Ripley's notes about the Muramasa Royalty to Diana Ulrich

It would be idiotic to just assume the Bladedaughter is the only of Muramasa's royalty we'll have to face when there's seventeen of them, not counting Princess Jade Storm, better known as Special Investigator Kim Liyung.

The Bladedaughter is both the youngest, and most revered of the Bladefather's children. In my analysis of her, I am well aware she's the deadliest of them too. Gold, Tier III… I pray she doesn't possess a Unique Feature. It appears she uses an integrated Exosuit that sacrifices protection to be a purely offensive tool. Every joint, every inch of that thing is a weapon…

With her lack of defense in mind, all we can do is outdamage her. The battle has to be quick, and decisive.

Right under her kill count is the First Prince, Crouching Dagger. Who neither me nor Mirage know shit about. He's elusive, quick, deadly. Describes all of them but he's the pinnacle of those adjectives. If the Bladedaughter is a storm of sharpness, he's their sniper. You send him in, bodies appear, and you never catch a wink of him. Sorta like Topaz, but competent.

War-watcher is right below him in the hierarchy, but he's the real brains of Muramasa right now. He's willing to even scorn the R0N1N, whether that's well-put confidence or stupidity… I'm willing to bet on the former. Based on the evidence, he might have links to Himiko, but I'm not so sure. Expect his ass to be annoying throughout the raid.

Then, we have Azure Phoenix. Esper like you, only… far more destructive. I'm pretty sure she has a Deviant Mutation, one you do not want to try and absorb. It causes her to constantly produce Energy like Quartz, only hers manifests as a flame that both burns and heals her, supposedly when she kills something with those flames the ashes only empower her. She'll be targeting large groups of weakened individuals, maybe our medical centers.

Next would be Steel Vanguard, the Third Prince is a bit more active. But for good reason, he's a walking tank. Maybe not Inquisitor Tusk level… but I don't think his suit has ever been penetrated. He also boasts the most broken strength out of any Adapter I've heard. What The R0N1N is with speed, he is with brute strength. Except… I've heard that not only is he powerful, but he's effective with it.

Shadow Son? I know virtually nothing. A Mutant of some kind that handles their reconnaissance.

As for Heart Seeker and Hexflame, they're both creepy shapeshifters, twins. Capable of looking and acting like anyone, some rumors say they can even mimic Shardware and Mutations. If they really can, be on the lookout — those are likely a Unique Feature and Deviant Mutation. I think they'd both make a great addition to us.

1:48 PM

December 19th

Diana

All around me I saw the broken and twisted bodies who had been standing up just moments before, their limbs mangled as they crawled through the rubble and tried their best to stand up and fight. Or to even just crawl, I'd have liked that much.

Then a meteor was tossed upon us, I could've dodged it — easily. But instead, I focused on hauling five of my men out of the thrown stone's path. I'd just become able to lift body-masses with my telekinesis, but this much at once would have failed me. But I had Ripley watching my back. A turret-like drone, his armory, exposed a long cylinder that shot out multiple grenades into the gargantuan rock.

Several orbs splattered it into a rain of debris, granting enough leeway that I pulled three of my investigators out of harm's way. The other two… their momentum snagged as shrapnel and stone ripped and crushed them under a coffin of earth. I had to swallow my grief and pain, only milliseconds were available to analyze the situation and move on.

Looking through the fractured gulf of both floors, I saw half of the security floor above us had remained standing. And it was all now burning with blue flames being shot at Sabrina and Kim by Azure Phoenix, but that fight was hardly on my mind right now.

Steel Vanguard had begun combat with Dreadwire. I'd never seen Ripley fight so cautiously, evading even the wind tossed around with Vanguard's nimble yet earthshaking movements, his staff carrying devastating weight.

{Don't get hit. Even a glancing blow will tear us in half.} His voice came through the Neuralink just as I moved into position. Levitating off the floor, both electrical and Warp signatures erupted in my senses — Steel Vanguard was a mountain of both, moving with the grace of a dancer as that quarterstaff he manipulated gripped and tossed stone chunks like he was emulating a volcanic eruption.

