Strike Witches: The Neuroi Rebellion

Chapter 4: Light and Darkness

December 10th, 1962 "Happy birthday!" Everyone said as Kye entered the room to sit down for lunch.

"Thanks." Kye said. "But, I think I'm good for celebrating. I've had plenty of birthdays."

"Don't be a spoil sport, have some fun." Mio said.

Kye fetched a plate off the counter and sat down at the table. "No, really, I'm fine without it. My mind is a bit preoccupied right now."

"Oh, what are you thinking about?" Minna asked.

"Training." Kye said. "New concepts. Perhaps one that will give us the advantage in this war."

"You should relax more." Shirley said.

"I'll relax when we are at peace again." Kye said. "I'm sorry if I seem a bit moody, but I really do have a lot on my mind." She ate her food rather quickly and left the plate on the table before leaving the room.

"What's her problem?" Perrine asked.

Yoshika said nothing, but watched as Kye left. She had a hunch as to what Kye was thinking about.

'I hope she's not trying THAT again.' Rei thought.

"Where's Kye?" Yoshika asked. She was talking to Mio and Minna late in the afternoon. "I haven't seen her since lunch."

"I have no idea." Mio said. "We haven't been able to reach her through the intercom, and somebody reported this morning that she flew off in her striker. Wherever she is, she's off on an unauthorized flight."

"She does outrank everyone here." Minna said. "It's not like any of us can stop her."

"I think I know where she is." Yoshika said. "I'm going to find her."

"Go ahead." Mio said. "I don't like having one of our best away from base, especially when she's in a bad mood."

"Thank you." Yoshika said as she turned and headed to the hangar.

Yoshika flew to the shrine in the mountains where Kye restored her magic power all those years ago. She noticed a pair of strikers propped up on a wall. "I knew she'd be here, and I bet I know why."

Yoshika landed and laid her strikers next to Kye's before going inside and into the shrine basement. "I was right. There's a torch lit with her nowhere to be seen. Now where is that trapdoor..." She fiddled around for a bit in one of the back corners of the shrine basement under the light of a torch. After a few moments of searching she found the hidden trapdoor and descended into the secret chamber of the shrine, where she found Kye standing, staring at a large, ornately carved rock slab.

"Are you okay?" Yoshika asked as she approached Kye.

"I'm fine." Kye said, her tone lighter than it was at lunch. "I'm just having a hard time figuring this out. By the way, how did you know about this room?"

"I came here on my own one time and explored." Yoshika said. "I found it then and remembered this slab when you mentioned new concepts at lunch."

"I see." Kye said. "I can't really be surprised you figured it out so quickly. You are the Prodigal Witch after all."

"You give me too much credit." Yoshika said.

"I don't believe so." Kye said. "Look at this slab. These markings are ancient, but I can read them easily."

"I can, too." Yoshika said. "I don't even know what language it is, but I can read them."

"This part mentions Light Magic." Kye said. "Light Magic is a cornerstone of the Miyafuji bloodline."

"This part mentions Dark Magic." Yoshika said. "It says the same thing."

"Light and Darkness." Kye said. "Two sides of the same coin, just like how the White and Black auras are both fifth stage auras."

"What's this in the middle?" Yoshika said, pointing at what she was asking about. "It says 'balance'."

"Look under it." Kye said. "That's the part I've been struggling with. It says 'Whosoever combines the powers of Light and Darkness will have the power to end all conflict and bring to peace.' I haven't been able to combine them, and I've been at it for awhile. I'm hoping you will be able to use Light Magic, which in turn means you'll be able to use Dark Magic, so that you can try to combine them."

"That's a hefty challenge." Yoshika said. "Will you help me with Light Magic?"

"Of course." Kye said. "We should probably head back for now though. I forgot to grab an intercom when I left, so I'm pretty sure Mio and Minna aren't too happy."

"They didn't seem angry or anything when I left." Yoshika said.

"Well, I hope not." Kye said.

Yoshika and Kye climbed out of the secret chamber, covered the trapdoor back up, and left the shrine to head back to base.

As Kye and Yoshika were on their way back to base, Kye spoke up.

"Yoshika, don't mention that secret chamber or its contents to any of the other witches." Kye said.

"Oh?" Yoshika asked.

"I don't want to give them false hope." Kye said. "Let's wait until one of us manages to do it before we tell them about it."

"Okay." Yoshika said.

"Also." Kye said. "We will have to train in secret while working on it, probably up at the old place on the mountain where your Grandma Miyafuji, Rei, and I lived before we moved down next to the clinic."

"Got it." Yoshika said.

The rest of their trip back to Yokosuka was silent.

As Yoshika and Kye arrived in Yokosuka, they saw something they never expected to see. The entire town was shadowed by a gargantuan sized neuroi with several other neuroi.

"What is this?" Yoshika said with clear anger in her eyes.

"The witches have their hands full just protecting the town from the beams." Kye said. "We have to book it."

"Yeah." Yoshika said as she and Kye activated their blue auras and booked it to the battlefield.

"Yoshika and Kye are back!" Mio announced over the intercom. Kye and Yoshika were unable to hear her as they did not have intercoms in their ears.

