Water temperature, pressure, soaps, shampoos, scents, oils, massaging sponges and full body polish* were but a few of the many options available to Kira in the shower and she could adjust them as needed while she enjoyed herself. Sure she'd fried herself at the end there but in the end the mission was a complete success and now she could enjoy her little mini-spa day. 

*Body polishing is a type of full-body exfoliation that removes dead skin cells, promotes cell regeneration, and moisturizes the skin. It's typically found on spa menus as a way to prepare skin for other treatments, like wraps. Think of it as a facial for the body. Of course as Kira is a FrankenZombie she wouldn't regenerate the cells per say but her body would come out looking even better than it already did.*

Kira was sure that if not for her current state of being her skin would come out of this shower looking extremely beautiful. Then again a normal human body wouldn't be able to survive the poison showers or the resulting fumes she enjoyed so much so there was some give and take there.

Anyway she continued to enjoy her luxurious shower for another hour before turning it off and exiting the shower smelling like Flowerbomb Perfume. An intoxicating whirl of cattleya, jasmine, and rose. The warm scent of patchouli and vanilla grounds the fresh fragrance, adding a sensual twist on the scent reminiscent of a room filled with rose petals. A bouquet of tens of cattleyas, hundreds of sambac jasmine, thousands of freesia, and millions of rose petals enriched by an addictive scent of patchouli and vanilla.
You wouldn't even know she'd just been through a gory surgery after bbq'ing herself.  She stepped on a pad outside of the shower and was quickly dried off. Kira walked away while the shower cleaned itself and she found a set of fresh clothes waiting for her. Pentagram knit panties, a black strappy lingerie pentagram body harness bra, a white button-down long-sleeved and a red blazer with gold buttons and a black cross tie and gray mid-length skirt. A pair of fancy shoes with black tights completed the set. Kira picked up the bra harness and smirked. "Cute." She joked and began getting dressed.

After getting dressed again Kira returned to the outside lab and waved. "Hey there guys. How do I look?"

"Like $20 Million Dollars. How do you feel?"

"Oh I'm feeling way better now, Macabre, thank you for asking and thank you for putting my body back together. Again."

"Hey it's what we're here for. Besides repairing your body ensures our skills don't get rusty."

Kira put a hand on her hip. "Once again though I find myself questioning just what it was that you were up to in life."

Doctor Graves chuckled. "Just continuing the family work. My family line is descended from Viktor Frankenstein himself and my Great-Grandfather continued his work by creating crude cyberized flesh golems with propellers, drills, jetpacks, armor and other weapons. We continued the family line but my work was more complete. We created cybernetic beings based on animal creatures and monsters of myth that could successfully hide in and infiltrate society." The Mad Doctor summarized.

"Karma catches up with everyone though and we eventually reaped the consequences of our own actions. Not all of our creations were happy with what we did and some of them came back for revenge. They didn't just defeat us but they eventually tore down the very organization we'd worked for." She shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, we spent...a long time in Hell for it."

"Well a little bit." Kira joked. "But seriously, while I can't really condone experimenting on people, none of us are saints and now the three of us have a chance to make up for the sins we committed in life. Besides, I can't imagine having anyone else as my surgeons." 

"You're a good kid, Kira."

"Relatively speaking but thank you." She bowed again. "Anyway I am starved so I am going to get some food. You two coming?"

"We'll be up in a minute. Go on ahead."

"Sure." She waved and ran out of the lab while the mad science pair watched her leave.

"Saaay...what is going to happen to us if she succeeds?" Nurse Macabre asked.

"Who knows?" Doctor Graves questioned. "We certainly won't be allowed to go back to our old ways even if we get a second life."

"Unless we sign up to work with Archstopheles. Manea basically owns the three of us anyway so it's not like it would change anything." Macabre rationalized.

"Good point. But we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. Right now lets finish cleaning up here and then go eat. We can watch the surgery's recording after."

"Oh that sounds splendid!"

They waited until The Mad Scientists arrived upstairs to join them and sat down at the table with them. The Monstrous Family held hands, closed their eyes and said their dinner prayer before eating.

"Bless Us, Dark Lord, For These Thy Gifts Which We Are About To Receive From Thy Infernal Bounty Through The Power Of Lucifer Eternal! Nima! Itadakimasu!"

They finished and parted and began eating the food. Not just the monsters either but also the mad scientists. Nurse Macabre calmly consumed the Chili Concoction of delivered human flesh and body parts and demonic flesh and body parts mixed together. Doctor Graves had switched his gas mask with one similar to the lower half of a skull complete with a mouth that opened and closed while he enjoyed the meal.

"Oh this is amazing Mother." Kira informed her.

"Mmm yes. I must concur. You have outdone yourself this time! Such a fantastic job of mixing the flavors and improving upon the both of them so well! The spices add a divine aroma to your dish that is simply to die for. I am amazed, Butcheress!" Nurse Macabre complimented her.

"Agreed. This might be the best Chili I've ever had!" Doctor Graves replied cheerfully.

"Oh you're all too kind. I'm just doing my part to assist everyone! We all have to do our part here and preparing the meat is the best way for me to contribute." She laughed.

"Well you certainly outdid yourself and knocked it out of the park. This is incredible." Kira told her and resumed wolfing down the chili. "Just incredible. What about you guys though? I mean, we're monsters, but how are you two able to eat it?"

"Oh don't get me wrong dear, we never partook of human flesh when we were alive. We had some standards." The Nurse informed Kira. "Not many but they were there." She admitted. "But, well, we aren't human anymore so it's not technically cannibalism anymore than it would be for you. Besides, we need to fuel our bodies so we might as well join you for dinner. Make sense?"

"Yeah I guess that makes sense." Kira confessed. "This is downright amazing anyway so I can't really blame you." She paused to sip from her Brain Drink. "Ahhh that's good." She swirled it and then abruptly stood up. "Ladies and gentleman! While this is a fine fantastic dinner out of our wildest dreams there is one among us who could not partake in the festivities tonight. Aiuengathrhurh. Hellreaver, The Wand of Twilight's End. My Demonic Magical Wand. Lily. I know she will rejoin us soon and better than ever but until she's back with us I would like to propose a toast. May Lily return to us soon and stand by us all once again!"

"CHEERS!" The other three cheered and raised their glasses. They clinked them together and then Kira sat back down and enjoyed her drink and resumed eating.

"And then? And then? I kicked open the door like a badass and tossed down the bottom feeder's head like a mic drop! You should've seen the teacher's face!" Kira laughed with her family. "Oh man I have not punched out a teacher in a while. Not since I dunked on Iwamoto."

"I assume this man was a teacher you knew in life?" Macabre asked her.

"Yeah, Gakushuu Iwamoto. He was a real douchebag. When he wasn't talking down to everyone he was bullying them or siccing a group of violent thugs on them. Eventually we got tired of his shit and Mashiro sent me to educate him on the errors of his ways after he messed with some of our girls." Kira enjoyed some food before she continued. "Mmmm. Now, I was badass even when I was alive, but even I wasn't sure if I could've beaten him in a fair fight. So I poured some hot coffee on him from above to distract him, threw a towel over his head and then I brought the pain. Man can't see? He can't fight. By the time he was able to get the towel off? It was too late. I had him." Kira sipped her drink. "He changed his tune after that."

Graves chuckled. "Ahhhh reminds me of Evil Medical School.Our Chemistry Teacher poisoned us first day and we had to race to make the antidote. Good times."

"Ohhh those were the good old days." Macabre sighed fondly as she looked back on her time in Medical School. "I remember when I grafted my first Chainsaw onto a woman's arm. Turned her into a killer cyborg. I received an A+ on the design and continued to improve her over the years."

"Carnage Komodo. One of my favorite creations and most loyal followers." Macabre looked over to Kira. "She had a chainsaw blade attached to a trigger mechanism handle with a minigun on top. A deadly combination of heavy ranged firepower and a sharp blade for dismembering and maiming enemies."

"That sounds badass."

"Oh she most certainly was."

"What happened to her?"

Macabre returned to her meal. "Sadly she was KIA with the rest of us. We haven't seen her since but presumably she's in Hell. Don't worry about it though. It's Karma really. What goes around comes around. Like what happened to your loser teacher."

"Don't start no shit, won't be no shit. Proverbs 17:28." Kira quoted.

"I'll drink to that." Graves replied and raised his glass.

"Whoo!" They toasted again and resumed drinking.

The Butcheress just laughed and enjoyed the company of her monster family. They enjoyed each other's company and the fine dining she'd prepared for them while laughing and talking together into the night. After enjoying dinner they worked together to clean the dishes and stock them in the dishwasher and the scientists returned to their lab while Kira flopped down on the couch to relax. Kira stretched out and rested her head on a pillow with her arms behind the back of her head with her eyes closed. Just letting the food settle and absorb into her body. "991 more to go. Just hold on guys. I'll get you out of Hell. No matter how long it takes." She whispered quietly.

It didn't take long for her rest to be interrupted by The Butcheress holding a phone in her hand. "Kira? Hey, Kira? Kira Hikaru!" She sat up and looked up at the demon. "You have a phone call. It's her."

Kira immediately shot up and accepted it. "Yes, yes, hello? Boss?"

"Hello, Hikaru." She had a soft soothing voice. The kind that conveyed authority and commanded attention while sending chills down your spine. An unsettlingly calm melodious voice that should be sweet and beautiful but there was just something so wrong about it that you couldn't quite put your finger on. It gave you the impression that you were speaking to someone who was just barely restraining herself from flaying you alive.

"M-Miss Archstopholes. Hello." Kira gulped and calmed herself down before she continued. "How are you tonight?"

"Oh dear child there is no reason to be afraid. You did good work tonight. Five demons in one night? Simply splendid. I'm calling to congratulate you dear. However there is a matter I wish to discuss with you in my office tomorrow morning. Nine o' Clock. Oh and don't worry about school. I've arranged for you to be excused."

"Oh. Okay. Thank you. I'll be there."

"Good girl. I'll see you then. Sleep tight sweet child." Miss Archstopholes hung up and Kira handed the phone back to Butcheress and sat back down on the sofa.

"Okay....soooo IIIII have a 9:00 Meeting tomorrow. Should be fun."

The Anime Crossover was pretty damn fun. A three hour long Anime Epic between the two Superhero Stories with all of their allies and friends teaming up together in both the Digital and Physical Worlds culminating in a team battle against SuperKeribDigiferEXE which ended with Gridman, Gridman Sigma and Gridknight merging with Guardian and ARIA to form one colossal supersized digital superhero to punch the fusion villain in the face and ultimately blast it out of the Digital World, out into the physical world, into space and finally into The Sun. Simply one hell of a finisher. Still it was exactly the overthetop crazy awesome fun popcorn movie she needed to take her mind off of the day she'd had. It left Kira with a big smile on her face. Exactly the kind of fun she was looking for. She saved the video to her list and gave it a Deliciously Evil Rating and then looked for another movie. It didn't take long to find HELLPOOL. Deadpool Meets Hellsing. She immediately clicked on it. "Fuck it. Vampires. Lets go." She quipped.
This one of course turned out to be every bit as gorey and insane as she'd expected. Speaking of Gore, The Butcheress eventually knocked on the door. "It's open!" She opened the door and walked inside holding an ornate goblet with brains inside covered by bloody ice cream and topped with eyeballs. "Ohhh that looks so goood!"

"You're welcome dear. Enjoy it! You've earned this tonight."

"Hey, um, should I bring back down after I finish?"

"Naaahh, I'll just warp it out after you fall asleep. Take some time and enjoy yourself. You have a big day tomorrow."

"Yeah. Don't worry. I'll be ready for it. Thank you."

"Sure. Sleep well, Little One."

"You too...Mother." She smiled and began enjoying the meal while the splatter fest played out on screen.

After eventually finishing the meal and the movie she set the goblet up on a dresser and got changed for sleep. Which basically just consisted of changing into a tanktop and taking off the rest but leaving the pentagram panties on. She stretched and yawned and got into bed. It was time for a long sleep after a successful day of saving the day again. "991 more to go. 991 more to go. 991 more to go..." She mumbled to herself repeatedly until sleep took her. Technically speaking Kira didn't need to sleep for very long at all. A simple micronap, approximately 30 seconds or so, was generally enough to refresh her, but a full night's sleep just felt so good to her psychologically that she would usually aim for sleeping at least that long. It made her feel more...human.