Backup generators on my suit activated, surging electrical power within me as I brought both hands together and manipulated momentum. Energetic Release brought the thunder down as a thick snap of electricity splattered across Steel Vanguard's shell, it drew a web of molten scars over him, but failed to even stun the giant.

His staff swung sideways, a blink away from tearing me in half.

A wide shield erupted around me, but the momentum of the staff sent both me and my savior, Archangel, slamming into the already ruined walls. She coughed, gripping her side which had taken a beating. "Bastard using's a NeoCore-based Exosuit, it's called a Hephaestus-9… fuck! Shield Generator's unstable."

Automated wires and hooks tore from her armor, stitching broken segments tight as she readjusted herself. "That thing… it doesn't look human."

"Finally going to fight?" I helped her up with my hand. "Or are you still afraid to use that spear of yours?"

Archangel took a deep breath, watching as Dreadwire hooked around the giant man and landed potshots with his weapon and drones. "There's… a human underneath that. I- I only ever hunted MALs."

"Guess NeoCore didn't erase everything out of you. Killing isn't easy, just give us the opportunity, an opening. That's your job, Archangel." My eyes focused on the scene, and I reached for the back of my head where I tapped metal and a full-plate visor and hood formed on my face. "That's an order from Silvereye."

It had been just a few brief seconds, but Ripley was gathering information with each blow he dodged, weaved and skittered over. Information that was being compiled under his Database, and was now being organized for us by the fairy who appeared in my view. Starlight appeared with a huff.

"My mom's safe! Let me guess, you need me to-"

"Synchronize us, Star." I confirmed, as the various feeds of Warp Energy from both enemy and ally alike fed into me. She gave a solid salute, before pink strands began to unravel from her and connect to us.

Me, Archangel, Dreadwire… we connected.

Dreadwire

The moment Starlight brought Diana's senses to mine was the moment this battle turned it's tides. A rod spanning three meters jousted out to me, stabbing into the roof overhead which it pulled to trap me under an avalanche of stone. I'd already made five moves by then, a grenade clasped the back of his knee, a whip blade eroded his joints, SMG bullets pinched into his elbow, and two Livewire ropes tangled around his neck and shoulder — locking them in place.

All it took was Hypermind Prime.

The combined effect of each blow sent him staggering back, his center of balance taken off course as he began to fall. Then his staff twisted, realigning his balance and corrected him into a seamless counterattack that twisted the golden threads constraining him into a twining rope that hauled me forward. Before he could use my entangled Livewire against me, I called the Arachne tips back and sent a pulse to my Shriekstone-cored legs to narrowly avoid being torn to pieces by that staff.

If I was right… unless I was continuously strengthening them with Meta-Manipulation, he could tear the Livewire. Just like how Bladedaughter could sever them. When his staff came descending upon me once more, I activated my first gambit I'd prepared for the raid.

The Glitch Cloak.

I'd had four unique tools built for today, each focused upon an individual Feature of mine. None could be used simultaneously, not yet… but the Glitch Cloak was designed upon Data Mimicry.

Those wrappings of cloth and projection disks I'd taken from my armory alighted, reaching through the Frequency Shifter Link I'd installed in them, and merged with all ten Modules I had available to me.

Their new and improved versions.

Mimicset Modules

Databreak [2B/1S] [Dataweaving/Jailbreaking/Network]: Allows instant access and usage of a Datacleaver to seize foreign technology.

Insight [2B/1S] [Analyze/Network/Database]: Allows quick understanding of body language and Warp Energy usage of others.

Hammer [3B] [Overclock/Overclock/Overclock]: Increases Shardware Output at the cost of a lowered Capacity.

Wield [3B] [Integration/Integration/Dataweaving]: Improves usage of External Shardware and its efficiency.

Burn [3B] [Overclock/Energized/Energized]: Improves Shardware efficiency at the cost of higher Energy usage.

Stabilize [2B/1S] [Sustain/Energized/Energized]: Improves Energy recovery rate and monitoring of body functions.

Overcome [3B] [Sustain/Database/Accomodation]: Allows recall of enemy combat patterns to provide adaptation to the Adapter.

