Fabricator - Chapter 23

Junichiro sat at his desk staring, unseeing, at his computer monitor. His bedroom was once again a bedroom, the bath having been removed. He was relaxed with skin still a bit red from the heat of the water. On the computer screen Freed Sellzen was on the screen going through the reconstructed church. The sound had been muted after his incoherent foul mouthed screams had become annoying. The 'man' was obviously confused at the fact that everyone was gone and the church looked like it hadn't been occupied in years. Obviously odd since it had been occupied just hours ago.

Junichiro wasn't really paying attention to Freed as he fought with himself over what he wished to do. He figured he had two options on how to deal with Freed after wiping out the others. Each option had its pros and cons. He just couldn't decide which was better.

Option one was to let Freed go and continue to follow him with the drone currently spying on him. This would let Junichiro gather information with impunity. He could get a bead on Kokobiel and keep track of what his plans were and come up with appropriate counter measures. His insertion into this world meant that canon was irrevocably screwed. That meant any 'plotline' knowledge he currently had was likely incorrect. Following Freed and spying on the others he met up with would give Junichiro plenty of information to work with.

Option two was to confront and kill Freed. On the surface it seemed like a no-brainer to let Freed go so he could gather information. Unfortunately, that would mean leaving Freed alive to murder as he pleased. Junichiro knew he would have some disassociation from the deaths of random strangers but would his slowly degrading morals survive letting Freed go free? Junichiro couldn't help thinking that letting Freed go would mean that every person who died at the hands of the psychopath would be partially his fault. That was why he'd killed Raynare and everyone else in the church, right?

Thus his dilemma, turn the killer into an unwitting spy or kill the killer?

Junichiro sat in silent thought until he was roused by Janice, the VI running his spy and home programs, “Sir, Freed Sellzen is leaving the church with the intent to find his leadership.”

Junichiro sat up and let out a sigh. His decision was made and while part of him knew he was making a mistake, it was just something he had to do. As he climbed to his feet from his chair, his simple kimono changed. Thick steel toed leather boots covered his feet. Pressed black slacks covered his legs. His torso was adorned with a long sleeves black button up shirt, a black vest with golden scroll work, and a crimson tie in a Windsor knot. Lastly his hands were covered in finger-less black gloves with one of his magical gems sitting on the back of each hand.

With his favorite style of outfit and future combat uniform ready, he stepped out of his room and made his way over to the doorway into Asia's personal little dimesion. Just a few seconds after he knocked on the door, it swung open to show a happily smiling Asia Argento, “Junichiro!”

As she said his name, she swung her door open fully and stepped to the side to offer him admittance. He smiled at her but stayed where he was. From his position he could see her rather plain and simply adorned room. He had somewhat expected that Asia would pick such items. Given her life before, it was what she knew and was comfortable with. It would take time for her to grow beyond the limits that the church had imposed on her. It's not like she had some outside catalyst, such as becoming a Devil after a traumatic near-death experience, to affect her attitude and beliefs.

“I just wanted to let you know that I was going out for just a bit Asia-chan. I have some business I need to attend to quickly. I shouldn't be long and once I return, we can have dinner together. Alright?”

Asia pouted a little at being left alone, but said nothing. She simply nodded obediently as she would when in the church. Junichiro gave her a soft smile, “Ask Janice to create a bathroom for you to enjoy so you can take a nice relaxing bath to recover from the stress of today.”

Asia smiled brightly, “That sounds nice, thank you for the idea.”

Junichiro smiled in return and gave her a little nod of his head, “I'll be back shortly.”

He stepped away from her door and opened a portal with the gem located in his right hand. Once he stepped through he was within the woods not too far from the abandoned church and Freed. He could hear the man shouting obscenities and promising painful deaths to anyone he deemed evil.

Junichiro made to step forward and confront Freed but paused. He looked down at his hands and frowned. While the Magical Gem to generate portals sat on his right hand, his Psionic Gem had on his left. It glowed lightly as he used its power to suppress his emotions for the confrontation. The side effect of which was to make his thinking more logical. As a result, he was currently debating with himself on whether or not he should use his Psionic power as he was.

On one hand he'd spent almost sixty years of life being told that killing was wrong. It had been ingrained into his psyche and morality since he was a child in both of his lives. Until he'd been reborn in this world, he'd never taken a life even on accident. His first kill was an accident. His second was deliberate but he'd suppressed his emotions at the time to get through the necessary actions. His third through thirty-third as been done at a distance through a screen, like watching a movie. He knew it was real but could disassociate himself from it.

Now, he was here to commit his thirty-fourth murder and had planned to use the Psionic Gem to suppress his emotions once again. Unfortunately, his now logical mind pointed out that he was crippling himself and creating an exploitable weakness. If he continued to force himself to suppress or distance himself from the distasteful things he needed to do, he would cripple himself emotionally. That weakness couldn't be allowed. He needed to evolve his psyche, to know that killing evil beings wasn't wrong. Even if it meant his own mental suffering, he needed to grow and evolve. He had a long life ahead of himself and these first thirty-fours deaths at his hands would only be the first of many more.

