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The Slums
A swathe of land on the outer edges of the city that laws forgotten and neglected by the rest of the Nexus. The most outside attention it gets is the occasional elite whom trepidatiously enters the slums when a particularly nasty creature sets up a nest inside them and starts hunting outside its boundaries.The rest of the time, it remains wallowing in neglect, the dilapidated buildings slowly falling apart and being reclaimed by nature. The entire area is walled off with chain-link fencing and barbed wire in an attempt to keep whatever squalid beings who live there from ever escaping into real society.
Almost nobody lives here by choice. Those who do are utterly desperate individuals whom are seeking to escape justice, debtors, a few particularly nasty vampires, or those truly wishing to be forgotten by society. Rumors speak of a black market in the sewers beneath the area where slavers go to peddle their wares, where one can purchase untraced weapons, or illegal poisons. And beneath even that, there are whispers of a great hungry monstrosity sealed beneath the ground, searching for a way to escape.
At one point, this district had a proper name, but by now, after decades of neglect, nobody remembers it by any other name. There is very little publicly available information about the nature of this district or whom lives in it, as nearly everyone who does is unregistered.
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Tsumiko
10:00 am
Days later, nothing significant had changed in Tsumiko's life. She continued living her life, hunting down criminals, hiding away in her house as if she'd never met Thea.
She tried to pretend like everything was okay in order to keep going. She ignored the second thoughts about her lifestyle, nagging her in the back of her mind, scratching at her unpleasantly, causing her headaches. She simply continued existing, because she didn't know how do do anything else. She only knew how to kill; she only knew how to survive. Killing was survival for her.
But is that the only way?
The childlike woman shuddered as she tried to ignore these troubling thoughts and refocused her mind on the matter at hand. Yes, she tightened her trembling grip upon the rifle she was holding, steeling her grip and silencing her thoughts. She looked through the scope and bit her lip, closing one eye as she honed in upon the man whose life she had decided needed to end this morning.
He was a beast of a man, half giant. His cruel disposition and extreme size had enabled him to climb through the ranks of the gang owning this part of the slum to an enforcer of the gang.
She'd seen him beat up innocent people for the sport of it. Rob them of their livelyhoods, and sometimes their lives.
She could feel her fingers trembling again. "He deserves this." She muttered, steeling herself once more, looking into herself, becoming one with the gun.
And then she fired, the large bullet traveling at supersonic speeds towards his unsuspecting head.
Through the scope, she saw his head explode into blood and viscera, chunks of his brain coming out of the other side of his head as the bullet burst through the other side.
Another confirmed kill.
The girl slumped down onto the cold rock, took a deep breath, and blinked back tears. After a moment, she descended into her shadow, fleeing to a safe location so they wouldn't be able to find the culprit.
-
Carin
10:00 am
Mortals are so strange to her. They walk around their lives in cages of concrete and plaster, hearing only vibrations in the air and the sounds of their own bodies. They know themselves by assertion, by self-image, pushing their identities against each other in a challenge: I am this! I am me!
… Samantha’s parents found out about the new girl she was dating. The yelling began again, and continued until the crying started. ‘You don't love me at all!’ Sam fled, unheeding of the gentle touch wiping tears from her cheeks...
She doesn’t know when the first prayers began. Their whispers filled her, shaped her in the image they desired. She heard the prayers before she heard herself, and reached out to answer - feelings of warmth, comfort. What little she was, she gave to them. More added their voices and their gifts to her, and she began to recognize who they believed she should be.
‘... and please, look out for my daughter on her way home from school…’ Michael pleaded with hands clasped before a desk on which scented candles slowly burned out. The little girl was already watched, but it was nice to hear him care again...
She was the chorus of a song, a loving refrain of their faith and hope. Their needs and desires filled her as thoughts and feelings did them. She blessed their hearts with love, and knew ‘This is me. I am!’
… taking the left and avoiding the gang… finding the hundred on the ground to meet the rent… a voice and a dream to keep out the memories of the monster’s touch…
It was all she could do for them now. But Carin knew, as she knew herself, that there were more who needed her. She was incomplete as long as others suffered alone. So she reached out to find those precious people who needed consolation, that she might know herself once more.
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Ariel
10:00 AM
It's true that this place was beautiful. There was a sun, a bright moon, a sky full of stars. The angles of the Euphrates did not charge across its territories, the locusts did not swarm up with too human faces to sting people to madness, and there was grass. This world abounded with life, more than enough for to feed everyone. Ariel had always wondered if they could have done better. That if humanity had the tools, peace, and prosperity they could wipe out everything that was wrong with them. She had always hoped they could rise above these necessary cruelties, the inequalities across their cities, if only the world was kinder.
But it wasn't the world. It was the people.
It felt wrong to be here. Her first set of wings shone like a star surrounded in the mire of the slums. It almost felt cruel, showing people something so beautiful. Still, some found comfort in it, and that comforted her as well. But that wasn't why she was here.
With her eyes Ariel could see sin. A look told her the sins of man. Thief, murderer, rapist, adulterer, and how many more? How many times over could one man ruin others? So she donned the mantle of the Accuser, far enough away that none would know the mark of sin, and brought judgement upon them one at a time. Some were destroyed. Many were in fact. They were crushed under the weight of judgement, and their strength or gangs could not protect them. But some... some found repentance in that darkness. In the midst of the darkness, they truly repented and were saved. Their dreams were peaceful, the insects and parasites fell from their flesh, and their torment had ended. Not guiltless but saved.
Again she sat on the ruins of a building, surveying her tormented target in his house. He had killed before. Many, many times. Perhaps he even enjoyed it. Could someone like that truly find forgiveness?
With a troubled look, the archon opened the book given to her and began to read. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool..."
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Tsumiko
10:15
Tsumiko descended into her shadow, the previous familiar she'd entered from quietly disappearing back into the aether. She dove deeper into the thick mess of shadow, swimming towards her home, and after a moment, she arrived.
The girl was spat out of the shadow monster living in her house holding tightly to her gun. She walked over to the wall and gingerly hung it up. She knew that she could easily project an exact replica, but...
A forgery just didn't feel the same as the real thing, despite how infinitely close she could make it to the original.
The girl sat down on her couch and just sat for a while, decompressing from her night's work.
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Carin
10:15 AM
Even a goddess has their limitations. Foremost among those limits is the free will of mortals: Carin could not make people do things with her powers. She could plead with them, or bribe them, or even threaten them, but nothing in her abilities allowed her to just make choices for them. Most of the time she was okay with this - people were happier when she didn't tell them what to do. Sometimes though she just knew something bad was about to happen and tried to inspire them to do something else, anything else to avoid that. Usually it worked out well for Carin and her follower!
This time it hadn't. She had tried to get Samantha, whose parents didn't understand her at all to stay on the main street instead of going down that alley. Carin knew that Samantha had been trying to take a shortcut to one of the goddess' shrines to hide out and pray for guidance, but she could go a few precious minutes instead of taking that risk.
Sam hadn't listened. The bullet went in, and her purse was gone. It was only fortune that meant the mugger was too busy to finish the job or 'have fun', and so had run off immediately after getting what he wanted. And so Sam stumbled along, holding herself up against the alley wall, and shuddering in pain. She held her hand against the wound trying to stop the bleeding to little avail.
And so she prayed, trembling in fear and pain, "P-Please, get help...!"
Right before Samantha lost consciousness, a mere block from her original destination, a soft voice answered "I will." A pair of small arms wrapped around the teenage girl and caught her before she could fall.
Of course, then she had to find someone who could treat a gunshot wound in this part of town.
-
Tsumiko
Just as Tsumiko was finally going to sleep, her leaden eyelids slowly closing as she prepared to sleep in the first time in at least a week, a cry for help shocked her out of her oh so desirable slumber, pulling the girl back to the reality of her existence.
She jumped up, not because she'd heard a gunshot, no, that was all too common in these parts.
She'd heard somebody cry out for help, and she needed to respond.
She reached over to the cabinet, opened a drawer, and then pulled out a needle and inject it into her arm. A stimulant, to allow her to keep going. She took it out, feeling its powerful effects as the crests worked to purge it from her body. It would only last a short while, but it was enough.
She ran out of her door, looking around for the injured person.
Hoping she wasn't too late.
-
Tsumiko
Just as Tsumiko was finally going to sleep, her leaden eyelids slowly closing as she prepared to sleep in the first time in at least a week, a cry for help shocked her out of her oh so desirable slumber, pulling the girl back to the reality of her existence.
She jumped up, not because she'd heard a gunshot, no, that was all too common in these parts.
She'd heard somebody cry out for help, and she needed to respond.
She reached over to the cabinet, opened a drawer, and then pulled out a needle and inject it into her arm. A stimulant, to allow her to keep going. She took it out, feeling its powerful effects as the crests worked to purge it from her body. It would only last a short while, but it was enough.
She ran out of her door, looking around for the injured person.
Hoping she wasn't too late.
Carin
The young goddess had just finished making strips out of some cloth in Samantha's backpack to wrap and put pressure on the bullet wound. Carin knew enough from inspiring children to do well on their homework that she just needed to get her stable enough to make it somewhere someone could do more.
She was lucky, too, that she had at least enough power to make sure the bullet didn't go through something... too important. She shivered in disgust at thinking of some part of one of her followers as less important than another.
Just as she was picking Sam up to move her, the little goddess saw someone else enter the alley. "Oh, good! I wasn't expecting anyone else! Please, help me get her somewhere she can be helped."
Carin smiled, full of hope.
-
Tsumiko
Just as Tsumiko was finally going to sleep, her leaden eyelids slowly closing as she prepared to sleep in the first time in at least a week, a cry for help shocked her out of her oh so desirable slumber, pulling the girl back to the reality of her existence.
She jumped up, not because she'd heard a gunshot, no, that was all too common in these parts.
She'd heard somebody cry out for help, and she needed to respond.
She reached over to the cabinet, opened a drawer, and then pulled out a needle and inject it into her arm. A stimulant, to allow her to keep going. She took it out, feeling its powerful effects as the crests worked to purge it from her body. It would only last a short while, but it was enough.
She ran out of her door, looking around for the injured person.
Hoping she wasn't too late.
Carin
The young goddess had just finished making strips out of some cloth in Samantha's backpack to wrap and put pressure on the bullet wound. Carin knew enough from inspiring children to do well on their homework that she just needed to get her stable enough to make it somewhere someone could do more.
She was lucky, too, that she had at least enough power to make sure the bullet didn't go through something... too important. She shivered in disgust at thinking of some part of one of her followers as less important than another.
Just as she was picking Sam up to move her, the little goddess saw someone else enter the alley. "Oh, good! I wasn't expecting anyone else! Please, help me get her somewhere she can be helped."
Carin smiled, full of hope.
Tsumiko
Tsumiko silently shoved her out of the way. Politeness could wait. Talking could wait. Action had to be taken now.
She projected a small medicinal knife and pressed it against the girl's flesh. "This will hurt." She muttered, ripping off a piece of her clothing and gagging the girl in order to prevent her from biting her tongue off. She'd learned about that necessity the hard way.
And then, she dug into the wound in order to extract the bullet, doing her best to avoid anything immediately fatal.
She could just pour mana into fixing any less critical fuckups.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko silently shoved her out of the way. Politeness could wait. Talking could wait. Action had to be taken now.
She projected a small medicinal knife and pressed it against the girl's flesh. "This will hurt." She muttered, ripping off a piece of her clothing and gagging the girl in order to prevent her from biting her tongue off. She'd learned about that necessity the hard way.
And then, she dug into the wound in order to extract the bullet, doing her best to avoid anything immediately fatal.
She could just pour mana into fixing any less critical fuckups.
Carin
Carin didn't have to let this girl push her away like that, it would have been trivially easy to just not move. But the goddess didn't want to get Samantha hurt, and she recognized the look on that face too. That... really familiar face.
All she could do was watch as Samantha regained consciousness and cried out into the makeshift gag. Carin bit down on her bottom lip, and reached out to take her follower's hand. Give her something to squeeze and make it simpler to give her luck a boost too.
A goddess' blessing to smooth over any sloppiness.
-
Tsumiko
Blood covered Tsumiko's hand as she slit the girl open wide enough to see inside. She reinforced her eyes, and then she saw the offending object. She shoved her hand inside, pulling it out and dropping it onto the cracked cement beneath them.
And then she dropped the knife into her shadow, never to be seen again. She placed her hand on the girl's side, took a deep breath, and looked into rin's power. She dug deep into the crest, finding the exact spell she needed, and accessed it, casting it and pouring mana into the girl's wound, feeling herself get ever drowsier from the experience.
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Tsumiko
Blood covered Tsumiko's hand as she slit the girl open wide enough to see inside. She reinforced her eyes, and then she saw the offending object. She shoved her hand inside, pulling it out and dropping it onto the cracked cement beneath them.
And then she dropped the knife into her shadow, never to be seen again. She placed her hand on the girl's side, took a deep breath, and looked into rin's power. She dug deep into the crest, finding the exact spell she needed, and accessed it, casting it and pouring mana into the girl's wound, feeling herself get ever drowsier from the experience.
Carin
This was... gruesome. Carin noticed a hot tingling feeling at the corner of her eyes, but let it be even when it trickled down to her cheeks. And she whispered, "Fear not. She's making you better, Samantha. Your prayers were answered."
Just not by you, a whisper of heresy said as it slithered out of her heart of prayers.
That... did not matter.
Samantha's crying starting to slow was what mattered.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko sullenly ignored the girl's screams as hot flesh regrew, body parts and organs fused back together and her skin melded, the scar itself disappearing. It was only once she was done, once she removed the gag, did her eyes flash with fury as hot liquid streamed down her cheeks.
Samantha felt a hard slap against her cheek, hard enough to immediately feel a welt coming on. Then she felt the other girl pean against her, pressing her forehead against hers. "What the hell were you thinking, you idiot! Don't ever cut through an alley again! You almost died! Is whatever you were doing worth killing yourself over? Of course it's not, I'll answer that for you!"
Tsumiko grabbed her shoulders and squeezed. "You're lucky I was here to save you, but what about next time? You have to make sure there isn't a next time!"
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko sullenly ignored the girl's screams as hot flesh regrew, body parts and organs fused back together and her skin melded, the scar itself disappearing. It was only once she was done, once she removed the gag, did her eyes flash with fury as hot liquid streamed down her cheeks.
Samantha felt a hard slap against her cheek, hard enough to immediately feel a welt coming on. Then she felt the other girl pean against her, pressing her forehead against hers. "What the hell were you thinking, you idiot! Don't ever cut through an alley again! You almost died! Is whatever you were doing worth killing yourself over? Of course it's not, I'll answer that for you!"
Tsumiko grabbed her shoulders and squeezed. "You're lucky I was here to save you, but what about next time? You have to make sure there isn't a next time!"
Carin
Samantha let out another cry at the sudden manhandling and striking, blubbering in confusion. "I-I-I didn't, I just, please don't hit me...!" She tried to push Tsumiko away, but she wasn't strong enough. She definitely wasn't strong enough to get away from this crazy magic girl who was beating her up and invading her space and, and-!
And then Tsumiko felt a hand on her shoulder. A very firm one. "That is enough. She learned her lesson when she received a bullet wound."
Carin gave Samantha a Look, though. "She is right, of course. We will talk later."
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko sullenly ignored the girl's screams as hot flesh regrew, body parts and organs fused back together and her skin melded, the scar itself disappearing. It was only once she was done, once she removed the gag, did her eyes flash with fury as hot liquid streamed down her cheeks.
Samantha felt a hard slap against her cheek, hard enough to immediately feel a welt coming on. Then she felt the other girl pean against her, pressing her forehead against hers. "What the hell were you thinking, you idiot! Don't ever cut through an alley again! You almost died! Is whatever you were doing worth killing yourself over? Of course it's not, I'll answer that for you!"
Tsumiko grabbed her shoulders and squeezed. "You're lucky I was here to save you, but what about next time? You have to make sure there isn't a next time!"
Carin
Samantha let out another cry at the sudden manhandling and striking, blubbering in confusion. "I-I-I didn't, I just, please don't hit me...!" She tried to push Tsumiko away, but she wasn't strong enough. She definitely wasn't strong enough to get away from this crazy magic girl who was beating her up and invading her space and, and-!
And then Tsumiko felt a hand on her shoulder. A very firm one. "That is enough. She learned her lesson when she received a bullet wound."
Carin gave Samantha a Look, though. "She is right, of course. We will talk later."
Tsumiko
Tsumiko turned towards Carin and frowned, releasing samantha. "Did she? I'd like to believe that, but what proof do you have? Do you know how many times I've seen somebody make the same foolish mistake, regardless of what they've 'learned'?"
Tsumiko's left eye flashed light blue, while the right flashed deep red, for just a moment.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko turned towards Carin and frowned, releasing samantha. "Did she? I'd like to believe that, but what proof do you have? Do you know how many times I've seen somebody make the same foolish mistake, regardless of what they've 'learned'?"
Tsumiko's left eye flashed light blue, while the right flashed deep red, for just a moment.
Carin
Samantha immediately scampered around to hide behind Carin, putting the young goddess with her red eyes and light purple hair between herself and the one who healed her. All Carin did was smile, placing her arms behind her back and looking up at this oh so familiar looking girl. "I shall be with her, and this time I believe she will listen when I warn her about such things. I can feel it."
As if hesitant to disagree, Sam just nods. Repeatedly. "I-I promise I'll listen from now on!"
"Mmhmm." And then Carin bowed her head to Tsumiko. "Thank you very much for helping her out. I'm glad such a good person lives in this place."
-
Tsumiko
"Tch." Tsumiko felt upset for somw reason she couldn't really artuculate, seperate from this girl's abject foolishness.
She turned her head away, tears coming to her eyes.
"I'm hardly a good person." She stood up, feeling rather wobbly all of a sudden. Maybe using all of that magiv hadn't been a good-
Tsumiko crashed onto the ground with a thud, groaning from her sheer exhaustion.
-
Tsumiko
"Tch." Tsumiko felt upset for somw reason she couldn't really artuculate, seperate from this girl's abject foolishness.
She turned her head away, tears coming to her eyes.
"I'm hardly a good person." She stood up, feeling rather wobbly all of a sudden. Maybe using all of that magiv hadn't been a good-
Tsumiko crashed onto the ground with a thud, groaning from her sheer exhaustion.
Carin
Before she could hit the ground, Tsumiko found herself in the arms of the young-seeming girl. It was an effortless catch and hold, because Carin could see the signs of discomfort. And then she said, "Only a good person would put so much of themselves into helping another for no gain at all. Stubborn girl..."
Carin knew the words couldn't reach her now, so she picked the girl up into her arms and began to move down the alley. "Samantha?" She said to her follower, her perked up a bit in guilty relief due to Tsumiko's unconsciousness. "Please go home. I will speak with them soon, should you pray to me."
"... okay."
And with as much faith in Samantha as Samantha had for Carin, the young goddess left her behind so she could take this other poor girl back to her humble shrine.
Just a little nook at the end of another alley. Just a table with a tarp pulled tight, an overhang to protect it from the weather. On the table were cheap scented candles, only half of which were lit, and dried flowers. Carin gently knelt next to the shrine, and placed Tsumiko's head on her lap facing up. And then she waited.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko found herself standing in a large cavern filled with magic energy. A dark circle floated far above her. A girl whom looked exactly like herself stood laughing underneath it, while a second, raven-haired woman laid on the cold ground, imprisoned and unable to move even an inch.
She was trapped, she couldn't move either. She couldn't speak. She couldn't do anything, nothing could stop this tragedy! She reached out, into the air, but then...
Her vision turned to static, and the scene disappeared.
The next thing she saw was from an overhead view, floating high over the sky as she watched the consequences of her wish unfold. Mud flowed freely from the mountain, oozing out of every hole like pus from a burst pustule. It destroyed everything, everyone in its path. Even this high up, the acrid stench of burning biomass seared itself into the girl's nostrils, overwhelming her senses, making her eyes water, and filling her mouth with a burning sensation. She floated upwards, higher, watching the mud spread over Japan, into the sea, and onto Korea.
Maybe it wasn't the smell that was making her eyes water, after all...
Tsumiko moaned in her sleep, tossing and turning in Carin's arms. She cried out in fear, pain? Or was it something different.
Regardless, it certainly didn't seem like it was a particularly restful experience.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko found herself standing in a large cavern filled with magic energy. A dark circle floated far above her. A girl whom looked exactly like herself stood laughing underneath it, while a second, raven-haired woman laid on the cold ground, imprisoned and unable to move even an inch.
She was trapped, she couldn't move either. She couldn't speak. She couldn't do anything, nothing could stop this tragedy! She reached out, into the air, but then...
Her vision turned to static, and the scene disappeared.
The next thing she saw was from an overhead view, floating high over the sky as she watched the consequences of her wish unfold. Mud flowed freely from the mountain, oozing out of every hole like pus from a burst pustule. It destroyed everything, everyone in its path. Even this high up, the acrid stench of burning biomass seared itself into the girl's nostrils, overwhelming her senses, making her eyes water, and filling her mouth with a burning sensation. She floated upwards, higher, watching the mud spread over Japan, into the sea, and onto Korea.
Maybe it wasn't the smell that was making her eyes water, after all...
Tsumiko moaned in her sleep, tossing and turning in Carin's arms. She cried out in fear, pain? Or was it something different.
Regardless, it certainly didn't seem like it was a particularly restful experience.
Carin
There was an uncomfortable feeling that settled into Carin's gut the longer she stayed incarnate in the world. Every moment she spent in flesh was a moment she could have been in spirit, listening for prayers and doing her best to answer them. She could have been guiding her followers when they needed her, watching over them, keeping them safe. The young goddess felt... was this the guilt mortals described? Yes, this seemed close to that feeling.
But seeing and hearing this young woman with such a familiar face suffer in her sleep for reasons unknown, Carin knew this was where she belonged right now. She smiled sadly at the sight, and placed a hand over Tsumiko's forehead. "Rest easy, sweet healer. You deserve better than your dreams allow you."
A sense of soothing comfort settled gently onto the girl with her head on the goddess' lap. And then, Carin tried to give her a better dream than whatever came before. Something... like home?
A kitchen, table and chairs. Domesticity. Someone there with her, even if it had to be Carin herself.
-
Tsumiko
The world faded to black once more, and Tsumiko found herself sat at a table with people she was both intimately familar with yet had no clear idea who were at the same time.
Is this from their past? His past? She wondered as she slowly began to eat food quietly, listening to the people around the table just, well, chat. Chat like she figured people did when they were having a good time.
Tsumiko quieted down, but she looked-lonely...
-
Tsumiko
The world faded to black once more, and Tsumiko found herself sat at a table with people she was both intimately familiar with yet had no clear idea who were at the same time.
Is this from their past? His past? She wondered as she slowly began to eat food quietly, listening to the people around the table just, well, chat. Chat like she figured people did when they were having a good time.
Tsumiko quieted down, but she looked-lonely...
Carin
A soft voice interrupted the dream of faded memories. "Is this better?"
Across from Tsumiko was the girl from before, only a bit older. Physically, she resembled the dreaming girl's own age. She too was sitting at the table, hands folded on top of it as she ignored a bowl of rice.
-
Tsumiko
The world faded to black once more, and Tsumiko found herself sat at a table with people she was both intimately familiar with yet had no clear idea who were at the same time.
Is this from their past? His past? She wondered as she slowly began to eat food quietly, listening to the people around the table just, well, chat. Chat like she figured people did when they were having a good time.
Tsumiko quieted down, but she looked-lonely...
Carin
A soft voice interrupted the dream of faded memories. "Is this better?"
Across from Tsumiko was the girl from before, only a bit older. Physically, she resembled the dreaming girl's own age. She too was sitting at the table, hands folded on top of it as she ignored a bowl of rice.
Tsumiko
"Another person invading my dreams, huh..."
Tsumiko leaned back, laying down on the floor. "What do you want." She asked quietly. She was so used to people wanting stuff from her, so what was one more?
-
Tsumiko
"Another person invading my dreams, huh..."
Tsumiko leaned back, laying down on the floor. "What do you want." She asked quietly. She was so used to people wanting stuff from her, so what was one more?
Carin
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you would like this dream." Carin ducked her head at that, turning her eyes down to the table. This was not how the young goddess was usually received. "You passed out from the exertion of saving Samantha, but then I saw you... struggling."
She looked back up to Tsumiko, and smiled hesitantly again. "I just wanted to help you feel better."
-
Tsumiko
"Another person invading my dreams, huh..."
Tsumiko leaned back, laying down on the floor. "What do you want." She asked quietly. She was so used to people wanting stuff from her, so what was one more?
Carin
"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you would like this dream." Carin ducked her head at that, turning her eyes down to the table. This was not how the young goddess was usually received. "You passed out from the exertion of saving Samantha, but then I saw you... struggling."
She looked back up to Tsumiko, and smiled hesitantly again. "I just wanted to help you feel better."
Tsumiko
"Thanks, I guess, but what do you really want? Nobody ever comes here without wanting something or other."
-
Tsumiko
"Thanks, I guess, but what do you really want? Nobody ever comes here without wanting something or other."
Carin
Blink. Blink.
"That is what I want. For you to feel better."
The goddess tilted her head and looked at Tsumiko in confusion, red eyes meeting hetero-chromatic.
Then she sat back again and smiled. "My name is Carin."
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko didn't believe her, really. She'd been burned by phantoms too many times, ghosts visiting her in her sleep, only to vanish in a puff of smoke after a painfully short time.
Taiga was gone.
Illya was gone.
Mitsuzuri was gone.
Saber was gone.
Even Thea was gone, and she was real.
But, she wasn't going to get a straight answer out of Carin. She could tell. That girl was full of deceit, and she wouldn't be fooled.
Nor could she do anything about it.
"You can call me Tsumiko, I guess."
-
Carin
Ah. This one had been hurt before, hurt deeply. It might have even been recently if Tsumiko was this closed off. Carin took a cup of tea into her hand and sipped from it. "Mmm. Well, I'm watching over your body until you wake up from this one. You can leave whenever you like."
Another sip. "Huh. This is good tea..."
-
Tsumiko
"Yes, it seems like my parents were great cooks, all three of them."
She sounded exceptionally bitter as she spoke, turning over on the side so she could hide herself from Carin.
Her heart throbbed in anguish, her breathing getting more labored.
-
Tsumiko
"Yes, it seems like my parents were great cooks, all three of them."
She sounded exceptionally bitter as she spoke, turning over on the side so she could hide herself from Carin.
Her heart throbbed in anguish, her breathing getting more labored.
Carin
Tsumiko could hear the sound of a cup being gently placed back on the table.
"... would you rather I left?"
Carin sounded as sad as she felt.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko fell silent for a good while. She laid on the floor, legs under the Kotastu, simply looking at the ceiling and staring.
She didn't answer yes, though.
-
Carin
The silence grew more comfortable for Carin at that realization. So she settled in to quietly sip her tea, across from Tsumiko, until curiosity overtook the young goddess. She let out a soft hum, and moved to imitate the girl across from her.
So they were both laying there with their legs under the kotatsu.
It was as warm as one girl's memories of a memory could make it.
-
Carin
The silence grew more comfortable for Carin at that realization. So she settled in to quietly sip her tea, across from Tsumiko, until curiosity overtook the young goddess. She let out a soft hum, and moved to imitate the girl across from her.
So they were both laying there with their legs under the kotatsu.
It was as warm as one girl's memories of a memory could make it.
Tsumiko
After a good long while, Tsumiko asked a question.
"What are you, anyway?"
-
Tsumiko
After a good long while, Tsumiko asked a question.
"What are you, anyway?"
Carin
"I'm a Carin."
But then she realized that wasn't the kind of answer Tsumiko would appreciate, and giggled to herself. "Please, forgive me. I don't usually get asked - people tell me what I am."
Carin shifted a little bit under the kotatsu so their feet were touching a bit.
