Hell's Underworld

Ping gave chase with her ki at the ready, aiming for the perfect shot and just right as she aligned it all perfectly, the beast suddenly exploded violently, forcing the young Shinjin to abort her own attack and watch in surprise as the dead mortal came flying from within the fish, the raw energy from before was evident and even more overwhelming than before, forcing the Shinjin to land and merely watch in shock as the dead mortal effortlessly laid waste to the beast that had tried to consume him. It was only once the dead mortal began to remove his clothing that Ping snapped back to her senses, letting out an eep and quickly turning away from the mortal while a heavy blue blush overtook her face. "D-Don't you dare expose yourself to me, mortal!" Ping cried out in embarrassment as she kept her back to the man even as he requested new clothing for himself, which was more than fair from a logical standpoint since he was covered in who knows what, but did he really have to strip in front of her?!

"N-No.... I... Maaayyy... Have skipped that part in the lessons.... I can make you tea instead?" Ping had to admit that while she did in fact know magic and how to create things, most of the things were centered around what she would want rather than need, who would ever decide "Ah yes, I'd like to know how to make clothing please!" when you could literally just create yourself unlimited snacks and drink whenever you wanted? There were plenty of health benefits to her snacks and drink too! Still the offer to make the war criminal some tea was rather empty since the man needed clothing and not a beverage, but it was the best she could offer him for the time being, maybe she'll get back to her lessons and start learning more of this whole magic thing, how hard would it be to make fabric compared to reconstructing the Ensenji slice from scratch?

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WC: 340
TWC: 4,780

Ping listened with half an ear as the mortal explained his kind's lack of concern over nudity, as if such a thing would matter to her, who cares if they were fine with it?! She sure as hell wasn't! She wasn't even in her 100s yet, not to mention this was a mortal! A dead mortal at that! Ping kept her back firmly placed toward the war criminal, she had no interest in seeing the nude form of any mortals, especially since it was supposed to be some form of romance for some of the mortals, wasn't it? Well, no thank! Ping was perfectly fine in remaining single, she knew enough of the mortal romance life from seeing Kuro and Tekina's relationship was something Ping had been forced to watch and listen to, hearing the lovey dovey couple flirt and kiss was annoying at the best of times. "Well, just get dressed! Go find some clothes! or cover yourself! Just do something!" Ping complained as she fidgeted with her scarf, a part of her was considering just giving it up for the man to cover himself but then what would she do when he was done with? She'd never be able to clean it, it would simply have to be burned but she really liked this scarf! She had it since she moved in with Tekina and Kuro!

Thankfully, such sacrifice was unneeded as the dead mortal proclaimed that he had dressed himself once more, bringing Ping to carefully look over at the dead mortal and letting out a sigh of relief as she noticed the dead mortal was now redressed into some strange new getup but that was perfectly fine since it meant she wouldn't need to look at the dead mortal in the nude. "Good, let's get you that stupid Red Mist Lake water, I didn't expect to have to fight anyone doing this simple escort job." Ping muttered as she followed after Yangcong once he took to the air, the blush on her face finally fading as she focused once more on the job, one that had initially seemed so simple and easy, escort a dead soul to some lake to collect some magical water that could do... Something.

"Once we get your water, will you need me to escort you back? Or think we'll be able to split up now since those two demons are gone?" Ping had to question, that anxious and innate wrongness feeling had faded alongside the once all consuming mist that had enveloped the duo, the mere fact that Yangcong was capable of flight was further proof that any danger might now be gone with the death of the two demons, she doubted there would be any more threats that Yangcong couldn't handle by himself since he was far stronger than Ping.

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WC: 470
TWC: 5,250

Ping let out a sigh of relief that the dead mortal wouldn't need an escort back, it left her free to merely return back to the rest of the Twilight Brigade as soon as they wrapped things up here, which how hard could it be to collect some water now that the two demons guarding the place were dealt with? "Good, as a Goddess, I'm sure you're aware that I'm always very busy doing Godly things, you know how it is, but if you ever find your soul healed and able to return to the mortal realm, just look for the Twilight Brigade and you'll find me and my crew easily enough! Then you can fulfill your end of the deal and we can settle our debts completely, it will be a pieceeee...... Damn it." Ping had began to happily explain as the duo landed near the Red Mist Lake, more than easily capable of collect the samples that the dead mortal had wanted, yet Ping trailed off as soon as she noticed the water started to behave differently as within the lake two spontaneous whirlpools formed and a pair of familiar looking arms reached out from the whirlpool as if it was portal, the weird darker shadow Ping pulling herself free from the depths of the water and forcing the young Shinjin to sigh.

"We were so close..." Ping whined to herself as she readied herself for a battle against herself, although a part of her had briefly considered asking the dead mortal to swap enemies but then she remembered just how powerful her companion and future bodyguard were, the mental image of a quick scream and a wide deadly beam enveloping her flashed in the young Shinjin's mind before she banished the idea of swapping enemies to the back of her mind, she'd take the perfectly equal duel against herself any day of the week before asking to fight someone of Yangcong's capabilities, thank you very much!