"Yoshika look." Kye said. "Mio is waving at us. Did you bring any intercoms by chance?"

"No, I didn't." Yoshika said. "Let's fly over to her."

"Yoshika! Kye!" Mio hollered. "Damn, they must not have intercoms."

"Did you bring extras?" Minna asked.

"Yes." Mio said. "I'll give one to each of them. She flew toward Kye and Yoshika as they were closing in on her.

"Hey, Mio." Yoshika said.

"Here, take these." Mio said as she pulled two intercoms out from her shirt pocket.

"Thanks." Kye said. "Got a sitrap for us?"

"Yeah." Mio said. "Pretty simple one at that. We detected this flying fortress of a neuroi from several kilometers out and dispatched a few witches to check it out. They could not handle it and returned to base. Once it arrived, it stopped moving and several neuroi poured out of it. We've been in battle ever since."

"Any clue on how to take that thing down?" Kye asked.

"I've hit it with several Reppuzans powered by the blue aura." Mio said. "But I've made no progress on it. I would try something more powerful, but I don't want to exhaust all of my magic yet."

"Understandable." Kye said. She and Yoshika put their intercoms in their ears. "Who all do we have in the air?"

"Everyone." Mio said. "All of the Strike Witches, the daughters, the Sword Corps, and the two new Miyafuji girls. LOOK OUT!" She pointed up at the colossal neuroi.

The giant neuroi began to fire its beams. Over one hundred red sections on the neuroi lit up.

"There's to many." Mio said. "We can't block them all!"

The neuroi fired its beams. Yoshika acted quickly, forming a golden shield for each and every beam that was not blocked by a witch.

"Wow." several witches could be heard saying.

Shortly after the beams were blocked by the shields, the shields glowed brightly for a few seconds before a golden beam shot out of them and converged on Yoshika.

"What just happened?" Mio asked.

"I just got supercharged." Yoshika said. She activated her white aura and launched an extremely large golden energy discharge from Jouten at the giant neuroi, slicing it in half.

"What was that?" Kye asked.

"I used my Absorption Shield coupled with my Multi Shield." Yoshika said. "Then I took all of the energy absorbed from the shields and discharged it back in one large blast."

"That's new." Kye said. "I've never tried it before. I'm surprised it worked so well."

"Don't celebrate yet." Minna said. "It's regenerating."

"I have an idea." Kye said. "Perrine!"

"Yes?" Perrine responded.

"Hit me with the most powerful lightning you can muster." Kye said.

"I see what you are doing." Yoshika said. "Hold on a second. You copy her ability and both of you send it my way."

"Better idea." Kye said. She flew over to Perrine and use Energy Projection's Mimic ability to copy her lightning magic. "Ready?"

"Yes." Perrine said. "TONNERRE!" Perrine shot the ultimate version of her Tonnerre and forced every bolt at Yoshika. Kye followed suit.
Yoshika caught the lightning and allowed it to dance around in her aura for a moment before charging it up further then releasing it toward the colossal sized neuroi. The super charged lightning hit the neuroi and shattered it into several pieces. It started regenerating.

"Are you serious?" Yoshika asked. "I put almost everything into that." She slowly floated downward, but stabilized herself soon after.

"Quick!" Kye commanded. "Hit it with everything you've got!"

Mio pushed her aura up to the white stage and launched the most powerful Reppuzan she could muster. Rei, Ayame, Kamiko, and Nori followed suit. Ayaka, Takeko, Tomoko, and Yoshiko all fired Reppuzans as well. Minna and Alina, who had recently finished her ultimate training, focused their ultimates on the target, along with Sanya. Anna wasn't able to perform her ultimate yet, so she simply watched. Erica, Bell, Trude, and Linda, who also completed her ultimate training recently, all flew in towards the neuroi and used their ultimate. Erica and Bell hitting it with Great Sturms and Trude and Linda hitting it with their super strength empowered guns, used as clubs. Lucchini and Luciana both shot through the neuroi leaving explosive charges inside it. Lynne shot her rifle at the neuroi, intending to detonate the round when it hit the target. Shirley and Eila did nothing since their ultimates weren't directly offensive abilities. Perrine and Louise, who had gone through the complete ultimate training in the last three days, both shot their ultimate Tonnerre attacks at the neuroi. The other daughters had not mastered their ultimates and stood back to watch.

The onslaught of attacks landed and dealt a large amount of damage to the giant neuroi. It was torn apart in several places.

"There's the core!" Mio shouted, pointing it out.

"I'll finish it off!" Kye said. She activated her white aura and flew in. Her white aura glowed vibrantly, much more so than it should have. She had fused her Light Magic with her aura. "Take this, neuroi. Kami Katto!" She hit the neuroi with her most powerful attack, decimating it's body as the attack cut through its core and shattered the entirety of its body into white flakes. All of the other neuroi shattered as well, being drones of the big neuroi.

"Good job everyone." Minna said. "Kye, that was... KYE!" Kye was unconscious, falling toward the ground with her light empowered white aura still active.