Hypermind Prime [3S] [Overclock/Sustain/Psyche]: Improves perception of time and response of Shardware immensely. [Note: This Module can destabilize, and does sustain organic systems.]

Droneforge [3S] [Technician/Analyze/Network]: Allows synchronicity with drones to be used for Shardware Operating.

Glitch [3I] [Psyche/Energized/Dataweaving]: Designed to allow for quick Module-switching.

That last Module was the foundation of the Glitch Cloak, hence the name.

Selecting it, my physical abilities felt no change, even my mental faculties were largely limited below their norm. But that was a strength. The Glitch Module was designed via the Warpweb Protocol, and was the most complex of all my Modules even if only made of Iron Features.

The reason was because each Feature was designed by my hand, perfectly arranged and modified over countless iterations to be the perfect tool.

Glitch Module Selected [Psyche/Energized/Dataweaving]

Allows for the Mental state of the Adapter to be modified to prepare for Module-switching.

Allows for the Energy state of the Adapter to be modified to prepare for Module-switching

Allows for the Warpcode state of the Adapter to be modified for Module-switching.

This Module can be mimicked within 0.001 seconds.

A millisecond was all that I needed to enter Glitch, and in that moment I would enter a state preparing me to switch again. Compared to regular Module-switching, using Glitch as a buffer was fifteen-times quicker, barely even a third of a second. It came at its own expense, however, for it would massively blare out my intentions as my Warp-Energy surfaced out to the world with my body primed to shift into a new state.

It was effectively like turning myself into a miniature Quartz, which is where the Cloak came into play. It took my signature, and diffused it, then created a mirage out of it by layering it over a shimmering hologram of my body just inches off the real thing.

As the staff descended upon me, it slashed through harmlessly upon an illusory image of myself. Because for a moment, my frequency had been so loud, even illusions seemed like the reality. The actual mechanism was far more complicated, lending itself to the unique optical projection technology I'd stolen from the Yuzhou Oni drones, but the point was…

I was very difficult to hit.

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Diana

Ripley melted in my vision, one second he was standing and the next it was as though he was a brushstroke in the world, multiple paintings of himself in various shades of color acting out simultaneously. Holograms, I knew he worked with them, but they felt… real.

For brief moments, even the illusory copies of himself felt solid in terms of the signatures I sensed. No longer was he a streak of darkness, wherever he moved false images of him would tear off the motion as a spectrum of colorful Dreadwires. To call it a rainbow was wrong.

It was like he was glitching in and out of reality, even slight brief moments where he completely vanished from my sight but those optical after-images remained only served to confuse me.

That is, if I thought from my brain.

I was synched up to him. I knew exactly what he was doing, and what he was planning. Each second, he was switching between evading and damaging Steel Vanguard's shell, and extracting information.

"Hammer, Insight, Burn, Insight, Hypermi-, Insight, Overcome, Insight… he's switching them too quick for me to… fork! I'm going to barf!" Starlight drew diagrams over Vanguard's body, while Ripley only gathered the information… it was her who was processing that overwhelming tsunami of data.

"Alright, here it is! Steel Vanguard will not be pierced by anything my Dad has. Or you, Diana. His Exo-suit is durable enough that even Tusk might chip on him."

"I severely doubt that." Archangel said in between cutting a thrown boulder in half with her spear. "But he's very strong, tough, and quick… how do we beat that?"

"SV's outer body is entirely air-tight and insulated, so electricity won't reach his internal organs. If we're going to beat him, we have to kill him from the inside… which means… ah, I think… we could crush him from the inside? Or… make him fall? Otherwise… his staff, it can can create intense electromagnetic fields and I suspect uses Gravitanium to even manipulate weight, my dad could reverse engineer it to implode SV."

She highlighted his knee, indicating that enough trauma would eventually break it and with how heavy he was… he'd be entirely immobile. Then also the staff, which was more like a scythe of death with it's blurring mass chasing Dreadwire.

I understood.

I shot myself with my guns, as more electricity turned with beat of my heart… but it wasn't enough. I sent commands out of my Neuralink, every moment other policemen were taking quick shots at Vanguard whenever Dreadwire moved away.