Morning finally came when the screams of the damned echoed out of her alarm. She moaned and fumbled around for it and turned it off. Kira took a minute to wake up and she sat up to look at the time on the alarm. 6:66 AM. "Real cute." She commented and after another minute or two she sat back up and removed her blanket and sheets to get up. After she got up the alarm went back to normal and switched to 7:00 AM. She removed her tanktop, harness and panties, retrieved her phone and carried it with her into the shower where she put on some Babymetal while she washed up under the spray of poisons and toxins.

After she cleaned herself up Kira stepped out and dried off and then she brushed and flossed for a while before finishing with a brain drink shot glass and then walking out of the bathroom to get dressed again.

Her outfit of choice was much more formal than normal. A white button-down long sleeved shirt with a red tie and a black blazer with red buttons. She also wore a knee-length black skirt with thigh-high tights worn on her legs and topped with fancy black shoes. She even styled her hair into a smooth bob. A simple and professional looking hairdo. Kira nodded at her reflection and it reached up with its left hand and waved to her on its own. Kira just smirked and walked out of the bathroom.

She quickly returned downstairs and returned to the kitchen to enjoy a quick breakfast consisting of a nice large brain drink. "Thank you this looks perfect."

"Something nice and easy for you, Little One, and then we'll go to Archstopholes Inc. It is important to get there early to showcase team spirit and to not keep her waiting."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Kira replied and sat down to enjoy her Brain Breakfast Drink. After savoring the drink and downing the entire thing she wiped her mouth with a napkin and then got up to wash it out. After cleaning up they walked out to the garage. It was everything you'd expect. Tools, paint cans, bikes, shelves, meathook chains hanging down from the ceiling, all of the usual junk. The only thing that stuck out was the 2022 Porsche Cayman sitting in the middle of the smooth gray garage. They walked across the garage and the doors opened up automatically for them. They climbed into the car and got settled in. The doors closed and the seatbelts set themselves. The garage opened and they backed on out of it. The garage closed up behind them and Kira got ready for the fun part. The Butcheress opened up a shimmering portal in front of them, invisible to normals, and they drove straight into it. The portal closed behind them and to the eyes of any onlookers it would seem as if the car kept driving its normal route but it would soon vanish completely once it was out of sight of anyone.

The car proper meanwhile was driving down The Spectral Highway: A ghostly foggy wavy blue mirror of the exact same street and its surroundings they would've been driving over. The cars on the street that they would be driving alongside if they were in the physical world were transparent and misty. The two of them could drive right through them here without doing any damage to either the vehicles or the passengers inside. This meant that they could drive right to Archstopholoes Inc at top speed headless of anything in their path while ignoring stop signs or lights. When you're driving through another dimension that allows you to bypass everything in the physical world the rules of the road become mere suggestions. Of course The Spectral Highway wasn't all fun and games. They had to reach their destination quickly. The longer they spent in this dimension the more they risked losing their physical forms. Their bodies would gradually break down and dissolve into the same spectral mist and become lost souls forever doomed to wander this dimension for eternity. Butcheress would be fine due to her demonic nature but the car would be lost and absorbed into the fog while Kira herself would eventually succumb without assistance. Her powers were too limited to survive in here without Lily around to keep her charged up. Fortunately for them however the Archstopholes Building wasn't too far away. Just in the middle of the city and they could reach there in no time by driving at the top speed of 182 MPH. When you don't have to concern yourself with the rules of the road your Demon Mommy can drive like Vin Diesel. They traversed The Spectral Hallway at breakneck speeds with Butcheress navigating the road with ease. They reached the parking lot in no time where Butcheress slowed down and re-opened the portal again. They drove out of the dimension, navigated the parking lot and Butcheress turned the car and backed into an open space and stopped on a dime.

"WHOOOOOO!" Kira cheered and they fist bumped, hit their fists up and down and left and right and then they fist bumped again and fired finger guns at each other. "POW!" They both called out while spreading her fingers back apart and laughing.  "Now that is driving! That is real driving right there! Way to go!"

"Heh. I did have some off time on occassion back home and I liked to race every now and then. The Spectral Hallway is a great place to practice if you have the magical defenses to handle it."

"Oh man I have got to go back there once I get Lilly back." Kira laughed. "That sounds like my kind of driving lesson."

"I would be delighted to educate you. Shall we go?"

"Yeah."

They got out of the car and walked to the building. Archstopholes Tower was a massive building that took up several blocks in itself and even warped space around itself as it took its place in a city. There was a giant building in front of the tower that looked like a cross between the Niagra Mohawk Building of Syracuse, New York and the Battleship Building: Research Institute for Experimental Medicine, Berlin, Germany. This building surrounded it on all sides and you'd have to walk through there to even get to the main tower. The tower proper looked like four Gothic Skyscrapers Merged into the The Kingdom Centre’s Eye of Sauron, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and a colossal Cobra. Crestfallen Angel Statues were merged into each of the four sides of the buildings architecture. The building stood at a whopping  1,460 feet tall and at the top of all of it looking down on the world was Manea Archstopholes.

"Alright. Don't want to keep her waiting now do we? Lets go."

Kira woke up screaming. Shrieking at the top of her lungs as she scrambled up to her feet only to fall on her butt all over again. She didn't notice. She could only feel and grab herself. Her chest, her legs, her shoulders, her face, her hair while screaming the entire time. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAHHHHH! MASHIIIIRO! MASHIRO!" She screamed in desperation. "MASHIROOOOO! MASHIROOO! WHERE ARE YOU? YOSHIHAMA! MIYU! YUUKI! HONOKA! SHINJU! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? GUYS WHERE ARE YOU?! CHOU! ETSUKO? MEI! ANYBODY! IS ANYBODY HERE? WHERE ARE YOU? AHHHHH!" she sobbed and finally started to take in her surroundings.

It was white. A pure white room. The fur rug carpeting was white. The chairs were white. The walls were white. The ceiling was white. The exceedingly bright lights were white. The paintings on the wall were white. The flowers on the desk were white. The equipment on the desk was white. The only thing that wasn't pure eerily bright snow white was the monstrous woman in the black dress smiling at her. She struck out in the room like a sore thumb. Her skin was bright red and her dark black double button solid blazer was obviously intended to show off her massive, H-Cup Breasts. Her long golden hair flowed down her back and tumbled down her shoulders but it did nothing to hide the long curved horns sticking out of the side of her head and raising upwards. Her shining sparkling eyes were covered by a pair of shining glasses that reflected the light of the room. Her full lucious lips were covered by reddish-pink lipstick. The woman was on the large side, leaving aside her pair shaped body, she utterly towered over her. She was somewhere around nine feet tall, maybe more, and her mind went blank trying to justify what she was staring up at. The woman just looked down at her blankly. Not moving. Not speaking. Not blinking. Just staring down at her until Kira broke the silence.

"Where....where...where am I?" She choked out. "Who are you? Where's my family? Where...where's Mashiro?" She sobbed.

"You can call me The Receptionist. My real name is too complex for you right now." She replied softly but her voice made Kira scream. She heard it. Not just out here but also inside her mind! It echoed in her mind! It reverberated inside her mind! Echoing on and on and on until it gradually grew silent.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Kira screamed.

"I'm a receptionist, dear, I thought that was obvious. As for where you are? You're in Hell dear! You've been here since you died back on Earth. You were suffering outside for about a couple hundred years until we were able to bring you in here. You don't have to worry. My Employer wiped it from your memory. You should be fine."

"BULLSHIT! THAT'S BULLSHIT! LET ME OUT OF HERE DO YOU HEAR ME? LET ME OUT! I NEED TO FIND MY FAMILY! I NEED MASHIRO!"

"You won't find them out there. Trust me you're much safer in here."

"FUCK YOU! LET ME OUT OF HERE DO YOU HEAR ME? LET! ME! OUT!"

The Receptionist shrugged and snapped her fingers and a door appeared on the far side of the room. Kira bolted across the room while The Receptionist counted down. "3. 2. 1."

Kira grabbed the door, forced it open and stepped out, screamed at what she saw and scrambled back inside and slammed the door shut as a torrent of flame chased after her. She sank to the floor as the door vanished and the flame was snuffed out. Before Kira could even gather her wits she found herself sitting in the chair in front of the desk.

"...What...was...that?"

"I told you dear, you're in Hell." The Receptionist informed her. Her sickeningly sweet voice still echoing through her mind. Kira curled up into a little ball.

"What do you want from me?"

"Me? I just want you to calm down, dear. It's my employer that wants your services. She thinks you might have a glimmer of potential. With the proper help. She is willing to offer you a chance at life, well technically anyway, and a shot at revenge. A chance to redeem yourself while cleaning up the Earth. A chance to get your friends some time out of Hell."

Kira perked up. "My...my friends?"

"The Hell Butterflies Gang, yes, she can arrange it. But only IF you're able to take her deal and accomplish your tasks."

"I...I can..." She looked at the wall and back again. "I can...get out of here? I can get them out of here?"

"Yes you can. IF you're able to pull it off."

"What...what do I need to do?"

"My Employer will give you the details but...are you familiar with the concept of Magical Girls?"

"What? Like Sailor Moon or something?"

"Basically. You know the story, right? An ordinary girl is approached by a Mentor Mascot, and given a Transformation Trinket which transforms her into a pretty-clothed superhero who uses her powers to fight evil for love and justice and rainbows and puppies and all that junk. The whole thing is arranged by Higher Powers to keep the world spinning and maintain their interests. They're all over The Multiverse in one form or another at this point. So naturally My Employer hit upon a brilliant idea: To create our own variation on The Powers' Magical Girl Soldiers. Hence why you've been selected to participate in this Magical Girl project."

"HUH?!" Kira exclaimed in shock. "Uhhh...soooo...you're offering me a chance to become a Magical Girl and fight, what, you guys?"

"In a way. To be more precise you'll be a Magical Girl Monster. Or a Magical Monster Girl. Whichever you prefer. Our Employees will craft a new body for you and you'll be able to slide right in. Your old body was obliterated when you died, thus, necessitating the creation of a new one and we'll be taking the liberty to give it a monstrous twist."

"So my soul will be able to slide right back into the body then?"

"There will be an adjustment period of course due to how different it will be than your old body but you'll be able to synchronize in no time I assure you. As for your soul, you don't technically have a soul. Walter M. Miller, Jr. wrote in A Canticle For Leibowitz that you don't have a soul, you are a soul, you have a body, temporarily and it's true. Supernatural beings like us use 'Your Soul' as a catch all term to make it simple for Mortals but the fact is that they are souls. Your soul is the essence of who you are. Without that, without you, your body just becomes an empty lifeless meatsuit. Under normal circumstances you will inhabit your meatsuit for an entire lifetime until old age took you back to the weeds or unless something killed you. After dying your belief system and actions through your life will determine where you go in your afterlife. If you don't believe in any of them you'll generally go to The Field. A simple empty field which doesn't have anything significant in it but will have doors that lead to different afterlives realities if they ever wish to leave The Field and travel to an afterlife of their choice. They don't have to but the option is there." The Receptionist summarized.

"So let me see if I've got this straight. I get a second chance at life, to come back with magical powers, to kick ass, get my revenge and free my friends?"

"Basically, yes."

Kira clapped her hands together. "HOT DAMN I'M-Wait. You said Monster Girl, right? What kind of Monster? Do I get to choose? CAN I COME BACK AS GOJIRA?"

The Receptionist burst out laughing while her giant bazongas bounced around until she calmed down. "No, no, you don't get to become Gojira. Your form upon The Moral Plane has already been chosen as has your outfit and Transformation Trinket. Whether or not you accept of course is up to you. Everything else of course will be explained by My Employer."

Kira's wide toothy grin did not fade however. "Ah what the hell. I'm in. Lets do this. I can get my friends out of Hell and hunt down the son of a bitch who killed me in the first place AND I get to come back as a Magical Girl Monster. I see this as a total win."

The Receptionist nodded. "I'm glad you see it that way. My Employer will see you now." She snapped her fingers and a door appeared. "Miss Archstopholes will see you now."

Modern Times!

Kira sat down across from Miss Archstopholes and her demonic boss smiled at her.

"Alright then. Kira? I would like a report of your mission. Tell me everything."

"Don't you know already?"