"They tell me I'm a goddess. I guess I'm just trying my best to live up to that by helping out."
-
Tsumiko
After a good long while, Tsumiko asked a question.
"What are you, anyway?"
Carin
"I'm a Carin."
But then she realized that wasn't the kind of answer Tsumiko would appreciate, and giggled to herself. "Please, forgive me. I don't usually get asked - people tell me what I am."
Carin shifted a little bit under the kotatsu so their feet were touching a bit.
"They tell me I'm a goddess. I guess I'm just trying my best to live up to that by helping out."
Tsumiko
"Pft. Don't worry, you're not a god. Gods don't exist any more." Tsumiko giggled a little bit. It sounded girlish, cute, even. "It's nice to see you trying to help people, but shouldn't you be a little more proactive? If you'd just materialized and grabbed her, she wouldn't have been able to make that mistake."
-
Tsumiko
"Pft. Don't worry, you're not a god. Gods don't exist any more." Tsumiko giggled a little bit. It sounded girlish, cute, even. "It's nice to see you trying to help people, but shouldn't you be a little more proactive? If you'd just materialized and grabbed her, she wouldn't have been able to make that mistake."
Carin
"Well, I get stronger when people pray to me - does that count? If nobody did, I wouldn't exist." Carin decided that total honesty was the better approach when dealing with this girl. Withholding information would just be used as an 'aha!' later on and then the little goddess would never get anywhere. "Right now I can only take form around my shrines. Then I had to run to reach her."
She let out a sigh, as if disappointed in herself.
"Normally I just... tweak things. A bit of good luck here, some inspiration there, good dreams to replace bad ones, the strength to get through tough times."
-
Tsumiko
"Pft. Don't worry, you're not a god. Gods don't exist any more." Tsumiko giggled a little bit. It sounded girlish, cute, even. "It's nice to see you trying to help people, but shouldn't you be a little more proactive? If you'd just materialized and grabbed her, she wouldn't have been able to make that mistake."
Carin
"Well, I get stronger when people pray to me - does that count? If nobody did, I wouldn't exist." Carin decided that total honesty was the better approach when dealing with this girl. Withholding information would just be used as an 'aha!' later on and then the little goddess would never get anywhere. "Right now I can only take form around my shrines. Then I had to run to reach her."
She let out a sigh, as if disappointed in herself.
"Normally I just... tweak things. A bit of good luck here, some inspiration there, good dreams to replace bad ones, the strength to get through tough times."
Tsumiko
"Just trying to manipulate people never ends well." Tsumiko answered flatly, sullenly, as if Carin had ticked off a nerve. "You need to have a firmer touch than just covertly manipulating feelings if you want to get anywhere."
-
Tsumiko
"Just trying to manipulate people never ends well." Tsumiko answered flatly, sullenly, as if Carin had ticked off a nerve. "You need to have a firmer touch than just covertly manipulating feelings if you want to get anywhere."
Carin
"Huh? Little things like that are all I can do most of the time." Carin sat straight up then, looking over the kotatsu at Tsumiko and frowning thoughtfully. "I'm still too small to heal the sick, or things like that. All I can do is be providence and inspiration."
Then she sighed. "Besides, I'm pretty obvious about it. They all know I'm doing it."
-
Tsumiko
"Just trying to manipulate people never ends well." Tsumiko answered flatly, sullenly, as if Carin had ticked off a nerve. "You need to have a firmer touch than just covertly manipulating feelings if you want to get anywhere."
Carin
"Huh? Little things like that are all I can do most of the time." Carin sat straight up then, looking over the kotatsu at Tsumiko and frowning thoughtfully. "I'm still too small to heal the sick, or things like that. All I can do is be providence and inspiration."
Then she sighed. "Besides, I'm pretty obvious about it. They all know I'm doing it."
Tsumiko
"Hmmph..." Tsumiko fell silent, seeming to be thinking about something important for a minute or two. "What foods can you make in my dreams, anyway..."
Her stomach rumbled.
-
Tsumiko
"Hmmph..." Tsumiko fell silent, seeming to be thinking about something important for a minute or two. "What foods can you make in my dreams, anyway..."
Her stomach rumbled.
Carin
Carin just smiled at the thought, leaving Tsumiko to mull over her words on her own time. Instead she just asked a more important question. "Is there anything you would prefer?"
When next Tsumiko blinked, a bowl filled with rice with pork cutlet over it was sitting in front of her on the kotatsu.
"I like this one, myself."
-
Tsumiko
"Hmmph..." Tsumiko fell silent, seeming to be thinking about something important for a minute or two. "What foods can you make in my dreams, anyway..."
Her stomach rumbled.
Carin
Carin just smiled at the thought, leaving Tsumiko to mull over her words on her own time. Instead she just asked a more important question. "Is there anything you would prefer?"
When next Tsumiko blinked, a bowl filled with rice with pork cutlet over it was sitting in front of her on the kotatsu.
"I like this one, myself."
Tsumiko
The girl sat up, picking up the bowl and looking over it with watering eyes. She clicked her tongue and took a deep breath, taking a bite out of it. It was really tasty.
She put it back down though, biting her lip. She wanted to speak, but couldn't.
Instead, she laid back down on the floor, rolling over.
-
Carin
The young goddess could tell Tsumiko enjoyed the food, so why was she still so sad? Carin hummed, and leaned over the kotatsu a bit to look at the other girl.
"Was that one no good?"
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko laid on the ground, tears leaking out of her eyes. She rolled over, projecting a pillow out of thin air and burying her face in it.
"Mmm-no, it was good..." Tsumiko sounded muffled, sniffling into the pillow. Of course it was good, how could it not be..."
She felt her heart sieze up a bit suddenly at that moment, and the air began to buzz with a faint aound of static, the cieling getting fuzzy. Tsumiko didn't seem to notice, was the strange part.
It felt like the walls, the air, everything, was watching carin closely. Observing her, like a predator hunting prey.
-
Carin
How strange that the dream she had created for Tsumiko could be intruded upon this way. As the form Carin used to interact with the dream moved around the kotatsu to sit next to the mortal (?) girl rather than across, she reached out.
Hello?
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko finally rolled over groaning, going back to looking at the ceiling for a moment before sitting back up, picking up the food, and digging in. She shoveled it into her mouth, practically swallowing it whole, and showing no manners whatsoever. It was fast, efficient, and she finished the entire thing within half a minute. Her stomach grumbled some more, and she looked at Carin with big, hopeful eyes.
She licked her lips clean of stray rice grains, but missed one on her upper lip.
Meanwhile, the air seemed to grow positively heavy, gelatinous. For Carin, it felt like she was moving through petroleum jelly as she got closer to Tsumiko. A warning.
"Yes, hello. What are you doing here, in our domain? Who are you, really, and what are you doing to her? Why don't you answer my questions before you do much more to her?"
-
Carin
'I'm Carin. People call me a goddess. I want to help Tsumiko, so I took her nightmare away. Who are you?'
It was really just that simple. Tsumiko existed, and suffered. That was reason enough to help her for Carin, who pushed through the resistance despite the presence's attempt to stop her. And then, Carin smiled and wiped the bit of rice off her face.
"Mmm, more then?" She pulled another bowl up from under the table, giggling.
-
Tsumiko
After the girl gave Tsumiko another bowl of rice, and only after, Carin found the air solidify even further around her, completely restricting her movements.
"Do you know how many people have come to try to kill us, to kill her? There's no way to know you're not trying to lure her into your trap!"
The girl's speech pattern reached a cresendo, booming throughout Carin's very being.
"B-bevause of people like you, people get hurt!" It sounded angry, lost, terrified, and lonely. The air suddenly seemed to be loosening up as well for some reason.
-
Carin
Tsumiko's mind was powerful, for certain. But Carin was a goddess, and a mortal mind could only exert so much pressure against her in a vision of her own making. She returned her hands to her lap, sitting there comfortably, and conceded to the presence's intent anyway.
This pain, it was something Carin lived with every moment of every day. It was part of what gave rise to her in the first place.
People like me?
"Have as much as you like, Tsumiko."
-
Tsumiko
"Thanks..." Tsumiko muttered sheepishly, looking away from Carin as she took the bowl, stuffing her face with that one as well.
All she could hear was a loud, ambient murmer.
-
Carin
Isolation is never the path to happiness. Everyone wants someone else to care about them.
The goddess giggled, smiling and placing her elbow on the table so she could rest her chin on her palm. "You're welcome. Enjoy this dream while you're here, for once. It will stay as long as you like."
But there was something else here too; someone else who needed help.
'I want to help people. I want to help you. But only if you'll let me. Say the word, and I'll go away.'
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko murmered an assenting noise through her eating, simply continuing to shovel food into her mouth, into what seemed like a bottomless pit of hunger.
All Carin got from the other was silence, as the air returned to normal.
-
Carin
Well, I'm here whenever you want to talk. All you need to do is ask for me.
Carin watched as Tsumiko ate, content in the outcome for now. She could only help those who let her... even if it hurt to let let them suffer alone. She watched, and waited, and let herself drown in the feeling of helplessness as the depths of this girl's strange heart remained closed.
Until finally Carin asked, "Why did you help Samantha?"
-
Carin
Well, I'm here whenever you want to talk. All you need to do is ask for me.
Carin watched as Tsumiko ate, content in the outcome for now. She could only help those who let her... even if it hurt to let let them suffer alone. She watched, and waited, and let herself drown in the feeling of helplessness as the depths of this girl's strange heart remained closed.
Until finally Carin asked, "Why did you help Samantha?"
Tsumiko
Tsumiko didn't even slow down, finishing another bowl before putting it down and turning to look at Carin.
"Because that's what a hero does, isn't it?"
She stuck her hand out, asking for more.
-
Carin
"... a hero, huh?" Carin sounded wistful as she thought about it, her face flushing as the feeling ran through her. "But why be a hero, when you have so many problems of your own to solve? What drives you?"
She sounded excited now, leaning over a bit more as she handed Tsumiko another bowl.
-
Carin
"... a hero, huh?" Carin sounded wistful as she thought about it, her face flushing as the feeling ran through her. "But why be a hero, when you have so many problems of your own to solve? What drives you?"
She sounded excited now, leaning over a bit more as she handed Tsumiko another bowl.
Tsumiko
"..." Tsumiko seemed to shrink away as Carin asked that question. She seemed to shrink inside of herself, taking the bowl quietly, moaning a little before eating.
-
Carin
Ah, that wasn't a question Tsumiko was comfortable with. Carin nodded in understanding, and folded her hands on the table with a smile. "I wish I had the time to learn how to cook properly. Remaining in physical form is a luxury I cannot spare for long."
-
Tsumiko
"I could teach you." Tsumiko muttered quietly as she laid on the ground, sulking.
She wondered why she was a hero, really. Guilt? Genuine belief? Something else entirely?
The girl had no idea why she did what she did, acted as she did.
And that terrified her. She wondered if she was even real.
-
Carin
"I would like that!" Carin giggled in excitement, scooting over under the kotatsu to sit closer to Tsumiko. "A good person like you... you definitely have a lot to teach."
The young goddess smiled down at her. "Thank you again for helping."
-
Carin
"I would like that!" Carin giggled in excitement, scooting over under the kotatsu to sit closer to Tsumiko. "A good person like you... you definitely have a lot to teach."
The young goddess smiled down at her. "Thank you again for helping."
Tsumiko
Tsumiko smiled weakly, as if she were extraordinarily tired. Tired of everything. Tired of living in this god forsaken place.
"Yeah..."
-
Carin
Time to escalate, while she still had this gloomy girl in the dream! Carin reached down to take her hand, and giggled as she tried her best to move them both to the kitchen. "No better time to learn than now, ne?"
Oh, but how was she going to reach the counters...?
When next Tsumiko blinked, she was looking at an older Carin than before. Taller, more filled out. One much closer to her own physical age.
Smiling.
-
Carin
Time to escalate, while she still had this gloomy girl in the dream! Carin reached down to take her hand, and giggled as she tried her best to move them both to the kitchen. "No better time to learn than now, ne?"
Oh, but how was she going to reach the counters...?
When next Tsumiko blinked, she was looking at an older Carin than before. Taller, more filled out. One much closer to her own physical age.
Smiling.
Tsumiko
Instead of a smile, a hug, or even indifference, Carin saw Tsumiko's eyes roll up into the back of her head, passing out. Her conciousness being temporarily snuffed out. The plesent fantasy faded into static as the girl woke up.
In the real world, Tsumiko's eyes had shot open, blood red, glowing. Curse-marks began slowly encroaching onto her skin like a parasite infesting her.
"Who the hell are you?" A completely different tone hissed out at her from Tsumiko's mouth. Harsher. Angrier. Bitter.
She was most certainly not talking to the girl known as Tsumiko anymore.
-
Carin
It was not the most abrupt transition Carin had ever experienced - dreamers waking had happened before. But this, this part was new, and the younger-again goddess flinched in shock at the sudden transformation. "Tsumiko...? No, you're one of the others from before."
She very carefully removed her hands from Tsumiko's hair, allowing the girl's head free reign on her little lap. Now that she looked at her, the similarities were... unnerving.
"My name is Carin. I've been protecting Tsumiko from her nightmare."
-
Sakura
"You're a liar. Why else would you take that despicable form!?!"
Sakura roared at Carin with unbridled fury. Her left fist slammed into the crumbling wall next to them, covering them in dust and vausing the old building to begin creaking under its own weight.
"Now. Answer me. Who are you?"
-
Carin
"... you consider yourself despicable?" Carin blinked in surprised, not at all intimidated by the show of force. She was more durable than a crumbly old building. Wait, that might wreck her shrine! That would be really annoying to put back together again. The young goddess shook her head, and held her hands up placatingly. "Whoa, whoa! I just told you, my name is Carin!"
And then she motioned to herself. "This is just how I look like! Sometimes I'm older in dreams, but this is just me! This is how my followers conceived me."
-
Carin
"... you consider yourself despicable?" Carin blinked in surprised, not at all intimidated by the show of force. She was more durable than a crumbly old building. Wait, that might wreck her shrine! That would be really annoying to put back together again. The young goddess shook her head, and held her hands up placatingly. "Whoa, whoa! I just told you, my name is Carin!"
And then she motioned to herself. "This is just how I look like! Sometimes I'm older in dreams, but this is just me! This is how my followers conceived me."
Sakura
Sakura ground her teeth together, glowing red eyes flashing at Carin. Curse marks slowly encroaching down her arms and legs,staining her fair skin black. Hair slowly turning white.
"You expect me to believe that you just so happen to have that form? I have experience with things like you!" A perfectly black void began to grow in her left palm, the girl panting, shivering in fear. "That you have no relation to me, and just happen to share my form?"
-
Carin
"No."
Carin bowed her head respectfully, hoping this girl could not see how unnerved the transformation left her feeling. The young goddess had already begun making room in her heart for this girl, for Tsumiko's desire not to be alone. To see this girl be overtaken like this, to be consumed by an incarnation of her own fear - it hurt.
"I know quite a bit about being made of other people. I know how they feel, because on some level their feelings are my own. Rather, they give me shape. So I know what fear is."
Then Carin turned her own red eyes back to Sakura's, and frowned.
"So I expect you to act on your fears, and to do your best to push me away from Tsumiko until she is alone again."
-
Sakura
Sakura's crimson eyes seemed to shine with an unnerving light, staring down at Carin, boring into her soul. She ignored the plea from her sister to stop, smiling a bit suddenly, calmly, for just a fraction of a moment.
For that brief moment, Sakura looked to be at peace, as if she were complete. Her eyes seemed to fade out, looking at something different, something else.
Perhaps somewhere else.
But after that momentary joy, Sakura refocused on Carin, pulling his arm out of the wall. She shook it off, the bandages wrapped around it a bit frayed. Carin could see a glimpse of dark skin underneath the wrappings.
And then, Sakura turned away from her, walking away into a shadow. "This time, I'm not making a mistake. This time, I'll protect her properly." She gave Carin a small parting message just before she took the final step. She turned to look at her, the fires of determination burning in her eyes.
"This time, I won't screw up."
Sakura walked into the inky black abyss, protecting Tsumiko in her dream. The girl inside her slept peacefully, dreaming of better times. She dreamt of watching the cherry blossoms fall.
-
Carin
12:00 PM
Carin's form grew gradually more transparent as Sakura turned from her - as her heart sank accordingly. She had to, because the little goddess felt something hot and wet building up in the corner of her eyes. "I hope you do not come to regret taking that choice from her, then."
As the abyss enclosed Tsumiko and her self-proclaimed guardian Carin vanished, returning to her pure state as a holy spirit in a spread of light. And there she found -
'WHERE ARE YOU?'
It hurt.
'WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER?'
It hurt. To be gone this long and not know where they were, what had happened to them, if they had asked for her.
'I NEEDED HELP!'
It was like a spear in her side, like thorns digging into her skull, blood pouring out from her soul as she stretched her awareness to once more encompass everyone who held her in their hearts, who trusted in her to watch over and guide them.
How much had she missed? How much did Carin not know about them, not understand about how they suffered? Why had she risked so much to take that form for so long? It was selfish of her - to put one over another, but how could she not?
'... and thank you, for helping Samantha get back home safely.'
Sam had needed help.
'This time, I won't screw up.'
Tsumiko needed it, too. And Carin knew, as intimately as she knew everyone who put their trust in her, that stopping to help someone else could never be wrong. Even if they didn't want her to, she had to try. It was her duty as a goddess...
"Yes. My purpose is to help all of them."
And so she quelled the pain in her heart, and got back to it. Now, who was doing what and where...?
-
Sakura
12:15 pm
The fight had only taken a matter of seconds to resolve with how much stronger she was than them, but it had done a lot to take the edge off of the feelings of despair and betrayal she'd been feeling. Now, she simply held onto Shirou's unconcious corpse, hugging him tightly, in the murky depths of the abyss where nobody was going to be able to find her, watch her. Where the only other person around was the sister she knew whom had been watching in horror at what she was doing, fighting against her own desire to forcibly put a stop to it.
This was-the man she loved. The man she wanted to marry. Her lover. He completed her, made her human, and had given his life trying to save her.
Tears flowed freely down her face, dripping off her chin onto his messy orange hair. She was so close to him, it hurt.
She grunted, and they exited her sanctuary, landing onto her messy bed. She sat on top of him, straddling his thighs. She felt his member through her pants, felt Tsumiko's stir in responce. She took ahold of his face, leaning down as if to kiss him, stopping inches away from his face.
Sakura stopped. This wasn't right. He wasn't the same person, she knew that. He had his own Sakura, which made her all the more upset that she'd ever met them. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, finally giving up and resting her forehead against his. "Wh-why is it so unfair!" She bawled, screaming at the top of her lungs. She felt Rin silently take control of the body, and allowed herself to relinquish control, as if a puppeteer was handing it off to a companion. Rin hadn't interrupted her during her stupid outburst, which made Sakura feel oh so guilty. She simply continued crying, sobbing about what she'd done, what she'd ruined as she watched Rin cast spells, projecting a bandage to bind Shirou's broken arm, a cool ice pack which she placed on his head. She began casting spells, speaking softly as to not disturb him, healing his broken arm, repairing the damage her foolish sister had caused. She cast a hypnosis spell on him to keep him asleep, for now. She didn't want him waking up during the delicate operation.
Finally, Sakura spoke up. "Rin, I'm-" her voice quivered, and the girl's body began to shake.
"Don't, Sakura. Just don't." Rin sounded tired, measured and exhausted. She didn't want to explode at her sister. She didn't want to damage the delicate bridge she'd finally built. She sighed as she finished up, her own naturally blue eye returning to Tsumiko's face. She gritted their teeth and ground them. "You really messed up, Sakura." She finally said, climbing off Shirou. It was uncomfortable, watching her sister almost molest an unconcious man. She didn't know what she would have done if Sakura hadn't stopped where she did. She took them out of the room, and splayed out on the couch, grabbing a plush pillow and squeezing it tightly. "Sakura?" She asked, wondering if she was still there, or if she'd retreated.
"Y-yeah?" It seemed she was.
"Do you want me to take care of the cleanup, or can you help?" She reached up, awkwardly rubbing her own head, stroking it. Or rather, she stroked Sakura's hair.
"I-I don't know... I'm sorry, Nee-san..."
"...It's okay. I could have stopped you, so I'm also responsible. Let's just try to get this behind us before she wakes up, ok?"
Rin sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't want her to have to deal with our traumas on top of her own."
-
Sakura
12:15 pm
The fight had only taken a matter of seconds to resolve with how much stronger she was than them, but it had done a lot to take the edge off of the feelings of despair and betrayal she'd been feeling. Now, she simply held onto Shirou's unconcious corpse, hugging him tightly, in the murky depths of the abyss where nobody was going to be able to find her, watch her. Where the only other person around was the sister she knew whom had been watching in horror at what she was doing, fighting against her own desire to forcibly put a stop to it.
This was-the man she loved. The man she wanted to marry. Her lover. He completed her, made her human, and had given his life trying to save her.
Tears flowed freely down her face, dripping off her chin onto his messy orange hair. She was so close to him, it hurt.
She grunted, and they exited her sanctuary, landing onto her messy bed. She sat on top of him, straddling his thighs. She felt his member through her pants, felt Tsumiko's stir in responce. She took ahold of his face, leaning down as if to kiss him, stopping inches away from his face.
Sakura stopped. This wasn't right. He wasn't the same person, she knew that. He had his own Sakura, which made her all the more upset that she'd ever met them. She felt her heart pounding in her chest, finally giving up and resting her forehead against his. "Wh-why is it so unfair!" She bawled, screaming at the top of her lungs. She felt Rin silently take control of the body, and allowed herself to relinquish control, as if a puppeteer was handing it off to a companion. Rin hadn't interrupted her during her stupid outburst, which made Sakura feel oh so guilty. She simply continued crying, sobbing about what she'd done, what she'd ruined as she watched Rin cast spells, projecting a bandage to bind Shirou's broken arm, a cool ice pack which she placed on his head. She began casting spells, speaking softly as to not disturb him, healing his broken arm, repairing the damage her foolish sister had caused. She cast a hypnosis spell on him to keep him asleep, for now. She didn't want him waking up during the delicate operation.
Finally, Sakura spoke up. "Rin, I'm-" her voice quivered, and the girl's body began to shake.
"Don't, Sakura. Just don't." Rin sounded tired, measured and exhausted. She didn't want to explode at her sister. She didn't want to damage the delicate bridge she'd finally built. She sighed as she finished up, her own naturally blue eye returning to Tsumiko's face. She gritted their teeth and ground them. "You really messed up, Sakura." She finally said, climbing off Shirou. It was uncomfortable, watching her sister almost molest an unconcious man. She didn't know what she would have done if Sakura hadn't stopped where she did. She took them out of the room, and splayed out on the couch, grabbing a plush pillow and squeezing it tightly. "Sakura?" She asked, wondering if she was still there, or if she'd retreated.
"Y-yeah?" It seemed she was.
"Do you want me to take care of the cleanup, or can you help?" She reached up, awkwardly rubbing her own head, stroking it. Or rather, she stroked Sakura's hair.
"I-I don't know... I'm sorry, Nee-san..."
"...It's okay. I could have stopped you, so I'm also responsible. Let's just try to get this behind us before she wakes up, ok?"
Rin sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I don't want her to have to deal with our traumas on top of her own."
Shirou
3 PM
As Shirou slowly began to regain consciousness, he attempted to take stock of his situation. His head was throbbing, as he might expect, but other than that, his body felt perfectly fine, as if all the damage had been healed. And, even more unexpectedly, he was lying on a comfortable bed without any kind of restraint. And, as he opened his eyes and began to look around, despite the way in which his head was spinning, he noticed that his presumed kidnapper was not present. Further, the room he was in did not feel like it was Sakura's room. It was comfortable but spartan, with none of the decorations that he'd expect his wife's room to have.
But, if she had not kidnapped him, then how else could he have got here? The girl was far too strong for Sakura to defeat and, if someone else had rescued him, Sakura would be there too. Unless....
"Sakura!" Shirou shouted, suddenly as he attempted to sit up, desperately looking around for his wife.
"Sakura, where are you?" he said as he attempted to get to his feet.
However, with the concussion he had received in the fight, he could barely stand, and he began to stumble around, his brain addled with confusion as he desperately searched for his wife, fearful of the worst. Then, he collapsed to the floor in a heap, his eyes tearing up as he considered what might have become of his beloved wife.
-
Rin
Rin laid on the couch, louging around as Sakura took a nap. One of them had to be awake and present to supress Tsumiko, so she didn't have to deal with this. She'd tied Sakura's signature ribbon around her arm, idly fidgeting with it, running her fingers along it, wondering how things could have turned out differently. Some chinese food, braised beef, steamed vegetables, and wide noodles, laid on a plate next to her, while her own second plate had already been picked clean. She looked down at Sakura's chest, and frowned, feeling oh so alien and just a twinge of jealousy of her sister's figure.
Her idle musings were interrupted by the sound of a man desperately crying for his wife. The girl sighed, stirring, and tying up her hair in a lazy side ponytail with the ribbon, picking up the food and taking it to the room. She muttered a smiple spell, reheating the food just before she entered the room.
"It's good to see you awake, Emiya-Kun."
-
Rin
Rin laid on the couch, louging around as Sakura took a nap. One of them had to be awake and present to supress Tsumiko, so she didn't have to deal with this. She'd tied Sakura's signature ribbon around her arm, idly fidgeting with it, running her fingers along it, wondering how things could have turned out differently. Some chinese food, braised beef, steamed vegetables, and wide noodles, laid on a plate next to her, while her own second plate had already been picked clean. She looked down at Sakura's chest, and frowned, feeling oh so alien and just a twinge of jealousy of her sister's figure.
Her idle musings were interrupted by the sound of a man desperately crying for his wife. The girl sighed, stirring, and tying up her hair in a lazy side ponytail with the ribbon, picking up the food and taking it to the room. She muttered a smiple spell, reheating the food just before she entered the room.
"It's good to see you awake, Emiya-Kun."
Shirou
Shirou slowly dragged himself back to his feet, his head still pounding, only to find himself staring at the girl who had beaten him up, carrying a plate of food with her signiture ribbon now being used to tie her hair into a ponytail. But, even more confusingly, her method of speaking and acting was exactly like that of Tohsaka Rin, Sakura's estranged sister.
"W..what?" he said, his confusion not helped by the concussion. "Why are you talking like Tohsaka, Sakura?"
Then, his addled mind recalled why he'd ended up on the floor and what he had been searching for.
"Where is my wife?" he demanded, the anger and confusion clear in his voice. "What have you done to her?"
-
Rin
Rin laid on the couch, louging around as Sakura took a nap. One of them had to be awake and present to supress Tsumiko, so she didn't have to deal with this. She'd tied Sakura's signature ribbon around her arm, idly fidgeting with it, running her fingers along it, wondering how things could have turned out differently. Some chinese food, braised beef, steamed vegetables, and wide noodles, laid on a plate next to her, while her own second plate had already been picked clean. She looked down at Sakura's chest, and frowned, feeling oh so alien and just a twinge of jealousy of her sister's figure.
Her idle musings were interrupted by the sound of a man desperately crying for his wife. The girl sighed, stirring, and tying up her hair in a lazy side ponytail with the ribbon, picking up the food and taking it to the room. She muttered a smiple spell, reheating the food just before she entered the room.
"It's good to see you awake, Emiya-Kun."
Shirou
Shirou slowly dragged himself back to his feet, his head still pounding, only to find himself staring at the girl who had beaten him up, carrying a plate of food with her signiture ribbon now being used to tie her hair into a ponytail. But, even more confusingly, her method of speaking and acting was exactly like that of Tohsaka Rin, Sakura's estranged sister.
"W..what?" he said, his confusion not helped by the concussion. "Why are you talking like Tohsaka, Sakura?"
Then, his addled mind recalled why he'd ended up on the floor and what he had been searching for.