They were better focused on me. "All of you, swap over to electrical rounds and shoot me!"

I saw their confused looks, but I screamed again. "That's an order! Pouler, Fernandez, Rachfeld! Show them!"

Pain and flame belched in my heart as the first shot came, but it wasn't enough… another stream of electricity came from my left and then my right as more and more of them took heed of my order and came through. I refused to show weakness, instead, I smiled and stood proud as I stepped forward.

Lightning swept through my suit like a cloak, much like Ripley's own, and as the rain of electrical serpents continued my pace only grew until I joined Ripley's assault with Archangel.

Steel Vanguard huffed, his staff digging through the ground to plow out a rainstorm of debris. "How dare you corporate skin-bags believe yourself worthy of joining this duel!"

Archangel's shielding secured us, and I shot sparks at those boulders threatening to crush my comrades. Whatever bits of metal lay hidden in them, I commanded with my Electromagnetic Domain, swinging entire chunks straight at Steel Vanguard who brushed them off with ease.

Archangel's spear clashed against his staff, my thunder echoed through my fingertips, and Dreadwire's webs wove along his body.

Synchronized, we attacked in unison as each of us bled into the next movement with calculating precision. Dreadwire appeared like a ghost screaming in his face, drawing his catastrophic assault into holographic after-images while any tough blow came deflecting off Archangel's shielding. I dealt with protecting those behind me, in exchange their weaponry only fed me.

Each shot upon my armor expanded my abilities, enough that with a simple gesture I could yank one or two policemen away from a deadly sweep of a curtain of stone, even nudge Steel Vanguard off balance so Archangel could stab into his suit.

It scraped off, but it left a scratch. That was more than Dreadwire had done.

It was a dance, each step may have been graceful and elusive but the wind and debris escorted along the attacks was a death sentence to those in watch. Shrapnel sang to me as I formed whips through the threads of snapping blue, I wasn't particularly accurate or creative with my telekinesis, but I was brutal with it.

Pure force wrecked through me as I contained it in the vessel of my flesh, every abrupt kick or punch broke through my bones but I didn't care as long as they healed. And they built a charge through me. Thermokinetic Catalyst began whistling through my body, begging to release heat or momentum into the world.

At that moment, something else connected with me.

Thought Multiplier: 'Archangel' X 'Silvereye'

Dreadwire skidded back, his armor nicked and sparking as his pulsing cloak of mirages faded away. 'My Shardware is reaching its limits. The final blow is yours to reach for. Where I weave webs, you strike down as…'

'Lightning.' I finished that thought, feeling my presence blend with Archangel as we twisted in to accompanying this big steel mountain in this 'honorable' duel of his. Every thought I'd had of Archangel served to enhance my own ability, how much I hated her, envied her, pitied her.

She was out of her element, fighting humans. Probably never killed one, either… just used to fucking their lives up through a contract. All those thoughts blended onto me, my hate, envy and pity.

Then I felt the way people looked at us through Soul Resonance, their hope into something so false but designed as beautiful. The same way our suits were, I could feel how much Alisha Noori hated becoming 'Archangel', to be reduced into a blank state perfectly modified to serve as a weapon. As long as the outside appeared perfectly 'beautiful', 'strong', 'radiant' or whatever bullshit terms used to describe us… we were applauded.

Right, no one cared what was beneath our visage. It was so simple, how I hadn't I seen it.

When I wore this suit, the world saw Silvereye. It was the perfect shield to hide what lay underneath, all my grotesque thoughts and feelings would never be seen underneath this piece of metal as long as I wore it.

So who cared how much I manipulated my underlying flesh with Limited Morphology Manipulation?

Beneath the seams of my suit, skin boiled and bubbled as muscles and electrogenic organs fused to the steel with Synthetic Infusion, my eyes hidden behind the visor widened and took another appearance entirely, the heart in my chest pounded stronger than ever and my lungs widened to satiate my growing breath for violence.

"Uh… Diana… whatever changes you made under that suit… uh, pray it doesn't come off." Starlight whispered, and it was exactly what I wanted to hear.