"I do but I want to hear it from you."

"Well, alright. So. My day at school was mostly uneventful aside from inspiring a classroom full of kids to fight their oppressors. So that was fun. I knew there was more to it though so I planned to go back at night and investigate further but then the demons struck first so I went after them. Took out the first one, a Long Arm Tribesevil, and ate his brain. It was the typical shit, countless visions of Hell, torment, you know the drill. But then I saw the others and the demonic phantom image gathering them together for their little get together at the school. It was a phantom, ghostly, shadowy figure, definitely an Illusion Beast. Anyway once I figured out where they were I returned to the school to investigate further and take out the rest. I fought the other two in the library where their portal's exit was and took them out. After I went through the portal I found myself in the pocket dimension their boss created. I navigated their traps and then I took down the last of the brothers. After which I confronted their leader, a Phantom Illusion Beast Zithaiinae-Magister of The Fulminis-Hell."

"Hmmm. That's certainly odd. A Magister taking up a teaching job is to be expected but the Phantasma's are territorial. Setting up shop in a pocket dimension is to be expected but not gathering helpers. They'd be more likely to fight with any demon encroaching on their territory. Let alone four of them. Did you find anything by eating his brain?"

"Just that he was trying a new approach to share in the screams of the innocent while he properly educates the mortals. They wanted to rip and tear but this was more fun. They could get their jollies by beating and torturing their victims alongside him. You said this guy was a Magister right? Maybe that's why he was willing to try a new approach."

'There's something else here. Are you sure you didn't discover anything else in his brain?"

"That's it aside from countless years torturing people in Hell and fighting other demons. He was a minor league devil all things considered."

"No there's something more going on here. I'm going to need to question him myself."

"Really? I already sent him off though. Odds are good he's straight up fucked."

"I made some arrangements just in case. His essence should be recuperating in The Princess's Hotel as we speak. Provided of course they managed to find him in time but they should at least be competent enough to handle that."

"Alright. So, uh, what about me? What should I do? I mean, where am I going next?"

"You are going to remain here in the city and continue to patrol it. We could be looking at something new and you're going to be investigating the situation on the streets. She's already recovered and she's waiting for you."

Kira sighed with relief. "Thank you. I've really missed her. It's like losing part of myself."

Manea stood up and walked around the desk while she was talking and then reached out to Kira and placed a hand on her shoulder. Kira's body froze up and she looked up at her. "Now, now, what's with the long face, Hikaru? You did good work out there yesterday. I'm proud of you. That's a tall order for a rookie like you even if they were Bottom Feeders." She took the hand off of her shoulder and instead cupped her chin and lifted her head up with her other hand. "In fact? I think you deserve a prize. How would you like to visit The Art Museum and see your friends again?"

Kira woke up screaming. Shrieking at the top of her lungs as she scrambled up to her feet only to fall on her butt all over again. She didn't notice. She could only feel and grab herself. Her chest, her legs, her shoulders, her face, her hair while screaming the entire time. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAHHHHH! MASHIIIIRO! MASHIRO!" She screamed in desperation. "MASHIROOOOO! MASHIROOO! WHERE ARE YOU? YOSHIHAMA! MIYU! YUUKI! HONOKA! SHINJU! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS? GUYS WHERE ARE YOU?! CHOU! ETSUKO? MEI! ANYBODY! IS ANYBODY HERE? WHERE ARE YOU? AHHHHH!" she sobbed and finally started to take in her surroundings.

It was white. A pure white room. The fur rug carpeting was white. The chairs were white. The walls were white. The ceiling was white. The exceedingly bright lights were white. The paintings on the wall were white. The flowers on the desk were white. The equipment on the desk was white. The only thing that wasn't pure eerily bright snow white was the monstrous woman in the black dress smiling at her. She struck out in the room like a sore thumb. Her skin was bright red and her dark black double button solid blazer was obviously intended to show off her massive, H-Cup Breasts. Her long golden hair flowed down her back and tumbled down her shoulders but it did nothing to hide the long curved horns sticking out of the side of her head and raising upwards. Her shining sparkling eyes were covered by a pair of shining glasses that reflected the light of the room. Her full lucious lips were covered by reddish-pink lipstick. The woman was on the large side, leaving aside her pair shaped body, she utterly towered over her. She was somewhere around nine feet tall, maybe more, and her mind went blank trying to justify what she was staring up at. The woman just looked down at her blankly. Not moving. Not speaking. Not blinking. Just staring down at her until Kira broke the silence.

"Where....where...where am I?" She choked out. "Who are you? Where's my family? Where...where's Mashiro?" She sobbed.

"You can call me The Receptionist. My real name is too complex for you right now." She replied softly but her voice made Kira scream. She heard it. Not just out here but also inside her mind! It echoed in her mind! It reverberated inside her mind! Echoing on and on and on until it gradually grew silent.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" Kira screamed.

"I'm a receptionist, dear, I thought that was obvious. As for where you are? You're in Hell dear! You've been here since you died back on Earth. You were suffering outside for about a couple hundred years until we were able to bring you in here. You don't have to worry. My Employer wiped it from your memory. You should be fine."

"BULLSHIT! THAT'S BULLSHIT! LET ME OUT OF HERE DO YOU HEAR ME? LET ME OUT! I NEED TO FIND MY FAMILY! I NEED MASHIRO!"

"You won't find them out there. Trust me you're much safer in here."

"FUCK YOU! LET ME OUT OF HERE DO YOU HEAR ME? LET! ME! OUT!"

The Receptionist shrugged and snapped her fingers and a door appeared on the far side of the room. Kira bolted across the room while The Receptionist counted down. "3. 2. 1."

Kira grabbed the door, forced it open and stepped out, screamed at what she saw and scrambled back inside and slammed the door shut as a torrent of flame chased after her. She sank to the floor as the door vanished and the flame was snuffed out. Before Kira could even gather her wits she found herself sitting in the chair in front of the desk.

"...What...was...that?"

"I told you dear, you're in Hell." The Receptionist informed her. Her sickeningly sweet voice still echoing through her mind. Kira curled up into a little ball.

"What do you want from me?"

"Me? I just want you to calm down, dear. It's my employer that wants your services. She thinks you might have a glimmer of potential. With the proper help. She is willing to offer you a chance at life, well technically anyway, and a shot at revenge. A chance to redeem yourself while cleaning up the Earth. A chance to get your friends some time out of Hell."

Kira perked up. "My...my friends?"

"The Hell Butterflies Gang, yes, she can arrange it. But only IF you're able to take her deal and accomplish your tasks."

"I...I can..." She looked at the wall and back again. "I can...get out of here? I can get them out of here?"

"Yes you can. IF you're able to pull it off."

"What...what do I need to do?"

"My Employer will give you the details but...are you familiar with the concept of Magical Girls?"

"What? Like Sailor Moon or something?"

"Basically. You know the story, right? An ordinary girl is approached by a Mentor Mascot, and given a Transformation Trinket which transforms her into a pretty-clothed superhero who uses her powers to fight evil for love and justice and rainbows and puppies and all that junk. The whole thing is arranged by Higher Powers to keep the world spinning and maintain their interests. They're all over The Multiverse in one form or another at this point. So naturally My Employer hit upon a brilliant idea: To create our own variation on The Powers' Magical Girl Soldiers. Hence why you've been selected to participate in this Magical Girl project."

"HUH?!" Kira exclaimed in shock. "Uhhh...soooo...you're offering me a chance to become a Magical Girl and fight, what, you guys?"

"In a way. To be more precise you'll be a Magical Girl Monster. Or a Magical Monster Girl. Whichever you prefer. Our Employees will craft a new body for you and you'll be able to slide right in. Your old body was obliterated when you died, thus, necessitating the creation of a new one and we'll be taking the liberty to give it a monstrous twist."

"So my soul will be able to slide right back into the body then?"

"There will be an adjustment period of course due to how different it will be than your old body but you'll be able to synchronize in no time I assure you. As for your soul, you don't technically have a soul. Walter M. Miller, Jr. wrote in A Canticle For Leibowitz that you don't have a soul, you are a soul, you have a body, temporarily and it's true. Supernatural beings like us use 'Your Soul' as a catch all term to make it simple for Mortals but the fact is that they are souls. Your soul is the essence of who you are. Without that, without you, your body just becomes an empty lifeless meatsuit. Under normal circumstances you will inhabit your meatsuit for an entire lifetime until old age took you back to the weeds or unless something killed you. After dying your belief system and actions through your life will determine where you go in your afterlife. If you don't believe in any of them you'll generally go to The Field. A simple empty field which doesn't have anything significant in it but will have doors that lead to different afterlives realities if they ever wish to leave The Field and travel to an afterlife of their choice. They don't have to but the option is there." The Receptionist summarized.

"So let me see if I've got this straight. I get a second chance at life, to come back with magical powers, to kick ass, get my revenge and free my friends?"

"Basically, yes."

Kira clapped her hands together. "HOT DAMN I'M-Wait. You said Monster Girl, right? What kind of Monster? Do I get to choose? CAN I COME BACK AS GOJIRA?"

The Receptionist burst out laughing while her giant bazongas bounced around until she calmed down. "No, no, you don't get to become Gojira. Your form upon The Moral Plane has already been chosen as has your outfit and Transformation Trinket. Whether or not you accept of course is up to you. Everything else of course will be explained by My Employer."

Kira's wide toothy grin did not fade however. "Ah what the hell. I'm in. Lets do this. I can get my friends out of Hell and hunt down the son of a bitch who killed me in the first place AND I get to come back as a Magical Girl Monster. I see this as a total win."

The Receptionist nodded. "I'm glad you see it that way. My Employer will see you now." She snapped her fingers and a door appeared. "Miss Archstopholes will see you now."

Kira Hikaru nodded and walked to the door and placed a hand on it. "So right through here?"

"Correct."

"Alright then." She took a deep breath, slowly blew it out, and opened the door to find herself standing in front of a long stone staircase with a red mist drifting down the stairs from the top of whatever the hell was up there. Kira could feel it. Even from down there on the landing she could feel it. It was big. It was strong. It was scary. It was terrifying. Kira had seen a lot of tough customers in her life, Kenshiro, Mashiro, Malty and Baron stood at the top of the list, but this feeling? This was different. She had only ever felt this feeling once in her entire life. On the night she and the others were slaughtered by that bastard in the Devil Mask. The moment she'd laid eyes on him she felt terrified. Like she was laying in the street staring down a speeding truck barreling towards her blaring its horn and the lights flashing and the truck was on fire and she couldn't move and only stare at her approaching death. She could only describe it was being in the presence of absolute evil. Something so ancient and horrible that it made Suko fucking Chifumi look like a Chihuahua. The Battousai Siblings might come close in power, maybe, she'd never seen either of them go all out, but this thing that awaited her at the top of the stairs was most certainly considerably more outright evil than them.

Kira swallowed. She should run. She should turn around and run the fuck away from whatever was up there. She'd tried to fight Devil Mask and was just annihilated as a result and this thing was at least as bad as that. But where would she even go? Back to the receptionist? Fuck load of good that would do her. She didn't have a choice. She had to proceed forward. Kira steeled herself and let go of the door and left it to shut behind her and disappear. She took her first slow trembling step. It was a slow heavy step like something was weighing her down. As if she had a ball and chain  wrapped around her legs. But she still took that first step and stomped it down on the stair and she proceeded with her other foot and she began slowly walking up the stairs. She was scared, afraid, terror-stricken and couldn't shake the feeling that she was marching towards her death up there despite already being dead. But she kept going anyway.

"No fear. No pain. No limits. No fear. No pain. No limits. No fear. No pain. No limits. Fear is a weakness. Pain is a weakness. Limits do not exist. No fear. No fear. No fear. No fear. No fear!" She recited Mashiro's creed again and again out loud as she climbed the stairs up to the top. She was scared but she was ready to face whatever was waiting for her up there. "No fear. No pain. No doubt. No pain. No limits." She grabbed the doorknobs and pushed open the fancy intricate red and golden double doors waiting for her and she pushed them open to find herself standing in a big fancy office that looked like something right out of a palace and there, at the far end of the room, clad in her fancy red suit with her mane of red hair down her back, black gloves on her clasped hands, a warm welcoming smile on the beautiful almost Angelic looking face of the woman sitting at a large intricately designed rectangular desk. Beautiful wood executive desk with natural veneer. Elegant inlay work done.  There were a few fancy items on the desk including a floating spinning globe, a few books with writing she couldn't understand, a big fancy bookshelf behind her with more of the strange books, and of course she had a large fancy carpeting and a chair to relax in. This...this was something strange. It was like some big shot CEO's office but with an inherent wrongness about it. The furniture around the room was fancy but the hellish red to the aristocratic design of the office put her off. While they occasionally had some dealings with low level Yakuza, Mashiro was the one who handled all of that, and while they had seen the Battousai's Fancy Castle they hadn't been inside.