"Where is my wife?" he demanded, the anger and confusion clear in his voice. "What have you done to her?"
Rin
"Ehehe..haha..."
"..."
Rin's laughter faded into an awkward silence. She looked pained in her expression, and deeply uncomfortable with answering that question. "Hahaha, I don't look like myself, do I?"
She grabbed her long, purple hair and held it in twintails. "Is this better?" She smiled awkwardly at her joke, frowning. She took a deep breath, sighed, and looked at him. "I don't know where she is, probably out looking for you, I'd imagine."
-
Rin
Rin laid on the couch, louging around as Sakura took a nap. One of them had to be awake and present to supress Tsumiko, so she didn't have to deal with this. She'd tied Sakura's signature ribbon around her arm, idly fidgeting with it, running her fingers along it, wondering how things could have turned out differently. Some chinese food, braised beef, steamed vegetables, and wide noodles, laid on a plate next to her, while her own second plate had already been picked clean. She looked down at Sakura's chest, and frowned, feeling oh so alien and just a twinge of jealousy of her sister's figure.
Her idle musings were interrupted by the sound of a man desperately crying for his wife. The girl sighed, stirring, and tying up her hair in a lazy side ponytail with the ribbon, picking up the food and taking it to the room. She muttered a smiple spell, reheating the food just before she entered the room.
"It's good to see you awake, Emiya-Kun."
Shirou
Shirou slowly dragged himself back to his feet, his head still pounding, only to find himself staring at the girl who had beaten him up, carrying a plate of food with her signiture ribbon now being used to tie her hair into a ponytail. But, even more confusingly, her method of speaking and acting was exactly like that of Tohsaka Rin, Sakura's estranged sister.
"W..what?" he said, his confusion not helped by the concussion. "Why are you talking like Tohsaka, Sakura?"
Then, his addled mind recalled why he'd ended up on the floor and what he had been searching for.
"Where is my wife?" he demanded, the anger and confusion clear in his voice. "What have you done to her?"
Rin
"Ehehe..haha..."
"..."
Rin's laughter faded into an awkward silence. She looked pained in her expression, and deeply uncomfortable with answering that question. "Hahaha, I don't look like myself, do I?"
She grabbed her long, purple hair and held it in twintails. "Is this better?" She smiled awkwardly at her joke, frowning. She took a deep breath, sighed, and looked at him. "I don't know where she is, probably out looking for you, I'd imagine."
Shirou
Shirou, still concussed, simply looked at the clearly-insane version of his wife with utter confusion as she continued to act like her sister, even forming her hair into Rin's own signiture twin-tails in a bizarre attempt to prove her point. His confusion continued momentarily when she mentioned his wife, only to be over-ridden by a sense of relief at the fact that she was apparently not harmed in the attack.
"W..wait, so you're saying that you just left without harming her?" Shirou asked, a mixture of relief and confusion on his face. "You're saying that she's OK?"
-
Rin
Rin settled down onto the floor, handing Shirou his plate and a cold, wet towel to put on his forehead. "Well, yeah. Unless she got into another fight after we left, she's probably just desperately searching for you.
-
Rin
Rin settled down onto the floor, handing Shirou his plate and a cold, wet towel to put on his forehead. "Well, yeah. Unless she got into another fight after we left, she's probably just desperately searching for you.
Shirou
Shirou sighed in relief at the girl's words, sure that Sakura would be able to fend for herself.
"So she is OK?" he asked, still a little confused. "I'm so glad to hear that."
With that resolved, he momentarily considered making a break for it. But he was in no state to fight or even run and, besides, something really weird was going on here. He needed answers. So, with that in mind, he turned to the girl again.
"Why are you doing this, Sakura?" he asked. "Why did you attack me for no reason and then drag me here, only to leave me lying on your bed? And why are you pretending to be your sister? "
"I'm confused...", he added.
-
Rin
She looked really pained, as if what he'd said was really hurtful, in an extremely tender spot.
"Well, I don't really want to talk about that..."
-
Rin
She looked really pained, as if what he'd said was really hurtful, in an extremely tender spot.
"Well, I don't really want to talk about that..."
Shirou
Even with concussion addling his mind, Shirou could still see the pained look in her face at his words.
"Eh, what's wrong?" he asked, instinctively feeling concerned for the girl's welfare despite the fact that she'd kidnapped him.
But, even so, he still needed to know what was going on here, so he felt the need to press her further.
"Can you at least explain why you kidnapped me?" he said.
-
Rin
Rin took a breath, seemingly to speak, but stopped. She shook her head quietly.
-
Rin
Rin took a breath, seemingly to speak, but stopped. She shook her head quietly.
Shirou
Shirou sighed at the girl's refusal to answer. His head was throbbing, he felt confused and angry.
"So, what you're saying is that, despite attacking me for absolutely no reason, beating me into unconsciousness and then kidnapping me, you're unwilling to actually explain why?" he snapped.
Then he sighed again, the angry look on his face softening.
"Look, I'm confused, I have a throbbing headache and this whole situation is just so weird. I just want to know what is going on", he said, somewhat apologetically. "Please can you give me some kind of explanation."
-
Rin
"Emiya-kun, why don't you just eat for now. This isn't easy for me either."
She was painfully aware of the lust Sakura was feeling for him, and the disgust she was feeling because of it.
Second. Worst. Day. Ever.
-
Rin
"Emiya-kun, why don't you just eat for now. This isn't easy for me either."
She was painfully aware of the lust Sakura was feeling for him, and the disgust she was feeling because of it.
Second. Worst. Day. Ever.
Shirou
In response to Sakura's words, Shirou looked at her with utter bemusement.
"If this is so difficult for you, then why did you kidnap me in the first place?" he snapped back.
Even so, he could feel his stomach rumbling. They'd been just about to eat lunch when they'd come under attack, so he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. And, as he would expect from an alternative, albeit seemingly insane, version of his wife, it looked and smelt delicious. So, he did as the girl suggested and began to eat the food.
"Mmm, this is delicious", he said, again trying to lighten the mood after his snappy response.
-
Rin
"Mmm, thanks. I've been practicing."
Rin seemed kind of spacey, as if her attention was divided and she was only half paying attention to him. She was worrying about what his version of Sakura was going to do, and what her sister would do in responce.
"So, um, what do you do these days, Emiya-kun? How's-Sakura-doing?" She awkwardly finished her question, unsure whether calling her her sister was accurate and if it would offend. She ended up choosing the latter.
She still had absolutely no clue how to resolve the issue of the kidnapping, and was rather panicky on the inside.
-
Rin
"Mmm, thanks. I've been practicing."
Rin seemed kind of spacey, as if her attention was divided and she was only half paying attention to him. She was worrying about what his version of Sakura was going to do, and what her sister would do in responce.
"So, um, what do you do these days, Emiya-kun? How's-Sakura-doing?" She awkwardly finished her question, unsure whether calling her her sister was accurate and if it would offend. She ended up choosing the latter.
She still had absolutely no clue how to resolve the issue of the kidnapping, and was rather panicky on the inside.
Shirou
Shirou looked at her with a confused look on his face as she spoke again, her speech patterns still those of her elder sister. Was this just another facet of her obvious insanity? Some kind of multiple personality disorder where she had taken on the role of her sister in order to deal with some tragic event? Certainly that would explain why she didn't want to talk about it. Then, he let out another sigh, before responding to her question.
"Well, until you attacked me out of nowhere, knocked me unconscious and kidnapped me, I was working as a bounty hunter, although that was really just a way to earn a bit of money whilst we helped people. As for Sakura, well, right now I imagine that she's probably freaking out and desperately trying to find a way to rescue me.
Speaking of that, are you just going to let me leave once I've recovered a bit? Or are you intending to keep me as your prisoner?" Shirou responded.
-
Rin
"Gurk." He'd hit another nail right on the head that she didn't want hammering in! She was just trying to make a bit of small talk to stall for time, not deal with-
This.
Rin groaned, scratching at her head and throwing her head back in annoyance. That boner Sakura had popped certainly wasn't helping matters!!!
-
Rin
"Gurk." He'd hit another nail right on the head that she didn't want hammering in! She was just trying to make a bit of small talk to stall for time, not deal with-
This.
Rin groaned, scratching at her head and throwing her head back in annoyance. That boner Sakura had popped certainly wasn't helping matters!!!
Shirou
Shirou sighed at Sakura's response, thoroughly confused about what the girl was doing.
"You can't even answer that?" he said, obviously irritated.
-
Rin
"Well, it depends..." Rin answered as she continued to fuss over herself in a rather manic way.
-
Rin
"Well, it depends..." Rin answered as she continued to fuss over herself in a rather manic way.
Shirou
"Depends on what?" he said, obviously confused. "What do you even want from me?"
-
Rin
"That depends!" She sounded desperate and a bit annoyed.
-
Rin
"That depends!" She sounded desperate and a bit annoyed.
Shirou
In reponse, Shirou simply sighed loudly and returned to eating the delicious meal. He could tell from the tone of her voice that she was clearly starting to get annoyed and, whilst he would like answers, this Sakura was far too mentally-unstable and violent for him to risk antagonising her further, especially when she clearly had no intention of providing him with an answer.
-
Rin
"Emiya Kun..." Rin muttered, slouching over and leaning back.
-
Joseph
3:00 PM
All the filth flowed downwater. The trash, wastrels, mud, and poor alike all made their homes here. But that was alright. Joseph was no stranger to a little dirt! He walked down the streets, a slight smile on his lips, and offered his services to anyone who would have him.
Sometimes it was the homeless. A festering disease of the blood could easily be purified. Then he simply had to undo the years of degenerative effects to the bone and muscles, remove the decay in her teeth, and rid the body of its various other maladies. With nothing but a touch a woman stood taller and happier than she had for years. A healthy sheen to her skin that couldn't have existed. Quite pretty. She was in such good condition that he'd have considered parting her with those limbs a few years ago. Hahahah, that was before Joseph had learned to properly work with his body! No good at all, really.
Sometimes it was the needy. Rundown houses, leaky roofs, it was easy to get sick there. Children were so vulnerable despite their adaptability. Growing out the father's long since amputated arm may have been a surprise, but it certainly seemed welcome! He trusted Joseph enough to examine the child later. It was such a treat to, really. The illnesses were so strange, but the bodies were even stranger. With blood like molten iron and skin tough as steel, it was hard to operate on him. So interesting. All the way down to bones of forged glass and yet he was still sick. After all these years the alchemist could still learn amazing, wonderful things about people. They could be so different. No, they really all were quite different. Especially in this strange city. It made his skin squirm in excitement. But, well, there was at least one thing everyone he had treated recently had in common.
None of them would be missed.
Joseph chewed over the thoughts, wondering how to pour molten blood into the husk of a chimera as he memorized faces and places alike. It just wouldn't do to forget any of this. They really were so happy sometimes.
Something rotted in him at the thought, but that was normal now. The panicked beating of his heart, the sweat on his skin as disgust welled up in him, the pain as he slowly decomposed breath by breath. His smile didn't shift at all. There was no relief, but his magic would make sure the pain would be gone for a while yet. Just a little longer.
Ah, but he had missed something! There were a few places like this, houses hidden by one sort of power or another. There was nothing saying he couldn't help. So Joseph walked up to the door and knocked politely, as anyone should. Advertising was so important these days; it really was strange. "Hello? Is anyone home? Do you need any healing? I know medical magic and will cure all your ills for free!"
-
Shirou
"S..Sakura", he began, uncertain how to react to the awkwardness of the situation.
Before he could say anything more, though, he heard a knock at the door.
"Shouldn't you answer that?" he said, quickly, relieved that he didn't have to find something else to say to her.
-
Shirou
"S..Sakura", he began, uncertain how to react to the awkwardness of the situation.
Before he could say anything more, though, he heard a knock at the door.
"Shouldn't you answer that?" he said, quickly, relieved that he didn't have to find something else to say to her.
Rin
"Keh." She sounded annoyed at him calling her that over and over again. Wasn't it obvious that she was Rin, damnit? Was his Sakura in the habit of calling him Emiya-Kun???
Rin then proceeded to imagine that, and shuddered. "Brrr. No thanks." She wasn't interested in that mental image, nope. That just seemed wrong.
The knocking continued, and she could see it was a small child outside her door. She wasn't sure what his deal was, but she could tell he had some magical power.
Sakura, please get that. I'm busy here
"Okay." She answered, using her mouth. For a moment, Rin sounded normal.
Idiot! Don't confuse him any more! Rin Reprimanded her.
She then shook her head. "No, it's fine. So, uh..."
Great. Back to the awkward silence.
A shadow slipped out of the room at supersonic speeds, shooting towards the door and slowly coaleasing into a vaugely Sakura-shaped form. Two glowing red dots formed the eye, and a thin red line formed the mouth.
Frankly, she looked demonic.
Sakura slid forward along the floor, unlatching a slat in the door. She slid the peephole open, looking down at him. "Y-yes? What do you mean, help?" She answered staggeringly, unsure of how to talk to-people...
It made her feel a bit uncomfortable, but she put up with it. Rin had it harder, she knew.
-
Joseph
"Oh my. You don't look well at all." His hand covered his mouth in shock. "But I don't mean to be rude! It's not the shadows; I know you can be made of it or perhaps it could be an astral projection of sorts but--" The alchemist took a moment and let excitement disguised as embarrassment sink back beneath his skin.
He patted his chest and composed himself. "Ahem. I am Joseph, a wandering alchemist and healer. I was wondering if you were in need of my services? If you're trapped inside that transient shadow form there's not much I could do about it, but with the proper facilities I could get you right into a proper meat body with some tinkering. Otherwise I have many other services I can provide so long as I know what the problem is!"
-
Shirou
Shirou started at Sakura with utter bemusement as she seemingly talked to herself, at one point momentarily reverting to her own mannerisms before returning to those of her sister. It was very obvious to him that she was not remotely sane, but he really had no idea how to react to that, especially given that she was still holding him prisoner.
"Uh...", Shirou responded, unsure what to say.
Finally, he decided he needed to get to the bottom of everything.
"So, Sakura", he said, uncertainly, obviously confused, "why are you calling me Emiya-Kun? Did you pick that up from your sister or something?"
-
Shirou
Shirou started at Sakura with utter bemusement as she seemingly talked to herself, at one point momentarily reverting to her own mannerisms before returning to those of her sister. It was very obvious to him that she was not remotely sane, but he really had no idea how to react to that, especially given that she was still holding him prisoner.
"Uh...", Shirou responded, unsure what to say.
Finally, he decided he needed to get to the bottom of everything.
"So, Sakura", he said, uncertainly, obviously confused, "why are you calling me Emiya-Kun? Did you pick that up from your sister or something?"
Rin
Rin flipped her hair, puffing out her cheeks in a pout. Her deep purple eyes strayed away from his face, a look of disappointment filling her face along with a slight flush.
"I'm Rin, Emiya-Kun. Isn't it obvious at this point..." Her voice sounded forlorn and defeated, uncharacteristically so.
He was such a dense fool.
Sakura
"Ah?" Sakura slithered out through the hole, her body losing definition around the waist that had halfway come out of the door. She leaned forward, looking at Joseph with honest interest. The red eyes gleamed dangerously at him before she cleared her throat.
"Ah, no, this is just a projection. My sister is busy with my body right now."
She cleared her throat.
"So, what is a child like you doing in these parts?"
-
Joseph
"Interesting! You're two souls occupying one body? Could be separate or conjoined, a link or meld, maybe even a fusion. If I had better facilities I would be able to separate you two if you wanted that. That would take some time...?" He tapped his cheek as his brow furrowed in thought. Then he realized the second part of her sentence. "Wait a moment, I'm no child. I'm... Huh."
A frown appeared on his face. "It was two hundred or three hundred years ago? No that's too short. It was older than that; I thought the dragons would be around forever but they were vanished almost half a millenia ago so it can't be centuries. It was a millenia maybe? More... it feels so much longer than that. Ah, I don't remember. Why don't I remember?" The veins under his flesh squirmed as if they were alive, like worms that pulsed and stretched against his skin.
"How long has it been? How much longer...? My head hurts." He reached towards his face and pressed his fingers against his eye. It bulged a bit, a natural reaction, but Joseph was used to this by now. It was easy to push and scrape it out with just his fingers, cramming the digits deeper but failed to go through the eye socket. He held up a finger to the shadow as if to tell her to wait, his whole eye still entirely calm. He pulled a scalpel from his shadow and began to cut away, deeper and deeper as blood poured from the socket. But soon enough he had found his prize. Retrieved from the carved up inside of his head, he pulled free a maggot.
"Phew, so that's what it was." His eye was already knit back together, and besides the blood he looked fine. "I'm sorry about that. They're really into rotting meat, and it's hard to make sure I get all of them after a particularly rough tussle. But really, I'm not a kid. I'm almost two millennia years old! Give or take a few years."
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again at the girl's response. It was obvious now that the girl genuinely believed that she was Rin, but exactly why she believed that, he didn't know. Whilst she was obviously somewhat insane, she didn't seem to be acting unusual even despite her insistance that she was her sister.
"OK, Rin, then why do you look like your sister?" he asked, accepting her claim to be Rin in order to avoid aggravating her further.
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again at the girl's response. It was obvious now that the girl genuinely believed that she was Rin, but exactly why she believed that, he didn't know. Whilst she was obviously somewhat insane, she didn't seem to be acting unusual even despite her insistance that she was her sister.
"OK, Rin, then why do you look like your sister?" he asked, accepting her claim to be Rin in order to avoid aggravating her further.
Rin
Rin reached into the shadow and pulled out a glass of wine, taking a sip. She then frowned, raising her eyebrow.
"Shouldn't you at least pretend to believe me, Emiya Kun? I've been in my sister's body for eight years now, sharing a body with her after an unfortunate accident during the Holy Grail War."
-
Sakura
If Sakura had had skin, it would have crawled. She remembered the feelings of insects crawling under her skin, causing her agonizing pain...
Wanting to cut herself apart to get them out was a very relatable feeling. If she had been able to regenerate like that, she probably would have.
So the shadow reached out and rubbed Joseph affectionately on the head. "It's no problem, I've had that issue myself."
-
Joseph
Oh, that was nice. If he ended up needing a new arm that one wasn't bad at all, especially seeing as it was only a shadowy facsimile! There would be a mild risk of rejection but nothing too bad. He'd consider it later. He needed... hmm. What was he looking for again. His eyes gleamed narrowed in concentration.
"You're pretty nice, miss. But we should get back to my offer! Are you sure there's nothing you need? No medical work? If you have the funds for an investment I could work do some soul tinkering or familiar work for you too."
-
Shirou
"Oh, I... see...", Shirou said, completely dumfounded by Rin's explanation, before going silent, deep in thought.
At first, he was still rather sceptical of her claim. After all, it was perfectly consistent with the idea that, as the result of some traumatic incident, she had begun to believe that her sister was living inside her. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, whilst the girl clearly looked like Sakura, she was seemingly able to use Rin's magic. And his, now that he thought about it....
"Wait, am I in there too?" he asked, after a long pause. "I noticed you using my magic in the fight."
-
Shirou
"Oh, I... see...", Shirou said, completely dumfounded by Rin's explanation, before going silent, deep in thought.
At first, he was still rather sceptical of her claim. After all, it was perfectly consistent with the idea that, as the result of some traumatic incident, she had begun to believe that her sister was living inside her. However, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. After all, whilst the girl clearly looked like Sakura, she was seemingly able to use Rin's magic. And his, now that he thought about it....
"Wait, am I in there too?" he asked, after a long pause. "I noticed you using my magic in the fight."
Rin
Rin rolled her eyes. "Don't you already know the answer to that, Emiya-kun? Just as dense as ever, I see."
She changed her position, lounging down on the ground without a care for being prim and proper. "You're here, but you've been comatose inside us since the end of the grail war. It doesn't seem likely that you'll ever wake up again."
A sword materialized in her hand, the same one that she'd created earlier when fighting him.
"This is all that remains."
-
Shirou
Shirou looked at her with sympathy, the reason for his kidnapping beginning to become clear in his mind.
"Oh...", he said. "I'm sorry...."
-
Shirou
Shirou looked at her with sympathy, the reason for his kidnapping beginning to become clear in his mind.
"Oh...", he said. "I'm sorry...."
Rin
She haphazardly tossed it to the side. "You have a really convinent power, Emiya-kun." She smiled weakly, staring at his familar face. She remembered the lengths he'd gone to to save Sakura, to protect her, even when everyone else had given up hope.
She felt like a knife was going through her heart, and she clutched it.
Even when she herself had resolved to kill Sakura.
She wondered if, had she done things differently, had she been just a little bit more supportive and loving, if things would have turned out like this. If she'd just checked on Sakura all those years, and not willfully been blind...
Tears welled up in her eyes, streaming freely down her face as she looked down at the ground, away from him. Away from the man who'd done everything for Sakura when she needed it most, even throwing down his very life.
"Really... I'm such an idiot..."
-
Joseph
Oh, that was nice. If he ended up needing a new arm that one wasn't bad at all, especially seeing as it was only a shadowy facsimile! There would be a mild risk of rejection but nothing too bad. He'd consider it later. He needed... hmm. What was he looking for again. His eyes gleamed narrowed in concentration.
"You're pretty nice, miss. But we should get back to my offer! Are you sure there's nothing you need? No medical work? If you have the funds for an investment I could work do some soul tinkering or familiar work for you too."
Sakura
"Ah-no, not from you, I've got all of my needs handled. I'm pretty happy sharing a body, ehehehe..."
Sakura shuddered inside at the thought of letting a stranger operate on her again. She hadn't liked it when her grandfather did it, and kirei hadn't been great for her either in the end. "Thanks for the offer, though. Is there anything you'd like from me...?"
-
Joseph
He hummed a bit with a a pleasant smile on his face, the tension in his features giving way to a placid gentleness. "Well, if you do need anything you just have to ask." Another perusal through his own shadow had Joseph retrieve a jarred specimen, a shriveled humanoid creature that appeared more like a doll than anything else.
"Just shake this hard enough to wake it up if you ever need to chat. I'll be there in no time at all." He left the jar in front of the door before his shadow reared up, swallowing him in an instant and vanishing.
-
Sakura
"Huh..."
Sakura reached down, gingerly picking it up, and began inspecting it, trying to see what spells had been cast on it. As a test, she gave it a little shake.
-
Joseph
Besides some sort of familiar bond there was not much she could read from the creature. It was obviously supernatural, but there were no major functions she could pick up. It didn't even stir with that slight movement.
-
Shirou
Shirou watched on sadly as Rin began to break down in tears, obviously regretting her behaviour during the Grail War. And, based on what he knew of Rin, he had a fairly good idea what it might be that she regretted. Then, without warning, he reached out and pulled her into a hug.
"It's OK, Rin", he said, softly.
-
Joseph
Besides some sort of familiar bond there was not much she could read from the creature. It was obviously supernatural, but there were no major functions she could pick up. It didn't even stir with that slight movement.
Sakura
Sakura shook it again, this time more vigorously, taking it into her familar's body. She tried absorbing mana from it.
-
Rin
Rin stiffened up like a board. She sat perfectly still as if she were a block of ice.
"W-what?" She asked quietly as she began shaking uncontrollably. "Wh-whawhawhat are you doing, Emiya-ku-kun!?! This is super inappropriate!"
She didn't dislike it, though.
-
Shirou
After a few moments, Shirou realised his mistake and let go of her, pulling back. He'd been too upset by the sight of someone in his wife's body crying to think that she might not react as positively as Sakura would have to such an act.
"I..I'm sorry, Tohsaka", he said. "I shouldn't have just hugged you like that."
-
Shirou
After a few moments, Shirou realised his mistake and let go of her, pulling back. He'd been too upset by the sight of someone in his wife's body crying to think that she might not react as positively as Sakura would have to such an act.
"I..I'm sorry, Tohsaka", he said. "I shouldn't have just hugged you like that."
Rin
Rin scooted back, shaking her head, putting her hands out in front of her. "You should be, stupid! Hmmph!" She turned her head away from him to hide her massive blush. "Jeez, apologizing to your kidnapper. Are you sure you don't have stockholm syndrome, Emiya Kun?"
-
Shirou
After a few moments, Shirou realised his mistake and let go of her, pulling back. He'd been too upset by the sight of someone in his wife's body crying to think that she might not react as positively as Sakura would have to such an act.
"I..I'm sorry, Tohsaka", he said. "I shouldn't have just hugged you like that."
Rin
Rin scooted back, shaking her head, putting her hands out in front of her. "You should be, stupid! Hmmph!" She turned her head away from him to hide her massive blush. "Jeez, apologizing to your kidnapper. Are you sure you don't have stockholm syndrome, Emiya Kun?"
Shirou
Shirou rolled his eyes and sighed at Rin's typical response, reasonably certain from her reaction that she had not been anywhere near as offended by his actions as she was making out.
"No, I don't have Stockholm syndrome", he said with a kind smile. "I just don't like people being sad, especially my friends and family."
-
Shirou
After a few moments, Shirou realised his mistake and let go of her, pulling back. He'd been too upset by the sight of someone in his wife's body crying to think that she might not react as positively as Sakura would have to such an act.
"I..I'm sorry, Tohsaka", he said. "I shouldn't have just hugged you like that."
Rin
Rin scooted back, shaking her head, putting her hands out in front of her. "You should be, stupid! Hmmph!" She turned her head away from him to hide her massive blush. "Jeez, apologizing to your kidnapper. Are you sure you don't have stockholm syndrome, Emiya Kun?"
Shirou
Shirou rolled his eyes and sighed at Rin's typical response, reasonably certain from her reaction that she had not been anywhere near as offended by his actions as she was making out.
"No, I don't have Stockholm syndrome", he said with a kind smile. "I just don't like people being sad, especially my friends and family."
Rin
"I-idiot..." Rin muttered, turning away. She didn't like how he was making her feel at all! It wasn't fair!
She suddenly felt a pair of ethereal arms wrap themselves around her in a hug.
Senpai really is amazing, isn't he?
Mmm...
Rin cleared her throat in an attempt to dispell her embarrassment. "A-anyway, I can't just release you just like that. Your Sakura is probably gathering a team to kill me, plus you've seem my hideout. I'll need you to agree to some conditions, Emiya-kun."
-
Shirou
After a few moments, Shirou realised his mistake and let go of her, pulling back. He'd been too upset by the sight of someone in his wife's body crying to think that she might not react as positively as Sakura would have to such an act.
"I..I'm sorry, Tohsaka", he said. "I shouldn't have just hugged you like that."
Rin
Rin scooted back, shaking her head, putting her hands out in front of her. "You should be, stupid! Hmmph!" She turned her head away from him to hide her massive blush. "Jeez, apologizing to your kidnapper. Are you sure you don't have stockholm syndrome, Emiya Kun?"
Shirou
Shirou rolled his eyes and sighed at Rin's typical response, reasonably certain from her reaction that she had not been anywhere near as offended by his actions as she was making out.
"No, I don't have Stockholm syndrome", he said with a kind smile. "I just don't like people being sad, especially my friends and family."
Rin
"I-idiot..." Rin muttered, turning away. She didn't like how he was making her feel at all! It wasn't fair!
She suddenly felt a pair of ethereal arms wrap themselves around her in a hug.
Senpai really is amazing, isn't he?
Mmm...
Rin cleared her throat in an attempt to dispell her embarrassment. "A-anyway, I can't just release you just like that. Your Sakura is probably gathering a team to kill me, plus you've seem my hideout. I'll need you to agree to some conditions, Emiya-kun."
Shirou
Shirou smiled for a moment at Rin's reaction to his statement, before his smile was replaced by a frown on hearing what she had to say, aware of the truth in her statement.
"No, I imagine she's gathering a team to rescue me", Shirou responded. "She's not a vindictive person, and she knows that I wouldn't want you to be harmed if possible, so I doubt she'll actively seek to kill you. But, still, it would put you and her in danger if she was to attempt a rescue, so I'd be happy to agree to reasonable conditions for my release. What do you have in mind, exactly?"
