The Vault

Night Ninety

Age 1991

The Manner...

"-and that's the story of how we fought of ten hundred Bestia Macht- Oh dear we seemed to have arrived." The butler said stopping in front of a pair of large metal doors.

"Thank you for telling us." Dawson nodded.

"Now that was an awesome tale!" Kitsune nodded. "I feel sorry for whoever didn't get to hear that all the way!"

"Indeed..." Light said wiping some tears out of his eyes. "The part where you were able to save the girl and the baby was especially good. I hope that one day I will be able to have a tale as amazing with my Big Brother. Only stories I have was when I was his Big Brother cause I was that other guy he used to hang out with. I wasn't blind then and older it was kind of cool but I was sad when Okami died."

"Seriously what's up with your weird ass life..." Kitsune sighed.

"Hmm..." Was all Irene said staring at the spot where Hero and Ken were supposed to be. 'They ran off together... Ken wouldn't try anything right... She insists on not loving him and yet spends a lot of time with him... More than he spends with me...'She bitterly thought as her frown grew.

"I'll tell you all the rest of the tale another day." The butler said letting out a small chuckle as he nodded his head. "It brings me a lot of memories from the time I was an Enforcer. I used to be in Squad One you know... I served with Okami Otoko..." He reached out knocking on the large door as he cleared his throat and got back on track to his actual job. "My Lord. The Enforcers have arrived."

"Ahh good!" The voice of William Bathory could be heard on the other side as the metal doors flew open allowing the group to step in. There small group, missing two, finally saw the Noble still dressed in red. He was alone sitting in his office. He leaned forward as he gave a small smile. "Hello."

"Gold Rank Enforcer Dawson Blight." Dawson said.

"No rank Enforcer Kitsune Nine."

"No rank Enforcer Irene Glacious."

"No rank Enforcer Light no Last Name."

There was a moment of silence for a moment as they waited for the last two to give their speech.

"Go ahead..." Dawson said. "Hero... Ken... Say it as well..."

"..."

"..."

"Ken... Hero..." Dawson sighed. "We talked about this. You both have to-" Dawson stopped when he turned seeing that both the boy and girl were gone. "Uh oh..."

"Is there an issue?" William asked cocking his head to the side.

Dawson was silent for a moment. "Yes sir... A big issue..."

"Oh dear..." Was all the butler said when he noticed Hero and Ken were gone.

***

The Vault...

The large metal door of the vault stood before both of the teens which they eyed up slowly. Both of them wondered what must be behind such a heavy set of doors.

"What kind of sinful things could this man be hiding behind his doors... Men and Dungeons are never a good thing..." Ken muttered as she began to image what she might find behind these doors which quickly made her face turn red and look away. "Sinful..." She said saying a quick prayer to her God.

"I'm sure it's not whatever you're thinking..." Hero said flatly. "Still though... If I was a betting man I'd say it has to be something important to hide behind a massive vault, which is in a freaking maze of hallways..."

"So how do we open it?" Ken asked. "I don't see a-"

Hero jumped forward stabbing his jaws into the metal door as he pulled back ripping a large chunk out of the vault door which he began to chew and swallow. He did this over, and over again, eating more and more of the vault as Ken slowly covered her eyes with her hands.

"That will never not be weird..."

Hero's stomach grew much larger as he filled it up and let out a loud burp. His stomach glowed red for a moment as a ton of heat began to roll off his belly and the metal inside was melted down which he could then use for later.

"Man that was good!"

"I should have brought Irene along..." Ken decided.

Hero cracked his neck and knuckles as he began to stretch. "Alright! Let's get this party started right. Just call me Super Vault Eater Man cause I'm busting these doors down!"

"Can we just go in."

"Fine kill my fun..."

The two of them slowly stepped past the broken vault door finding a single straight hallway. The entire hallway was weird looking. Like a glass hallway? And on the other side of the glass were these weird machines that were pressed to the glass. At the end of the hallway was a large metal vault door much like the one they just broke down.

"He hid a vault in a vault." Ken said flatly when she saw the other door.

"The perfect hiding spot." Hero joked.

The two of them stepped forward and were instantly stopped when the glass room began to glow.

"Hey you know... This kind of reminds me of this bad movie based on this popular game." Hero nodded. "There was this glass hallway that glowed like this and lasers fired-"

At the end of the hallway a compressed laser beam formed and began to shoot down the hallway towards them both at an insane speed.

"Oh crap! It did that!" Hero yelled ducking down as the laser flew over him.

Ken tried to jump it but wasn't quick enough as it sliced her legs off and she hit the ground landing face first on the glass floor as her body was riddled with laser beams.