Everyone immediately flew toward her, hoping to catch her in time, but nobody could reach her in time. She crashed into the ground, landing on her back.

"MOM!" Rei screamed.

Mio contacted the base medics immediately. "Get a stretcher out onto the runway now!"

Yoshika landed and immediately checked her heartbeat. "She's still alive. Rei, go get my mom and grandma. Ayame, Kamiko, you go, too. Fly them straight here."

"Can you save her?" Rei asked.

"GO NOW!" Yoshika yelled, tears in her eyes.

Rei, Ayame, and Kamiko all flew off toward the Miyafuji Clinic.

Mio landed and approached her. "Can you do it?"

"I don't know." Yoshika said. "She's in bad shape. She's bleeding in several places an bruised where she's not. A lot of her bones are broken. Her heart rate is very low. It will take a miracle, and I won't have any help. Mom and grandma are out of town, but Rei and the girls don't know that."

"You sent Rei and the girls away because you think Kye might not make it." Mio said.

"Yes." Yoshika said. "Honestly, the only reason she's still alive... is because of her aura. She combined her light magic and white aura. That somehow softened the landing, but she's still in bad shape."

"Here comes the stretcher." Mio said. Trude landed and helped them lift Kye onto the stretcher, taking off her torn up strikers in the process.

"Take her to the operating room." Yoshika said. "I'll maintain my healing magic as we go."

"You can heal on the move?" one of the medics asked.

"Yes, now go!" Yoshika said. The medics followed her command and rolled Kye toward the base's operating room with Yoshika running after them, maintaining her healing spell.

About ten minutes later, Ayame, Kamiko, and Rei arrived back at the base and ran to the operating room, but were stopped by Mio, who was standing in front of the door.

"You can't go in." Mio said.

"Mio, that's my mother in there!" Rei said. "Move aside."

"No." Mio said. "This is not something you need to see. Honestly, Yoshika shouldn't be in there either, but she's the only person in the world who can save her."

"It's that bad!?" Rei said.

"Kye is hanging on by a thread." Mio said. "Just wait."

"But..." Rei said, tears swelling up in her eyes. Ayame and Kamiko couldn't even speak.

"I know." Mio said. Sit and wait. "We can only hope at this point."

Over the next several hours, various witches came to talk to Mio and the three Miyafujis waiting at the door to check up on Kye. Mio wasn't able to give any of them an answer.

Eventually, Kaylie and Layla approached Mio.

"She's still in critical condition." Mio said. "I went in just a few minutes ago to check up on her, and Yoshika is only able to keep her alive. She's making very little progress."

"We need to go in." Kaylie said.

"I can't allow that." Mio said.

"You can." Kaylie said. "Layla and I have powerful magic that can help Yoshika. Magic unique to us."

"And what's that?" Mio asked.

"I have time magic." Kaylie said. "And Layla has creation magic, which has healing capabilities on par with Yoshika's healing magic."

"Go in then." Mio said.

Kaylie and Layla entered, surprising Yoshika slightly. "What are you doing in here."

"Helping you." Layla said.

"Time Freeze." Kaylie said. As Kaylie spoke, everything in the room froze in place. Only Yoshika, Kaylie, and Layla were unaffected by the time magic.

"What did you do?" Yoshika asked.

"I froze time in this room." Kaylie said. "It takes a lot of magic to maintain, so you and Layla have to work quickly. Kye's body is frozen as well, so you don't have to spend your magic to prevent her from getting worse. The two of you can focus together to heal her."

"Thank you." Yoshika said, wiping tears from her eyes. She and Layla set to work immediately. Within ten minutes, the two combined were able to stabilize Kye.

"That's as much as we can do." Layla said.

Kaylie dispelled her time spell, allowing time to return to its normal pace.

On the outside, the light signifying that operation was in progress turned off, sparking hope in the four sitting outside. Soon after the door opened. Kaylie and Layla waved the witches inside.

"Is she okay?" Rei asked as she walked inside.

"She'll be fine." Yoshika said. "Thanks to Kaylie and Layla. I couldn't do it on my own. Kye just needs rest now."

"Thank you, Yoshika." Rei said.

"I will not let anyone die on my watch." Yoshika said. "I'll die from magic exhaustion before that happens."

"That's taking it a bit far, but you are one of the most persistent people I know." Mio said. "You did well."

"I need to lay down now." Yoshika said, shortly before collapsing into Mio's arms.

"Rest well, Yoshika." Mio said with a warm smile on her face.

Kye was moved from the operating room to a private room. Mio laid Yoshika down in a chair in the same room and left them alone.

And that's Chapter 4! I apologize for taking a little over two weeks for this update. I've been fighting writer's block. The next chapter may also take a couple weeks, unfortunately. Also, this chapter is a little shorter than my others, but hopefully the next one won't be. Enjoy!

Abilities introduced in this chapter.

Absorption Shield - Yoshika

Unnamed Neuroi Energy Blast - Yoshika

Light Magic Infused White Aura - Kye

Time Freeze - Kaylie

Creation Healing - Layla

If you find mistakes, please point them out to me so that I may correct them. Comments, questions, suggestions? PM or Review!