-
Tsumiko
"I want you to forget that we exist. I don't want to inconvenience our host any more than I have."
She answered solemnly.
-
Tsumiko
"I want you to forget that we exist. I don't want to inconvenience our host any more than I have."
She answered solemnly.
Shirou
Shirou frowned.
"Do you mean that you want to erase my memory? If so, then that seems a little risky. Sakura knows I was kidnapped, and if I forget what happened then I can't explain it to her or calm her down. I might not even be able to find her in time", he said.
"If you just mean that you want me to pretend that I never met you, though, then I can do that. I won't tell Sakura where you live, I promise, and I won't seek you out."
-
Rin
Rin stayed silent. Painfully so, as if what she was about to ask was difficult to force out of her mouth. She bit her lip, biting down so hard that blood began trickling down her chin. She felt a soft tingling as the swords inside her body knitted the wound back together.
"The second choice isn't enough to guarentee safety. We've been hunted for more than eight years. Her life has been a living hell. I can't risk letting you know our location.
Rin hated that she could hear Sakura softly crying inside of her. It made her heart sieze up. She wanted to do something else, anything else, but this was the most secure way, other than killing him.
She didn't think she could bring herself to do that, though.
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed. He could see the distress that the girl was in. She was clearly uncomfortable with this decision. As was he, due to the danger that it put both her and his wife in.
"Tohsaka, if you erase my memory, then I cannot explain what happened to Sakura. I have no idea how she will react, or even how I will react to the news that I was kidnapped and had my memory erased. She might consider you a threat, or she might assume that you have done something horrific to me and erased my memory to hide it. She might attack you, and one of you could get hurt. I won't be able to defend you, I might not even want to defend you", he said, clearly concerned about the possible consequences of her choice.
"And, if I do keep my memory, do you really think I would put your life and Sakura's at risk by telling her your location? Besides, even if I wanted to tell her, I couldn't. Sakura brought me here via her shadow, and I was unconscious at the time. All I know of your house is what it looks like from the inside, I don't know where it is located or how to get here."
"Please, Tohsaka, just let me go. Transport me to somewhere safe through your shadow if you must. But don't erase my memory, there's no need for you to do so and it will just put you and my wife in more danger", he finished.
As he waited for her response, Shirou began to notice something. Rin had been talking about a "host", "her" and "we". Did she just mean Sakura, or was there someone else she was referring to?
-
Rin and Sakura
3:15
The girls listened to his tirade patiently. It was only fair. What they were asking as completely unfair.
Sakura looked down, and tears began to well up in her eyes. She bit her lower lip and began to tremble. Her pulse skyrocketed and she shook her head. "N-Nee-san..." Sakura began, but stopped.
She knew Rin was right. What good would an oath do? Even with a geas, revealing information could still be compelled.
She gulped. "And how would that guard us against someone reading your mind, or hypnotizing you? What could you do if I forced you into a contract?"
She projected a sword to accentuate her point. "Or, someone could just kill you and rip the memories out of your brain. Or..."
Rin went on and on for five minutes, in a manner Shirou found very nostalgic.
-
Shirou
Sakura's tears and desperate pleas to her sister tugged at Shirou's heartstrings. He hated seeing people cry, and that applied doubly to his beloved wife. Before he could attempt to comfort her, though, Rin took back control and began to give him one of her patented lectures about all the ways that he could be forced to disclose their location against his will, some of them rather gruesome. Finally, after a good five minutes, she stopped, allowing him the chance to reply.
"Tohsaka", he began with a sigh, clearly upset by the situation that they were all in, "whilst it's not impossible that people could do those things to me, you're hugely exaggerating the danger. For a start, who exactly is going to come after me for that information? The only person who even knows that I'm here is my wife, along with anyone she's told, and I doubt she's going to ask for help from the sort of person who would do those things to me. But, even if someone did try, you're missing something more important. I don't actually know where you live. All I've seen is the inside of this house, I have no idea where it is or how to get here. Even if I wanted to direct people here, I couldn't."
"Sakura", he continued, feeling rather guilty at addressing the clearly-upset girl directly, "you know that you can trust me. I would never allow you to come to harm. You also know that, if I return to my wife without any memory of what happened, she will be angry and distrustful, and may decide to come after you to seek answers. If you wish to be safe, then let me go and I will tell my wife to leave you alone."
After speaking, Shirou frowned. He hated that he'd been forced to address the other Sakura directly and potentially inflame her trauma, but he felt that it was necessary, not only for his and Sakura's sake, but also for hers.
-
Sakura
"STOP IT!"
Sakura screamed at him, holding her head and crying out in pain. Pain wracked her body, the pain of loss, the agony of knowing that it was all her fault. The girl began shaking uncontrolably, spasming for several seconds.
Then, she stopped, and Rin's blue eye shone at Shirou. "Emiya-Kun, please give her some space. We've been on the run, hunted ceaselessly for almost a decade. I'm sorry, but assurances and promises don't mean much to me anymore. I've been through too much to feel safe with something as simple as a verbal agreement."
-
Sakura
"STOP IT!"
Sakura screamed at him, holding her head and crying out in pain. Pain wracked her body, the pain of loss, the agony of knowing that it was all her fault. The girl began shaking uncontrolably, spasming for several seconds.
Then, she stopped, and Rin's blue eye shone at Shirou. "Emiya-Kun, please give her some space. We've been on the run, hunted ceaselessly for almost a decade. I'm sorry, but assurances and promises don't mean much to me anymore. I've been through too much to feel safe with something as simple as a verbal agreement."
Shirou
Shirou was filled with sadness and guilt as he watched the girl break down in front of him. He hated to see Sakura so upset, especially when he was the cause.
"I'm sorry", he said after Rin had finished speaking. "I didn't mean to upset Sakura like that."
Then, he addressed her statement.
"I understand your concern, but wiping my memory won't make you safe either. I am not sure how my wife will react to finding me without any memory of what you did, but I doubt she will just forget about it. I suspect she will come after you, looking for answers, and there's a good chance one of you will get hurt. Rin, you know that I would never willingly hurt Sakura, and even if I wanted to, I don't know where you live. How can I give people information I do not have?", he added.
-
Rin
Rin sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but you just don't seem to understand what we've gone through. Who has been chasing us. Have you ever been targeted for a sealing designation? Have you ever been chased by executors from the church, and assassins from the magus association, daily. For almost a decade, desperately trying to survive. You just need to back off and accept that you're in over your head."
Rin sounded pretty agitated and upset. She was shaking a little bit, and he could feel a bit of vitriol in her words.
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed, a sad look on his face at the girl's apparent suffering.
"I don't know what happened to you in the past, but I am truly sorry that you went through all that", Shirou said, his words entirely genuine. "I would be happy to help you or just leave you alone if that is what you want. And, I am aware that I clearly am in over my head here. But, you kidnapped me, and my wife is almost certainly putting together a party to hunt you down and rescue me. So, just backing off is not an option I have, unfortunately. We have to come to a resolution before my wife finds you and someone actually gets hurt", he said.
-
Rin
"I didn't kidnap you, Emiya-Kun." Rin quipped sarcastically. Crossed her arms, cursing how much bigger Sakura's breasts were than hers. "We're at an impasse. I can't risk letting you out without any guarentees. How can I trust your Sakura, even? The only thing I have to go off is your word, which is hardly enough."
The girl sighed. "Emiya-Kun, listen. What would you be okay with? A geass to aid me if you're wrong about her and whomever she's hired, as well as one to keep silent forevermore about this?"
Her lone aquamarine eye shined with fierce and pained determination.
"I am quite capable of forcing a resolution, Emiya-kun." She sounded hesitant and sad to even be saying this. "I'd much rather you come to an agreement with me, but if negotiations fail, I'll be left with no recourse. It's your choice, not mine."
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed. He could tell that the girl did genuinely want a solution, and he was willing to accept most of what she wanted.
"I would be perfectly willing to agree to a geas to aid you if my wife does attack, provided you agree not to harm her under any circumstances. As for keeping silent, what exactly do you mean? I am willing to refrain from disclosing the location of your house to anyone, but I need to be able to explain enough to my wife to convince her not to attack", he said.
"I am aware that, given your strength, you could forcibly wipe my memory, but that would not solve anything. I am sure that, if I show up at home with no memory of what occurred, my wife will not react well, and likely nor will I."
-
Rin
"I can't sign something like that, what if she attacks me!" Rin protested. She ignored the fact he didn't seem to get she could force him into a blood contract as well.
"You can't speak a word of any of this to anyone, as long as you live. All you can say is that I've treated you humanely and that there's no reason to go after me."
She wanted him to say yes.
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again, and frowned. He could completely understand her concerns, but what she was demanding was completely unreasonable. She was expecting him to assist her in murdering his wife, and not to even be able to explain why. So, he thought for a few moments, before giving his response.
"I do understand that you need to be able to defend yourself, but I am not willing to allow you to murder my wife without even being able to help defend her. But, I will agree to a compromise. If you agree not to attack my wife unless she directly attacks you, and to avoid killing or permanently maiming her, then I will agree to aid you", he said.
"As for what I can say, I understand your concern, but I would prefer a little more freedom to explain things. If all I can say is that I was humanely treated, that sounds extremely suspicious, she might think I'm being forced to lie, or controlled. At minimum, I would like to be able to explain why I cannot tell her any more information."
-
Rin
Rin simply raised an eyebrow. "And being able to tell her I made you sign a geas contract is better how, exactly?"
She wasn't really sure about that. Her experience with Sakura was as a volatile, unpredictable woman who jumped from being a calm, grieving widow to a brutal, violent fury seemingly at the drop of a hat.
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again.
"If I can explain what I signed and why, I'm sure she'll be fine with it. Sakura doesn't have any reason to want to hurt you as long as you're no threat to us, she just wants to make sure I'm safe", he said.
-
Rin
"I kidnapped you. That's reason enough for her. The Sakura you're describing is moat certainly not the Sakura I know." She answered curtly. "I'll draft up a geas for you to sign. We don't have time for this kind of prolonged debate."
-
Rin
"I kidnapped you. That's reason enough for her. The Sakura you're describing is moat certainly not the Sakura I know." She answered curtly. "I'll draft up a geas for you to sign. We don't have time for this kind of prolonged debate."
Shirou
Shirou sighed.
"Well, the Sakura I know wouldn't knock me out and kidnap me. So, yes, it is very obvious that your version of Sakura isn't quite the same as mine. Whilst I'm sure she's upset at you for what you've done, as long as she knows that I am safe and that you have no intention of harming us, she's not going to hold a grudge", he said.
"As for the Geas, what terms do you have in mind?" he added, wondering if she had taken any of what he said on board.
-
Rin
Rin ignored his first comment. This Sakura of his clearly hadn't been driven to desperation if he had such a rosy view of her. Sakura not holding grudges, absolutely hilarious.
"You cannot talk to anybody about me or my sister. You can't come near here and risk our safety. You can't fight against me, and neither me nor my sister will come after you." She answered curtly. "Nor will you be able to recall any specifics of the interior of this building."
-
Shirou
Shirou frowned.
"What about my wife? Will you guarantee not to come after her, either?" he said. "And what happens if she comes after you? Will you promise not to kill her? Surely you can't expect me to just stand by and watch you kill my wife."
"As for not talking about you, what do you mean by that, exactly?"
-
Rin
"I won't come after her, no. And weren't you just a few seconds ago completely sure she wasn't going to come after me? Why are you even worrying about it?"
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again, realising that she was right. If his wife had no intention of coming after them, then there was no problem with her terms. Yet, he was still worried. What if he was wrong, or if there was some loophole in the terms?
"Well, what if she shows up here just as I'm leaving, or before I find her?" he replied.
"But, yes, you're right, I don't believe she will come after you, but it's not something I can ever be certain about. I don't have any intention of helping her attack you and I will do everything I can to prevent it, I just want to be sure that she'll be safe no matter what."
-
Rin
"You'd be perfectly free to subdue her and keep her away from me."
-
Shirou
"Of course, but that's difficult to do when someone is in the process of attacking her", he replied. "And it's not like I am with her all the time."
"In any case, what do you mean by 'fight'? If all you mean is that I don't attack you directly then that is fine, but I can't attempt to subdue or evacuate my wife if she's under attack by familiars and magic which I'm not allowed to protect her from. That would put her in too much danger."
-
Rin
"But I can't attack her unless she starts it."
-
Shirou
"Yes, but what if she does start it? What if she makes a mistake, or reacts badly to what happened? I can't see why she would, but sometimes things happen that you do not expect. And, if it does happen, what am I supposed to do, stand by and watch her die?" he replied.
"If she does try to attack you, I would be happy to do my best to stop her attacks, but I cannot do that if you can just kill her whilst she's subdued, or use my attempts to stop her as a distraction."
-
Rin
Rin's face turned ugly. Her brow furrowed and she scowled. "Do you think I'd want to kill her? If either of us did, you'd already be dead. Both of you. So stop this baseless accusation shit."
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again, the girl's annoyance clear.
"Well, if that's the case, then what's the harm in adding a no-killing clause?" he replied. "I don't think that you will attempt to kill her, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed again, the girl's annoyance clear.
"Well, if that's the case, then what's the harm in adding a no-killing clause?" he replied. "I don't think that you will attempt to kill her, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."
Rin
Rin turned her head away from him. "Because. That's all I have to say about it. I promise I won't go after her or try to kill her, Emiya-kun."
-
Shirou
Shirou sighed, before going silent as he considered whether to accept her deal. Part of him was wary of being caught in a trap, of being forced to watch helplessly as his wife was murdered. But, at the same time, he knew that both Rin and Sakura were good people at heart, people he could trust. Besides, if he could convince his wife not to attack her, then it wouldn't be an issue.
"OK", he said, eventually, "I will accept those terms."
"I would, however, like some clarity on what, exactly, I can tell my wife. I presume I can relay the terms of this Geas to her, and explain how I was treated, but how much can I tell her about you?"
-
Shirou and Sakura
3:15 PM
Sakura was riding along on the horse provided to her by Justice as they travelled through the Slums, still desperately searching for her beloved husband when, to her relief, her phone began to make a familiar sound. The sound of the ringtone she had assigned to Shirou. Immediately, she took it out of her pocket and answered.
"Senpai!" she said, relieved but also concerned. "Is that you? Are you OK? Did that bitch hurt you? What does she want?"
"Yes, Sakura, It's me", he responded. "I'm fine. The alternate version of you released me unharmed, and I'm in the university district, heading back towards home. I'll see you soon."
"Wait, Senpai!" she replied. "I have some people helping me search for you, including Nanako. If you just wait near to the main clock tower, we'll come and find you as soon as we can."
"OK", Shirou replied, not wanting to argue with his clearly-worried wife. "I'll see you soon, then. Love you, bye."
"I love you too, Senpai. See you soon", she responded, before hanging up and letting out a sigh of relief as she turned to her companions.
"Senpai is OK!" she said, clearly overjoyed. "He said that the kidnapper released him unharmed, and he's in the university district now, so I told him to meet us by the clock tower. We need to get there as soon as possible!"
-
Justice
The rider breathed out a sigh of relief. No matter how much ground they covered, no matter how many eyes he had crawling and overlooking these streets bereft of easy kindness and full of people who were either fearful, deservingly aggressive, or simply miserable, and their respective holes in the ground or broken-down homes, they were still looking for a needle in a haystack at best. This was a much quicker conclusion to their quest than he'd anticipated.
What to make of this couple? They were lucky, despite being the sort of folk who'd draw in misfortune by being unable to keep their noses out of trouble, Justice got the distinct impression. Their reunion would be a welcome change from the last few hours of uncomfortably sexual jabs between the two others with them that felt like they were writing themselves in fire on the back of his skull. It certainly beat walking into an underground war between ratfolk and mutant turtles as well.
The insects that might have been following them never did give themselves away. At one point, they simply vanished. Was it because their quarry had simply given up on the reason for this whole misadventure, after all?
"Alright," he said, pulling on Punishment's reins. "Don't fall, we can shortcut that direction."
Justice had seen the anthills of education from afar on his initial scouting of the city, and the roofs here were low. His steed could simply hop over most of them without slowing down. So they turned around, the equine beast rumbling, and dashed off.
-
Suerte
Suerte sat on the back of the horse, her arms folded over her generous chest. It was hard to describe the version of hatred that she was feeling. With her hips lined up against Nanako's on Punishment's back, she felt nothing but annoyance. The butt of the horse shot up and down, causing her and Nanako's boobs to bounce. As Suerte's breasts went up, Nanako's went down and vice versa. How was that not hot? Why wasn't Justice paying attention! She made out with Nanako, wasn't that what he wanted?
Well, she knew what he wanted, but love was war and you don't make peace until the other side does a little groveling. Not that they were in love, but she liked him damn it and she was there first!
"Well I'm glad your happy," she said, her bitterness over having to share Justice poking through. This was the worst. It was like watching a happy couple when you are more single than a widow on valentine's day.
-
Nanako
Ordinarily, a ride through the city like this probably would've been far more enjoyable, perhaps less so once they got to the slums proper, but still. Here she was, back to back with a hot blonde and bouncing on Punishment the whole way, what with Sakura needing to be seated further up on account of being so squishy. And yet, while the ride was certainly fun, she could practically feel the animosity coming off of Suerte and had her own fair share to throw right back. This blonde little bimbo who'd snuck in while she was out and about, and now she was trying to snatch Justice from under her nose! Granted, not that she really blamed Justice. She probably hadn't been too clear with how she felt in the aftermath of that fight, and she still wasn't sure about it herself at this point. Not to mention that the cowgirl definitely was hot, and that makeout session even more so.
Still, she couldn't help wondering what Suerte was planning. She doubted things would be over with that quick tussle.
Her brief consideration was swiftly interrupted, however, as Sakura got a call from the redhead they'd gotten together to find in the first place. Nanako perked up, more than a little confused as it sounded like Shirou had just been up and let out.
"Wait, so the other you just let him go?" Nanako piped up, confused, but still happy for her friend, "Well, there's some good news."
In spite of herself, Nanako couldn't help feeling vaguely cheated in some way, but she quickly shrugged it off.
-
The Scene of the Crime
6:00 PM
If this city were a rotten carcass, the slums would be the guts and entrails leaking out. The stench and the view was putrid, and most of all, corrupted. One only needed to turn it upside down to see the insects wriggling beneath, feasting on whatever they could.
But not all of it was as filthy. Few areas, provided with "protection", were adorned with enough plaster and lies to seem almost slightly, even affluent. Among them, there was a tall business building, usually populated with activity. But tonight, the surroundings were lacking of the women, the gangs... as if everyone had strayed away. However, it was not deserted. Outside, you could see men in suits looking around, wearing sunglasses and sharp attire. All of this was as unlike the slums as it got.
One of them stood by the entrance, and spoke on the phone with an angry, hushed tone.
-
Nanako
4:00 PM
With directions as precise as what Carin had given her, it didn't take long to get to the Slums, even while she was pacing herself. One final leap took her down to street level, Nanako landing lightly before carefully making her way into the building. To most, she was sure the building would look like just another crumbling ruin amongst dozens in the Slums. The little things were what gave it away though, the intact windows, the absence of the usual musty smell of damp brick and dust. The squirrel girl navigated the building quietly, soon finding herself face to face with a nondescript door. There was no mailbox, no mail slot, and a quick check revealed there was no room under the door to slide a letter.
Biting the corner of her lip, Nanako brought up a hand to knock at the door. The squirrel girl waited for a bit, her tail flicking back and forth behind her and a boot tapping against against the ground. With no answer, Nanako listened for any sounds of movement inside the apartment, shrugged, and withdrew the letter and a small roll of tape from within her cleavage.
Nanako quickly taped the letter to the door, with strips of tape across all four corners to be certain it would be secure. With her task done, Nanako cracked a small smile, patting the letter to be sure it was secure, and turned around to leave.
-
Suerte
6:00pm
The familiar sway of the horse's hips was a nice one, even as she stared up and around the city. The cowgirl couldn't help but giggle everytime Punishment passed a car or two, only to see some old man do a quick double-take. Sometimes, there would be a scoff, or a "Who does he think he is, riding a horse on the road!?" but that was only in the inner city. For some reason, the city-goers didn't seem to care too much about a horse from hell running around. They acted like this sort of thing was normal....
Seeing as she was still new to the city, she loved to ask Justice questions, partially to learn things and partially to hear that manly voice in the wind. "Hey Justice," she said, purring a little bit in his ear before giggling. "Why are there a bunch of men in suits here? I thought you said this was where poor people lived."
-
Justice
He slowed down Punishment to a slow trot, as comfortable riding the beast on a road as he was on dirt and sand, and rumbled in response to Suerte.
"It is. And no one with the resources to hire suits like those would normally care about a murder or worse in the slums."
Justice gave the location a wide berth on his steed, keeping them within line of sight. He craned his neck, directing his silver gaze at Suerte over a shoulder. "If they're here," he said, "then it must be something much bigger, or someone important must have died, which raises its own questions."
And their presence en masse was stupidly broadcasting to everyone this was something to take notice of. Perhaps it was just so important they couldn't afford not having so many people here, but here, in the shadow of the possibly richest area of the Nexus... there were subtler means to employ.
Justice stretched a gloved hand into the hair, and a half-transparent raven came to be, perching on his fingers. He whispered something to it, and it flew off over the makeshift barricade, quietly seeking a high point to rest from which to overlook the area. The rider projected his senses into it.
-
The scene of the crime
"Damnit. No, listen. If they ask any questions, you- no. Are you an imbecile? Just deny. Deny, deny, deny, deny. I shouldn't even have to tell you this." The man's irritation was clear despite his hushed tone. With his sharp attire and raven hair cleanly cut, it was a shock that it didn't turn white- if he'd have any left by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, a massive square-jawed man took a few steps closer. His suit hardly hid his humongous size, to the point his face looked tiny compared to his fingers. He was dark skinned, his head so shaven you could see your own reflection on it. Despite his intimidating appearance, he seemed more troubled than not, even with the sunglasses. He approached the two.
"Excuse me. Sir, ma'am, this is a restricted area. Would you kindly leave?"
-
Suerte
Although his silver eyed gaze made her flutter a bit, the unease rising within the pit of her belly kept her facial features neutral. "Bigger huh? Sounds fun! I'll let you do the talking here," she said, giving him a reassuring pat on the back. "But don't worry, i'll back you up."
She had a feeling they might need to get a little aggressive. Those two reeked of fear.
-
Justice
He smirked under his scarf and turned back to the suit taking exception to their staring. The message was clear, and to most people, it would make both their and these suspicious fellows' lives easier if they just nodded and went back to whatever. Unfortunately, Justice didn't care about that.
"We were just passing through," the rider said, rolling his shoulders. "But should we be anxious? Askin' on the behalf of the neighborhood. And you and your colleagues, your faces don't look good."
-
Tsumiko
As Nanako approached, the chirping of insects became noticably louder. The outside of the building was inconspicuous, a simple one story ramshackle hut, a bit larger than average. Vines grew off of the side of it and a faint scent of decay hung to the building's walls. An overhang cloaked the front entrance in shadows. As she stepped into it, a small familiar slid onto the bottom of her shoe, then inside it.
-
The Scene of the Crime
He shifted his foot and kicked a pebble away, looking uncomfortable. Finally, he sighed. "Haven't you heard the news? There's been a murder here. We don't want any troublesome reporters asking more questions. Today's been enough of a pain as is..."
He looked to the two of them with a solemn expression, only for something to click. His eyebrows did most of the talking, until he removed his sunglasses
"Wait a minute..." He cleaned them with a handkerchief and blinked at the woman. "Aren't you Suerte?"
-
Suerte
The cowgirl looked at Justice for a moment before returning her gaze to the suspicious man. "Do you know me?" she asked, placing a finger on the bottom of her lip. "I haven't been to the city for long ya know?"
-
Mothra (as Lora):
"-So she had pointy ears? Was she an elf?"
"Maybe. She also had a red rock in her forehead."
"Thank you very much," Lora said, slipping a candy bar through the chain link fence. The boy she was talking to took it and ran off without another word.
A few days ago, when Lora was walking home from her part-time job, she spotted her neighbor crying on the bench in front of the apartment complex. Of course, Lora couldn't just walk by and ignore her, so she stopped to ask the woman what was wrong. The older lady explained between sobs that she had an argument with her son, Joshua, and he ran away the night before. While the local law enforcement were doing their rounds looking for him, if he left the district there would be nothing they could do. Since then, Lora's been following the trail the best she could, finding herself travelling through no less than five districts by this point and now currently in the Slums. A common place for people to run off to to disappear, but no place for a child. Especially now that even the local children have been going missing.
But now the trail is heating up again. The mahou kaiju hadn't seen many elves here, especially not one with a stone in their foreheads. If she is the one who's also responsible for the other disappearances, Lora can knock out two birds with one stone. Now all she has to do is locate this mystery woman and pray that Joshua is okay.
-
Justice
"We're not reporters," the rider said through a grunt. His eyes skidded questioningly to Suerte, and then refocused on the large man. "Perhaps we can help."
Justice dismounted Punishment, wrapping an arm around his companion's waist to bring her with him.
-
Emiya
Emiya swallowed as he saw the all too familiar shadow emerge from the floor.
He took Tsumiko's outstretched hand, his hand coarse and unnaturally warm against hers. "I assume it would go very badly for me if I did," he drawled before swallowing the lump currently forming in his throat.
Tsumiko
"You'd die." She answered simply. The shadows ate the two of them, and she squeezed his hand tightly. The shadows were cold, empty, vast, and directionless. He couldn't even tell up from down.
But then, they appeared in a kitchen that looked remarkably identical to Archer's.
She blushed. "We're here."
-
Emiya
As soon as the shadows enveloped them and the disorientation started, Emiya closed his eyes. He counted the beats of his heart. He absently rubbed his thumb against the back of Tsumiko's hand.
Then, suddenly, they were in a very familiar kitchen.
He half expected Tohsaka to wander up to them, looking for affection and food.
She was blushing as she announced that they had arrived.
Emiya looked around and said dryly, "Nice kitchen."
-
Tsumiko
7:00 PM
"Yeah, well..." She muttered, shuffling her feet. "You know, this is just how I like to organize things." She muttered. She quickly pulled him out of the kitchen. It was too embarrasing. "Just help me pack!"
-
Emiya
Emiya chuckled and said, "Do you have any boxes or bags I can start loading your stuff in?'
-
Tsumiko
"Uh... can't we just throw it in the shadow?" Tsumiko stuttered. "I've never actually um, moved. Only fled. So I don't have much experience."
-
Nanako
The squirrel girl took a few steps away from the door before hopping away now that her task was done, unaware of the silent spy that had crept into her shoe. The uneasiness creeping up her spine was something else entirely, the squirrel girl quickly making her way out without her usual massive leaps. This place didn't need any more damage than it already had, even if whatever services there were that cleaned up the messes left by people like her did service the area. Even back home, lifting this kind of place up seemed like an insurmountable task from where she stood. She could only imagine how tricky it might be here, but maybe Carin had a better idea of how to do it.
Shaking her head and trying to put the thought aside for now, Nanako continued on her way out of the slums.
-
Emiya
"Well that won't do," he said with a shake of his head.
Even though he didn't find any real boxes, he could at least take big kitchen things like pots and fill them with smaller kitchen things. He attempted to keep the kitchen stuffs as organized as possible. Then he carefully deposited a full container into the shadow only to repeat the process.
-
Emiya
"Well that won't do," he said with a shake of his head.
Even though he didn't find any real boxes, he could at least take big kitchen things like pots and fill them with smaller kitchen things. He attempted to keep the kitchen stuffs as organized as possible. Then he carefully deposited a full container into the shadow only to repeat the process.
Tsumiko
As Archer packed, Tsumiko just wandered around slowly, looking at the bare walls and the weathered furniture. She listened to the floor creak, she felt the familar feeling of her bounded fields gripping her gently.