This was completely new to her, like stepping into a brand new world, on top of how hellish it was, it threw off guard. However she managed to steel herself again and sat down across from the woman. "Hello? Are you The Employer?"

"That I am. Please, dear, take a load off and get comfortable and lets get to know each other better. My name is Manea Archstopholes and it is very nice to meet you in person."

Kira sat down in the insanely comfortable chair, nearly sinking into the soft foam cushioning, and then she righted herself back up again after a moment. "Oh wow, wow, okay, this chair is extremely comfortable." She laughed a little before getting down to business. "Hello Miss Archstopholes. I'm Hikaru. Uh, if you don't mind me asking, why exactly am I here? I mean, I was a badass up on Earth, but you and your receptionist downstairs is obviously way more powerful than me. By an impossibly wide margin. So, uh, I'm not entirely sure what I can contribute."

"Yes it's true. You have no innate magical talent or occult knowledge but what you lack in those areas you make up for in fire. For a physical human your willpower was extraordinarily impressive. Not many humans would continue to fight against an ArchDevil level being like you did after taking such horrific wounds."

"That day...I was backed into a corner and already wounded from his opening salvo. I knew if I tried to run I'd die. Either by his hands or by bloodloss. Since he'd already taken so much from me I threw everything else away and attacked him with everything I could. I even..." Her voice cracked. "I...even...I even took up Mashiro's sword from her cold, dead, hand and used it. It snapped like a toothpick against him." Kira had to compose herself before she continued. "I've always had an elevated ability to take an asskicking. It's not like those diseases...whatever they're called..."

"Congenital Insensitivity To Pain With Anhidrosis and Faah-Out." Archstopholes replied.

"Fooh....what now?"

"Faah-Out. a loss-of-function mutation in the enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase as well as a microdeletion in a new “pseudogene” downstream of the FAAH gene called FAAH-OUT, causes a near complete insensitivity to pain. The individuals with this experience higher levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide and related molecules that are normally broken down by FAAH, highlighting the role of the endocannabinoid system in this instance of pain insensitivity. Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of the nervous system which prevents the feeling of pain or temperature, and prevents a person from sweating caused by a genetic mutation that prevents the formation of nerve cells which are responsible for transmitting signals of pain, heat, and cold to the brain. The disorder is inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion."

Kira blinked. "I, uh, wow, yeah, that sounds scientific enough. But, yeah, I don't have either of those, didn't, I could just push through pain better than normal people and used it to fuel myself in fights. I could get beaten bloody and just keep right on going." She laughed darkly. "The punks back home thought I was a zombie the way I just kept coming. Even from stuff I probably shouldn't have been able to. But that night...I was helpless. I couldn't do a damn thing but keep pushing my body beyond its breaking point. So even when he was beating me like a punching bag or blasting me through the air like a softball....I just kept coming. Because I didn't have anything else. It was pointless though. I just got obliterated."

"This game of ours has been amsuing child but I have grown bored with you. In honor of your impressive and stubborn will however I will send you to Hell with style. Fare thee-well Hina Hikaru! Jaou Ensatsu Reppa Fūjin Ken! (Wicked King Immolation Fissure Wind Break Encampment Fist!) "

Those were the last words Kira heard before her broken body was swallowed up by a massive roaring tornado that tore her apart, ripped her body to ribbons and incinerated her remains.

"Yes. A violent black flame tornado that obliterated you, the bodies of your friends and the surounding area before the Battousai Siblings were able to shut it down. The collateral damage resulting from this incinerated the area and left it a black scorced wasteland. Barring mystical treatment nothing is growing there anytime soon."

"What the Hell was that anyway?"

"Ethereal flames from the underworld combined with wind magic. Your body was simultaneously ripped apart, torn to ribbons and burned to ashes which were also obliterated. There were no traces left of your physical bodies in the human world. But as I'm sure you were informed we have prepared a new one for you. A monstrous body of your own. Which of course circles back to why you're here. You see, thoughout various universes, The Higher Powers have been recruiting young girls to their side to hunt down and destroy the forces of evil. Or, you know, things like us. So. I came up with a similar idea. I've been calling it The Magical Girl Monster Project. Take nice ladies like you who are full of potential and give them a new lease on life to take care of troublemakers who would disrupt the natural order of the Mortal World. You see Hikaru, I am a Business Devil who hails from The Greed Hell. Everything I do is dedicated to furthering my MegaCorp in various worlds but not everyone sees the world the way I do. There are a lot of chaotic troublemakers, similar to the one who killed you, that we need to deal with to keep the world spinning." The Demoness paused to let her take all of this in before continuing. "You, Hikaru, are the first prototype of this project. I can give you a chance to come back to life, as a Monster Girl, with Magical Powers and a Magical Partner who will act as your transformation artifact. You will work for us to hunt down these troublemakers until I've decided you've settled your debt, including avenging your death, and I free you from your contract."

"W-wait...what about my friends? What will happen to them?"

"Oh don't worry. They will be freed with you. Complete the assignments I give you and defeat enough of the demons and send their essence back to Hell and I will arrange for their freedom and return to life."

"Okay...annnnnd....uhhh....h-how many will I have to defeat?"

"I'm so glad you asked dear. Considering how much I am promising you and everything I am giving you, it will have to be quite the monumental task indeed won't it? So lets come up with a big number. A really big number. One that marks this as a truly Herculean task but one that is still, you know, fair. Lets go with...hmmmmm....oh! I know!" She leaned forward. "Lets go with one thousand! Yes! That's a perfect number! Defeat one thousand demons, capture their essence and send it back to Hell and I will consider your debt repaid to me and free you from your contract and restore life to you and your gang! Until then you will work for me as my employee and follow orders while your friends remain with me as collateral."

Kira laughed. "Okay, I'm sorry, but, did....you just say 1,000?"

"Correct."

"Oh. Okay then. That's a big number. That's....a lot. That's more than the number of people I ever punched when I was alive." Kira noted. It wasn't like she had much choice anyway was it? She had a chance here, even if it was a small one, to change their fates and come back with a new life and kick that bastard's ass, avenge their deaths, and get a second chance at life! However small, however hopeless it might seem, she had to take this chance. Kira didn't have any real experience in contract negotiation but she was smart enough to know that this would not come again. This was her only shot at taking back the life that was stolen from her and making up for her crimes from the past and hunt down every damn demon rampaging around the world and hurting the good innocent people of the world. After a brief deliberation she clapped her face and leaned forward onto the desk to meet her gaze. "Alright. I'm in. Lets do this. Where do I sign?"

"Excellent. Right here." A six page contract appeared on the table in a flash of red smoke and Kira began looking it over.

"Simply fill out your information where necessary and sign on the dotted lines." She instructed and handed her a blood red pen. "Let me know if you have any questions."

Kira accepted it and got to work on signing the contract.

After she finished signing all of the pages and filling out all of her information she handed the contract back to her. Miss Archstopholes looked it over with a smile. "Alright everything's in place." The contract vanished in a puff of red smoke. "You officially belong to us now, dear, welcome aboard."

Kira stood up and shook her hand. "Anything for them."

"I'm so glad to hear that. Now. Why don't I take you to the lab and put you in your new body?"

"I'd like that. This is probably the most...interesting out of body experience ever but I'd like to be back in a meatsuit."

"'Atta girl. Come on you're going to love it." She snapped her fingers and a door appeared out of thin air again.

"How do you guys do that?"

"Magic honey. Come along now."

Kira followed her to the door and Miss Archstopholes pulled it open and stepped inside with her to find herself standing in a giant laboratory straight out of a Sci-Fi Movie. "What in the fuuuuuuck?" She asked as she took it all in.

There was machinery she'd never seen before lining the walls, little robots scurrying around, larger more humanoid robots walking around the lab, computer monitors, various weapons, machines that are used to compile experimental data and information. They walked past capsule tanks and further into the lab where there were a few different machines monitoring experiments and a giant computer which monitored everything in the giant expansive laboratory and the house along with multiple different camera angles. She walked past the main room which had a few different beds with wrapped up vacuum-packed tarp packages that were writhing from whatever was inside of them down to a series of doors on either side. Her boss opened the door and she was greeted with the bizarre sight of a an unnaturally tall and lanky rail thin man. He was so alarmingly thin, in fact, that it looked as if his bones were about to break through his skin. His body was covered by a skin tight white labcoat with exposed arm and bone muscle from his fingertips leading up his wrists and forearms with five organic hypodermic syringes sticking out of each hand. His mouth was covered by a steel plate with exhalation valves on either side. His eyes were covered by bright blue goggles and he ad spiky white-gold hair on his scarred head. His legs were covered by the same skintight pants legs and he had white boots on. There were clawed metal multi-jointed arm devices attached to his back with glowing red eyes in the centers and spikes running along their backs. He had a tight head mirror bolted into his head as well as a tall and sultry professional looking woman with elegant luxury glasses on her face. She has a beautiful face that makes her look like a model which is offset by the top half of her head being missing and covered with a rose tinted glass with her large brain inside of it hooked up to multiple machines with other machines inside of it. She's wearing a tight white bodysuit with black boots and her burned and clawed hands, looking similar to Doctor Graves, were soon covered by tight black gloves. What little of her hair remains around her head is a jade green along with her eyebrows. She is wearing ruby red lipstick.

The two scientists are standing in front of something that is laying on a gurney and covered by a sheet.

Miss Archstopholes gestured widely to the two. "Kira Hikaru! Meet Doctor Graves and Nurse Macabre! Mad Scientist Super-Villains In Life And Now You're Personal Doctors!" She declared happily. "You'll be perfectly safe. They work for me. Isn't that right you two?"

"Yes Mistress!" They replied simultaneously. Steam blowing out of the exhalation valves on Dr. Graves' mask's exhalation valves complete with a buzzing metallic voice which contrasted wildly with Nurse Macabre's husky and sultry voice.

"Well....this is...certainly something. They were Super-Villains? Like, real ones?"

"They were. Then they died, went to Hell and I picked them up and recruited them. But onto business! Is the body ready?"

"Yes of course. We already put the finishing touches on it and have been awaiting her arrival!"

"Good. Go ahead and reveal it then! It's showtime!"

"Hell yeah! Lets see it!" Kira declared eager to jump into her brand new body.

"Alright then! Showtime! 1! 2! 3! Curtain up!" They whipped the sheet off of the body and Kira's jubilance turned to shock and confusion at the sight of her new body: A tall, muscular, stitched together corpse comprised of multiple different body parts sewn together in a physical form. It's body was sewn together from top to bottom and there were neck bolts sticking out of the sides of its neck and it's hair was a clear and visible purple! It was as far from her human body as you could get!

"Uhh....wh...wh...whaaaa...w-what is this?"

Miss Archstopholes put an arm around her. "Beautiful isn't it? I told you that you needed a new body since your old one was obliterated and I thought it would be appropriate since you were called a Zombie so much in life." She chuckled. "Awww why the long face? I told you that you'd be a monster girl didn't I?"

"Huh. Well. I guess you did. So you built the whole corpse from scratch?"

"Mostly. The body is forged from the flesh of the most evil women in the history of the world! From both this and other worlds!" Nurse Macabre informed her.

"That's....a bit unnerving."

"I wouldn't worry too much dear. The body is beautiful, elegant and functional. It's not like we incorporated pieces of animal carcasses into it like Victor did for Adam."

"He did that?"

"In Chapter Three, Victor says that he "began the creation of a human being." In order to achieve his goal, he requires "lifeless matter" so that he can "renew life where death had apparently devoted the body to corruption." In other words, he needs body parts, and so he must look in all of the places one might find those parts: the morgue, slaughter-houses, fun places like that. He also says, in Chapter Three, that he "dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave and tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay." Doctor Graves explained.