As my strength evolved, more refined and stronger than ever, Soul Trigger responded to the wishes of those watching me. For them, I became the Silvereye they needed.

———

Dreadwire

Diana's changes reflected as a diagram on my display, her entire organ system from digestive, nervous, musculoskeletal, and even integumentary changed to fit what she needed to be. Her strength doubled, her speed in bursts could match the R0N1N when she released stored up kinetic energy, but most frightening had been that her very physiology now served to maximize one property.

Her telekinesis. She'd healed brain-matter before, every cell in her body could conduct and act neurologically to a degree, and right now… electricity bathed her body as more police shot at her over Steel Vanguard. You'd think the hulking mass of machinery was slowing down due to fatigue…

No, he was being held in chains of her lightning. His momentum dulled down enough that Diana caught his deadly staff even as it slammed her into the ground, and then she ripped it's end off with her bare hands. Archangel joined her at that moment to shield her from a thrust that would have impaled her. Onslaught engulfed the scene, sparks erupting and shields battering as I carefully intercepted with snaggling Livewire, weaving the web that would break through the Vanguard.

———

SI Risa 'Wicked' Wickett

Once, Risa Wickett was a decorated officer. Then a decorated Investigator. She'd often butted heads with Sergeant Solomon, claiming her path as a Special Investigator would lead her further than his bureaucracy ever had.

She'd fallen behind. Not for any fault that could be pointed to another.

Everything had always been her fault. She'd once wanted to change this city, to become a pillar of peace within its walls, to lift it up and help others. But as the dust settled, and she dragged herself past her torn legs, she wondered where things had gone wrong.

Was it the divorce? They said you couldn't be a woman in law, and manage a relationship at the same time… at some point, she believed that. Even used it as an excuse. Maybe it was how difficult it had been to assume results, to build notoriety in a field where death meant productivity.

No, she was good at killing. She always had been. But then she saw that spark of light streak bravely past her eyes, the wildfire burning within the silver of Diana Ulrich. She watched as fellow officers shot at her, as she took the burden of pain and transmuted it into a strength Risa envied.

Once, Silvereye was a nobody. A Diana Jones in Intelligence Squad 13. A poor little girl, in over her head, but with a big scary wolf as a father. Risa only felt contempt that such a responsibility had been put under her head, so she left it to Rorsche.

She left so many things up to him, and those who'd come before him — if they messed up, then they'd be punished. Being good at killing, and not much good at anything else meant she was a poor fit for the Intelligence Department. Yet, she stayed. She told herself that it was the best way to make a difference, to get noticed by the SIO. There, she told herself, she could make herself busy and useful to make a difference.

Diana Jones was now Diana Ulrich, and she wasn't just noticed by the SIO. But the whole city. In that silver spark, that being which took on the mountain of steel unflinchingly… Risa was burdened with envy. And, hatefully, awe.

Silvereye met each blow of his without deterring, she was hardly the expert in manifesting her newfound telekinetic flight perfectly, but on the ground she was a veritable threat to almost any Adapter Risa had come across. Lightning jolted her from threat to opportunity, melting scorn lines over any place she dared to breathe on, and her punches dented that impenetrable bastion of defence serving as Vanguard's body.

Risa Wickett was a killer masked with a badge. She'd accepted that long ago, known that many others among her were the exact same. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Diana Ulrich was different. A sheep transformed into a fucking werewolf, for comparison. A monster whom she hated, because it required an undoubtedly inhuman willpower to truly believe that your power could be put to good use for the sake of everyone, and not just yourself.

A protector… Risa hated that she was being protected by this woman. That her broken legs were only ammunition for Silvereye. She hated that she needed to be protected.

Yet, for the brief moment when Silvereye's gaze met Risa's, a question was asked.

It was: 'why aren't you shooting me?'

And Risa answered, gripping her gun up and shooting away at that blur of lightning and steel. Each bolt was devoured by the woman with a wince, but she withstood the pain for their sake.

For their sake… Diana was Silvereye.

———

Dreadwire

The fact that Diana's suit didn't break from all that she put it through made it a masterpiece.