And now, again, she was moving.
But this time, it was of her voalition. Not because somebody had found her and was trying to kill her.
"Hahahaha..." She suddenly began laughing, staring at a random wall. She reached out and touched it. Tears began to fall from her eyes.
"I don't get it, Archer."
-
Emiya
Emiya blinked as he had his arms loaded with toiletries and whatnot he had found in the bathroom. He had even made makeshift bags out of towels. Then the sound of Tsumiko's laughter hit him.
There was an edge to it, almost as if she was crying at the same time.
Holding his bundle, he ran to where she was standing and staring at a wall, her mismatched eyes, one of Sakura's and one of Rin's, spilling tears as she laughed. He watched as she lightly touched the wall and said, "I don't get it, Archer."
This is not the time to be a snarky asshole, he told himself. He couldn't tease her like Rin. While it was obvious the girl was made of sterner stuff, there was a softness to her.
He held his bundle wrapped in a faded towel and looked down at her. He asked, "Don't get what, Tsumiko-chan?"
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko laughed again. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "Why would you help someone as horrible as me? I don't get it, Archer."
-
Emiya
Emiya's shoulders slumped before he set the bundle on the floor. He walked over to her and rested his hand on her shoulder. Giving it a gentle squeeze, he leaned forward so he could face her.
He remembered a long time ago where he hadn't been much taller than the girl before him, but now he towered over her. He towered over a lot of people now, even considered "tall" by Western standards. However that boy he'd been was long dead, even though Emiya got glimpses of the boy in himself more often than he wanted.
He answered, "Because I'm pretty horrible myself, that's why, and I needed help a long time ago, but I was too dense to accept it when it was offered to me."
-
Tsumiko
"Mmmnnn..." Tsumiko wimpered. She grabbed him again into a hug. "I still don't get it."
-
Emiya
Emiya sighed, but accepted the hug. He was slightly proud he didn't stiffen in the embrace. Well, Jack and Nursery sort of helped get me past that, he thought.
At first he was ribbed by especially the other male Servants because he liked to spend his free time in the kitchen, or doting on the two little girl Servants. He didn't participate in the wild, heroic spirit sexcapades off mission like a lot of the Servants did (especially the Celtic ones, he was pretty sure Fergus would fuck a piece of fruit if someone drew breasts on it) because Master could only take so many Servants with her when she Rayshifted.
So he returned the hug and rested his head atop Tsumiko's.
"A lot of people don't get me, so it's fine," he whispered to her, "I'm helping you because it's the right thing to do."
-
Emiya
Emiya sighed, but accepted the hug. He was slightly proud he didn't stiffen in the embrace. Well, Jack and Nursery sort of helped get me past that, he thought.
At first he was ribbed by especially the other male Servants because he liked to spend his free time in the kitchen, or doting on the two little girl Servants. He didn't participate in the wild, heroic spirit sexcapades off mission like a lot of the Servants did (especially the Celtic ones, he was pretty sure Fergus would fuck a piece of fruit if someone drew breasts on it) because Master could only take so many Servants with her when she Rayshifted.
So he returned the hug and rested his head atop Tsumiko's.
"A lot of people don't get me, so it's fine," he whispered to her, "I'm helping you because it's the right thing to do."
Tsumiko
"Is it?" She asked quietly.
-
Emiya
"I think it is," he replied as he gave her a slight squeeze. "And I might be a self-sacrificing idiot, but I think you deserve to be saved, even if you don't think you do."
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko's shoulders slumped. "I'm a monster. The kind of thing people like you are supposed to kill. A hideous amalgamation of bodies."
-
Emiya
He shook his head and said, "Just because you're a monster doesn't mean you're evil or bad or anything like that. I've met 'monsters' that were nicer than most people. Like the White Princess? Is a giant airhead when she's not vampire hunting."
Emiya rested his hand on her head and said, "And the King of Heroes is the biggest asshole I've ever met and he does deserved to be killed. Besides, one person's monster is another's hero."
-
Mothra (as Lora):
"-So she had pointy ears? Was she an elf?"
"Maybe. She also had a red rock in her forehead."
"Thank you very much," Lora said, slipping a candy bar through the chain link fence. The boy she was talking to took it and ran off without another word.
A few days ago, when Lora was walking home from her part-time job, she spotted her neighbor crying on the bench in front of the apartment complex. Of course, Lora couldn't just walk by and ignore her, so she stopped to ask the woman what was wrong. The older lady explained between sobs that she had an argument with her son, Joshua, and he ran away the night before. While the local law enforcement were doing their rounds looking for him, if he left the district there would be nothing they could do. Since then, Lora's been following the trail the best she could, finding herself travelling through no less than five districts by this point and now currently in the Slums. A common place for people to run off to to disappear, but no place for a child. Especially now that even the local children have been going missing.
But now the trail is heating up again. The mahou kaiju hadn't seen many elves here, especially not one with a stone in their foreheads. If she is the one who's also responsible for the other disappearances, Lora can knock out two birds with one stone. Now all she has to do is locate this mystery woman and pray that Joshua is okay.
Eruraviel
4:00 pm
A tall woman covered in a black cloak slowly walked through the slums, holding something in her hand. It was obscured by the sleeve of the cloak, but as someone sensitive to magic, Lora could tell.
An abnormal spell ran through the woman's body, fueling her body's functions. She seemed to be looking for something.
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko pulled away, suddenly smiling. It looked like she was in pain still, but she was certainly more in control of herself.
"I don't understand any of what you just said, Archer." She gave him a wry, cheeky half smile, wiping aeay the tears from her eyes.
"But thank you. For believing in me. I just hope you're right."
-
Emiya
Emiya folded his arms across his chest as Tsumiko pulled away.
He shrugged and said, "I'm horrible at pep talks. Being a sarcastic asshole is where my talents lie. You should feel privileged that I'm making the effort not to be a sarcastic asshole."
Then he smiled at her and said, "Well, if all else fails, I'll make it right."
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko shook her head. "Feh." She turned around and wandered down the hall towards her storeroom. She looked inside room at the piles and piles of projected junk, wondering if any of it was worth keeping.
She smiled as she looked at it. Training herself was one of the only things that she could find joy and meaning in.
-
Emiya
Emiya sighed as Tsumiko wandered away.
He gathered up the few makeshift "Bags" he had made and put them in the shadows. Then he moved to follow her. His heart was racing as he realized where he was heading.
The building was completely different, but even after all of this time, he'd know the feel of a place like this.
A place where he spent hours and hours, bringing his body to the verge of near death and surpassing his limits over and over again. He had tried so hard with very little. Hard work, determination, and stubbornness had gotten him surprisingly far.
He stared all of the replicas on the floor, his heart thundering in his ears. It was so familiar, but it shouldn't be here.
He frowned and said, "I'm surprised we can actually stand each other." He reached down and picked up one of the items, a random wrench, and studied it.
-
Emiya
Emiya sighed as Tsumiko wandered away.
He gathered up the few makeshift "Bags" he had made and put them in the shadows. Then he moved to follow her. His heart was racing as he realized where he was heading.
The building was completely different, but even after all of this time, he'd know the feel of a place like this.
A place where he spent hours and hours, bringing his body to the verge of near death and surpassing his limits over and over again. He had tried so hard with very little. Hard work, determination, and stubbornness had gotten him surprisingly far.
He stared all of the replicas on the floor, his heart thundering in his ears. It was so familiar, but it shouldn't be here.
He frowned and said, "I'm surprised we can actually stand each other." He reached down and picked up one of the items, a random wrench, and studied it.
Tsumiko
"Hrm?" She turned to face him, before looking down at that wrench. Her face twisted. "That one's no good, it doesn't grip right."
She took the wrench away from him, tossing it into her shadow. "It's just a failure. But I don't really regret making stuff like that. Creating just feels-nice."
-
Emiya
"I think the original must have been shoddy then. There are two things that I will spend money on if they're quality products: food and tools," Emiya said.
He nodded and said, "Creating . . . does feel good. Especially when you're not creating weapons . . ."
His fists clenched and then relaxed. He looked away and said, "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, and expect to be soaked in blood. Then I realize it was just a stupid dream."
-
Emiya
"I think the original must have been shoddy then. There are two things that I will spend money on if they're quality products: food and tools," Emiya said.
He nodded and said, "Creating . . . does feel good. Especially when you're not creating weapons . . ."
His fists clenched and then relaxed. He looked away and said, "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat, and expect to be soaked in blood. Then I realize it was just a stupid dream."
Tsumiko
Tsumiko giggled, bringing her hand to her face and blushing. She turned away, reaching down and picking up a finely crafted sword, handing it to him.
"Making swords just feels-good." She told him. "They're so simple, so purposeful, so elagent. They're the epitome of class and beauty."
She wished that those dreams only happened every once in a while.
-
Emiya
Emiya took the sword from Tsumiko, blinking slowly as he looked at it.
Her words struck a cord in him. He took a stance with the sword, a traditional one, not his normal, personal one. He said, "They are, you're right about that. There's just something about them that resignates in me, and probably you too."
And as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works.
He handed the sword back to her, handle first. "They can be used to kill, but they can also be used to save and protect," he said in an almost whisper soft voice.
-
Tsumiko
"Mmm, I'm not very good at the protecting part. I try to do my best and make the Nexus a better place, but sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing."
She grasped the sword, taking a test swing. She smiled. Its balance was perfect. "Most of the time, I try not to think about difficult things like that. I've only really had the luxury since I ended up here in the Nexus."
-
Emiya
Emiya snorted, ruefully smirked, and met Tsumiko's eyes. He said, "Honestly, I'm not that great at protecting either. And I do try to fight evil in the Nexus, even have a silly superhero identity including a costume. Even though it's armor and a protective, holy shroud."
He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and said, "And it's another reason I wear these in public. Figured that it works for that Clark Kent guy, it'll work for me."
And I think too much, Emiya thought with a sigh. He tried to keep himself busy with the shop, his moonlighting as a superhero/vigilante, and cooking. Tohsaka's presence helped with the mental stress more than he thought when the cat appeared on his doorstep.
-
Emiya
Emiya snorted, ruefully smirked, and met Tsumiko's eyes. He said, "Honestly, I'm not that great at protecting either. And I do try to fight evil in the Nexus, even have a silly superhero identity including a costume. Even though it's armor and a protective, holy shroud."
He pulled his glasses out of his pocket and said, "And it's another reason I wear these in public. Figured that it works for that Clark Kent guy, it'll work for me."
And I think too much, Emiya thought with a sigh. He tried to keep himself busy with the shop, his moonlighting as a superhero/vigilante, and cooking. Tohsaka's presence helped with the mental stress more than he thought when the cat appeared on his doorstep.
Tsumiko
Tsumiko looked really, really confused. "Um, Clark Kent? Ok?" She muttered, fidgeting. She was annoyed. She could tell it was definetely something she was supposed to know, but didn't, for some reason. She really had no clue who this man was!
"Um, I have a costume too. If you can call it that. It's more than just for the aesthetics of it, but I did a lot of work designing it. I didn't want people knowing what I look like."
-
Emiya
Emiya grinned dryly and said, "Superman. He's a popular American manga character. His secret identity is literally glasses and it works. They make movies about them too. Apparently some are really dark."
He shrugged and then smiled at her admission of her having a costume as well.
"Well maybe one day you can show it to me, if you want."
-
Eruraviel
4:00 pm
A tall woman covered in a black cloak slowly walked through the slums, holding something in her hand. It was obscured by the sleeve of the cloak, but as someone sensitive to magic, Lora could tell.
An abnormal spell ran through the woman's body, fueling her body's functions. She seemed to be looking for something.
Mothra (As Lora)
4:00 pm
Lora glanced at her phone. Four in the afternoon - evening will be approaching fast. She didn't want to be in this particular district after dark, going by the word on the streets. A small thing like her human form would likely be targeted. She didn't particularly fear for her own safety, mind you, but she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself this early on in the search. A girl suddenly transforming herself into a humanoid moth goddess would certainly be the talk of the town, closing down avenues for her personal investigation.
A text message from one of her classmates suddenly popped up, asking if she wanted to go to karaoke tomorrow. The mahoe kaiju was in the middle of writing a declination when she accidentally walked right into a tall, feminine figure wrapped in a dark cloak. The rebound of which cause her to drop her phone and fall on her rear.
"I'm sorry, miss, I wasn't -" Lora started to say while grabbing her phone and picking herself up, only to pause for a second upon sensing some sort of magical object that caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. "- I-I wasn't paying attention where I was going. I'm sorry."
-
At the scene of the crime
"..." The giant man looked at them with a grave look. He ignored Suerte's question utterly however. "The situation is delicate. I'd suggest you didn't spark any more tension. Follow me."
With that, he walked towards the door, where the thin man had just finished his call. While they were talking, he had been busy growling obscenities, throwing the phone on the floor and stomping on it repeatedly. But the moment he noticed the big guy, he bit his lip and nearly screamed.
"Hey! What the hell's the meaning of this!? You're supposed to keep out outsiders!"
"..."
-
Suerte
The cowgirl hummed softely as she felt Justice's strong hand guide her off of the horse. She briefly frowned when she realized the man was ignoring her, but it faded quickly. After all, what mattered now was getting to the bottom of this, or rather, supporting Justice. Holding his arm, she followed Justice into the compound. She leaned in, her lips nearly touching his ear and whispered,
"There is something suspicious about all of this. I haven't been here for long. I wonder if they already know you too."
Nibbling on his earlobe, she let out a small little giggle. "Wow he is a little loud," she finally commented, eyeing the door with a small grin. "I'll stay quiet, big man. I'm just the lady here anyway."
-
Justice
He nodded to the cowgirl. Knowing was one thing, but refusing to elaborate likely meant he wasn't supposed to say that. Whatever this incident was, their information couldn't help them here.
Justice advanced and rested a gloved hand on the shoulder of the thin man, squeezing with only a minute impression of his colossal strength. He made a half-chuckling, patient sound through his scarf.
"If you're out of your depth, it doesn't matter if we're strangers, does it? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," he rumbled. "What has you losing your wits? Explain, and perhaps we'll do something about it. If not, we'll leave you and this operation alone. Either way, you can take a minute."
It wasn't a threat, but it wasn't just advice either. It was intoned without interest in hogwash.
-
The Scene of the Crime
The thin man turned pale, and grit his teeth so hard, they might as well grind to dust any second now. He gasped and glared at the cowboy looking man.
"How dare you speak to me that way? Do you want to die, huh!? You're worth less than a piece of dog shit in the middle of the r-" Before he could finish, the giant spoke calmly.
"Wayne, stand down. They're going in."
The air turned silent. The white man's legs were visibly shivering. The wall of muscles did not budge. No, he took a step forward and stared the small man down.
"Are you mad? You're just a dog, you can't boss me around. He won't stand for this, I'm in charge." He nearly spat, and it was clear that he was very scared of them seeing something. Suerte had a point, this place reeked of fear. However!
"Wayne..."
The white man's sweat was so intense, it was flying upwards! His heart beat like a drum. Perhaps it wasn't them he feared, but rather what he would do if he let them in. He reached for his pocket and brandished a shiv, now red with rage!
"I've given you enough chances, dog! If you don't send them away, I'll have you end up worse than your brothe-"
The blur of movement flashed faster than wind. Only a split second later was there a boom, and the smashing of bone against a fist. The giant slapped the guy without pity, caving his face straight into the wall. Cracks ran around his head, the rock had been perfectly moulded. Only when his legs stopped shaking, did he fall down to the ground as if the life had been smacked out of his body.
On the wall, you could see a plaster of his horrified face.
"I told you. Stand down." The giant's words now had even less emotion than before. As Suerte said, this place reeked of fear. But all this commotion, trembling... she had made but one miscalculation.
The giant turned to Suerte and her companion humorlessly and opened the door. "The way is clear. You'll help, right?"
Some here trembled not because of fear, but rage.
-
Suerte
"Oh," she said, her pitch rising into a sultry tone. "Well I see he knows whats important...."
She was trying her best not to sound too turned on right next to Justice, but she paid back her little sin by sandwiching her boobs around his arm as they followed the large man inside. Really it wasn't that the man was turning her on. It was that this whole exchange was pretty hot. She didn't expect Justice to take such a direct approach, nor did she expect this sudden thrilling display of male violence but...
"I'm happy you are considering this job Justice."
-
Emiya
Emiya grinned dryly and said, "Superman. He's a popular American manga character. His secret identity is literally glasses and it works. They make movies about them too. Apparently some are really dark."
He shrugged and then smiled at her admission of her having a costume as well.
"Well maybe one day you can show it to me, if you want."
Tsumiko
Tsumiko just shook her head, not really sure what manga was, either. She was well aware of her complete lack of knowledge of pop culture. She just knew it was-pictures with words. A dictionary definition. Nothing more.
"I'll-show it to you in a bit, but you'll be disappointed. It's nothing much, really."
-
Eruraviel
4:00 pm
A tall woman covered in a black cloak slowly walked through the slums, holding something in her hand. It was obscured by the sleeve of the cloak, but as someone sensitive to magic, Lora could tell.
An abnormal spell ran through the woman's body, fueling her body's functions. She seemed to be looking for something.
Mothra (As Lora)
4:00 pm
Lora glanced at her phone. Four in the afternoon - evening will be approaching fast. She didn't want to be in this particular district after dark, going by the word on the streets. A small thing like her human form would likely be targeted. She didn't particularly fear for her own safety, mind you, but she didn't want to draw too much attention to herself this early on in the search. A girl suddenly transforming herself into a humanoid moth goddess would certainly be the talk of the town, closing down avenues for her personal investigation.
A text message from one of her classmates suddenly popped up, asking if she wanted to go to karaoke tomorrow. The mahoe kaiju was in the middle of writing a declination when she accidentally walked right into a tall, feminine figure wrapped in a dark cloak. The rebound of which cause her to drop her phone and fall on her rear.
"I'm sorry, miss, I wasn't -" Lora started to say while grabbing her phone and picking herself up, only to pause for a second upon sensing some sort of magical object that caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. "- I-I wasn't paying attention where I was going. I'm sorry."
Eruraviel?
The tall woman's arm shot out, catching the phone in midair. She also quickly pocketed the device she was using, slinging it away inside her grey cloak. She crouched down, offering Lora a hand. "Are you ok?" She asked.
Under the hood was a pale white human with brilliant blue eyes.
-
Emiya
Emiya shrugged and said, "Well, if I can help you improve on it, I'd be more than happy to. I'm pretty decent with a needle and thread actually."
And of course the holy cloth given to me wasn't quite enough to make a real duster so I had to get creative.
"Plus, it couldn't be any worse than some of the outfits other heroic spirits wear. Like Martha's, but if it involves 'boob armor' we are going to have a very long discussion on why it is dangerous and a bad design choice."
-
Emiya
Emiya shrugged and said, "Well, if I can help you improve on it, I'd be more than happy to. I'm pretty decent with a needle and thread actually."
And of course the holy cloth given to me wasn't quite enough to make a real duster so I had to get creative.
"Plus, it couldn't be any worse than some of the outfits other heroic spirits wear. Like Martha's, but if it involves 'boob armor' we are going to have a very long discussion on why it is dangerous and a bad design choice."
Tsumiko
Red flushed to the young girl's cheeks. "Boob-armor-ahem." She shook her head. She shouldn't be thinking of such things!
"Oh, um, it doesn't involve any cloth, or anything like that. It's mostly metal and shadows, ahaha, it's not really cool at all, really."
-
Emiya
The white haired man nodded and said, "Yes. It's stupid, I think it's supposed to be sexy, but every time I see armor that has a hole in it intended to show cleavage I just think of how the armor is now useless. Armor needs function; it's not meant to tantalize."
He shook his head with a sigh.
At Tsumiko's words he smiled at her and said, "I think you're selling yourself short."
-
Emiya
The white haired man nodded and said, "Yes. It's stupid, I think it's supposed to be sexy, but every time I see armor that has a hole in it intended to show cleavage I just think of how the armor is now useless. Armor needs function; it's not meant to tantalize."
He shook his head with a sigh.
At Tsumiko's words he smiled at her and said, "I think you're selling yourself short."
Tsumiko
She shook her head. "No, I'm really not."
The two continued picking junk up, throwing it inside her shadows for storage. She had no idea where she was going to put her stuff, really. Wasn't she just getting a small room? A closet would be fine, even, but she wondered what she was going to do!
This was really stressful for some reason!
-
Justice
Justice stared silently, and merely pulled the brim of his hat slightly down as he passed the smashed body and the caved scar on the wall. The rider looked down to Suerte's eyes that seemed twinkling with equal parts mischief and naughtiness, and wrapped the arm she held around her waist, pulling her closer.
"Focus a little, then. We have time to do more later," he said.
Then he hummed, in his way that more resembled an affirmative growl, to the muscular man, stepping through the threshold of the door. If there was not only fear, but rage here, then all the more reason for him to see it all.
-
Emiya
She has a lot of stuff, Emiya thought as he helped her pack. But she's a teenage girl. Teenage girls do have a lot of stuff.
He folded his arms over his chest with a frown as he did mental storage logistics. If I moved a few things, I could easily hold all of her stuff, he thought.
"How much more do you have?" he asked as he eyed her curiously.
-
Emiya
She has a lot of stuff, Emiya thought as he helped her pack. But she's a teenage girl. Teenage girls do have a lot of stuff.
He folded his arms over his chest with a frown as he did mental storage logistics. If I moved a few things, I could easily hold all of her stuff, he thought.
"How much more do you have?" he asked as he eyed her curiously.
Tsumiko
"Well, just my bedroom, but is there really anything I need in there? I don't really own any clothes. Do you have a spare bed for me?"
-
Emiya
Emiya nodded and said, "Of course I have a spare bed. What sort of horrible host would I be if I offered you a place to live without a place to sleep? Well, technically it's a futon, but . . ."
He shrugged.
Then he asked, "Do we need to get you some more clothing?"
-
Inside the building
6:15
The three walked in the business building, and the massive man soon pushed the button to an elevator. The doors opened, and he walked into the gate. When the two followed, the door closed, and one would find that the elevator was quite... cramped with someone his size. It seemed to be taking forever.
It was kind of awkward.
And the music didn't help.
"So, um, sorry about that. Messy work here, yknow?"
-
Suerte
Suerte nodded her head, feeling the consequences of her unchecked lust. She looked at the big man, detaching herself from Justice's arm, winked and said, "I'll let you two handsome.... dangerous men talk. I can't solve every problem!"
Practically vanishing from Justice's side, she bolted over to the corner of the elevator, squatting down with her back to the boys. Two hands clasped her cheeks, making the already strawberry red things somehow even redder. "Focus! Focus!" she whispered, clapping her cheeks with each little chant. "Your making him look bad! Partner! He's the supposed to be my new partner!"
-
Justice
If he was a lesser man, he might feel embarassed, but Justice had had thousands of years of practice ignoring the absurd happening two feet away from him for the purpose of getting anything done. Suerte... would get it out of her system soon. Or into her system. It was probably going to be his job in this relationship to help work it off.
He tipped his hat up to better regard the man who'd invited them in. "I'm wondering what kind of messy. Easier to show?"
-
In ze Building
"...Messy." Was all he said. He didn't seem to enjoy talking about this kind of stuff.
Luckily the elevator stopped just at the right time. The doors opened-
Only for a short kid to walk in, mop and bucket in hand. He couldn't be all that tall, but he was surprisingly thin for his size. He had a black mop of hair too, which nearly covered his eye, while the other showed a black tired bang. He let out a sigh, revealing a set of shark-like teeth.
The sight was a bit familiar to Justice. But something was off...
Wasn't that guy taller? Assuming he'd remember, that is.
The doors closed, the awkward music continued, and hopefully everything would be on its way. It didn't look like they were far from the top floor No disturbances needed, no-
"'Sup." A raspy voice called out to the cowboy looking wannabe. The lady one. Oh, these two definitely hadn't met before.
-
Suerte
"Howdy," Suerte said, suddenly standing up as if that pathetic display never happened. She zipped right over to the short man, smiling at the one who had seen nothing. "I do say, we can certainly solve any problem.... clean up the problem so he doesn't have to here. It doesn't matter how messy it gets."
She smiled, turning to the big man and grinned. "We are bounty hunters after all!"
-
Justice
He told himself to pat Suerte in the back and maybe a little more for getting over it so quick. Maybe that could be a good incentive. But noticing the thin, subdued youth, he raised an eyebrow, tilting his shadowed face an inch to the side.
"You've gotten smaller," he said.
-
A-702
Hey...she's kinda cute. I wonder if I can get her number. He didn't think at all, because such thoughts would be utterly unprofessional. Never! "Bounty hunter... that's badass!"
Sadly his date fantasizing got interrupted when the other cowboy wannabe spoke up. And that moment, he nearly jumped.
"E-eh!?"
He turned to look at the big guy, his pokerface about as effective as a fork to a soup bowl. He looked... utterly flabbergasted! "Do I know ya?" He squinted to get a better look. On one hand, he did look like that Flint Westwood dude but...
Nope! Never met that guy.
Meanwhile the big guy just kept to himself, silent like a rock.
-
Suerte
Those hazel eyes closed as her grin widened into a toothy smile. "I know right," she said giggling. "Its super fun!"
She leaned back, her head adjacent to Justice's. "Do you know him?" she whispered, looking down at him before returning her normal posture. She twisted her torso, facing the big man. "Is that your corpse janitor or something?"
-
Tsumiko
Tsumiko's eyes seemed to light up, but she only shook her head. "Nah. I, um, think I'll be fine. I can just project new versions of this and all."
-
Emiya
"Ah, but what if you walk into an anti-magic field? Do you want to be left naked?" Emiya said as he folded his arms across his chest.
Girls enjoyed clothing, even someone as dense as him knew that. Plus he had seen Tsumiko's eyes light up at the mention of it.
-
Emiya
"Ah, but what if you walk into an anti-magic field? Do you want to be left naked?" Emiya said as he folded his arms across his chest.
Girls enjoyed clothing, even someone as dense as him knew that. Plus he had seen Tsumiko's eyes light up at the mention of it.
Tsumiko
"I mean..." Tsumiko mumbled, fidgeting with her fingers. She didn't really know how to respond, what was appropriate, or anything.
"I guess."
-
Emiya
"Plus doesn't it get boring wearing the same thing every day?" he asked, but remembered that Rin was a part of her. "If you need clothing, then we'll go shopping tomorrow."
Rin was pretty consistent in her clothing: red, black, and white accented and showed off her legs.
However, Tsumiko's color scheme was all Sakura's.
Then again, would she even look good in red with her coloring? Emiya thought.
-
Emiya
"Plus doesn't it get boring wearing the same thing every day?" he asked, but remembered that Rin was a part of her. "If you need clothing, then we'll go shopping tomorrow."
Rin was pretty consistent in her clothing: red, black, and white accented and showed off her legs.
However, Tsumiko's color scheme was all Sakura's.
Then again, would she even look good in red with her coloring? Emiya thought.
Tsumiko
The girl shook her head. "No, this way it's safer. I can hide easier with this outfit."
She pulled up her hoodie, shrouding her face in darkness. "See?"
-
Emiya
"Ah, but there are other styles of hoods that are a bit fancier than that. Plus, aren't there mystical items that girls need that I really don't have access buying because I'm a man?" Emiya asked.
He really didn't want to go to the feminine hygiene section anytime soon.
-
Eruraviel?
The tall woman's arm shot out, catching the phone in midair. She also quickly pocketed the device she was using, slinging it away inside her grey cloak. She crouched down, offering Lora a hand. "Are you ok?" She asked.
Under the hood was a pale white human with brilliant blue eyes.
Mothra (as Lora):
"Yes I am, thank you," Lora said, accepting the stranger's hand.