"Wow....Victor was a cunt." Kira commented and returned her attention to the body.  "Well if it's functional then I can't complain. So how do I do this?" Kira asked.

"Just float over and fly into it. You'll slide right into the corpse and fill in the missing element it needs to animate. Be forewarned however that this body will take some getting used to."

"Understood. I'm going to get into the body first and then we'll figure out the rest." Kira replied and levitated across the room to the Franken-Corpse cuffed to the gurney like it was fresh out of the morgue or some freaky experiment. She looked at it. "So this is my new body, huh? This is going to take some getting used to. No time like the present though. So it's like...this?" Kira asked and pushed her hands into the shoulders of the body and she sank right in to it! Kira half-expected to pass through it to the other side but instead of this she began to sink into her new body as her hands traveled down its arms to its hands and the rest of her followed and sank right into it. Her soul, her essence, sank into her new body. Kira's soul disappeared from view and a fiery greenish-black aura surrounded her on all sides before sinking back into her body. After a momentary pause her eyes snapped open and her mouth opened once more and exhaled a cloud of mist with an unearthly howl! She began gnashing and chomping her teeth while straining against her restraints until she snapped her titanium cuffs and tore her arms and legs free! After a momentary struggle she grabbed the restraint against her neck and tore it off of the gurney and tossed it aside! Finally she ripped off the restraint around her stomach and dropped it and then she sat up and growled and put her feet down on the cold hard floor and stood tall and powerful in the middle of the lab still snarling and growling like a beast. She slowly turned her head to look at them, shifted her feet and body around and stared down the trio. She took a powerful step forward and then fell flat on her face! "Rrrrrrr?"

Manea burst out laughing. "Weren't you listening, Hikaru? This isn't your old body! It's a brand new one! Completely different than your old human body. It's going to take some getting used to!"

"Are you alright, Kira?" Doctor Graves asked her.

"Rrrrrr...rrrrrrr....I...I...thinnnnnkkk....sooooo..." She groaned and pushed herself back up and shook her head. "I'm not hurt at all of course but that was weird. What happened?"

"You're still adjusting to your new body. This isn't like your old human body that you had your entire life. This body is of an entirely different makeup and species. You're a FrankenZombie now. Your height and weight and musculature makeup are different as well and you haven't synchronized with it yet. This will take some time but we'll help you through it." Doctor Graves explained.

"Okay but what about the growling?"

"That's the nature of your FrankenZombie body. You are a monster after all. That too will take some getting used to until you're able to get a handle on your body's new instincts." Nurse Macabre added.

"Nnnngghhh.....bbbblllurggghh...g-gack...g-got it." She garbled out and pulled herself back up to her feet and backed up into a large heavy metal table that she uprooted and sent flying across the room with a swing of her arm! The side of the eight hundred pound table was dented inward and it was thrown into the air out of the bolts that were keeping it secured to the floor! Kira stared and watched it fly away in astonishment as a flying robot flew over and caught it. Kira looked at her arm in surprise and then at the broken bolts littering the floor and then she raised her other arm up and looked at her hands. A smile spreading across her face. "Ohhhhh fuck the hell, yes!" She began laughing until a squad of floating robots in the form of blood red and silver floating torsos with four arms attached to their bodies and large powerful hands and tank turrets heads and glowing anti gravity devices attached to the bottom of their torsos flew down and surrounded her and they were soon joined by a swarm of wailing spirits in the form of skeletal monsters covered in dark hooded cloaks of long ripped black cloth their faces twisted and locked into permanent grimaces bellowing out unearthly inhuman screams of anguish and rage and pain that began flying around her in circles. "Woah what the fuck?" Kira asked while raising her fists.

"At ease!" Nurse Macabre called out to them and the robots walked away while the spirits scattered and flew away into the walls, ceiling and floor of the laboratory. "Apologies, Kira, they are tasked with protecting the laboratory in case one of the experiments gets out of hand or someone manages to break in. Same with the wailing souls of the damned."

"Souls of the Damned? You just have those here?" She questioned. More curious than concerned.

"The people who have been sent to hell as punishment after their death. I keep several on retainer as additional security measures. Normal humans without spiritual senses or specialized technology cannot see, hear or sense them despite the spirits being fully capable of ripping them to shreds on the physical and spiritual level." Archstopholes summarized. "Even IF someone was able to get through the technological security measures of the lab the damned souls would tear them asunder."

"Oh. Okay. That's cool. Creepy but cool." She replied and tried to regain her composure. As she did she found herself transfixed on Nurse Macabre's giant pulsating brain encased in that glass case of unnatural blue liquid hooked up to wires around it. It was like looking at the most beautiful juicy high class five star steak she'd ever seen! s the seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior. Lying in its bony shell and washed by protective fluid, the brain is the source of all the qualities that define our humanity and it was making her full on salivate! Before Kira was even consciously aware of it she was running across the room towards Nurse Macabre gasping and snarling and gnashing her teeth in her mad sprint to sate her hunger.

"She can run. That's good to know." Nurse Macabre replied casually while jotting this down on a notepad. Completely unphased by the now feral shrieking FrankenZombie they'd created. Her confidence proved well founded when Kira took a flying leap towards her and was repelled by a forcefield in a flash of red light that sent her flying backwards across the room until she crashed into some heavy duty metal pipes and deformed them on impact. Kira got right back up however and rushed her again until a squad of robots detached their arms in a series of sections that were connected by streams of energy and the hands reached out and grabbed her arms and legs and lifted her up into the air! Kira roared and snarled and struggled against the large metal hands holding her against her will while another set of robots flew down to the pipes and began working on repairing them.

Steam blew out of Doctor Graves' mask valves as he observed this. "That took longer than I expected but it's not like we weren't prepared for this. Bring around the dining table!"

A pair of robots brought about another table with a large white table cloth on it and a large cloched plate on it. The table was set down and a chair wheeled itself over to the table while Kira was carried over by the robots and lowered down to the table while the cover was removed to reveal a large plate full of organs and body parts artistically presented with a giant human brain proudly displayed in the middle of the plate!

The moment the robots released her Kira dragged the plate over to herself and began rabidly voraciously consuming everything on it! Grabbing the body parts among the plate and scarfing them down by shoving them into her mouth and consuming them all in a mad rush as another robot set down a giant 2.4 Liter water bottle filled with brain matter, fluids, blood, chemicals and pieces of organs on a coaster. After Kira consumed everything in a mad rush to sate her hunger she grabbed the bottle, whipped off the lid and frantically downed the entire drink until it was empty and she slammed it back down on the table and she took a breather for a minute as she relaxed and her hunger was sated and she felt her senses come back to her. She visibly sighed and began wiping her mouth and hands with a pile of napkins until the realization slowly dawned on her as to what she'd just done and she shrieked again and fell out of her chair and looked at her blood drenched hands. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAHHHH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! WHAT DID I DO? WHAT HAVE I DONE? OH SWEET JESUS WHAT HAVE I DONE?! AAAAAARRRGGGHHH!"

"Well this is within expectations."

"Yes. Relax, Kira, your body requires consumption of others to be able to function properly. It's a requirement of the body we made for you." The Nurse told her.

"You can try to avoid doing so but your body will fail you. You will lose your higher brain functions and begin turning into a feral mindless monster until you either sate yourself or are destroyed while your body gradually fails you and your power lashes out uncontrollably." Doctor Graves added.

She scrambled to her feet and clenched her fists. "You....YOU DID THIS? YOU MADE ME DO THAT?!"

"You shouldn't be surprised, Hikaru, after all...I told you that you would become a Monster."

"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She screamed and charged her only for Archstopholes to hold up her hand.

Kira woke up on a bed in a giant pure white metal room.

"Unnnngggh....what? Wh-what? Where am...where am I?" She asked in confusion. "H-hey! Hey! HEY! WHERE AM I? WHERE ARE YOU? YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! HEY! COME OUT! I WANT ANSWERS DAMMIT!" Kira shouted as she got up and jumped off the bed and got a look her surroundings. It was a pure white room constructed of some kind of metal and everything was pure clean white. The room looked incredibly futuristic and there was no way to tell how she got here or where the door was. "HEY! HEEEEEEEEYYYYY! LET ME OUT OF HERE YOU HEAR ME? LET ME OUT!" She turned around and began slamming her fists into the walls hard enough that the crashing sounds of her wrecking ball punches echoed around the room but she couldn't even make a dent in the wall. "YOU CAN'T KEEP ME IN HERE! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME INTO THIS! YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T! LET ME OUT!" She screamed and punched and punched and punched and punched and punched ineffectively until she switched to kicking things. No effect. She began screaming and running around the room hitting everything to try and find a way out even making superhuman leaps into the air and kicking or slamming herself against the wall. No effect. She tripped and stumbled around several times as she flailed and raged ineffectively until she was reduced to falling to her knees and slamming her arms against the wall. "Let me out....let me out please....I wanna go home...I wanna go home. I didn't want this. I-I knew I'd become a Monster but this....this is wrong. I....what I did...it was wrong. I can't...I can't be a cannibal."

She rocked back and forth. "This is a nightmare. This has to be a nightmare. Please let this be a nightmare. Someone wake me up. I want to wake up."

"Do I deserve this? Oh who am I kidding of course I do. I was a Monster when I was alive. I did bad things. A lot of bad things. I broke the law. We all did. I deserve this damnation huh? What can I do? I ate human body parts. I'm a Goddamn Monster. I was bad when I was alive and now I'm worse. Just like they always said I'd be."

"What can I do? What should I do? Oh who am I kidding? I knew what I signed up for. I made a deal with The Devil and now I'm a Monster. It's my own fault. I knew what I was signing up for.  They literally told me I'd become a Monster and I still signed up. I walked right into this. I dived into it headfirst. I asked for it."

Kira began walking around her cell again in circles and performing simple exercises to get used to her new body for several minutes straight before she stopped in the middle of the room, taking a deeeep breath and slowly blowing it out. She relaxed herself and raised her hands up and slowly lowered them down with her fists pointing down to the ground, her roots. Then she moved her arms up to her chest and pushed them outwards while opening her hands with her palms facing upwards. Her branches growing and the leaves blooming. Then she raised her right hand up to her forehead with her left hand pointing downwards. Her body turning and facing right and then she alternated positions, switching her hands and stances to the left, representing the tree growing up and the limbs waving in the wind and switching back and forth until it became natural to her and she put her feet together and lowered her arms with her left hand over her right hand several inches away from the groin the left hand pushed down while the right hand pushed up. She slid her right foot out at a 45 degree angle to the right in a horse stance at the same time she moved her hands right up to chest level with the elbows down so that her forearm was angled at a 45 degree angle. The palms then turned outwards and the fingers circled down and around to the starting point with her hands back to back and her fingers rolled into a fist and down over her knees. Her right hand circled around to an open handed middle block with the palm facing up at the same time as her other hand rose to the chamber. Her right hand then turned into a grab and pulled back to the chamber position and she struck forward with her other hand in a spear hand strike.

Kira continued the Kata before resetting back to the first one and sinking back to her knees, inhaling deeply and blowing air out again as she relaxed. "“I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me." Kira continued to take a few breathers until she calmed down and stood up again as a section of the wall opened up to reveal the silhouette of Archstopholes standing in the doorway.

wwwpoems-and-quotes.com/poems/1041352
"Eve picked the forbidden fruit, Adam ate it too. Much to his displeasure, God vented his anger. Time fluttered like like a butterfly from hell. Satan seduces darkness; Trying to pull my soul like thread from a needle's hole. It takes a lifetime's virtues, Forever pending dues, May he be pleased with one or two in the deserted worldly hue. Me finds it hard to make escape like a butterfly from hell, Whose will is constantly burned, What remains are ashes in hell." She chuckled darkly. "How you feeling kid? You calmed down yet?"

Kira nodded. "I-I am. I'm sorry about earlier. I....I freaked out."

"Hey it's cool. Don't worry about it. I saw the reaction coming a mile away. Besides, you couldn't have hurt me no matter how mad you got. You and I are on completely different levels."

"Yeah no shit." She quipped. "What did you do to me?"

"I just used a flex of my power to drop you. You're fine. How's the body? Getting used to it yet?"

"Yeah, yeah, I think I'm settling into it. Thanks."

"No problem. Come on. You still need to apologize to the doctors and there a few more friends I want you to meet."