"Ow!" She said with wide eyes. "Damn that stung!" Seconds later the flesh on her legs wounds bubbled up as a new pair of legs popped out. "Man if I couldn't heal that could have been bad... How are you doing?" Ken asked. She stood up and watched Hero who was doing flips and ducking down dodging all the beams that were being fired towards him. Ken just kind of stood there and kept getting shot and limbs sliced off but simply healed over it.

"Damn it! It does hurt!" Hero yelled when he was to slow and one of the lasers lightly nicked his cheek cutting it open and another sliced into his left shoulder. "Lasers are mega hot! And not in the sexy way but in the ow way! And not ow in the sexy way either!"

"I can heal so..." Ken just kind of shrugged. "Good luck pal."

Hero's eyes were wide as he ducked, jumped, flipped, rolled, and side stepped, more and more beams of light that sliced and shot at him as the hallway seemed to spit more and more out faster and faster. "Healing is such a busted power..." Hero gave Ken a dirty look as she regrew her left arm for a fifth time. She just shrugged. "Alright screw this..." Hero brought his right arm up as it morphed and he used it blocking all the lasers, none of them able to get through his arms metal. He brought the limb back and forth slapping the walls, ceiling, roof, and floor shattering them and raining glass down.

Seconds later the lasers all went out leaving the room in a darkness only showing off Hero's red eyes, and Ken's silver eyes which both glowed with their Equations.

"How did you know that would stop them?" Ken asked.

"I didn't. They were just really pissing me off so I hit them."

"Whatever works."

"Now I'm really interested in what's so important you hide it behind a freaking death hallway! Seriously... Not cool." Hero sighed.

A few seconds later the room was lit up by a small red light making Hero and Ken instantly go back to back as they waited for a new threat to drop down. Hero was the first to see it at the back of the hallway.

"Hey Ken..." He asked slowly.

"Yeah?"

"So like... As long as your brain survives you can come back from the dead right? Like even if you die you come back?"

"Yeah?"

"Good... Just checking... Also you're a good friend. I do this only because I like living and you can come back."

"What-"

Before Ken could finish Hero's massive claws hand wrapped around her entire head shielding it and keeping it safe as he whipped her around in front of him. Seconds later a massive gun which had formed at the end of the hallway unleashed a hail of bullets into Ken which Hero was using as a makeshift shield blocking his body with her.

The bullets had trouble ripping through her armor, and her body, so by the time they did pass through they mostly lost all their force and was unable to pierce Hero's own armor, and the lucky few that did pierce his armor were unable to press deep into flesh.

"She's gonna be pissed..." Hero mumbled as the gun at the end of the hallway finally stopped its barrage of bullets running out of ammo. Before it could reload Hero stepped forward and chucked Ken's corpse into the gun smashing it.

Ken's lifeless body hit the floor as her eyes stared blankly up to the roof.

A few minuets of silence passed as Hero watched her body. The bullets began to fall out of it as her wounds began to close and her heart began to slowly pump again as blood started back up.

"You're back-"

Ken's fist slammed into Hero's face sending him flying back as he slammed into the back of the vault.

"You asshole!" She yelled. "That hurt!"

"Sorry?" Hero said slowly sitting up and rubbing his jaw. "I didn't have time to destroy the gun in time, and my arm isn't big enough to shield my body from all the bullets. I made sure to keep your head safe."

"That's not the point it's! It's!" Ken stomped her foot as she turned away from him. "I don't like dying... It hurts... And it's scary... And I'm scared I won't come back one day... Or worse I'll stop caring I can't die..."

"Sorry..." Hero hissed. "I guess that was a bad plan huh? I didn't have time to think though so I figured that was the best bet... Sorry..."

"Sorry doesn't cut killing me!"

"I mean if I didn't I would have died?"

"Just drop it." Ken sighed letting out a huff and folding her arms. "Now my jacket is covered in bullet wounds... Man..." She said a quick prayer to her God now that she was back and spent a few seconds pulling some of the bullets that were stuck in her clothing out. "You jerk..." She pouted.

"I said I was sorry?"

"This is why I just love you like a friend!" She yelled throwing the gun at him which slammed into Hero's head knocking him over. She let out another huff as Hero scratched his head. "I understand that it would have killed you if you didn't react fast enough but still..."

"Sorry, sorry..." Hero said again as he sheepishly ran his hand through his hair. "I won't do it again. Or you can use me as a shield if you want. Sound like a good deal?"

"You owe me one for that..." Ken shook her head as she turned back to the last door. "For now let's get through this vault and see what this guy is hiding."

"Want me to eat it or-"

Ken brought her hands up firing out a beam of red and black energy that vaporized the vault door turning it to ash.

"Well shit! I forgot you can do that."

Ken's smirk came back onto her face for a moment as they stepped past the melted vault door and into the next room ready to find what exactly this Noble was hiding in this vault...

And what they found shocked them...

"Son of B###h it's another vault!" Ken yelled when she saw a third vault at the end of a red hallway.