Whatever that thingamabob was, the stranger tucked it away, seeming to notice that she noticed. Whether that meant this woman was up to no good, or that she was merely hiding something valuable from a stranger in a bad part of town could not be verified. Frankly, it wasn't Lora's business, either - she wasn't some sort of paladin that strikes out at everyone.
"I am looking for someone, perhaps you've seen him?" the mahou kaiju began, fishing out a photo from her pocket, "He's a neighbor of mine. We live a few districts over and he ran away to here. He was last seen with, presumably, an elf with blonde hair. His mother's worried sick about him."
-
Emiya
"Ah, but there are other styles of hoods that are a bit fancier than that. Plus, aren't there mystical items that girls need that I really don't have access buying because I'm a man?" Emiya asked.
He really didn't want to go to the feminine hygiene section anytime soon.
Tsumiko
Tsumiko shuffled her feet, a faint red tinge colouring her cheeks. "Archer, I'm not really, well, used to doing any of that stuff. I'm not really sure what feminine hygene products I'd even need."
Her voice was soft, and she looked away. She hated being put on the spot like that.
-
Emiya
Oh no. Oh no.
Emiya felt his stomach clench and his chest tightened at Tsumiko's words. Chills ran up and down his spine as the implications of her words hit. He stared at her wordlessly for a moment before running a hand through his white hair, making it stand up just a bit.
Oh. No.
He sighed and said, "Yare yare, that's pretty unfortunate then. Well at least stuff like soap, shampoo, conditioner, and other odds and ends should be acquired at least. I'll guess we'll worry about other things when they come around."
Damn it, a woman friend would be really handy right about now!
-
Emiya
Oh no. Oh no.
Emiya felt his stomach clench and his chest tightened at Tsumiko's words. Chills ran up and down his spine as the implications of her words hit. He stared at her wordlessly for a moment before running a hand through his white hair, making it stand up just a bit.
Oh. No.
He sighed and said, "Yare yare, that's pretty unfortunate then. Well at least stuff like soap, shampoo, conditioner, and other odds and ends should be acquired at least. I'll guess we'll worry about other things when they come around."
Damn it, a woman friend would be really handy right about now!
Tsumiko
"Yeah..." She muttered back at him.
I messed up. I shouldn't have said that. He looks so upset, so ahast, I made him worry. I made him worry. I made him worry.
She shrunk into her hoodie, turning away. "Um, well, ah-"
She snapped her fingers suddenly. "You keep packing in here, and I'll go get to doing other stuff! Yeah!"
-
Emiya
Nodding, Emiya said, "Yeah, I'll finish packing up in here. That's a very good idea."
He cleared his throat and watched as she hurried off.
Fuck, did I upset her because I'm an idiot? Scared of a normal function. Rin was right, men are idiots.
-
Emiya
Nodding, Emiya said, "Yeah, I'll finish packing up in here. That's a very good idea."
He cleared his throat and watched as she hurried off.
Fuck, did I upset her because I'm an idiot? Scared of a normal function. Rin was right, men are idiots.
Tsumiko
Tsumiko quickly escaped to the bathroom, looking into the mirror for a moment. Those two damn mismatched eyes stated back at her. She grabbed her head and began to scratch it. "Ahhhh, what did I do wronnnng!"
-
Justice
"I stopped you and your small, fiery friend from being murdered by a man with fists like missiles," Justice rumbled. He hadn't successfully stopped the man, only helped until they could all make it out, but it was meaningless to linger. Until coming face to face with another enemy like that, that's what the rider told himself.
His eyes narrowed, focusing like searchlights on this youth's unassuming, seemingly clueless expression.
"Or else, someone with your face," he concluded, before turning back to the suit escorting them. "Where's the mess?"
-
Emiya
"Ahhhh, what did I do wronnnng!"
Emiya blinked from where he was packing odds and ends as he heard Tsumiko shout.
He put down what was in his hand and quickly walked to the bathroom. He wrapped his knuckles against the door and asked, "Tsumiko?"
-
Tsumiko
"N-n-n-n-nothing! Don't worry about it!" He heard a frentic girl respond from the other side. "D-don't come in! I'll be out in a minute!"
-
Emiya
The white haired man sighed and said, "Something's wrong. I won't come in, but I'll stand out side here until you tell me what's wrong."
-
Emiya
The white haired man sighed and said, "Something's wrong. I won't come in, but I'll stand out side here until you tell me what's wrong."
Tsumiko
"Nothing's wrong! Go away!" She exclaimed. She grabbed her chest, begging her throbbing heart to calm down.
-
Eruraviel?
The tall woman's arm shot out, catching the phone in midair. She also quickly pocketed the device she was using, slinging it away inside her grey cloak. She crouched down, offering Lora a hand. "Are you ok?" She asked.
Under the hood was a pale white human with brilliant blue eyes.
Mothra (as Lora):
"Yes I am, thank you," Lora said, accepting the stranger's hand.
Whatever that thingamabob was, the stranger tucked it away, seeming to notice that she noticed. Whether that meant this woman was up to no good, or that she was merely hiding something valuable from a stranger in a bad part of town could not be verified. Frankly, it wasn't Lora's business, either - she wasn't some sort of paladin that strikes out at everyone.
"I am looking for someone, perhaps you've seen him?" the mahou kaiju began, fishing out a photo from her pocket, "He's a neighbor of mine. We live a few districts over and he ran away to here. He was last seen with, presumably, an elf with blonde hair. His mother's worried sick about him."
Eruraviel?
The woman took the photograph from Lora. She suddenly got more tense for some reason, regarding Lora with suspicion. She stared her down for several long seconds before silently handing it back to her.
"No, never. I've never seen an elf like that before, but if I had to hazard a guess, it would be that he met an unfortunate fate from one of the local gangs, or perhaps fell into the old tunnels underneath."
With a seeming sense of finality, the woman looked down at the young girl. "You should stop your search, before you get caught up in something dangerous."
-
Emiya
Emiya shook his head and said, "Nope, something's wrong and if I did something I'm sorry. However, I can't help until you let me know what's wrong. So I'm staying here."
He then folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall beside the bathroom door.
-
A-702
The smol janitor looking guy started to suddenly sweat all over. "Eh-eh ehhhh!? No no no! Nooooo way! I'm just a regular janitor! N-nothing shady about me! E-erm, yeah! Just the regular cleaner, no corpses involved! Nnnnope! And cops are absolutely not involved! I pay my taxes on a regular basis, wash 3 times a day, help grannies walk the roads, eat stale pop tarts with water and cereal for dinner. I'm totally 100% normal dude!"
The last part was absolutely normal. Even as he shook his head furiously. It was totally cute though (ironically unironically in an ironic unironic way, ironically).
He crawled just a bit closer to Justice all of a sudden.
"A-anyways, a guy with missile fists and a fiery haired girl!? Whaaa? That sounds like one of them 2000s animes. Do I look like some kind of Dungan pilot or something? I.... ooooooooh!" He smacked his fist in his palm, eyes wide open.
"I see, I see. You must've mixed me with my previous version. Sorry, but I have no memories past the last 3 hours. My biological body must've kicked the bucket, but they were able to extract my black box through my DNA. Aren't I handsome now?"
He whispered in his ear outside of Suerte's view (not really), totally looking worried. Probably about looking lame in front of a cute girl.
"I hear my body was a total mess this time. Did I at least fight really cooly? I mean, they didn't actually tell me. It's kind of embarrassing really."
-
Suerte
Suerte giggled and said, "Sure lil guy. Whatever you say!"
All of this talk of a fiery-haired girl reminded her of Lily. They went into that strip club together, but she never saw her after that. Maybe after this job she would go out and look for her. She was crazy, but she did hang out with her in the first few hours within the city.
The cowgirl turned to Justice, leaning in and mimicking the little guy. "The guy is handsome but not as handsome as you! I think that guy might not be an average janitor though."
-
Justice
He was a clone? Maker, that brought back annoying memories. He better make sure to not leave any of his genetic material rotting around, not that there was a high likelihood of success even if someone did attempt to make a new Rider using him as a blueprint.
Justice shook his head, but scoffed in an entertained way to Suerte. "No joke," he said, before clearing his throat. He had many questions, and their number only grew, but he waited for the elevator to bring them to their destination.
-
Emiya
Emiya shook his head and said, "Nope, something's wrong and if I did something I'm sorry. However, I can't help until you let me know what's wrong. So I'm staying here."
He then folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the wall beside the bathroom door.
Tsumiko
"Girls don't like it when you're this pushy, Archer!" A distinctly Rinlike voice exclaimed from behind the door. "I'll be fine, really!" Tsumiko's voice followed up with. "I'll be out in like, um, five minutes!"
-
Emiya
"Well I'm being 'pushy' because I'm worried," Emiya called back when he heard the very Rin-like voice from the other side of the door.
Wait, if Rin or Sakura comes out, Tsumiko gets pushed back, he thought as he gritted his teeth.
I need to find a goddamn Grail to get one of them out of her, he thought as he called out, "Well, I'll be waiting."
He didn't move.
-
Emiya
"Well I'm being 'pushy' because I'm worried," Emiya called back when he heard the very Rin-like voice from the other side of the door.
Wait, if Rin or Sakura comes out, Tsumiko gets pushed back, he thought as he gritted his teeth.
I need to find a goddamn Grail to get one of them out of her, he thought as he called out, "Well, I'll be waiting."
He didn't move.
Sakura
7:30 PM
Archer felt magical energy gathering behind him, and then, a tap on his shoulder. A shadowy girl stood behind him, a distinctive purple ribbon wrapped around her inky black hair. "Archer, just let her be. She'll be fine." He heard Sakura's soft voice. "She's just not used to this sort of thing."
-
Emiya
Emiya's steel gray eyes blinked as he felt a tap on his shoulder and he spun around to see a shadowy girl standing there.
He sighed and said, "That's part of the problem Sakura. She's been alone for too long . . ."
-
Sakura
Sakura smiled at him. Her expression was full of melancholy. "Well, I can't say I've been a particularly good parent, but it is what it is. She needs time to adjust, especially after-"
The young woman shook her head. "No, nevermind. I shouldn't talk about stuff like that."
-
Emiya
"Now you have my curious, Sakura," Emiya said with a sigh and shake of his head. He eyed his friend and asked, "After what? The more I know the less I bumble around like a lost idiot doing stupid stuff that makes her hide in the bathroom because feminine hygiene products are terrifying to men."
-
Sakura
Sakura shook her head. "I'm not going to leak my daughter's secrets and issues. I invade her privacy enough, just by existing. I'm not going to violate the confidentiality of her mind."
She sounded a little offput by Archer's requst, but composed herself quickly. "That said, you're going to need to learn about that sort of stuff with her. She knows even less than you do about that sort of stuff."
-
Emiya
"Well, you really were a horrible parent then," Emiya grumbled before he realized the words were out of his mouth.
He felt his cheeks heat up and he sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. I just didn't expect I'd have to shelter a teenage girl. Fuji-nee never talked about that stuff. We just knew it was happening because she became even more of a monster. You and Rin never talked about it either. And Ilya . . . Ilya didn't have to worry about that."
Even though it bothered her. Even though she wanted to feel what other girls felt, wanted to know what it was like to make love, have a boyfriend, that sort of thing, he thought, still haunted by his sister after all of these years.
She had wanted him, and all he saw was his little sister.
He shook his head to clear and added, "And Jack, Nursery, and Jeanne Alter Lily don't worry about it because they're Servants."
Oh god, I found three Surrogate Ilyas in Chaelda.
-
Sakura
Sakura, surprisingly, didn't really seem to react to what he'd said. "Yeah, I really messed up." She answered bluntly, glowing red eyes staring at Archer. "Of course we never talked about it. It's not a fun conversation to have, but you'll have to buck up and get your act together. She needs you. Just don't blow apart her mind by dumping too much information again. She's-fragile."
-
Emiya
"But withholding information is just going to upset her too," Emiya said with a shake of his head and a sigh. "And I've seen what happens when very powerful girls don't have the proper information about something."
Then he said, "And she doesn't like it when she's thought of as fragile. Treating her like porcelain is just going to upset her even more."
-
Sakura
"I know that, all three of us do, Rin and I know it better than anybody! But it's the truth. She didn't-" Sakura seemed to bite her lip before turning her head away.
"Tsumiko may look mature and grown up, but she's really just a scared little girl. She can't handle the truth yet."
"Anyway, you have plenty of experience with powerful little girls from Chaldea, don't you?"
-
Emiya
"Then maybe I need to know the truth so I can better help her," Emiya said as he gestured at the bathroom door, his steel colored eyes narrowing.
"You and your sister, yes Tohsaka, I'm talking to you as well, want me to help her but you're sure as fuck not letting me know what's actually wrong. A sniper needs to know what his target is. I can't just go spray and pray and hope I hit the right target."
He straightened to his full height and said, "And Jack, Nursery, and little Jeanne Alter Lily would have been pissed if I coddled them like they were invalids."
-
Emiya
"Then maybe I need to know the truth so I can better help her," Emiya said as he gestured at the bathroom door, his steel colored eyes narrowing.
"You and your sister, yes Tohsaka, I'm talking to you as well, want me to help her but you're sure as fuck not letting me know what's actually wrong. A sniper needs to know what his target is. I can't just go spray and pray and hope I hit the right target."
He straightened to his full height and said, "And Jack, Nursery, and little Jeanne Alter Lily would have been pissed if I coddled them like they were invalids."
Sakura
Sakura grew in conjunction with Emiya, staying at eye level with him. The girl refused to back down, to just let people walk over her. Not even him. Nevermore, never again.
"I can't just tell you everything, Senpai. Not even you. There are some things that I can't just blab about! Tsumiko wouldn't want that either!"
She stared down Archer, not giving an inch.
"I'll tell you what I can, later. Both of us will, after she goes to sleep for the night."
-
Emiya
Oh, so now she stands up for herself. Well, she is a Tohsaka as well.
"Tch," he said, hissing slightly through his teeth as he moved away from the wall and closer to Sakura. He stood inches from her, her eyes incredibly close to his. A thousand thoughts ran through his head.
I'm not your Sempai. Your Sempai has been dead for years, he thought, but kept the cruel words from coming off his tongue. Instead his hands clenched and released as he looked at her.
He asked, "Will she still be able to rest if the both of you are riding her?"
-
Emiya
Oh, so now she stands up for herself. Well, she is a Tohsaka as well.
"Tch," he said, hissing slightly through his teeth as he moved away from the wall and closer to Sakura. He stood inches from her, her eyes incredibly close to his. A thousand thoughts ran through his head.
I'm not your Sempai. Your Sempai has been dead for years, he thought, but kept the cruel words from coming off his tongue. Instead his hands clenched and released as he looked at her.
He asked, "Will she still be able to rest if the both of you are riding her?"
Sakura
"She rests better. She doesn't dream about the horrors and wake herself up." Sakura leaned forward, her nose pressing against his own. It was cold and seemed to want to suck him in, making the servant feel all tingly. "Rin does it all the time, it's how she lives her own life. I take care of the house, and keeping her safe."
She stared right back into Archer's eyes, those crimson red orbs boring into him.
"She needs professional help, but she also needs a parent, a real one." She bit her lip and held back emotions. "Can you do that for her? Are you sure you want to?"
-
Emiya
Emiya stilled at the cool feel of Sakura's nose pressing against his. It feels like she wants to suck me in, he thought as chills ran up and down his spine. There was a brief moment where he wanted to take her shoulders and kiss her, let her take him. He pushed his self destructive tendencies down for the moment.
He then frowned at the thought of Rin possessing her while Tsumiko slept.
The best thing would be to get Rin out at the least, he thought.
At her question, Emiya blinked. Then he frowned. Heroes didn't have families; they couldn't afford the distraction or to put them in danger.
Not that he ever thought about it. He thought about it constantly, in life and now reincarnated. There was a huge part of him that wondered what it would be like to have a wife and kids. To live that normal life he denied himself all those years ago.
"If I don't help her, who else would?" he asked in a surprisingly soft voice, sounding very much like the old Emiya Shirou at that moment.
-
Sakura
Sakura wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. "Thank you. You're always cleaning up my mistakes, Archer." She held him tightly, her form solidifying so that she had mass to her. "She deserves better."
-
Emiya
Emiya blinked as Sakura pulled him into a hug, her form having actual weight to it now. He found himself wrapping his arms around her as well. His body still stiffened for a moment before he relaxed into the embrace.
At her words he chuckled. "Yours and Rin's," he said as he patted her back.
-
Sakura
"And your own. We're just a big group of silly misfits, aren't we?"
Sakura helt him tightly. She squeezed him tightly, and her breasts felt almost lifelike before she pulled back, away from him. "I'll look forward to it. You getting me out."
-
Emiya
Emiya felt his cheeks heat up as he felt Sakura's very real and heavy breasts press against the hard muscle of his chest. She was always soft and feminine with lush curves. He felt a familiar stirring and shifted his hips so she wouldn't feel the beginning of an erection press into her.
"Well, I just live with mine. Every time I try to correct them it goes horribly wrong, so I just have to accept them and I guess accept myself," he said with a shake of his head and a rueful grin.
Then he nodded and said, "Yeah, I need to find a Grail to separate the three of you so you all can live your own lives in your own bodies."
-
Sakura
Sakura laughed. "Thanks, Archer. Shirou. If you don't mind me um, calling you that?"
-
Emiya
Emiya's grin was boyish and lopsided as he regarded his old friend.
"Yare yare, I'll live with it. I actually use Emiya here though," he said with a smile.
-
At The Scene
Ding!
"E-erm, it was nice to meet you..." The small boy's voice was shaking as he waved at the two, and mop and bucket in hand he waddled his way outtof that stressful stress coffin called an elevator! Surely this'd be the last time they'd see each-other, yep.
With that in mind, the giant removed his sunglasses and sighed. With that, he turned to walk out of the elevator, gesturing them to follow. But as he reached the end of a hall and gripped on the doorknob, a tense feeling shook the air.
He turned to glance at the two. Without his glasses, it was clear. His eyes were not human, but robotic cyborg enhancements!
"If you got any second thoughts, now is the time."
-
Eruraviel?
The woman took the photograph from Lora. She suddenly got more tense for some reason, regarding Lora with suspicion. She stared her down for several long seconds before silently handing it back to her.
"No, never. I've never seen an elf like that before, but if I had to hazard a guess, it would be that he met an unfortunate fate from one of the local gangs, or perhaps fell into the old tunnels underneath."
With a seeming sense of finality, the woman looked down at the young girl. "You should stop your search, before you get caught up in something dangerous."
Mothra(as Lora):
Lora blinked twice. Well, this was a potential windfall - a...poor attempt at deflecting suspicion as well as a shoddily hidden magical artifact? This woman's involved somehow.
"Thank you, anyways," the teenager said, "and thank you for the advice. But before I go, may I have my phone back, please?"
-
Eruraviel?
The woman took the photograph from Lora. She suddenly got more tense for some reason, regarding Lora with suspicion. She stared her down for several long seconds before silently handing it back to her.
"No, never. I've never seen an elf like that before, but if I had to hazard a guess, it would be that he met an unfortunate fate from one of the local gangs, or perhaps fell into the old tunnels underneath."
With a seeming sense of finality, the woman looked down at the young girl. "You should stop your search, before you get caught up in something dangerous."
Mothra(as Lora):
Lora blinked twice. Well, this was a potential windfall - a...poor attempt at deflecting suspicion as well as a shoddily hidden magical artifact? This woman's involved somehow.
"Thank you, anyways," the teenager said, "and thank you for the advice. But before I go, may I have my phone back, please?"
Eruraviel?
The girl stared at Lora for a moment before silently handing her back the phone. "Have a good day."
The girl quickly began walking again at a brisk pace, faster than a human could and turned the corner, clearly attempting to get away. Or to lure Lora somewhere.
-
Suerte
Suerte waved, a stupidly wide smile on her face. "Bye!"
With the mop head gone, she turned to the giant, following behind him but keeping within shoulder length of Justice. As the feeling in the air became tense once more, she found that familiar rush of excitement building within her core, only for him to him to turn around and reveal....
ROBOT EYES! she thought to herself, her eyes widening. To an outsider, it looked like she was afraid, shocked even, but this was only half right. In reality, this was simply her trying to mask her abrupt fangirl squealing in a professional situation.
"No second thoughts!" she finally shouted, stiffening her posture.
-
Sakura
Sakura seemed to pout, a bit of color entering into her shadowy skin, gradually turning more pinkish. "That's no good, you're not calling me Matou san, now are you? From now on, you're Shirou, Senpai. Get used to it."
She stuck out her tongue and pulled an eyelid down with her finger.
-
Emiya
"Of course not, you're younger than me. So I can still call you Sakura and get away with it," Emiya said with a shrug and a smirk.
He tilted his head and asked, "Now are you going to call me 'Shirou' or 'Sempai'? Shirou Sempai would be too odd."
-
Sakura
"Hmmmmm, what about Snepai Shirou?" She winked, a purpleish tinge appearing on her hair. She pumped more magic into solidifying her form for the conversation.
-
Emiya
"What about just Sempai? It seems weird you calling me anything else," Emiya said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
He tilted his head at her more solidified form and asked, "How are you doing that, by the way?"
-
Sakura
Sakura flicked his forehead. "Lots of practice with my magic, obviously. It just takes a lot of work, so I usually don't bother.
"I want to call you Shirou, so I will. I only have one Senpai, and you aren't him. He's inside of me."
She frowned a bit, cocking her head. "Ahhh..."
-
Emiya
Steel grey eyes widened at Sakura's words.
Of course, corrupted she could have easily devoured him, he thought with a shake of his head.
"So he's inside Tsukimo too, isn't he?" he asked as he folded his arms over his chest.
-
Sakura
Sakura's cheeks turned red. She turned away him fast enough to make her hair flip.
"Well, um, you could say he's an integral part of her now."
-
Emiya
"Well, I know 'my' arm is there, but how much of the boy is there?" Emiya asked as he held up his corresponding arm and wiggled his fingers.
What in god's name did you do, Sakura?
-
Sakura
"Um, ah-" Sakura fumbled her words, opening her mouth only to make silly noises. Her face was tinged red, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.
"She's only a young girl, so it shouldn't matter too much, I hope. I think it shouldn't matter."
Her eyes wandered downwards.
-
Emiya
Emiya frowned as he watched Sakura himm, haww, and blush.
At her weird choice of words and her looking down, Emiya only frowned harder.
"I think you lost me somewhere, but what do you mean that it shouldn't matter too much? To be a responsible parent, I should know about my child, right?" he asked, white eyebrows raising.
-
Sakura
Sakura glanced down. She stared at Archer's pants, and then her feet. "Well, um, she has his, well..."
She crouched down on the floor, holding her legs tightly to her chest. "She has his member... And a few other parts..."
-
Emiya
Why is she staring at my jeans? he thought as Sakura said something that really didn't make sense.
She said something that should have been impossible.
"Of course it matters! That's a really big deal, 'young girl' or not! You know how hard that is going to be for her? Or how confusing? What if she wants a boyfriend? Or a girlfriend for that matter!"
He sighed, shook his head, and lowered his arms.
And she has a version of me's penis . . .
-
Justice
His eyes were machine. What else in him was steel where there should be flesh and wire where there should be sinew? Justice may have underestimated the strangeness of the people to be found in the Nexus, but that was irrelevant. Was it meant to warn them, to scare them, merely to share something with them? Were they scars or rewards, this man's attributes?
Justice hadn't sworn, but it wasn't his style to turn back on a whim, and none of this was enough to make him reconsider anyway. He nodded, waiting to see what they'd come all this way for.
-
Sakura
"Well, good luck!" Sakura cheerfully stuck her tongue out as she melded back into the wall, her seemingly solid form melting away into the aether. Archer heard the door behind him unlatch, and a face with one purple and one blue eye peeked out at him. She furrowed her brows and stayed still. "I thought you were going to finish packing, Archer."
She didn't seem to be aware of the conversation, even though the two had been fairly loud.
-
Emiya
Thank you, Sakura, Emiya thought dryly as Sakura vanished into the ether.
Emiya smiled at Tsumiko and said, "Well, I wanted to make sure that you were okay. I also said that I was going to stay here until you were finished. So are you ready to continue?"
-
Tsumiko
A shadow rushed into Archer's shadow. Tsumiko raised her eyebrow, but didn't say anymore. She opened the dpor and walked out, right past Archer in a show of defiance. What a silly attitude tp have! She was fine, jeez!
"Let's go, Archer."
-
Emiya
"Yare yare, what did I get myself into," the white haired man said with a sigh as he followed Tsumiko.
Great, I volunteered to be a single father, he thought to himself.
-
The Scene
"...I'll be waiting outside." He grimaced uncomfortably, unlocked the door and turned away.
The gate creaked open, with a rusty unnatural sound like the moan of a rusty gear. They found themselves in a dark room, with very dim to no lighting. It was hard to see for a moment, due to the darkness. But the smell of death was already pungent, it was an utterly revolting smell. As they walked in, there was an uncomfortable wet feeling beneath their feet. The walls and furniture around them were littered with cuts and carved, as if a wild animal had trashed the place. And yet, these cuts were clean, so very clean, to the point they sunk even inside the walls, floors and ceiling.
Upon a closer look, when their eyes accustomed to the darkness, the view became clear, and oh so ghastly.
Two... humans, they had to have been humans once, were lodged straight into the wall. A deep, massive crater was punched irght in the middle of it, where the two figures were completely dislocated into the hole. It was as if someone jammed ants into a pit as hard as he could, to the point their limbs twisted and bent unnaturally. The two didn't even look human at this point, but more like deformed pieces of meat. Petals were scattered all over the room, giving it a sweet, almost sickly feeling. Like rotten meat doused in honey, it was a stench almost too foul, yet sweet. Intoxicating.
Their faces must have been scraped off by the impact, making it near impossible to identify. But one could recognize a large, ebony figure and an ivory one to match. Strangely enough, there were no flies, no maggots, not even vermin. It was as if in a sick sense, they had been purified. The clothes they were wearing, it was almost strange but...
Would Suerte recognize them?
-
Suerte
"Oh wow...." she said, trying to hide her admiration. "That is pretty gruesome."
It was her would be boss from before. They were dead. As much as she admired and anticipated the idea of fighting the sexy beast that killed them, she still could not approve of such a needless loss of life. It was wrong plain and simple. Hopefully, they at least died a peaceful death with little regrets.
She stayed put, knowing full well that Justice would need to collect evidence. Smiling, she wrapped her body around his arms, smiling at him. "You know how to deal with a crime scene like this?" she whispered in his ear. Really, it was a distraction. It didn't matter whether or not he knew how. She would help him out regardless. She began transferring some, but not all, of her luck into Justice, heightening his likelihood of finding whatever clues he was looking for.
-
Eruraviel?
The girl stared at Lora for a moment before silently handing her back the phone. "Have a good day."
The girl quickly began walking again at a brisk pace, faster than a human could and turned the corner, clearly attempting to get away. Or to lure Lora somewhere.
Mothra (as Lora):
While the strange woman walked away, Lora turned and went in the opposite direction. At least, until she came across an alleyway. Quickly ducking in, she took stock of the environment - coast is clear! Insectoid wings emerged from her back, folding around her form until her body was obscured. A moment passed, then her wings shot wide open in a blinding flash of light! Mothra's Kaiju Form, her true form, came into being.
The Mahou Kaiju shot straight up into the air, only to swiftly turn ninety degrees, hugging the rooftop of the building. She was heading the same direction she last saw the mystery woman heading, trying her best to fly out sight. It wasn't long until she relocated her target - Mothra immediately slowed down to match her pace, staying up and behind her using the very rooftops to hide.
-
Eruraviel
The woman ran away, fast. She sprinted between the alleys, keeping herself aware of anybody following her. It was only after five minutes did she seem to relax her guard, leaning against the wall. She let her hood down, revealing long silvery hair flowing down her back.
"The mistress would have my hide if I got caught." She muttered to herself, slamming her fist into a wall. It shattered with the impact, dust and rubble raining down on top of her.