"Okay. Lead the way boss."

My other half?" Kira asked.

"Hellreaver is part of you and you are her. Half of her is within your heart and that makes her the key to your powers. You'll understand once you take hold of her."

"Her? Not an It?"

"You'll see. Take the box and open it."

Kira shrugged and accepted the magnificently crafted ornate box. Once she touched she felt a charge of magical energy surge up through her arms and into her body and her hair stood up on end! "Wh-what the?"

"That's just a safety measure. As unlikely as it was that somebody would ever be able to steal it I like to precautions. If you were a normal human and you tried to touch this without express permission you'd be barbecued on contact but you'll be just fine."

Kira took the charge until the energy charge finally died down and the box opened itself up. "WHOO! That was a rush!" She laughed and her hair settled back down. She looked down into the box and took off the fancy wrapping to reveal...a creepy looking ghostly pale dark haired pitch black eyed black lipstick wearing porcelin doll in a Gothic Lolita style outfit! "Uhhhh what?" Kira looked back at the group. "I thought you said she was a wand?"

"Just pick her up and you'll understand."

Kira reached down into the box and attempted to grab the doll carefully and gingerly but the moment she touched it she was assaulted with a barrage of horrendous hellish satanic imagery. A dystopian, fleshy, infernal, industrial nightmare of drudgery and prolonged eternal suffering where the souls of the sinners are crushed, burned, ground up, eaten, stabbed, shocked and subjected to every form of eternal suffering both in and out of their own personal hells they are subjected to. During all of this suffering and pain and anguish their blood and tears are poured into a forge and mixed with various materials to be formed into a hellish nightmare of a wand. The wand changes hands many times through the ages to be used in countless battles. Its dark magic utilized by horrific monsters to carry out their dark, horrible urges on their enemies and victims alike until it is finally taken by Manea Archstopholes. The wand is tested thoroughly until a piece of it is extracted from it. A sphere of swirling dark crackling energy is removed from the skull of the wand and carried across a laboratory and placed on top of a device which is enclosed by a glass case. The scientists work on it long and hard until they turn it into a solid black box which is then placed into the exposed heart of Kira's FrankenZombie Body. The box sank into the fleshy heart and merged with it. The black box then unfolded itself into a black lock and glowed brightly. The wand was then transformed into the doll and placed inside of the box while the scientists worked together to sew up the body.

Kira gasped and fell out of her seat onto the floor. "Wh-wha...what...what was...what was that? What was all that? What happened?!"

"Give it a minute. What you're seeing is a memory of the forging of Hellreaver and her utilization through the ages as well as the memory of a portion of her being placed inside of you." Archstopholes explained. "She's part of you now. You'll need her to unlock your true power and transform yourself."

"I thought I didn't have any memories of Hell?!"

"You don't but she does."

"That...tha...that was Hell? The real...actual..."

"The genuine article kid. A place of eternal torment and suffering and punishment that lasts forever and ever with room for every denizen of every single universe, multiverse, megaverse, dimension and realm. If you had not experienced it beforehand, even with your memories cleared, you would have been driven irrevocably insane by what you just saw."

"...Oh, God."

"The bitch couldn't make it!" A little voice spoke up. Kira looked down at her chest only just now realizing she was still holding the doll! She let go in surprise and the doll jumped up and looked down at her. No Morgan Freeman here! Think more that sweet ass Gwendoline Christie! So you're my new partner huh? How's it going, Jigsaw?"

"You can talk?!"

"Look at the brains on you, Patchwork!" Hellreaver laughed and backflipped off of her. She landed on her feet and sat down with her feet dangling off of the table. "I know a part of me is sitting inside of you right now but we've got a lot of work ahead of us before we can call ourselves official partners."

Kira sat back up slowly never taking her eyes off of the demonic doll.

"You like her? She's going to be your partner going forward once you two work things out. Think of her as your Jiminy Cricket From Hell."

"Jiminy got stomped out in the original story. I've got way more fight in me. Oh look at her! You can stop staring now, Patchwork, this ain't some Chucky story. I'm on your side. You treat me right and I'll treat you right. The two of us are in a wonderful symbiotic relationship."

Kira looked down at her chest and held it momentarily before looking back up at her and kicking her chair back up, catching it and sitting back down. "So. You're my partner and my other half, huh?"

"You got it. I've got dark powers for days kiddo. Once we team up we'll be unstoppable."

Abigail finally spoke up again. "Don't worry dear. With my mystical guidance you'll be able to wield her magical powers just fine."

"My other half. Alright. I think I can live with that. But, uhm, if it's cool with you, I'd like to try a new name that's a little less awkward than Hellreaver."

"Mmmm alright. Since it's a first request I can work with that. What do you have in mind?"

Kira thought back to a long time ago when Mashiro brought her to a carnival and won her a beautiful looking doll. The most beautiful one she'd ever seen. Like something out of a dream.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"This is so cute! I love it! Is this really for me?"

"All yours Kira. All yours. They can rig those games all they want it don't mean shit if your pitching arm is good enough. I cleaned those lamers out!" Mashiro laughed. "So what are you gonna name her?"

"Name her?"

"Yeah. She's your doll right? You can call her what you want."

"Hmmm....in that case I think I'll call her...Lily."
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lilly. Yeah lets go with that. Lily."

Hellreaver burst into a hysterical high pitched laugh. "Lily? That's it? That's what you go with? HAH! Ah what the hell. I love it! Lets go with that! Fine. Lily will be a codename for me then!"

BACK IN THE PRESENT!

"I swear it. No matter what happens. No matter what they throw at me. I will save you all. I love you all and I will not fail." Kira promised and stood up straight. She wiped her eyes with the back of her arm. She wasn't crying, Kira wasn't sure if her body could produce tears, but the gesture made her feel better. She lowered her arm and looked at Archstopholes. "Thank you. It felt good to see them again."

Manea Archstopholes draped an arm around her and laughed. "Hey, hey, all the best for my dear friend and darling protégé, right?" She asked while Kira flinched underneath her touch but she managed to come back with a smile.

"Right. Thanks boss. So, uhmmm, can we go pick up Lily?"

"Of course! Of course! I already know she's waiting for you." A door appeared in front of them and opened itself up to a foreboding world that looked like the innards of some giant creature, the air was thick with a blurry surreal unreal energy that made walking through it like walking through water with the air rippling as everything moved through it and the sky was replaced with a howling swirling red and black vortex with crimson lightning shooting out it at random intervals.

"Ah so she's in there?"

"Correct. Zissa Ambrazier vacated to Knameitale after the fall of Zorb but before the reconstruction could begin. I provided her a ticket out of there and she's been in my employment sense."

"What's Zorb?"

"Ohhh it was beautiful. A CthulhuTech World born of Nightmares and Fears and Terrors with horrors beyond mortal understanding ravaged by war for thousands of years until Zorb, The Cosmos Defiler, was finally slain once and for all with the assistance of The Harbingers and the remnants of his army were demolished and the healing of their world could finally begin."

"Harbingers? Like Stingray?"

"Oh right he's calling himself that now. Catchy" Archstopholes chuckled. "Well his real name would be a little too hard for you to pronounce. But what a beautiful fight it was. Would've blown your little human mind." She laughed and ruffled Kira's hair and walked through the doorway into the dimension and patted her thigh. "Come along now, puppy, lets go pick up your dolly!"

"Yes Ma'am." She replied and followed her to go meet with Zissa The Blacksmith. 

"So what happened to this place and why would she choose to live here?"

"Knameitale was subjected to a cataclysmic event which, translated to your Earth's Japanese, would roughly translate to The Burning Winds. It was caused by an Eldritch Horror Being called Iauc'thuithr'gnil. The result of which." She pointed at the sky. "Caused that. An eternal swirling vortex of chaos magic that turned this world into an incomprehensibly strange place teaming with manifestations of the former residents tormentous thoughts and emotions. A decayed shadow of the world it used to be. Not that far off from Hell actually. As for why she chooses to live here? It's out of the way. Knameitale is such an unstable screwed up place that the horror of this world masks her energy. She can hide out here and continue her work without needing to worry about being bothered by any interlopers besides the horrors of this realm. You'll be fine though. Just stick with me and do not go anywhere and you'll be able to make it there and back unharmed."

"And I thought Hell was as screwed up as it got."

"No it is. This place is pretty close though."

"Oh. I see. Guess its hard for the uninitiated to tell them apart."

"You'll get used to it."

"I sure hope so." Kira laughed. "It's funny though isn't it? I don't recall this ever happening to Sailor Moon."

"Hmmm Hmmm Hmmmm. The Messianic Senshi Of The Moon Usagi Tsukino. She's the walking talking embodiment of heroism, I'll give her that, but you and her received your powers and tutelage from two very difference sources. If you work for me? You are going to be walking the dark path. I'm not going to pull punches just because you're a kid, Kira Hikaru, I'm going to show you things that most Senshi of the other Worlds never envision but it's all to make you strong. The path I'm setting you on is a long and perilous one with many hardships yet awaiting you but if you can stick with it, stand strong through your trials and complete your tasks? You will become stronger than you ever imagined. Most importantly, I will keep my promise to you if you can pull it off."

"Sounds badass, boss, I'm all in! Rest assured I will keep my promise and hunt down every last demon. Whoever, whatever, wherever, I'll kill them all."

"Thaaaat's the spirit." Archstopholes replied with a smile.

"Can't help but notice you praising Magical Girl Jesus though."

"I give respect when it's due and The Moon Queen earned her title through blood, sweat and tears without ever losing her spirit. Based as fuck for a reincarnated prissy princess."

"But enough about that. Lets focus on the now. Follow me and stay close. You can handle the otherworldly nature of this realm well enough but if you get lost you'll be lucky to die."

"Well that's ominous. I'm guessing there's some Mad God level insanity going down here?"

"On the lighter end of things yes."

"That's crazy...you know, Mashiro and I used to have Horror Movie Nights growing up. Less so as the gang expanded and she got busier but she still made time when she could. So this one time I swiped some Gaijin's card and used it to get a Movie from a FlixBox and the image looked interesting. It was an experience I'll give it that." Kira admitted. "It was fun to watch though. Just the two of us and some saké having a blast with a really messed up movie forged from the most primordial horrors of the subconscious mind."

"Ah yes we've got that one on record along with plenty of others. Still I'm glad you had a good time."

"Those were better days. Better days and they will come again once I take all of those demons down." 

"One step at a time, puppy, you still have a long way to go. Don't forget to stop and smell the roses along the way."

"Yeah but plants tend to die around me if I don't reign in my aura."

"That's just a power flex dear. Besides it could prove useful in the future."

"I'll keep that in mind if we ever run into plant demons."

"They're more common than you'd think and usually with special tricks of their own that you'll need to watch out for. Their poisons won't be a problem for you, admittedly, but they have a plethora of options to attack you with that you'll need to watch out for."

"Right, I hear you, I'll stick to my usual strategy though: Hitting them hard and fast and tearing them apart."

"Well that's one strategy. Just be sure to exercise caution."

"Yes Ma'am."

They kept walking until they arrived at Zissa's shop and Archstopholes knocked on the door. "Hey there, Zissa, Manea calling! We're here for Hellreaver!"

"Enter!" A deep boomoing voice echoed out of the door. She smiled and opened the door and they walked into a massive blacksmith with a wide variety of demonic weapons lining the walls. Bows, Axes, Swords, Shields, Gauntlets, Staffs, Lances and many other weapons of varying Demonic Nature radiated evil auras enough to fill the entire shop. Kira was sure that if she wasn't undead, amped up by dark magic and science and in the presence of an Ultimate Evil she would've been completely overwhelmed by the greater demonic aura radiating around her and been driven mad!

She followed Manea through the shop until she finally met up with Zissa. A ten foot tall giant demon blacksmith with grey granite skin, pointed ears, slicked back black jet black hair, blazing red eyes with black sclera and tusks protruding out of her mouth and curving upwards. She was dressed in a heavy-weight, full-grain demonic leather outfit that covered her shouders, chest and extended past the abdomen to about her knees.

She was in the middle of working on an organic looking sword but set aside her hammer to look over the giant table and down on her. "So, Kira, Hellreaver told me that you tried to channel Angelic-Healing Magic through her and your body is that right?"

"Correct. But it was a calculated risk. I had to save those kids! If I didn't do that they would've surely died from their injuries!" 