With his mind decided, Junichiro dismissed the Psionic Gem into his storage space. He had no plans to use any of his gems or magic in his fight with Freed. With his mind set and his determination to see his actions through, Junichiro stepped out of the woods and moved in the direction of the foul mouthed excommunicated exorcist.

The moment he cleared the woods, Freed spun around with his weapons in his hand and faced Junichiro. He ignited the golden blade of his light sword while leveling his pistol at Junichiro's head, “Who the fuck are you and where the fuck did you come from?!”

“Sorry. This will likely take a while, I don't have much experience you see.”

As the words left his mouth, Junichiro's clothing shifted to form a smooth full face helmet to protect his head while he simultaneously released his wings for just a moment. They were all that was needed to send Freed into a psychotic fit. Though the words Junichiro spoke confused Freed a bit, seeing the wings sent a thrill down his spine and had him sporting an insane smile, “A shitty devil? All alone? Just for little ol' me? This Freed-sama is going to enjoy playing with you!”

Freed's smile became feral as he leveled his special pistol and immediately fired off a bullet made of light. Instead of aiming for Junichiro's obviously armored head, he aimed for his seemingly unarmored kneecap. He was understandably surprised when the bullet ricocheted off of the 'cloth' of Junichiro's clothing with a metallic clang. The force of the impact was barely strong enough to make Junichiro's leg twitch.

“The fuck?! The hell are your clothes made of you shitty bastard?!”

Instead of answering, Junichiro lifted his hand and snapped his fingers in a theatrical manner. The rule of cool was legit, even if only his victim was around to appreciate his efforts. With the snap of his fingers, a ripple rolled out with him as the center. Freed tensed, instantly ready to move at the first sign of trouble. Psychopath he might be, but he was also an experienced fighter with plenty of kills under his belt and the talent to either kill his target or escape. When nothing seemed to happen he taunted Junichiro, “The fuck was that supposed to do?”

Junichiro smiled a bit beneath his helmet, “I know what a cockroach you are Freed. That was just me locking us into an area that you can't escape without killing me.”

Freed's response was to unload the entire magazine of his pistol at Junichiro. Every light bullet harmlessly bounced off of where they hit. It was impressive that each shot hit a different spot with two objectives in mind. The first was looking for a weak spot in the clothing-like armor. The second was aiming for non-vital areas so he could slowly torture Junichiro to death before taking his leave.

With his ammo expended, Freed holstered his pistol and gripped his light sword more tightly, “Shitty ass devil just hiding in your shell! I'll carve it off of you and turn you into turtle soup!”

Freed took off with impressive speed, for a human, in the middle of his shouting and swung the glowing blade of his sword with the intention of slicing through Junichiro's chest. Junichiro intercepted the blade with his left forearm while he summoned up a weapon of his own in his right hand. A metallic cylinder that any true geek from his previous life would recognize. Sadly, such a masterwork as the original trilogy didn't exist in his new world. Truly, it was blasphemy.

Freed looked shocked when his light blade couldn't slice through the armor and into Junichiro's flesh. He wanted to see blood and hear the devil in front of him screaming! He recovered quickly and went for another strike. As Freed pulled his blade back to initiate another strike, Junichiro pressed the activation button on his own lightsaber and ignited it. A crimson glow, matching the color of Rias's hair, ignited from the top of the decorated cylinder.

Despite his surprise at seeing the red blade so similar to his own yellow light blade, Freed didn't hesitate in his attack. Junichiro responded in kind and the two blades of energy clashed together. Freed growled in annoyance before shouting into Junichiro's face, “What the hell?! Now you shitty devils are copying us?! That's trademark infringement you bastard!”

Freed didn't want to admit that he thought the red color of the devils blade was way more awesome than the yellow color of his own blade. With his anger stoked further, Freed's attacks became a rapid blur as he swung from multiple directions. Every time his attack was intercepted, redirected, or countered by Junichiro, Freed would come at his target from another angle.

Sharp electric sounds echoed through the area as the two energy blades collided repeatedly. Junichiro remained firmly on the defensive which actually started to piss Freed off. After another clash of their blades the white hair exorcist jumped back to gain some distance before pointing his blade at Junichiro and shouting, “What the hell shitty devil?! Is blocking all you can fucking do?! This is getting boring!”

Junichiro chuckled sheepishly, “Sorry, This is my first real fight and I'm still kind of getting used to it all.”

It was true too. His first kill was an accident and he hadn't done any fighting on his end. Raynare, the other fallen, and the other exorcists had been a curb stomp. This was his first real fight against any opponent and he wanted to get the most out of it. Sure, Freed posed no real threat to him but the man was an excellent fighter, for a normal-ish human, with a really unorthodox fighting style. Junichiro planned to milk Freed for as much experience as he could to really experience the skills he'd been learning in his time chamber.

There were three skill sets he'd been practicing within the chamber. Magic, bare handed, and melee weapons, mostly swords. Those were the three most common types of combat that he could reasonably expect to come across so they were what he focused on. Thanks to Freed he was getting real-world experience with his sword skills.