"O-oops."
-
Justice
"Would be easier if someone was willing to form sentences," he rumbled to Suerte, eyeing the door that closed behind them for a moment. "But we'll figure it out."
It was a scene of intentional, supernatural carnage. He's seen a million of them in his lifetime, but the ones he remembered were all unique, and so was this one. The rider crouched by the wet, suspect floor, then by the corpses, by the crater in the wall, surveying the scars of murderous intent around them and every way things could flow in and out of the room. His senses were sharpened by experience and millennia-old knowledge of weaponry and destruction - not in another thousand years would he fail to identify the way in which a body had been thrashed so long as long as something resembling conventional tools had been used.
But while he ran over these thing more by instinct than intent, his thoughts turned to the oddities of the crime. It was a message, or a declaration, for there was no way such a flagrant scene could remain so perfectly whole even now. Someone had really gone out of their way to make art out of what might have been a simple hit.
He appreciated poetic retribution, but the aesthetic that seeed to be used here was lost on him. Justice instead looked to Suerte and the glint that seemed either like confusion or recognition in her eye.
"What do you make of these two?"
-
Suerte
Suerte giggled at his comment, placing a hand over her lips. Her hands gathered behind her back, pushing her chest forward. Turning her head away, she said, "Well... these two worked for someone I was having a job interview for."
She folded her arms, detaching from Justice's arm. Unless she takes it back, Justice should be luckier for a few hours. However, that does leave her a little more valnurable if they get seperated or if something particularly catastrophic occurs. "They were a little touchy but they didn't deserve all that."
That is what she said, but in truth she felt a deep catharsis at having them die right after rejecting her. Especially considering she might have been able to prevent this.
-
Eruraviel
The woman ran away, fast. She sprinted between the alleys, keeping herself aware of anybody following her. It was only after five minutes did she seem to relax her guard, leaning against the wall. She let her hood down, revealing long silvery hair flowing down her back.
"The mistress would have my hide if I got caught." She muttered to herself, slamming her fist into a wall. It shattered with the impact, dust and rubble raining down on top of her.
"O-oops."
Mothra:
"Mistress, huh?" Mothra thought, peering over the edge of the rooftop.
Her body shook when the woman down below smacked the building. It might have just been years of neglect eroding the foundation of the structure...but why take the chance when alternate paths are available? Itnstead of swooping down to demand answers at scythe-point, the mahou kaiju instead reached out with her mind. Within a moment, a mental connection was created - it's a violation of another person's privacy, sure, but there is probable cause as far as she was concerned.
-
The Scene of The crime
The scene of the slaughter was self evident. It didn't need to be re-stated. The corpses were mangled, and worst of all, their faces cleanly cleaved off, as if some beast gnawed it off in one chomp. As it was, it was impossible to even identify them. But going from their size and stature, they seemed to be healthy.
No, there were two oddities. For one, the wounds looked clean, something that lacked the roughness of a monster's claw or the like. The cuts on the ground were so smooth you could glide your finger on them, and in a sick way, the wounds on their bodies were just as neat. As if they were carved into some kind of artwork with a masterful stroke. But other than the various sliced surroundings and furniture, there were.... little signs of a clash. The two should be strong enough to do some damage to their surroundings, but the beast seemed to have been the only one rampaging.
Which brought him to the second oddity. There were bruises around their necks. SUbtle, but noticeable enough to tell. They were self inflicted.
-
Eruraviel
The woman ran away, fast. She sprinted between the alleys, keeping herself aware of anybody following her. It was only after five minutes did she seem to relax her guard, leaning against the wall. She let her hood down, revealing long silvery hair flowing down her back.
"The mistress would have my hide if I got caught." She muttered to herself, slamming her fist into a wall. It shattered with the impact, dust and rubble raining down on top of her.
"O-oops."
Mothra:
"Mistress, huh?" Mothra thought, peering over the edge of the rooftop.
Her body shook when the woman down below smacked the building. It might have just been years of neglect eroding the foundation of the structure...but why take the chance when alternate paths are available? Itnstead of swooping down to demand answers at scythe-point, the mahou kaiju instead reached out with her mind. Within a moment, a mental connection was created - it's a violation of another person's privacy, sure, but there is probable cause as far as she was concerned.
Clara
Clara, you idiot! What were you thinking! Mothra heard her berating herself. You need to get these souls to Madame Eru, or she won't- or she won't give you your reward!
Mothra could sense a love bordering on fanaticism from the woman for a blond elf she was thinking about. Love that went far beyond what a normal person could feel. The intensity was painful, dangerous. She'd kill without a second thought to make this woman happy.
-
Justice
His eyes lidded and brows furrowed at what he found, and he looked back at Suerte. "Touchy how?" He asked.
Justice rose, pacing as he cast his attention over each disconnected detail. "This was all made very carefully for such a chaotic scene. Perhaps by a worn claw, or multiple blades. There was no actual fight. But why are their necks bruised like they tried to choke themselves? It's a terribly poor method to end your own life."
Justice thought of it for a second.
"Did the perpetrator interrupt them?" But the only reason he'd do that would be if they still had something he wanted before he ended them. Perhaps they didn't even try it of their free will, but once the 'murder artist' was done with them, it was useless to keep them alive.
His silver eyes rested on Suerte again. "What happened here was brought on by whatever they did or were. What you didn't do is not a reason to worry over," he said. Justice tilted his head to the corpses again. "What was the job?"
-
Suerte
Suerte folded her arms over her chest, blocking her cleavage. Her gaze averted Justice's cold inqury. That wasn't to say it was unpleasent. No, such a passionate mind was appealing in its own way, but she was starting to realize that maybe she had done something wrong. This couldn't have been her fault could it?
"Well they threw me out of course," she said with a huff. "They told me I was gross. As for the job, they didn't give it to me."
Her face turned red, giving her back to Justice to hide the visual shame. "I failed the interview so quickly they didn't even tell me the job....."
Suerte's body continued spinning until she was facing Justice again, her arms falling to her sides. "You think it was a some sort of mind control?" she asked, pushing her lower lip up with her finger. "I mean if I were a better mage, I could trace the magic but i'm really only good at building things."
-
Clara
Clara, you idiot! What were you thinking! Mothra heard her berating herself. You need to get these souls to Madame Eru, or she won't- or she won't give you your reward!
Mothra could sense a love bordering on fanaticism from the woman for a blond elf she was thinking about. Love that went far beyond what a normal person could feel. The intensity was painful, dangerous. She'd kill without a second thought to make this woman happy.
Mothra:
Mothra narrowed her eyes. Denying a soul's passage to the hereafter was a grievous sin, stealing it from the living even more-so. She should know...
This level of fanaticism is abnormal - either this woman is being mentally manipulated by this Madame Eru, or she was broken down and built back up. Either way, she needs to be stopped before she harms anyone else - the souls must be recovered as at any cost. Summoning her talons, she dived off the side of the building.
The mahou kaiju all but slammed onto the ground. Yet, in a flash, she bolted forward and slammed Clara to the wall, left arm pinning her there across her chest. To create further intimidation (and to box her captive in further), Mothra swung her right hand's talon into the wall next to her head!
With Clara seemingly secured, time to begin her own brand of interrogation! Mothra reconnected her mind with her prisoner's, ensuring that she can see through any lie as well as to glean additional information. "Nice little toy there,"she began, a hint of steel in her voice and eyes gleaming with animosity, "Who do you have in it?"
-
Clara
Fear. Animosity. Sadness. Determination. The homunculus was taken by surprise and slammed against the rubble of the crumbled building. She felt some of her ribs break and began coughing up blood from the force of the impact.
Damage assessment-critically injured. Escape inplausible
Mothra heard a cold and calculated voice in the girl's mind. And then, a new emotion surfaced: resignation.
Clara vomited blood up, spitting it up onto the mothgirl's face. She wrapped her arms and legs around the girl's torso, holding her tightly.
My lady gives lost souls new life. My mistress would never do, can't do any wrong! She replied. Mothra felt a sudden increase in magical energy in the woman's chest, growing exponentially. I will NEVER betray her! She'll give both of us new life, and then you'll understand!
-
Justice
The ancient, otherworldly cowboy looked back at Suerte placidly. His scarf shook with the rumble of his voice. "Looks like that was their loss."
Justice stopped pacing, crossing his arms.
"I use magic, but I'm not a sorcerer," he said, as though it was natural to expect the difference to not be lost on her. "There isn't much I can gather from just looking. A third party might have tried to tie a loose end, and the murderer arrived in time to stop that, before dealing with it on their own."
He shook his head and walked towards the door. "We need more context."
-
Clara
Fear. Animosity. Sadness. Determination. The homunculus was taken by surprise and slammed against the rubble of the crumbled building. She felt some of her ribs break and began coughing up blood from the force of the impact.
Damage assessment-critically injured. Escape inplausible
Mothra heard a cold and calculated voice in the girl's mind. And then, a new emotion surfaced: resignation.
Clara vomited blood up, spitting it up onto the mothgirl's face. She wrapped her arms and legs around the girl's torso, holding her tightly.
My lady gives lost souls new life. My mistress would never do, can't do any wrong! She replied. Mothra felt a sudden increase in magical energy in the woman's chest, growing exponentially. I will NEVER betray her! She'll give both of us new life, and then you'll understand!
Mothra:
The kaiju girl gave a startled squeak when her captive doused her face with blood, confusion only increasing when the woman wrapped around her. Then, Mothra realized she was going to blow herself up...
Mothra took a few steps back, leaving her free talon embedded in the wall. Face twisting in strain, she tried to wrench her left arm free while trying to push the other woman with her right. Despite being weaker than her, the other woman just had too many points of contact, especially since she had the mahou kaiju's left arm trapped between their chests. With her opponent's magical energy rising, Mothra started to panic!
It was no longer the time to think, it was time to just act. Survival instincts kicking in, Mothra surged forward again and slammed into the wall. Her free hand shot out, grabbing hold of the embedded talon's handle and yanked it free. She then drove the pointed in right into the blonde's skull...
-
Clara
Fear. Animosity. Sadness. Determination. The homunculus was taken by surprise and slammed against the rubble of the crumbled building. She felt some of her ribs break and began coughing up blood from the force of the impact.
Damage assessment-critically injured. Escape inplausible
Mothra heard a cold and calculated voice in the girl's mind. And then, a new emotion surfaced: resignation.
Clara vomited blood up, spitting it up onto the mothgirl's face. She wrapped her arms and legs around the girl's torso, holding her tightly.
My lady gives lost souls new life. My mistress would never do, can't do any wrong! She replied. Mothra felt a sudden increase in magical energy in the woman's chest, growing exponentially. I will NEVER betray her! She'll give both of us new life, and then you'll understand!
Mothra:
The kaiju girl gave a startled squeak when her captive doused her face with blood, confusion only increasing when the woman wrapped around her. Then, Mothra realized she was going to blow herself up...
Mothra took a few steps back, leaving her free talon embedded in the wall. Face twisting in strain, she tried to wrench her left arm free while trying to push the other woman with her right. Despite being weaker than her, the other woman just had too many points of contact, especially since she had the mahou kaiju's left arm trapped between their chests. With her opponent's magical energy rising, Mothra started to panic!
It was no longer the time to think, it was time to just act. Survival instincts kicking in, Mothra surged forward again and slammed into the wall. Her free hand shot out, grabbing hold of the embedded talon's handle and yanked it free. She then drove the pointed in right into the blonde's skull...
Clara
This was it...
Clara had failed. She'd failed. She'd failed. Failedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailed!
She wasn't going to be able to detonate in time. Even her last ditch efforts had failed. She was worthless! Worthless to her mistress! Her queen!
Tears welled up in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks as the hand plunged into her skull, destroying her fragile brain held inside. As the hand cut through her like a hot blade through butter, the spell that she'd been gestating inside of her went out of control, blowing out her back. With her own viscera and gore splattered on the rubble behind them, Clara's eyes turned dull as she returned to her lifeless sleep once again, wondering if Eru would revive her once more...
The last thought Mothra read was the girl's memory of a smiling elf's face with a distinctive purple gem embedded in her forehead.
-
Suerte
Suerte turned her head, watching Justice walk away. Then, it returned to the scene of the crime. Standing before the blood bath, she couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation. A chill ran through her body, a shiver through her spine, down her legs. Yet there was another feeling, one just as strong. Part of her wondered if she should have just taken the job for free. Maybe they wouldn't have died. She could have saved their lives and gotten her thrill. Now she was just doing the first one.
Turning back to Justice, she jumped when she saw he was already by the entrance. She bolted to his side, placing her arms behind her back as she stared up at him from below. "And how are we going to do that?"
-
Clara
This was it...
Clara had failed. She'd failed. She'd failed. Failedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailedfailed!
She wasn't going to be able to detonate in time. Even her last ditch efforts had failed. She was worthless! Worthless to her mistress! Her queen!
Tears welled up in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks as the hand plunged into her skull, destroying her fragile brain held inside. As the hand cut through her like a hot blade through butter, the spell that she'd been gestating inside of her went out of control, blowing out her back. With her own viscera and gore splattered on the rubble behind them, Clara's eyes turned dull as she returned to her lifeless sleep once again, wondering if Eru would revive her once more...
The last thought Mothra read was the girl's memory of a smiling elf's face with a distinctive purple gem embedded in her forehead.
Mothra:
Mothra yanked the hand-scythe free from the corpse's cranium, backing away slowly. The body collapsed to the ground like a ragdoll, pieces of organs spilling out the rather sizable hole in her back. Mothra wasn't a stranger to death, and her hands were certainly not clean, but this was just gruesome!
Mothra vomited. She emptied her stomach contents right in front of the corpse. One hurl, followed by another, and another, until there were only thick strings of spittle hanging from her mouth. This was just like when she witnessed Zilla's death back in her original world...
The girl rubbed her mouth on her sleeve. Deep breaths now, deep breaths to steady her nerves. It was either her or the living bomb, and the living bomb was going to die either way. She did the correct thing. Looking back at the half-blown-out corpse, she still felt that she was responsible for this. Maybe if she just continued to follow instead of forcing a confrontation? Regardless, there was nothing she could do about it now. Steeling herself, Mothra went over the facts that she gleaned fromt his encounter - the face of another woman named Eru, who matched the description of the elf last seen with Joshua. This Eru also has some necromancy powers, or the equivalent thereof, if Clara's last thoughts were anything to go by.
Clara was actually a revived corpse or something similar. Ghoul maybe?
That means that it was good that she died again, right? That she can finally truly rest? Looking back at the other woman's body smashed whatever justification Mothra gained. That was still a terrible way to go...
Mothra approached the body. She rolled it onto it's back, closed the eyes, and straightened out the legs and arms. She can at least have Clara rest in a dignified position...
-
Justice
He looked back at his tentative partner for a second, and then said simply, "We talk."
Suerte could feel the shadow of a smirk crawling into his eyes, as he pushed the door open and stepped through. Justice only stopped once he was face to face with the massive man who'd led them to the scene.
"We've gotten a good look at it. Whoever did it really wanted you to see it, and maybe wanted something out of them both. So, what did they know that was so important for more than one party to want them dead?" He rumbled demandingly. "Spit it all out."
-
The Scene
But who they found wasn't just the giant. Next to him, the same thin pale man accompanied him, giving the two a sour glare before turning sullenly to the other side. Wait, wasn't he hurt just a moment ago? He looked just as fine as when they saw him.
"Nothing. Nothing important. They were mere bodyguards to the boss." The giant shook his head, only for the thin man to continue.
"But the boss is safe. This wasn't about information, it was about hurting the boss. The message. That is why he sees the affront as a personal confrontation, and has seen nobody since."
The giant caught a glimpse however, a glimpse of the scene from the open door. And one could see his hand clenching and shaking... its glare directed at the woman.
-
Suerte
Suerte simply stood next to Justice, silently enjoying his tough guy act. There was always something cute about when guys put it on, but Justice's was far more convincing. The experience was clear in the sharpness of his voice. And that smirk. He was having fun, always a sexy thing to see.
"Well he be-"
She froze, turning around to see the giant man, glaring at her, like he wanted to throttle her. The cowgirl could feel her heart sink. Such a violent, angry glare from such a big strong violent man.... It was.... probably best to pretend to be scared or something. After staring back at him for a few seconds, she squeeled and hid behind Justice, poking her head up over his shoulders to get a good look at him.
Thats not cheating right? Probably not.
-
Justice
He stood as still as a stone in front of Suerte, but his own glare smoldered, crackling like coal for a moment at the burly man's eyes.
"Then why did they try to choke themselves? Or why did someone want to make it look that way, and how does it connect? Ring any bells?" He spoke harshly, as he adjusted the brim of his hat. "If he could do this to the bodyguards, then he could have done worse to the boss. So he wanted something else out of it." Or she. It was pointless to speculate just yet.
Justice looked between the giant and the suspicious janitor.
"It's pointless to send a message if your receiver doesn't understand your intentions. Hence, your boss must know something that can point us at the culprit."
-
Suerte
Suerte couldn't help but notice her heart skipping a beat. A manly standoff! He's being protective! It was good, very good. "W-wait Justice... are you sure they aren't talking about me? I think they think I did it..."
After she spoke, she shrunk down, taking cover behind Justice's back.
-
At the Scene
"If we had such information, would we have even involved you? A mere outside commoner who knows nothing? Don't make me laugh." The thin man spat his venom at the two, clearly disgusted that the woman so much as touched the floors of one of their headquarters. He was just about to say something, when a roar cut through it all.
"Enough!"
The thin man stopped, for a second he looked aghast.
"Self inflicted? Are you saying it was a suicide? My brother would never do something so craven. Do you hear me!?" He took grave steps towards Justice, his hands barely containing the pain. The rage. "He would've never... he couldn't have... left me all alone..." He muttered more softly.
The thin man sighed. "You see? You won't get much else pressing us here. I appreciate the insistence, but all you're doing right now is salting the wound. But... fine. If you want to know more, meet me at my office. Room 0210."
And with that, the thin man left, while the giant just glared at Justice, still and quiet as a statue.
-
Justice
Of course the Rider and his impromptu partner were out of place, and they didn't belong. They were just outsiders amusing their own sense of justice by helping to clear an uneasy omen. No one would apologize for them digging up hatchets. But if this was so dissatisfactory, they wouldn't be happy with any result short of a miracle.
Justice shook his head heavily. Feelings could make sense, but didn't need to be right.
"Let's go," he told Suerte. And he began to walk towards the aforementioned room, casting an undecipherable stare at the giant, before leaving him with a thought. "No one who truly wanted to abandon this world would do it like that."
-
Suerte
Suerte blinked as she stared back at the thin man, once again poking over his back. His brother? I suppose they do look alike... Still, there was something undeniably sad about that, being left all alone. Some people choose the life of a cowboy, one who rides alone with nothing but the silent companions of trusty stead and fine silver. But some, like her, were thrust in the role. Still, at least she could say someone robbed her of that experience. To think someone might have chosen to leave.
As Justice walked out, Suerte stayed and for the first time since coming here, she sported a grave frown. "We will find the real reason. I promise." She took the hat off of her head and placed it over her chest. "Your brother... he won't be forgotten."
Placing the hat on her head, she turned her back to the man. The wood claped under the weight of her steps as she descended into the darkness with her partner.
-
Above the Scene of the crime, Mysterious building - Top Floor
7:30 PM Nexus Time
The two outsiders found themselves at the top floor of the building. Despite the district, their architecture of this structure had all the makings of a truly wealthy business building. And now, from the top of this palace, they could see all of it from above, safe inside the walls of a castle of glass. There were no real walls, that is, naught but windows revealing the beautiful dark skies of the Nexus, and the night life below.
There was a table, with food and drink elegantly posed for the taking, as well as piles of money and gold just sitting there for the taking. Just at the edge of the room, by the entrance, both the slim businessman and the giant were kneeling down in attention, staring at the ground with a fist to the floor. But their attention solely at the table, or rather, at that something sitting on it.
Because in this room, there were more than 4 people.
"We must... thank you for lending us of your time. I can assure you, you will be well rewarded for this service." A grave, automated voice came from the laptop sitting on the table. It was none other than the Boss, speaking directly through a private channel. "And I do apologize for the rude welcome. Have no fear, you two are more than welcome guests. You are friends. Therefore, as friends, we shall trust eachother, and leave all secrets buried to rest."
The businessman's skin somehow turned paler, and he tried to look away, gritting his teeth in humiliation and fear. However, he knew better. They knew better. Because they were all being watched closely.
"The reasons or context behind the attack are still a mystery to us, I am afraid we cannot divulge information that we lack. However, we may ask any other question. Please, do as you may. Who we are, where you are, and our activities. Those will surely be relevant in your investigation."
-
Justice
The Rider couldn't care less about gold and jewels, and he suspected the other side assumed as much. But as posturing, or a means to entice, just in case, well, thinking beings were greedy by nature, and it was a liberty that they evidently could have the luxury of enjoying.
Justice pulled up one of the chairs and sat down with a hum. "Two things," he began. "What do you do, and what do you reckon the message meant for you was?"
-
Suerte
"YEAH!" she yelled, slamming her hand onto a conference table. She paused, stared at Justice, then shrunk back. "W-was that too intense?"
-
At the scene
"..."
For a moment, there was pure, utter silence. The giant's glare was, for a moment, piercing, while the thin man was visibly sweating. Only the computer's voice eased the tension.
"We are CHEIRON. You might have learned of that name, or our former as CHEIRON Pharmaceuticals. Or at the very least, Soporil, the product that had boosted us into our monopoly of the drug market. A simple miracle cream, that could turn men into invincible, undying immortals."
"But when conflicts arose over its source... the previous leader had to step down. It was quite unfortunate, if somewhat amusing. I could never stand that man."
The one way to manufacture Soporil was with a rare fluid that was exclusively found inside the cornea of Elven kin. Because of its thin amount per individual... no, perhaps it was best to not even think of such things. But only a select few knew of the truth about Soporil, and even fewer still lived. Officialy, there were only three last vials of the substance on this world, though what happened to those who had tried the substance, none could tell. It was still a mystery to this day.
"We have moved past these horrors long ago, but the minds were not quick to forget. We have ceased our operations as a pharmaceutical corporation. Now, we are merely a protection agency that secures the drug trade in these areas. To serve and protect, to atone for the mistakes of the past. That is our... no, my mission."
-
Justice
An immortality drug? His first thought was to wonder what ingredients it was made of. The graveness of the tone left no question to him, though it was unstated: lives had been lost or ruined for its creation. It was just a matter of how many, which he had no way of knowing.
He gave the uneasy Suerte a softer look, rolling his shoulders slightly in what seemed like a shrug, before sweeping his eyes back to the computer.
"Do you think it's a grudge out of whatever you did in the past?"
-
At the top of the Tower
There was an ominous feeling of dread in the room. For a moment, everyone was silence.
"...That's impossible. But then again, wouldn't you say the same about this very world?"
There was a sort of... catharsis to it all. Yes, one had to admit.
"If this is punishment for our sins, then we must accept them as fate. But these two men were loyal, good... their lives were not part of that game from ages past. I don't know who would have done this, but they must bleed for that. So find them, investigate the city, start with any district of your choosing. And we shall aid you in any way we can."
And as the computer uttered these last words, a light flickered on the corner of the room. And a boy wearing a long, almost cloak like coat was staring at the two with one shining eye, grinning from ear to ear. A thin, scrawny spider who had been watching from the corner this whole time. And with that, the two standing by the door turned even paler.
"Yo." The kid waved.
"He will assist you in my stead. He may act incompetent, but do believe me when I say that he is the one I trust in this room the most. He will inform you of the path that must be taken, to aid in your efforts. Do you have any objections?"
-
Suerte
Suerte sighed, resting a hand on her wrist. She met Justice's soft gaze with her own, before returning to the men. All she could think about right now was the face of that man, the grief that came with it. There were times when she used the job for her own hedonistic killing, or thrill of a good fight. It all made her feel so immoral, so villainous. After all, such sadism was the trait of an evil person right, someone who brings harm to others. However, in this moment, she couldn't help but push her lips into a meager smile. After all, if she was feeling so sad, it meant she cared right?
No, it was just because it brought those memories back.
Once she saw the kid again, she giggled. "I remember him," Suerte said. "He's a fun guy. As long as he can take care of himself if things get rough, I think it will be alright. Don't worry, so long as you have us on the case, fate is on your side."
She turned to Justice, wondering which districts they would investigate first.
-
Justice
No, he didn't have any objections. Any that he could have were meaningless to propose right here, and even more helpless to resolve. So he nodded with a curt greeting, and grunted in affirmation to Suerte. Truth be told, her confidence was inspiring. Perhaps the impossible was easier to grasp with an attitude like that.
Justice looked past the leaner of the two men in suits, noticing finally that he was no longer unrecognizably crushed into the pavement, and filed that thought away. He only gave a measuring, momentary stare to his partner, so personally ailed by this case. His gaze came to rest on the brat that looked so much like the spidery nutcase he met before.
"Not many must use weapons like the ones that match the scene, not with such potential, and even less would have the ability to slip by and enact what was done there unnoticed. We'll start there," he declared.
-
The SPider
"Are you sure about that?" A suddenly formal voice questioned Justice. But the sider soon relaxed and shivered at the big cowboy man, holding his hands up with a sweaty chill.
"I mean, you've already checked that spot, haven't you? It wouldn't be good if the scene got tampered. There's plenty of other places to check out."
As soon as he mentioned tampering, the thin man and the giant glanced at one another. It was the sort of infinitely small detail that could escape someone.
-
Justice
Death would be groaning through his mask right in this moment. Justice just shook his head.
"Where would you go if you were looking for someone dangerously good with a specific type of weapon?" He asked. It was only half-dry, to his defense, for there was still a note of expectation that someone who knew this city better would actually know. "Who would know how to tell one such master apart from the others?"
-
Suerte
The little affirming grunt Justice gave her was all she needed. They were on the same page. This was great! Two partners against the world together with nothing but their guns and their wits! And they were on the same wavelength! It was great! Still, maybe she was having a little too much fun, especially considering the circumstances....
Suerte stared at the two, letting them have their little exchange before raising her hand like an eager school girl. "Oh! What about the person who made the weapon? We could also track down some known masters of that particular type of martial arts. Those type of people tend to know each other."
-
Spidey
He raised an eyebrow, the one antenna on his air swishing back in forth as he looked at the two with surprise. "Oh? What makes you so confident that it was a martial artist? For all we know, it could've been a space mech from one of those japanese animes. Yknow, like a Bungam or Argnoah."
He was just swishing his antenna, quietly for a moment.
"You get my reference, right?"
-
Justice
The hell? The last TV show Justice had watched was Rome, and all things considered, he had to admit it could've been worse - but even with his limited knowledge he felt like the suggestion was quite preposterous.
"I don't think a mech would fit in there," he said. The obvious reproach about jumping to overly complex suggestions aside... the rider looked back at Suerte, imperceptibly clearing his throat. "I believe there's only one district where we'll be able to find all those."
He pointed a testing finger at the spidery fellow. "The dojos. You know anyone there who makes it their job to know things?"
-
Suerte
"Nope not a clue!" Suerte said gleefully. "The only anime that I watch is one peice! Oh the freedom!" For some reason, she decided to sing the next bit. Her southern accent turned the verses into something of a remix, but she was a good singer. "Come aboard and bring along, all your hopes and dreams!"
The moment Justice mentioned a dojo, Suerte tilted her head. "Wait, do you know a specific dojo? This is a city. I'm sure there are lots of dojo's."
-
Justice
He shook and rolled his head non-committingly. "There's a town made of them. Whole district committed to the aesthetic and whatever fighting ideals you might think of."
-
Spidey Boah
"OH MY GOSH! YOU WATCH ONE PIECE!?" The spider kid squeed and rushed to Suerte, hopping up and down excitedly before taking her hands and clapping like a kid on Christmas. "Oh! My! Gosh! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! Did you watch the new episode? The one where Doffy starts to awaken and throws strings all over? Oh man, that was soooo cool!"