"I'm not here to debate the morality of such an action but you should be more careful. If you push such magic too hard, Hellreaver could be fried beyond the point of repair along with your body. You'll be left powerless in a dying body that's falling apart on you. You'll be easy prey then. Besides which I'd rather not see such an elegant weapon destroyed so recklessly. You haven't started tapping into its real power yet!"

"I understand, I'll be more careful, I will, but, what's this about Lily's real potential?"

The giant demon laughed good natruedly. "Ohhh you'll fine out one day. Trust me. Just keep training with her and exploring your powers. Now then." She walked over to another table and retrieved a small box and carefully walked it over to her and handed it down to Manea who accepted it. She turned and handed the box off to Kira and she opened it up to reveal Lily, completely repaired and bathing in a small pool of blood. "LILY! WELCOME BACK GIRL!" She exclaimed and dipped her hands into the blood and pulled her out. The blood was absorbed into the doll and she blinked her eyes and began wiggling in her grip before stretching her arms and yawning.

"AHHHH-HHAAAAAA! UNNNN-HOOOOLY SHIT was a good nap! Oh a little time at the spa goes a long way! I feel so much better! Hey there, Kira, how's it going?"

Kira laughed and hugged her close. "Welcome back, Lily! I've missed you, partner!"

"Same. It's good to be closer to my other half again."

"As sweet as this is there's still the matter of my payment."

"Of course, of course, I've got it right here." Manea held out her hand and a red light shined out of it and expanded to take the form of a giant treasure chest before solidifying into one! The giant red and gold tresure chest floated up into the air and to the demoness. Zissa grabbed it and opened it up to reveal billions of dollars worth in gold, diamonds and jewels from various worlds! She laughed and began running her hands through it and lifting it up and setting it back into the chest.

"I trust this is to your liking?"

"Ohhh this more than pays for the work I put in. You can come to me for work anytime, Miss Archstopholes!"

"I'll keep that in mind. Let me know when our special project is completed."

"Special project? What special project?" Kira asked.

"Sorry kid that's classified."

"Understood." Kira replied and dropped it then and there.

"Don't worry, Miss Archstopholes, I'll let you know right away when the project is completed."

"Thank you. Enjoy your riches and keep up the excellent work!" She told her and walked out with Kira and Lily while snapping her fingers and summoning another doorway. Once they walked through it they returned to Manea's Office.

"Ohhhh man that's better! As cool as Zissa is, it's nice to be back in our dimension." Kira sighed with relief.

"I dunno. I kinda like the feel of that world. Nice and chaotic. Reminds me of home." Lily quipped.

"As cozy as that realm is, I'm siding with Kira on this one. This is much nicer." Manea returned to her desk and sat down. "You two feel free to go relax in the cafeteria. Order what you want and take a load off for a while. I'll let you know if a new assignment comes up."

"Thanks Boss!" They replied simultaneously and Kira walked out of her office with Lily in her arms.

Kira sat down in the cafeteria with Lily sitting on the table. Kira had a variety of flesh, meat and organs meals with brain drinks while Lily had a few cups of Virgin's Bloods from various species in cups set in front of her. Kira popped a finger in her mouth and chrewed it up. "Lily my girl it is good to have you back."

"Good to be back. I always feel more complete when I'm next to you. Just like you, right?"

"That's right. A consequence of having part of you installed into me. We're one together so we'll always feel more complete when we're close together."

Lily sipped some of her drink. "True that. A weird plan I admit but it certainly worked. I've never felt particularly close to any of my other wielders like I do with you."

"That's sweet of you Lily. Thanks." She popped another finger in her mouth and chewed it up thoughtfully and swallowed it. "But what did she mean by your Real Power? Have you been holding out on me?" She teased. "Does it have anything to do with us merging for the Super Cannon?"

"Oh trust me, Kira, I've got plenty of power in reserve that you haven't even begun to tap into. The Merging is only step one to unlocking my real powers."

"The problem with that is you burn me out every time we try to do that."

"That's because you aren't quite strong enough to handle that power yet nor do you have the proper focus. Once you're strong enough and have the proper will you will be able to begin wielding my true power."

"O-kay and what's the proper mindset?"

"The will to dominate others and stand on top of the world. To stand on top of the world and everything else. To rule as a King instead of follow as a Soldier. A King is a figure-head who exercises unconditional power over his subject. Reverence and awe reverberate off the king. Most importantly, this air of superiority worn by the king demands the unbridled fear and reverence of his subjects regardless of loyalty or the lack thereof. You can't rule over me as the Follower you've been your whole life, Kira Hikaru, you need to be able to feel unbridled rage, channel it through yourself in a focused manner and radiate the will to dominate all around you. Not just me. Everyone. That powerful all consuming will to force the world to bow down and revolve around you is the mindset needed to properly wield my true powers."

"So basically I need the willpower to force the world to bow down to me?"

"Basically. You need to conqueor myself, yourself ane everyone else. But take heed: This power will come with a price of diving further into the darkness. You could potentially evolve from a Zombie into becoming a Demon in your own right."

There was a sullen pause between them before Kira doubled over and began wheezing and laughing at the irony of it all. "Hehhh... Hehhh... Hehhh... Hehhh... Hehhhhh... Hehhhhhhhhhh. Hey, Lily, you know what they called me? In the aftermath of my mother's batshit insane revenge scheme? Akuma No Ko! The Devil Child! Can you believe that? Devil Child! It wasn't even my goddamn fault!" She laughed again before calming down. "It's fine though right? If it will help me save this world, if it will help me protect people, if it will help me bring the demons down and get my friends out of Hell? Then sure, I'll do it, I'll do whatever it takes. I'll become a Demon Queen if that's what it will take." She took a big bite of her burger and chewed and swallowed it. "I'll make the whole world my bitch if that's what it takes."

Lily tilted her head back and laughed. "GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA! Well said, Kira Hikaru, well said, I'll hold you to that!"

"I'm good for it. Don't you worry. I won't fall to evil either. I'll walk in the darkness but I won't let it consume me. For though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I am the baddest motherfucker in the valley."

"See that? That's exactly the kind of mindset you need to have, kiddo, keep that up and you'll be on your way!" Lily complimented Kira.

"Excuse me? Is it okay if I sit here?"

Kira and Lily paused in their laughter to see a dark haired young woman in a white suit approaching them with her own tray. Probably some exec. Kira shrugged. "Do what you want lady so long as you don't puke." She joked.

"I think I'll be fine." She smiled and sat down and began eating. Kira looked over her meal. She was eating normal, if high class, stuff and she didn't smell like a demon but she didn't smell like a human either. She was something else entirely.

"What exactly are you?"

"Forgive me. I'm Chiyotanda Murasaki. I'm a Spider-Bat Kaijin."

"Oh. Cool. So what's up?"

"Oh, sorry, I just heard so much about the FrankenZombie Girl and I wanted to meet you."

"That's me. The one and only Kira Hikaru."

"Your reputation preceeds you. What you did that Clown Demon at the Fraulein Grant's Midnight Cirque? Inspiring. Just downright amazing."

"Midnight The Cloyne. The Prince Of Evil And Mischief he called himself. Yeah, yeah. He was....he was a motherfucking piece of work but I took him down. One of my favorite kills." She had another bite of her Human Meat Grinder Burger, right out of Kingsman 2, and chewed it and swallowed. "Out of curiosity though why exactly do you consider that inspiring?" She asked while licking her lips.

"Oh. Well. I'm part of The Corporation's Wet Works Kaijin Division."

"We have a Kaijin Division?"

"Yes. The exact process of course classified but I can tell you that it requires extensive genetic and mechanical augmentative surgeries." She raised her hand and looked it and her arm over before lowering it. "It's an absolutely incredible feeling. Don't you agree?"

"I mean, I'm Dead, so obviously I wouldn't get the same sensation that a living person would." She sipped her brain drink. "Which brings me to my next question: I was literally in Hell when I signed up for this to get my friends and myself out of suffering. How'd you get wrapped up in it?"

"Oh I signed up for it. I was already an assassin, and quite the legendary one, but I wasn't getting any younger and age and old injuries were catching up to me. I was considering going out with one last hurrah when Dr. Akizuki approached me and gave me an offer to regain my youth and transcend humanity in exchange for working for them from now on."

"Huh. Kind of a villainous move."

"Says the Undead Delinquent while she eats Human Meat."

"Tou-fucking-'che." Kira admitted. "But if you're a famous assassin how come I never heard of you?"

"I wasn't famous on the streets. I was famous in the criminal underworld. There's more to that than you can imagine, Kira."

"You mean like The High Table?" Kira asked casually.

Chiyotanda actually looked genuinely surprised. "Now did you learn about that?"

"There's more to the thug life than you can imagine. We knew quite a few people and through meeting them we learned a little bit about the bigger world. Get the right dude drunk or high enough you can learn some pretty cool secrets. Our boss, Mashiro, was working on some plans regarding such secrets but got jumped by a Demon before she could get anywhere with them. Hence why I'm here."

"Sounds like a Hit to me."

"No, trust me, not this guy. He's definitely an independent agent." She wolfed down some more food. "And one of these days I'm going to rip his guts out and tear him limb from limb before I crush his skull into pulp."

"I'll cut him to pieces. I'll slice that fucker into so many small sections that it would take him an eternity to put himself back together again. Sick thing. He's sick. A million pieces. I'll tear him open and spill his rotten guts all over the place with my bare hands."

"Goddamn girl, badass. Sounds like you've really got it out for this guy."

"Killing him is the whole reason I came back. Sure, I have a whole lot of demons to hunt, but Devil Mask is the one I'm personally aiming for. I won't be satisfied until I've hunted him down and torn him apart."

"You really are a Revenant, huh?"

"In a manner of speaking, yeah."

"Interesting." She enjoyed her meal and her drink. "Would you like to spar? I'm curious to see just how strong the Demon Slaying Revenant really has."

"Ohhhh? That a challenge?" Kira asked sinisterly.

"You bet it its. Lets see who's stronger: A Zombie or a Kaijin."

"Fuck yeah, lets do it. Just tell me where and when."

"We've got a Training Center where our Security Forces and Agents regularly hone their skills. We can fight there."

"Game on. It'll be fun to rumble with an assassin."

"Love the attitude, kid, it'll be fun to knock the smile off your face."

Lily cackled. "Awfully arrogant isn't she? Be sure to take your time with this one, Kira."

"Ohh-ho-ho-ho. Don't you worry. I'm going to enjoy this. Lets do it. FrankenZombie VS Kaijin. I'll show you the Pride of The Hell Butterflies Gang."

Kira reappeared in front of her flaming sword in hand. "Gladly. Nethersbane Death Breathing Infernal Third Form: Metus Tabula Elogium!" She called out. Her sword slashed down across Chiyo's armored helmet and slid down her armored carpace followed by slashing upwards along the same length she'd just slashed her resulting in the flames from her sword flying upwards into the air as well forming a giant spiraling pillar of Ectoplasmic Flames that sent Chiyo flying upwards as well surrounded by the flames!

Chiyo grimaced beneath her helmet as the flames danced around her and swirled around her body but she was able to recover enough to straighten up and flap her wings to throw herself backwards and release a more dialed back sonic blast that blast in the flaming tornado down to Kira and disrupt it but Kira folded space and disappeared to reappear behind her but this time Chiyo turned around and blocked her attack by covering herself with her armored spider limbs and the spider wings to defend herself against Kira's wild forward rush and flurry of sword flashes against her armored body with Kira keeping on the pressure until she slammed Chiyo down to the floor with one final power packed slash that smashed her into the steel floor! Chiyo tanked it however and got right back up spreading her spider limbs, rotating them, and stabbing them into the floor and spreading her wings and throwing herself upwards and spreading her razor web cage but Kira just dodged her and landed on her feet and rushed her again. Chiyo got back up and released her web line again to form it into a Web Construct Sword! She turned around and clashed her sword against Kira's!

Kira brought down Nethersbane on The Web Sword so hard there was a resounding clanging boom echoing around the room! To Kira's surprise The Web-Sword held! She must've really compacted the power of the web into the weapon! Impressive. Kira backed off while kicking her in the chest. Chiyo recovered however and advanced on her with repeated slashes from her Web Sword while repeatedly jabbing at her with her Spider-Limbs forcing Kira to utilize a Defensive Form of Metus Tabula Elogium to defend against her repeated slashes, stabs and thrusts from her Web Sword and Spider Limbs. What appeared to be a wild flurry of sword slashes were actually expertly timed counters to defend against Chiyo's attacks.

