enemy?"

Jin: "About that I have a few things to clarify. First of all this battle has been going overwelminly in our favor. More so than what I predicted. The Z3, if it wants to retain enough of its forces to regrow his army to its former peak condition or better, he'll have to make its move in the next-"

Relay Officer: "Pardon my intrusion!"

Barging in and interrupting Jin and the groups discussion was a soldier. He was one of the men Supreme Commander Takagi assigned to Team Japan and was in charge of relaying orders between him and their group. The man had a panicked look on his face, so they didn't get upset with his interruption and inquired with him about what was going on. The relay officer then reported the news. In a unexpected turn of events there appeared to be a enemy sniper among the zombies. Not a H1 launching fireballs at them, but a someone shooting small projectiles to head shot or pierce through the hearts of the soldiers engaging the legion. From looking at the corpses the weapon used were small rocks. More specifically, rocks looked have been grounded down into small yet hard masses being thrown like bullets.

They don't know where the sniper is as well, but not because of a lack of trying. Snipers have been searching for the enemy's sniper to take out the threat, but before they could they would be sniped back instead. Now because of all of this the army is being pressured. Tanks and armored car operators are doing fine and stood their ground, but the flesh and blood soldiers exposed to the sniper are being picked off and this has made them unable to continue to attack the endless mass of charging zombies as fiercely as before. Hearing this, there was no room for Team Japan to hesitate to charge out and engage the sniper. It was impossible for there to be an actual zombie sniper wielding a gun, makeshift or otherwise, so this must be the work of humans. Specifically, Team Kenya who were now finally making their move.

Shin: "Hikari, summon your Perosna for increased power and scan the area! Also contact Takashi and Saya's parents through Soul Link to coordinate a search effort, but warn them to be careful. It's all too real a possibility that Team Kenya's goal is to kill the main characters or the leader of the military. Shuai, its unlikely you can pin point the vibrations of footsteps of a human amongst the millions of human shaped undead, so use your ghost through the air to find anything suspicious. Connor, you may not be able to locate a evil presence if the enemy is hiding within the zombie legion, but as a sniper you have intuition to locate another sniper. If you spot any humans contact everyone through the Soul Link, but don't hesitate to take the shot! If they haven't gotten in touch with us by now after we reduced the legion THEM by over 1/3 of their original size, they have no friendly intentions for us and nor are they looking to surrender just by the fact they are attacking us. Kill them! Aqua, Shuai, Connor, Jin and I will head out to intercept the enemy. Hikari, give everyone, including the main characters all eight of the magic buff stacked three times and back us up with two of your DRAGOONs. Sachi and Drake, stay here to protect the Psyche Force user Hikari and the injured Kisara."

Hearing those orders everyone set off do what they had to. Hikari used used all her spells to increase all parameters of Team Japan and the main characters and had two DRAGOONs following after Shin and the others as they rushed out. She then made contact with the main characters and Saya's parents as she was told. Drake and Sachi took out their weapons and stayed alert of their surroundings. Kisara watching everyone prepare for battle felt frustrated and bit her lip til they bled. She wanted to go out with Shin and the others, but with her legs the way they were right now and with the battle with the S3 exhausting most of her Nen, so she didn't say anything foolish about following after them and only wished Shin and the others good luck.

Fueled by the power of magic buffs Shin, Aqua, Shuai, Connor, and Jin ran towards the second line of defense following Hikari's scans. She still couldn't locate any enemy humans, but her scans showed just where he was attacking. One soldier after the other were hit by a speeding projectile, exploding their brains once pierced or knocking them off their feet backwards and tumbling backwards if hit in the chest where large bloody holes could be found. This display of killing power from a distance with no enemy in sight frightened the soldiers who had continue to engage the zombies endlessly charging forward.

For the most part no one ran away since they knew better than anyone else is that if they failed here all of Tokonosu City would be swarmed by zombies, so they held their ground and continued to shower the zombies with bullets, yet their vigilance to the hidden sniper slowed down their rate of fire and accuaccuracy, allowing the zombie legion to slowly get closer and closer. After seeing this Connor split up with the group to hide himself and find a location to snipe.

Connor was also coordinating with Kohta and they were preparing to ambush the sniper once found. They needed someone to bait him out of course, so Shin and Takashi took up this role. They reached the walls protecting the city and jumped on top of it. Such a eye catching action was suicidal in front of a sniper, and like they hoped the two were targeted to draw out the enemy, but it had happened too fast. Shin had only just entered Unlocked Mode, armed with Gravity Blade in one hand and Devil Sealed Gun in the other, when he sensed a immediate threat. Instinctively, Shin raised Gravity Blade just over his left eye when a small projectile smashed into the sword hard.

Shin: (Really not a bullet? A rock, but this force is too-!)

Shin had the confidence to block a sniper bullet without taking a single step back, but to his shock the rock numbed his arm and kocked him off the wall. Luckily he reacted in time and kicked the wall when he was still midair. He rolled on the ground when he landed, avoiding any injury, but when his teammates approach him worried for his safety they found him covered in a layer of cold sweat. The reason was the enemy. As Shin fell his eyes enhanced by a high Reaction Speed stat and increased perception from entering the First Stage, he followed the trajectory of the thrown rock in a instant and saw a tall man standing on the roof top of a building 3000 meters away. Shin wasn't able to perfectly make him out, yet he felt their eyes meet as the man gazed back at him, and in the instance warning signals were set off. Every cell of his body screamed, warning him that he had just encountered the most dangerous and crazed monster in the Cross series plot of H.O.T.D.

This was how leader of Team Japan and the infamous Reaper and leader of Team Kenya met. A encounter that was destined and always meant to be for those who walk the path of evolution within God's Dimension.

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Authors Note:

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