Freed, upon hearing what Junichiro had to say, scowled, “You liar! There's no way a shitty newbie could keep up with the amazing and talented Freed-sama! I'm going to enjoy ripping out your tongue and shoving it up your lying ass!”

So saying, Freed went back on the offensive. However, instead of remaining solely only the defensive, Junichiro also went on the offensive so that both were rapidly trading attacks. Freed showed his mastery of the blade by perfectly countering or parrying the attacks launched by Junichiro. Freed's style was as crazy and unpredictable as the man himself while Junichiro's style was more textbook. The simulacrums within his time chamber weren't real people, they were programs and were thus limited in their application to what was available online. Junichiro was learning much from his risk free battle against Freed.

The two energy blades clashed together hard leaving them pressing against one another to gain an advantage. Freed glared hatefully at Junichiro from behind his blade, the yellow and red light making his visage look somewhat demonic. He was no longer smiling and enjoying himself, he was right pissed off at not even being able to scratch the devil in front of him.

Junichiro let the blades press against each other for a moment longer before he gave a hard shove and threw Freed back. The priest easily recovered by back flipping in the air and landing firmly on his feet. Junichiro had been holding back his strength and speed in order to get more experience with pure skill, it was time to stop doing so.

With a sudden burst of speed, Junichiro charged in front of Freed and slashed his red blade at the priest's neck. It was only the years of experience and instincts honed over many battles that allowed Freed to just barely dodge the decapitating strike by jumping backwards and opening space between them once more. Freed pointed at Junichiro with his sword in accusation, “I knew you were lying shitty devil! Holding back and toying with this Freed-sama! I wont have it!”

So saying, Freed withdrew and threw down a flash bomb. As soon as the bomb hitthe ground it detonated into a blinding white light meant to cover Freed's escape. It was a part of his M.O., if he couldn't win a fight he'd run away. In the end Freed was really nothing more than a coward that liked to pick on the weak and ran from the strong.

Junichiro could probably be accused of picking on the weak himself, however with his current strength the majority of living beings were 'weak' to him. There was also the fact that he had only really fought and killed monsters. The same couldn't be said of Freed and his ilk.

When the light vanished and Junichiro could see once again, he spotted Freed not too far away slamming his fist against an invisible wall and shouting, “What the hell?!”

Junichiro shook his head, “I told you that you couldn't leave without killing me.” When Freed faced Junichiro his face was contorted into an ugly mask of hatred, “Don't worry Freed, this will all be over in a moment.”

Before Freed could make a comment, Junichiro vanished from sight as he unleashed his full strength and speed. The only indication of his movement was a long streak of red light that ended on the other side of Freed's neck. There was a brief moment of shocked silence before Freed's body collapsed to the ground with his severed head rolling off to the side.

Junichiro deactivated his lightsaber and stored it away. After taking a deep breath to brace himself, he focused on the slowly cooling corpse that used to be Freed Sellzen. He stared at it and forced himself to accept that what he did wasn't just the correct course of action, it was justice for those Freed had killed and those he would have killed in the future. With his introspection finished and his resolve firmed up for the future, he inhaled deeply. When he exhaled a torrent of crimson flames tinted with gold rushed out of his mouth and completely consumed the pieces of Freed's corpse. Within moments the Heavenly Dragon's Flames consumed the body and left nothing but ashes.

“You finally done moping about morality now, Partner?”

Junichiro smiled softly and nodded, “Yeah, I am Ddraig.”

He could feel the smug smirk just radiating off of the dragon inside of his soul without needing to see it. Junichiro dismissed the extra dimension and opened a portal back to his apartment. It was time to have a nice dinner with his new roommate. Something he was looking forward too after all the seemingly needless angst and brooding of the day.

- Line Break -

AN

Okay, I'd like to know what you guys think. Which direction should I take the story in? Should Freed go free, for now, and be a source of information for Junichiro to use. Or should Junichiro confront him and flat out murder Freed?

I can run with the story in either direction. The confrontation with Kokobiel will happen, it will just be pretty different from canon regardless of which path this particular branch goes down. The main difference will be whether or not Junichiro is surprised and unprepared.

So, which sounds more fun to you all?

PS. If only one person comments their answer, they will be the one deciding which way I go. So, gimme your opinion!

NEW

Thanks for all of the feedback everyone. It really helped me decide how I wanted to go forward. I hope you all enjoyed the decision I made and the execution. I also wanted to sort of apologize for all the angst and brooding but I felt it was necessary. A normal person raised in a society of law and order would have moral issues with killing even the most vile of people. I felt like Junichiro should have some sort of crises of conscious over the beings he was killing. It always struck me as weird that characters, who aren't total psychos, would have zero issue just killing whoever they felt like when they, supposedly, were just normal people previously.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'd have some issues if I was put into a similar situation as Junichiro. At least from now on he wont have this problem anymore.

Thanks again for all the feedback and let me know how you feel about this conclusion!