Her sword thrusts were deflected aside, her spider limb thrusts were deflected, her sword slash was countered and deflected, the slashes from every one of her spider limbs were countered and deflected, in a seemingly endless storm of strikes that sped up faster and faster as Kira countering and deflecting Chiyo's attacks. This is due to the fact that Kira doesn't need to breathe. As an Enhanced Magically Empowered Undead Being, Kira doesn't need to breathe in the way that a normal human would. Even runners who have practiced anaerobic training for years must still breathe while they run, and boxers, even those with the best conditioning, take quick breaths between jabs. They can't keep attacking without breathing, and it's those pauses for breath, those tiniest of gaps, that leave them open to a counterattack.

Since Kira doesn't have that limitation she simply held her breath and kept on counterattacking and speeding herself up while advancing on Chiyo until she shredded her Web-Sword and sliced off her spider-limbs and got in front of her and rained down a whirlwind of sword strikes on the Spider-Bat Cyborg that ended with one massive downward sword slash that sent her flying backwards. Chiyo crashed into the wall and fell on her face, her armor smoking and sparking and crackling with energy from the beating she'd just taken. Her Spider Limbs had been sliced off and lay on the ground with her back now sparking from losing them.

"Lets end this." Kira snarled and leaped high up into the air to cross the distance between them and began bringing down Neathersbane down on her head but Chiyo turned over on her back and unleashed a massive web that wrapped around her sword. "Sorry, Corpse, but I'm not done yet! Lets see how well you do without your weapon!" She yanked her downwards towards her with full intention to counterattack but Kira just laughed.

"Rookie Movie." Her sword glowed and Hellreaver returned to Wand Form allowing it to slip right back out of the webbing and leaving Chiyo exposed. "ECTO-CANNON!" The resulting ectoplasmic blast struck Chiyo full on and resulted in a bright green fiery explosion that rocked the Training Center! Kira kept falling, flipped in the air, and landed on top of Chiyo, grabbed her neck and shoved Hellreaver against her helmet. "Give up?"

"Ahhhh fuck it....yeah....I give. You win, Kira."

"That's what I like to hear." She stood up and returned Hellreaver to her belt and offered Chiyo a hand up.

After an awkward pause between the two of them she took her hand and sat back up and turned around and slumped against the wall to take a break while her armor repaired itself. Kira was about to make a snappy comment when her legs suddenly buckled and she went down on one knee. "Huh? Wha? Yo, Lily, what's up with that?"

(You took more damage from her sonic attack than you realized. The perils of not being able to feel pain, eh?)

"Heh....guess so. Alright I'll get a check-up later." She replied. "Right now though I need some brains and you need a blood bath."

(Sounds like a plan! Lets do it partner!)

"Power down." Kira replied and De-Transformed back to her FrankenZombie Form in a flash of light as Lily returned back to normal. She hopped on Kira's shoulder as she sat down next to Chiyo. "Yo Arachno-Bat!"

"Yeah?"

Kira held out her fist. "That was a good fight. I've killed Demons who put up less of a fight than you did. Lets throwdown again sometime."

Chiyo awkwardly fist bumped her right back. "Back at you, Killer."

"Say, who were you talking to? Your wand?"

"Oh, yeah, we were having a psionic conversation out loud. Basically, I took more damage than I thought from your sonic attack, and probably some of the others too, and I lost my footing because of it." Kira summarized. "The perils of not being able to feel pain, right? I've had that problem even when I was human. My nerve endings generally didn't relay any pain perception to my brain. Even when I felt it, it was considerably dulled compared to what I probably should've been feeling."

"So even if you take a hard hit you wouldn't feel it. While your human life can be chalked up to a genetic abnormality...not being able to feel it as you are now feels like a major design flaw. It's a built-in warning system that something's either at or a bout to reach a critical point and that you need to stop whatever you're doing. You really don't wanna learn about that massive bleeding wound 5 minutes after the fight." Chiyo pointed out. "My body might be durable but I can still feel the sensation of pain."

"Yeeeaaaaah even I have to concede that point but most wounds I receive aren't bad enough to kill me. Really...." She pointed at her head. "As long as THIS is intact and attached my body can keep on trucking along. Even I lose a limb or receive a gruesome wound elsewhere I'll be able to continue fighting."

"Unless it's something Divine or Holy. Then the rules go out the window." Lily reminded her.

"Yeah that's true. I've been fried by that more than once. Fitting for an Undead Devil Child, right?" She gave a light shrug. "But so long as I make it back home intact I can get patched back up."

"Shit, girl, you're cooler than I thought." Chiyo replied with a laugh. "You should make that your epithet though: The Undead Devil Child."

"The Undead Devil Child Kira Hikaru. Sailor Izanami. I like that. I like that a LOT!"

"It suits you. But I'm going to need you to be honest with me on something: Did you give that fight your all?"

"In all honesty....no." Kira confessed with a smile. "I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve I haven't used yet."

"I'd love to see them all someday. I'm going to need to train first though."

"Come find me when you're ready, Spider, I'll gladly fight you again."

"Bet!"

They continued shooting the breeze until the medics came out and took the two of them into the labs to give them both a checkup.

They were wheeled down the hallways and corridors until she found herself in a whole new world that completely blew her mind! Doctor Graves' Lab was right out of some nightmarish horror movie or horror video game this place was straight out of the future! It felt like she'd been transported into some kind of alien space ship! It was a massive sprawling medical laboratory that was eerily clean and pristine and white with advanced technology she'd never even seen before much less was able to recognize. Kira was sure that Kurosawa Hiro would've been able to name everything in here but Kira was lost. As she sat up and looked around though she was able to get a better sense of her surroundings. The lab was a combination of a medical laboratory and robotic assembly plant. Naked patients were being wheeled out of changing rooms and into the surgery rooms upon which a sectioned door would open up and close up after them. Monitors around the labs would showcase the multiple waiting numbers for the patients, both In-Progress and Pending. Kira noticed that there were a LOT of numbers in long lists from the scrolling screens and she began to feel a sense of unease. If Chiyo and the other two were any indication of the general power levels of the cyborgs then The Corporation was building a scary-ass army but for what? Manea was terrifying but she was a businesswoman first and foremost. What could she get out of creating super cyborgs?

"Scratching your head on the why?" Chiyo asked as if she was reading her mind.

"Yeah."

"Same reason any Corporation or Country would create Super Soldiers: To have the best most efficient soldiers that are better than the other guys and we're among the best in the business thanks to our augmentations."

"Once more you speak the truth Chiyotanda Murasaki!" A cheerful mechanical voice greeted them.

Kira looked back to see Doctor Akizuki approaching them. A tall man dressed in a fancy classy formal suit with a large white labcoat worn over it. What caught her attention was the silver mask with gold linings he worn on his head. The majority of it was covered leaving only his jaw and his bluish-white hair exposed in a mohawk like fashion. His eyes were covered by the mask as well and Kira could only see glowing hellish reddish-orange lights where his eyes would've been.

(Okay, what the hell is this guy's story?) Kira questioned. "Uhm...Doctor Akizuki I presume?"

He looked her over and smiled. "Ahhhh. You must be Miss Kira, correct? Graves' latest masterpieces. A bit chaotic overall but there's a beauty to your design and it's fun to work with organic material sometimes. Besides, your efficiency speaks for itself. A pleasure to meet you, Kira, my name is Akizuki Sengoku and it is pleasure to make your acquittance."

Kira shook his hand to be polite, and she needed the checkup anyway, but int he back of her mind Kira's mind was racing now. Her design was bizarre enough but there's also everything going on here. Did Manea have some kind of larger goal with all of it?

"Right back at you doc. I was hoping to get a quick check-up and some repairs done on my body since I'm here."

"Gladly. We'll give you some free maintenance dear." He signaled a pair of doctors and they walked over and rolled her gurney into a surgical room.

Chiyo watched her being rolled away and sighed as she laid back down. "Sorry I lost, doc."

"No that was fine. This was a learning experience. Now I can make modifications to you that allow you to better handle attacks on that level. After I have it down to a science I'll update the others. The nanomachines in their bodies will pick up on the update and perform the necessary modifications. I'm still going to put you back into training until your next assassination though."

"Sir! I'd expect nothing less, sir!"

"Excellent. Lets begin."

She was wheeled into an operating room for her repairs.

-

Kira had to admit that this place was nice. Sure there was the ever present scent of blood and gore and machines and and Kami only knew what all those chemicals must be and the blood splattered clothing of the surgeons around her but the overall design was sleek and shiny and futuristic. As much as she loved Graves and Macabre's lab in all of its horror film aesthetic it was nice to hang out in a fancy place like this. So she relaxed on the gurney as she was wheeled down the hallway and through a few checkpoints until the series a pair of double doors and wheeled Kira into a lab surrounded by computers and fancy machines and surgical equipment. Kira was wheeled into the middle of the lab and lifted off of the gurney and onto a table. Lily hopped off of her and relaxed back on the gurney while it was wheeled away. "By Kira! Have a beautiful time!"

"Don't worry about me. This will be fun. I'm just gonna sit back and relax." She assured Lily and proceeded to do just that! She noticed the room smelled primarily like cleaning chemicals and somewhat like blood and other fluids like they'd just finished cleaning up from their last surgery. Another Cyborg or perhaps something else? Regardless it didn't effect at her at all so she relaxed on the operating table while a surgeon walked up to her dressed in an advanced futuristic biomechanical looking suit that made him look more like an astronaut than any kind of surgeon she could imagine. The bio-suit covered him from head-to-toe completely. She couldn't even see his face through the glowing blue faceplate. Taking another look around she noticed everyone else was wearing a similar suit. These guys were definitely weird. At least with Graves and Macabre she could see their faces. She snapped back to attention as the surgeon addressed her.

"Alright. You must be Kira Hikaru, am I correct? Will you be needing any anesthetic before we get started?" He asked. His was calm and polite and welcoming but there was a distinct mechanical buzz and a slight hiss to his voice that she noticed. Was it the suit or was he even fully human? She would have to ask Lily later. For now she would just play along.

"Nah I'm good. Just get in there and do what you have to do. It wouldn't affect me anyway."

"Okay then we'll go ahead and get started." A small machine levitated over to Kira and slowly flew over her while scanning her while holographic screens appeared in front of the surgeon and he looked it over. "Oh yeah. You have approximately twelve fractures resulting from your previous fight. Your legs especially took a lot of damage."

Another screen appeared in front of Kira and she sat up and looked at all of the broken bones. "Wow. That was all from her sonic blast?"

"Primarily yes. You took some hard hits in that fight but it was her sonic blast that did most of the damage. It's actually impressive that you're still alive after that. Chiyo's sonic blast doesn't just batter or shake their targets with concussive force. It actually hones in on the molecular resonance frequency, causing it to literally disintegrate into a cloud of disparate particles. The sonic buster is designed focus in on particular objects and destroy them without devastating the immediate surroundings. It's impressive enough that you're still in one piece but you really didn't feel any of that?"

"That is all so damn cool but I'm fine. I don't feel pain." Kira summarized. "Can you fix it?"

"Oh yeah. This will be a simple task and we'll be able to fix you right up. Now doesn't that sound nice?"

"Freaking sweet lets do it! How much am I going to owe you?"

"Oh that's fine. Employees get free medical treatment from us. Just so long as you can continue to do your job and pull your weight here."

"Thank you doc. Lets do this!"

"Gladly." His mask scanned her again and he raised his right hand up and it transformed into a flat out biomechanical alien hand with elongated mechanical glowing claws growing out of the fingers. A few metal straps grew out of the surgical table and grabbed her and she rested. The surgeon raised his hand over her shoulder and lasers shined out into her shoulder.

"Woah! What's going on there?" She asked.

"Does it hurt at all?"

"You know, it feels like it should, but it doesn't. What're you doing anyway?"

"A form of surgery. Your shoulder will be fixed up in no time and then I'll move on down to the rest of your arm followed by fixing up the rest of your body."

"Ohhhh. That's new. Cool. It feels weird but I've been through stranger." She relaxed and got comfortable on the table while he continued working on fixing up her body.