Launching forward once more, the two Pings blasted at each other and created a large smokescreen for the two to try and engage in a battle within, fighting against oneself was unsurprisingly quite the equal battle as both Goddess and shadow Goddess matched strike for strike, quite literally as neither seemed ready to take the defensive side of the battle instead of blocking or dodging the other's attack, both Pings had began to hit their attacks together, a fist would meet a fist, a kick would be responded with a kick of their own, it was not a dance where either would try to outsmart the other but instead a battle of endurance. "Just block, you stupid, evil, shadow copy!" Ping screamed out her frustration as the other Ping smashed her forehead into Ping's own forehead as she attempted to headbutt the mimic, the two briefly appearing stunned by the attack and rubbing at their foreheads before, as one, they'd both raise their hand up in a pistol gun motion and mimic shooting as if it was an intense western duel between two cowboys, yet the very real ki bullet formed at the tip of the Shinjin's index finger serving as the barrel of the gun had collided with the other equally real ki bullet and exploded into smoke once more.

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WC: 550
TWC: 5,800

Ping was too focused on her own battle with herself to even consider how her companion was holding up, he was probably having an easier time though since it was entirely possible that he was willing to switch up his own fighting style to try and counteract himself, something that Ping wouldn't accept, she was a Goddess damn it, this was just a mimicry of the real thing and it wouldn't ever stand up to the real deal, it was just taking a little while for her to break through the defenses of her evil inferior clone. The tie however would come to a sudden and abrupt ending as out of nowhere, the large mouth blast from her future bodyguard completely wiped out the shadow copy who barely had time to react and instead would let out a quiet scream before fading away, leaving nothing behind except the rushing waters that had been pushed aside from the war criminal's beam of energy.

"Heh, not bad for a mortal!" Ping would compliment as she turned her attention toward Yangcong, fully expecting the dead mortal to have already dealt with his shadow copy yet to her surprise, she turned just in time to watch the powerful soul take a heavy hit and get sent flying back and away from Ping, the attack looking powerful. "Yangcong!" Ping shout as she rushed toward the shadow copy of the much stronger man, immediately firing a barrage of ki blasts into the shadow's back while approaching, yet instead of approaching him further she'd zip around the shadow to stand between him and Yangcong.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Ping shouted as she extended her right hand outward toward the clone of the war criminal, the pink energy expanding outward and wrapping around both Ping and Yangcong in the shape of a bubble that crackled with a small amount of energy, the rest of it was being built within her left hand, she knew she was beyond outclassed against the shadow creature but she just needed to buy Yangcong time to recover so he could properly deal with this little mess, then they could finally just leave and forget about this stupid lake, it was far too much effort for herself, two demons, one of which was a siren and the other was a devourer of sorts, those two were bad enough but two shadow copies were pushing it for the young Goddess, she didn't sign up to deal with this mess, it was supposed to be a simple and easy job!

---

WC: 425
TWC: 6,225

Ping was relieved to see that her companion was able to recover so quickly, she was worried for a moment that she'd have to actually try to endure the stronger shadow copy of the war criminal, instead he moved quickly to prove an opening for the young Shinjin who had since dropped her shield to begin fully focusing on gathering her attack into her left hand while watching with bated breath for the opening the man said he would provide her with. "Come on, come on, come on...." Ping mumbled to herself anxiously as the two let loose attacks that created another smokescreen, only for the opening to finally show itself as the two Yangcongs fought for control while grappling the other, without even waiting for the war criminal's words Ping unleashed all her built up energy into the shadow's back.

The pink spiraling beam raced toward the shadow's defenseless back, the attack was nearly everything the young Shinjin had in her but she knew it wasn't enough to put down the shadow, such an intense power gap meant that it would be outright impossible for Ping to ever truly defeat the shadow in one clean attack unless Yangcong had already put in a vast majority of the work in for her. What the attack could do however was give the dead mortal an opening of his own, the shadow copy of the war criminal was forced to let go and stagger, briefly going stiff as Ping's beam not only collided against his back but began to drill into the flesh before fading, leaving only bloody hole in the shadow copy's back and weakening it enough for Yangcong to follow up with an attack of his own, one that Ping hoped would be more than enough to wipe the shadow creature out of this realm.

---

WC: 305
TWC: 6,530

Ping watched with satisfaction as the dead mortal made quick work of the strange evil copy the lake had produced, she was lightly pant and a bit sore from her own battle with her inferior copy, her knuckles especially hit, who could've guessed that bashing your fists into someone else's fist would've ended up hurting? "Yes, yes, you did pretty good as well for a dead mortal. I do look forward to working with you once you have managed to return to the realm of the living. If you don't mind however, I believe I have earned myself a nice hot bath and a nap. Do try not to die on your way back to wherever you reside, I won't be around to stop any other sirens from luring you to your doom." Ping declared as she stretched and let out a small yawn, there was some saying among mortals about feeling satisfaction at a job well done if Ping remembered correctly but the feeling she had was more relief than anything, sure it was nice to have earned herself a future bodyguard but it wasn't like having a bodyguard in the future was very rewarding in the moment, Yangcong, for all his power, was still a mortal who had already died once before and unless the mortal suffered a humiliating end, that meant there was someone stronger than him out there, someone who might not be very pleased with his return to the living realm once more.

"Farewell Yangcong, I wish you luck in your endeavor to escape this realm to rejoin the living realm once more." Ping bid her farewell as she focused her energy back aboard the Twilight Brigade's ship and with nothing more than a simple zip and rush of air, Ping would disappear from Hell and reappear back in her private quarters aboard the vessel, none of her crew mates even aware that she had decided to go visit the afterlife. "It's so good to be back." Ping mused to herself as she finally settled into the bed, she may have said she would go bathe herself but alas even the Patron Goddess of Pirates couldn't ignore the irresistible siren call of the bed calling her name and promising rest for her dead tired bones

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[Exit]

WC: 380
TWC: 6,910