My Glitch Cloak was far from perfect, effective but energetically inefficient, I turned it on again for purely for one reason, Steel Vanguard wasn't looking with his eyes — there were no ocular implants on his Exoskeleton. Within that suit were sensors detecting movement and Warp Energy to act upon, and I was his biggest distraction… which was why Diana had the perfect opportunity.

She held his broken staff's end, an incredible electromagnetic and gravity-manipulator, and it began to rotate as waves of electricity rippled it into motion. I sent a simple thought out through Starlight, and Archangel responded to block Steel Vanguard from attacking me.

I grabbed Diana's hand as she was charging her poor-man's-railgun. "It's like this."

The Thread tendency met her Lightning and smoothed the violence and discord within her as she received input from Warpweb, the spinning rod harmonized to our wills and gyrated until it whistled in the air. I sent a command to Rachfeld, the Esper Sabrina wanted me to kill. "Heat this up."

Digging himself through the dust and rubble, he flicked his fingers and the spinning rod turned a violent red in seconds, freeing it's electrons so Diana could manifest even more electrical carnage when the moment was right. And that moment was now. as Archanel was battered aside and Steel Vanguard turned his attention onto us.

"To stand still in battle is to invite-"

The rod shot out, and it broke the sound barrier as a wave of force sent us both tumbling backwards away from Steel Vanguard's falling body. Which now had a giant hole erupting through it's backside, remnants of a ribcage and intestines seen through the many layers of steel encasing it.

To our surprise, he groaned and twitched as his head turned up. "Such… mighty force. You both are truly worth that Gold."

Archangel limped over to our side, her voice harrowed and shocked. "You're still alive?"

Vanguard laughed, gripping his staff and slowly pulling himself up. "That body… is only a remembrance of weakness. What would stirring a corpse within a grave do the living? I am steel, and steel is me."

Steel Vanguard grabbed one of the intestines spilling out of him, and yanked it out to step on it. "To kill me, is to render me no better than scrap."

"Scrap?" Diana chuckled, her voice dark and heavy in my hold. "I couldn't agree more."

All around us, shrapnel rose into the air, hundreds of tiny jagged pieces of torn Shardware, bullets and weaponry. Some of them came from those who had fallen to their deaths. With a maniacal laugh from her, they swarmed into that hole like feasting flies to rotting flesh and devoured within his organic cavities.

Blood spilled as Vanguard thrashed, lumps of organs chewed out began to drip through the hole until he jerked up… and fell down once more. Diana chuckled. "Still a brain inside all of that steel anyway…"

Then she fell loose in my arms, and our minds desynched as Starlight appeared in our vision with frizzy hair and bags under her eyes. "That… ugh… take it easier on me, next time? Glitch Cloak is… it makes me want to puke."

Too much spaghetti?

"Way too much." She groaned weakly.

Diana tiredly patted my face. "We get' em?"

"You got him." I confirmed, feeling as her body relaxed and the Mutation transforming her under the suit began to revert. She winced in pain, and I reached for her mask but she shook her head.

"Not… not now." She eased away from my grasp, before shuddering. "I… fuck… Sabrina, Kim?"

'Azure Phoenix is still in combat with us.' Kim's voice came through, tired and hoarse. 'We're burnt, bad.'

"We can't rush towards them. Better we to move to a medic bay." I said, looking over Diana mostly. "Those Warp Burns will leave you out of commission if you push yourself any further."

"I know." She slid her mask off her face as faint scar-like lines remained, almost in the shape of her mask… but they quickly faded. "Chances aren't looking good if we get attacked…"

Her voice sharpened and her eyes gaped behind me. "…again. Dread, on your six."

I snapped my head back, others turned too as a man walked in. He wore a police uniform, a lieutenant's by design. Gray hair settled on his head, matching gray eyes that I wouldn't ever forget.

Jacob Grazhe, the Lieutenant who had died at the Toxin Club, stood in the flesh. And on the matter of flesh, his voice puppeteer'd us.

"It's a pleasure to see you all again. How about you join me in the grave? Shoot yourself in the head, please. That's an order from your Major."

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