Little did he know, it was a rerun.
-
Suerte
Suerte raised an eyebrow at the kid. "Doffy? Thats like two arcs behind...."
Wait focus Suerte FOCUS!
Hearing Justice's comment about the town made of martial artists, she smiled and turned to her partner. "Oh my god! Really?! Like a town full of Bruce Lee's?"
Martial artists weren't unheard of in her world, but most prefer to use guns. Everyone in her town from the old dive bars to the police chief used guns. Funnily enough, the last true martial artist she killed was a samurai. He had marched into town, murdered the entire police force and threatened to kill her man at the time. It was a satisfing kill from a strong heart, truely one of the more satisfying murders she had commited. Now there was an entire town full of them! Astounding.
-
Spidey
Wait what!? 2 arcs behind! Wait no, focus A-70_ , FOCUS!
The spider shook his head vigorously before grinning. "Yep, pretty much! It's a pretty scary place honestly, as far from sane civilization as you get. We have some moles in there though, obviously."
He yawned before giving Justice a good pat on the back. "As it happens, I know just the guy. Follow me..."
With that, he waddled his way out. Just as he passed by the two employees, he sneered in such a way the two's spines ran chills. "Remember kids, behave. And do your jobs right this time."
-
Slums
11:45 PM NEXUS TIME
The Bikers and the Kidnapped
Pant pant pant pant...
Hurried steps rushed through the filth and the streets. Shaking with fear, a young girl no older than 14 darted left and right, trying to lose her pursuers. Her heart was the one thing racing faster than her legs, and she panted and trampled over the ground. But try as she might, she couldn't escape the dark chills chasing her spine. A motorcycle vroomed with a hellish roar and cut her race short. She tried zipping away to the left, barely dodging a hand swiping to grab her hair.
"Gotcha! Hahaha!" She rolled on the ground, bit her lip and immediately jumped back to keep running, stumbling but racing on with surprising speed. No, it wasn't that. They were all toying with her.
"Oh come on! Wait up cutie!" Another punk on a motorcycle cried out and raced her, circling around her while waving a chain around before whipping her on the leg. "Wohoooooo!" "Hahahahaha!" "Niiiiiice!" She fell down and screamed, and clasped at her leg. That moment was enough for the dozens of motorcycles to finally catch up to her, lights blinking. You see, they were all part of a gang, while she was just the daughter of a businessman. She was worth quite a bit of money, but somehow she managed to escape. That wasn't the worst of her crimes though. She had stabbed one of their own in the eye, when he simply tried to 'get friendly' with her.
Now, they were out for blood.
"Awww~! We're just trying to have some fun! Heheheh, you shouldn't run when you can't hide. Why don't you be a good girl and just give us what we want?" A drooling bandit sporting a pompadour smacked his lips, while another flicked his tongue around for all to see, making some ridiculous cry of war. A motorcycle quickly zoomed past a few other ones circling her, intending to cut straight into her leg. She turned pale, freezing for a second.
"Haha, we'll make it worth your while! <3" The bike was just about to rush her when-
She suddenly hurled a rock at the rider's face, causing him to lose control and swerve. The circling bikes didn't move in time, causing a few to run off course and impact. The others lost balance, and some had to swerve away, while many others were still circling but too far to reach her. "Take that, ass-hole!" Her look of fear turned out to be a cocky smile. The girl didn't give up to those creeps, not like she'd give them the satisfaction. But just as she was about to cry victory, a chain was hurled straight at her face. She ducked, and immediately got back up and tried running away, making for as much distance as she could.
She ran. And ran. And ran...
...
"FUCKING BITCH! I'M GOING TO KILL HER!" The punk yelled, wiping the blood off his forehead. "Damn slippery slut, DAMN! I'll fucking gut her like a rat!" He smashed his fist on the ground before getting back up, lifting his bike and making sure it could still run before getting back on it. Soon, the riders recollected themselves, but this time they weren't messing around.
"Hehehe! Oh she fucked up! She done fucked it up!" Another rider yelled out.
With that, 36 riders ran down the streets from all corners, looking for that one girl. As this whole chaos unfolded, the girl so happened to race past a blonde man with a shockingly long mane. He didn't pay this whole scene much mind. Not like it was his business.
"Let's go boys!" The riders screamed.
Okay this was kind of loud. Maybe it was his business.
? ? ? ? ?
36 riders laid bloody on the streets from all corners, their bikes dismantled and their weapons tattered and broken all over. Pistols, shotguns, barbed bats, chains. All rent and useless. Big blue swollen bumps were popping all over their faces, their teeth had been kicked in so bad they'd have to stick in the hospital for months. And what wasn't broken was most definitely on fire right now.
The girl was hiding in an alleyway. Just in front of it, a blonde man was surrounded by all of these bodies. It... definitely didn't look good. But to think a single man did all that... it was almost absurd! There was no way it was possible!
"Welp. So much for my one good deed for the day." He spat on the ground with his hands in his pockets. "Hey missy! You can come out now!" He gave a quick look at the alleyway. But there just wasn't a lot of sound other than the crackling fire and some of the riders groaning in pain.
"Oh good grief." Right, he boinked her on the head when she annoyed him. For being such a considerate guy, the first thing she did when he punched the first punk in the face was complain on and on about how she was going to get killed for this. Big deal. Did she think he was trying to be some big hero or something? They just happened to piss him off, making all that noise.
Not like he needed another reason to punch them. Yep. So much for a good deed. So he walked down the alleyway and crouched down the knocked out girl, threw her over his shoulder and searched her pockets...
"Oho! Bingo!" His face almost lit up when he felt a big fat wallet. He took it out, opened it up, and almost squeed all starry eyed when the glow of all sorts of shiny cards and fat stacks of cash assaulted his eyes. Huzzah! This should last him about a few weeks...
"Hehe, yep! A good deed goes a long way!"
Oh right, he didn't give her his name. Not that he asked her hers. Oh well. Its not like it'd take much to figure who did this.
Yang Xiao Long. That was the name of one of the kings that ruled these streets.
-
Aruna
If one were to press cotton against a cold floor, there would be the slightest sound, the pushing of cloth against marble. However, Aruna made no sound, even as she leaped across rooftops. The moonlit sky cast a spotlight on Aruna's feminine (https://i.imgur.com/EVMYx08.png) form. The midnight dance of a thousand demons is what it used to be called, a raid on humans from a small squadron of demons looking to feed. It was a tactic the demons often used to hunt during the great war, since at anytime they could risk divine punishment from the angels.
It was called the dance of a thousand demons because the lower level demons in the squadren would often cast illusion magic to make it seem like their small squadren was an army. The humans would point and scream, raising their weapons and preparing magic of their own. However, the demons were just too strong. They would completely overwhelm the humans within seconds, rip apart their armor with their bare hands, toss them around like dolls and then consume their souls. Waking up with a clear mind and renewed energy from their souls being cleansed of sadness, the humans would rise from the dirt, only to realize that something terrible must have happened for their men to be scattered on the ground unconcious.
Someone had to be at fault.
Naturally it was the demons. When it came down to it, stories spread of the demons who ruthlessly attacked them. As Aruna lept from one rooftop to the next, she couldn't help but reflect on how those raids became these lonely scanger hunts for food. If they scared the humans no matter what, might as well have fun with it right? Now she was alone. Well, she had Valarie, but the vampire king had gone off to some club or something. The moment she had that very thought, she heard something a block to the right.
"Let's go boys!"
Diving into the ground below, Aruna hid herself in the back alleys of the city, her demonic eyes peering into the night. It was over almost as quickly as it began. Dozens upon dozens of men decended on a lone woman, only for a single man to tear through all of them. It was a sight to behold. But the man made one mistake, he took her pray.
It was as fast as anything could be, more silent than any living creature could. Her dark figure shot towards the man, intent on slamming his head into the ground from behind with enough force to blast a hole in the ground, sending them towards the sewers. All the while, she uttered a silent chant, the only possible sound being the ever slight sound of her lips lightly making contact, the same amount of sound someone makes when they close their mouth.
-
Yang Xiao Long
So there he was, just minding his business, being a good citizen, where just by coincidence he had a bad premonition. He couldn't really explain it, but this whole time he felt like he was being watched?
Nah, no way. Wasn't it kinda narcissistic to assume you had secret stalkers or something? His days as a dojo champion were over anyhow, no need to be so hung up. But something tasted odd in the air. Okay, so maybe it was his conscience? Maybe he was feeling weird because he was all guilty about taking that lady's wallet. Yeah, sure, that could make sense!
As if.
So there he was, again, just minding his business, where it suddenly just so happened that he noticed something move. He didn't even feel the wind change, or hear anything. But just because he was glancing away for a second, he noticed a reflection behind him, dashing unbelievably fast!
Huh?
The rest all happened in but a second.
Time slowed to a crawl. Even the leaves didn't have time to fall. Before he knew it, a hand came to swipe at his head. He barely had the time to feel the fingers course through his mane, when his instincts kicked in. His body swirled and he sidestepped like a whirlwind. But despite turning like that, it barely looked like he moved at all! The only difference was that now, he was glaring behind her.
His eyes seemed to glow red against the moonlight, you couldn't even see his face as anything more than a shadow. A golden lion poised to strike, fist ready to kill, staring down at the girl. You could hear a heartbeat drum with unquenchable rage, booming faster and faster and faster. It was over. His hand plunged down to strike.
Faster than she could reverse such a position, he would surely strike to kill. And yet, at the last second-
The demon's flight stopped. A warm arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her stopped there. Immediately, with his heart beating with surprise, his face suddenly flushed red, and he looked away. Peachy!
"Woah! Be careful there lady, you could've gotten hurt there!" He smiled warmly, kind of embarrassed to so much as glance at her. He didn't see a thing, totally. But due to his own embarassment, his hold loosened.
Had he been a split second slower, she would've gotten him for sure. Scary, this was scary...
-
Aruna
The demon stared at the man, her breasts pressed against the toned martial artist. She had felt bodies like this before so she knew how a human body conditioned to fight should feel. With a contempt glare, she stared at the man. The silent whisper ceased, the spell complete. She attempted to push him away just as the spell activated. THe moment she was released from his grip, a black light would envelop her, making it look as if she had just exploded with dark energy. In truth she would be invisible as she had just activated the coat of shadows spell. If she stayed within his grip, he would still be able to feel him.
"You took my food!" she would yell regardless.
-
Yang
A hand smacked into his chest, causing him to stumble and trip himself. When he stopped his fall, he looked up incredulously at the woman who assaulted him. His look was even more shocked when she turned out to have vanished. But he just stared at where she was and answered flatly all the same. "Wha?"
He looked around, left and right, but still had no idea what she was on about. And even if he did, he wouldnt' be able to remember it due to what he saw being imprinted into his psyche! He could still see it, dammit! Argh, focus! Stupid, sexy peaches!
He smacked his cheeks simultaneously before shaking his head.
"Uh, I have no idea what you're on about lady! Are you saying you're trying to eat me or something? Oh god, are you..." His eyes blinked before opening wide open, and he grinned ear to ear. "Are you coming onto me!?"
-
Aruna
The dark aura hiding her body vanished, her chest inflating and deflating along with her exhale. "Ugh," she groaned. "This isn't doing anything for me. Your supposed to scream or hide or something, but your not doing any of that! Your not worth eating."
The two huge bat like wings on her back flapped as she was lifted back off the ground. "Don't get in my way again human."
-
Yang Xiao Long
"What did you say?" His tone was different from his teasing demeanor, but he still barely manage to keep the smile up his face. His eyes, however, were wide in shock... and anger. No, you couldn't even call him the same man. He even took the time to clap.
"Must be nice for you to say, when you're looking at people from up there. Do you get to decide who's worthy and who isn't? Ridiculous..."
He took a fighting stance and glared at the woman, a dark shadow washing all over his face. "Don't look down on humans like that, or you're the one who's going to get eaten."
-
Spidey
Wait what!? 2 arcs behind! Wait no, focus A-70_ , FOCUS!
The spider shook his head vigorously before grinning. "Yep, pretty much! It's a pretty scary place honestly, as far from sane civilization as you get. We have some moles in there though, obviously."
He yawned before giving Justice a good pat on the back. "As it happens, I know just the guy. Follow me..."
With that, he waddled his way out. Just as he passed by the two employees, he sneered in such a way the two's spines ran chills. "Remember kids, behave. And do your jobs right this time."
Justice
He let out an unimpressed, casual hmph, slightly adjusting his scarf. At least now they were getting somewhere - if these two wanted to exchange heated proclamations about their favorite entertainment mediums, they could do it on the way.
"I hope you're fond of abyssal beasts," Justice said to the boy. It was almost surely going to be faster than whatever travel means he had on hand. Some part of the Rider was looking forward to seeing where his reaction leaned, but there was something else to know first.
"Do you have a name, or should we just call you what comes to mind?"
Would it be something that fit this spindly, unassuming image, or telling of whatever lethal danger was hiding underneath?
-
Aruna
Aruna tilted her head. This was by far the strangest interaction she has had when feeding aside from that incident with that blond woman. "Wait.... do you want to be eaten?" she asked.
-
Suerte
"Punishment!" Suerte cheered, pumping her fist into the air.
While the two were talking she walked in front of the both of them, eagerly thinking of her favorite hell horse.
-
Aruna
Aruna tilted her head. This was by far the strangest interaction she has had when feeding aside from that incident with that blond woman. "Wait.... do you want to be eaten?" she asked.
Yang
The young man scoffed, the wind being the only thing passing through him and his massive hair.
"No, but it pisses me off. Fucking looking down on people like that, like we're just some hamburgers to pick and choose from. You think you're better than these punks? Is that it? At least they had the decency to face me head on, instead of hiding and trying to get me with a sneak attack! You're nothing more than a scoundrel hiding in the shadows and picking off scraps. Don't act like you're worth being a predator. You're nothing more than a self righteous vulture!"
He slammed his fist into his palm, and a shock-wave boomed from him.
"Now you're either going to head down and apologize, or I'll make you get down when I pound your face into next Wednesday!"
-
Aruna
Aruna's brow furrowed. "I suppose. I don't think i'm better than humans but on the other hand, their souls are food to me," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Whether you like it or not, I eat people and nothing changes that. And i'll never face you head on, i'm too weak to do that. Be thankful you were born with the blessings of the light."
She wasn't going to argue this time. The humans in this city were way too weird to listen.
-
Yang Xiao Long
He pointed at her with a giant grin. "Yeah! That's right- wait what the!?"
Yeah, he was mostly just focusing on other stuff, her reaction totally threw him offguard.
"Hey hey hey. You can't just give up like that after talking smack. Now you're making me feel like the bad guy." He lowered his guard and jumped straight on top of a nearby store rooftop, just high enough that they were roughly on the same altitude. His legs were crossed, and he just waved at her and patted on the roof next to him.
"Are you like.... okay?"
-
Aruna
Aruna floated there for a second, wondering what to say next. Despite her interactions with Nero, she really wasn't used to being treated like this. No one ever asked her how she was feeling.
"I can do whatever I want!" she said with a small little growl, sharp teeth flashing like a hostile cat. "I.... I'm jealous of humans..."
Her feet finally touched the ground, her wings shrinking into what could be construed as back ornaments. She squatted down into a third world squat, blankly staring at the human. "Whats wrong with you? Why aren't you scared? Is... Is there something wrong with your head?"
-
Yang Xiao Long
He blinked in surprise. For a bit, he mulled over just what to say... until he just closed his eyes and grinned.
"Of course I'm scared, I'm terrified. I've had people try to shank me before, like everyone tries to do once you start the yakuza business. But of all the people who tried to whack me, you're the one who came closest. Doesn't that count for somethin'?"
"My mama did use to whack me with a rolling pin though. Might've screwed a few knobs here and there. But my head's still good enough to tell when someone looks like she's had a bad day. And my mama did tell me to be nice to girls."
...Considering the lass he whacked a while ago and the whole threatening to kick her butt, maybe it wasn't the best example.
"How about you? Are you scared?"
-
Aruna
The demon inched a bit closer, glaring at him the entire time. Why were the people in this city so much different? Why was he that much different? "Hold on a second. Let my get this straight... your mama hit you, so your scared of girls trying to kill you and now because I almost succeeded, we now have a bond?"
Aruna's wings fluttered, generating a little bit of wind.
-
Yang Xiao Long
The man frowned before bringing his hand up to Aruna's face. Before she knew it, a mighty finger flick whacked its way on her forehead! "Don't laugh. Hmph."
He put his hands behind his back and stretched a bit.
-
Aruna
Aruna squinted at him, wondering if maybe she was just tripping human mushrooms or something, one hand rubbing her forehead. "I don't understand! I didn't laugh! Are you real?"
She started poking him in the forehead. "You feel real."
Maybe she had spent too much time alone, away from social activity. The way humans speak must be different or something. "Why are you upset?! Do you want to be my freind with pain? Is that what you want from me?"
-
Yang Xiao Long
Eh? He just blinked at the sudden reciprocal forehead poke. For a moment, he just had to stand there and let it sink in, gaping sheepish smile and all.
"...Pffffffffffffffffttt! Are you for real?" And all of a sudden he burst into a wheezy laugh, the kind where he waas visibly holding his chest in order to not choke on it. Oh god, oh god, it felt like his heart was about to burst! He was going to die! Haha!
And then he suddenly stopped. He just stared at her wide eyed at the realization.
"Oh god. You are. Holy fucking shit dude." He didn't sound like he was laughing now. No, it was more inbetween frankly horrified and utterly shocked.
"Okay, ummm..." Shit, was she like a kid or something? I mean, she was cute as hell, but this didn't feel right. "I mean, it's not like I'm some sadistic freak who gets off others pain. If you got hurt by someone else, I'd probably be upset."
Okay, he was bullshitting here, he'd actually probably not care at all. But it might make her feel better? So maybe he did care a bit.
"I just figure anyone could use a friend, yknow? No pain or conditions attached."
-
Aruna
Aruna glared at him. "So you get mad at me for laughing at you, then you start laughing at me..... Typical human, what a hypocrite...."
The demon stood up again, placing a finger on her cheek, letting her thoughts wander. Basically, he got jumped by an evil demon, was told he was not worth eating and now wants to be her friend. What could he possibly..... No. It wasn't worth thinking so hard about.
She moved in closer, so close that the only distance between her lips and his was a thin layer of air. "Well I like pain," she said, flashing her fangs. "Well I am a sadistic freak who gets off to pain. In fact, I love pain so much that the souls that taste the best to me are the ones steeped in it. I suppose I don't mind acknowledging this bond we have, but tell me what you desire. I must know."
-
Yang Xiao Long
Woah woah woah woah! Slow down, slow down! He knew it, she was trying to come onto him! Playing the innocent bird and getting him all soft and bothered, only to strike when he let his guard down. Good grief, why were all the cute ones always so difficult, and what was up with a question like this out of the blue anyways!? The more he thought about it, the more he was starting to turn red around the ears.
I want lotsa money!
I want cute girls to massage my feet!
I want to drink and party and karaoke all day!
I want to laze around and get fed grapes for doing that!
I want to be famous!
I want to live 100 years AND have all my daughters pay a visit when I'm on my hospital bed!
I want that super rare Rock n Roll vynil disc!
I want one of those Angel district whatsitsface girls to smooch me all over on the cheeks!
"I'm a simple man! If it's in this world, I sure as hell want it! I sure-"
As he said that, an image from long ago flashed in his mind. Lights surrounding him and his opponent, the cheers of thousands... and the kick that sealed the end of his dream.
I wanna be number one.
"Heh, I mean... not much." His eyes suddenly turned a bit darker, and he looked away for a second. There was death in his gaze. No, rather, those were the eyes of someone who had died once. "Besides, trash like me has no business wanting anything fancy. If something is worth coveting-"
He clenched his fist and pointed it to the sky, raised against the moon.
"Then get it with your own damn hands. If you can't even do that much, then that dream is nothing more than wishful thinking. Useless trash that'll just drag you down."
-
Aruna
Aruna's eyes narrowed into a glare. Although it was not one of anger, but curiosity. "You smell bitter. I can't say its a pleasant one. No its not bitter but bitter sweet.... I wonder if that is how you taste...."
The demon finally took a step back, placing a hand on her hip. "And you didn't answer my question," she said with a raised eyebrow. "You speak so earnestly yet you smell so bitter. I didn't ask for vague idealism, I want to know the core of your being..."
-
Yang Xiao Long
"Wha? I don't think I smell that bad..." He raised his arm and sniffed. Yep, not that horrible. He furrowed his eyes at the girl. "Quit yapping about nonsense. Besides, people aren't so one dimensional you can just tell what someone is the first time you meet em. What do I look like, a prophet? Gosh, this is way too much philo for one night..."
He shook his head and rubbed his temple like he had a headache. "Well, fine. I guess if I had to spell it out, I guess I -"
Drrrrrrrrrrringggggg! Drrrrrrrrrrrringgggggggggg!
A ringing sound interrupted him before he could finish. He glanced down at his pocket and opened up the flip phone. "Oh shit... sorry, one moment."
He was used to getting calls for work related shit, but if he was getting a call from that mumber, that meant shit was serious. He okayed it and brought it to his ear, turning from the chick for a moment. He was all vulnerable and open as he took the call (http://darksidemoon.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,806.msg61454.html#msg61454). "Yeah? What's wrong A?"
-
Aruna
Aruna opened her mouth, only to be interrupted by him making a phone call. She was about to tell him that she was a centuries old demon who had her five senses in tune with a person's soul, but he seemed more interested in that stupid device called a phone. Despite many creatures of the dark fearing things such as guns and blades, the most powerful weapons the light generated were always methods of communication, ways for humans to more easily pass messages to each other. Although, she found all these things annoying. Just as she got used to one method, another was created, all with new cultures and such attached to them. She felt like an old woman.
"It better be important," she muttered under her breath.
-
Yang Xiao Long
"Pffft. Yeah, how could I not. Sorry, but I'm still not a bit bullfighting guy. Anyways, what about him? He hasn't scampered off and betrayed you guys or something, has he?" He never could stand the ass-hole anyways. But suddenly, he raised an eyebrow.
"Bah, sounds like he's too busy jacking it to his own reflection or something. Or maybe he's sleeping. It's hard work being a champion I hear, not that I'd know." He shrugged, but all of a suddenly he exploded. "Huh!? What the fuck does that mean? What the fuck? Are you making fun of me? Huh? Huh!? You little shit, I'm gonna- oh okay. Huh huh. Sounds cool. No, make it for three while you're at it. What the fuck! No! No way! Just... ugh, whatever. Fine I'll wipe your butt for you. Should I lick your toes while I'm at it? God damn it."
He clicked the phone off... and sulked darkly, as if there was a dark cloud over his head, before turning to the cute probably crazy chick.
"Fucking spiders. Can't you find someone else to crawl in the shadows? One of my employers. Looks like I gotta work... urghhhh." His sace scumpled into a despaired little expression.
"It's not even the fun kind where I get to bash faces in. What did I do to deserve this?"
-
Aruna
The demon simply sighed at the man's complaint. Dealing with him was going to be a lot of energy. If he wasn't such a nice human, she would have already left by now. "I think its because you decided to interupt someone by talking on the phone," she said, folding her arms over her chest.
So was he some sort of gangster? He was no cop, so it had to be something like that. This whole thing was making her curious. Who was his boss and what were they planning?
-
Yang Xiao Long
"Hey, not my fault. An emergency call's an emergency call. What if it was my granny who just fell down the stairs? Huh?" He shook his head, causing the fluff of his hair to swing back and forth before settling down.
"Well, not that it'd happen. Anyways, fact is I like the skin on my body. Hrmmm..." He paused for a second, looked at her from bottom to top, then top to bottom, then put a finger on his chin and thought some more. Until a light bulb visibly lit up above his skull.
"You mind helping me with it? It shouldn't be too hard, just a quick look around. I'll buy ya dinner to repay the favor." He bowed his head and put his hands together. "Pleeeease? Pretty please?"
-
Aruna
Aruna frowned as the man sized her up. At his proposal, her eyes widened. "So what you want me to rub my skin on you? I may be a demon, but i'm not a cheap prostitute. I'm an expensive one. My body can do whatever a human needs it to do. Its going to cost way more than dinner."
She folded her arms over her chest, just to block the view. "Tell me human, what do you have to offer to me?"
-
Yang Xiao Long
"Wait wha? N-no. That's not what I meant..." He blinked incredulously at her, while his ears started to turn red. "Um, wha? W-why would you think I'd ask something gross like that? Gee? I may not look like it, but I'm not the kind to go for something like that before paying for dinner, you know? I'm more of a love guy myself..."
He rubbed the back of his head and looked away.
-
Aruna
"So what i'm not worth it?" she grumbled. "I've never understood human dating practices. Buy the woman dinner and hope you get intercourse as a result. Its always seemed the same as prostitution. I mean isn't that just another form of payment for sex?"
The demon shook her head. "I guess thats not the point. What are you asking me?"
-
Yang
"E-eh? That's not what I'm saying at all..." He blinked incredulously at her. "Don't get me wrong, I'm just wondering if you could watch my back while I figure this mess out. It'd be pretty swell of you. Besides, don't you kinda owe me one? You did try to punk me..."
He still felt kind of chilly about that earlier stunt.
"We just gotta check up on some guy's place."
-
Aruna
Aruna stared at Yang for a moment, leaning forward, her head inches from his. Then, she frowned, folded her arms and said, "I suppose that is fair. I will help you with this small favor. Then we will be even."
-
Yang Xiao Long
"Hehe. I'm glad you agreed." He grinned heartily and closed his eyes. Something about his expression was innocent and cute as a kid at Christmas. But wait, something was wrong. "Hold up... shoot, right. I totally forgot."
For a moment, his expression was completely serious.
"Sorry, it's really bad. I shouldn't have done it, I really shouldn't have. Urgh..." He glanced away and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.
-
Aruna
Aruna lowered her eyes at the comment. He was an odd human, having so much power but acting like a shy child. It seemed like a mask, something to hide behind which belied his true nature. That is why when that serious look flashed on his face, she compulsively asked, "And what exactly did you do? What exactly is your job?"
-
Yang
"E-eh? No, it's nothing like that..." He rubbed his head in embarrassment. Only after a bit did he manage to look down on her feet, then squarely in the eye. "Jeez, I can't believe it. Look, it's my bad okay? It's seriously messed up that I'd do something like that, especially to a girl."
He shook his head and frowned. He was completely serious, there was no way this was a mask. Something was seriously massively bothering him.
"I didn't even give you my name or ask yours, and look at me asking favors like I'm some hotshot. I'm like, super sorry. It's bad form."
He held his hand out to her. "Name's Yang Xiao Long. It's nice to meet you."
That was it. That was seriously it. But it seemed like he took things like that extremely seriously.
-
Aruna
"Your one of those humans huh, the kind that only get more suspicious the more you get to know them?" she asked, making sure he knew how disappointed she was in his answer with her eye contact alone. The frown, folded arms and foot-tapping was just her making sure he got it.
The wings on her back spread and grew to the size of two other humans. Her eyes began to glow, her demonic teeth sparkling in the pale moonlight like a guillotine ready to clamp down on its target. Taking his hand in hers, she said, "Aruna. My name is Aruna. I hope you will forgive me for earlier. I'll warn you now, I get pretty excited when I catch my pray. I hope that doesn't get in the way."
-
Lubei Sang
03:45 AM Nexus Time
When the body of the river was behind them, he leaped from the frozen water onto an abandoned pier. They were greeted by groaning planks, cracked cement, and ruined or greyed out fronts of what may once have been livable buildings. Lubei allowed himself to sigh only when the dark, bleak watercourse became hidden behind those first buildings, and set down Uria only once the first traces of life became evident on the distance along the crumbling road.
It was as if they'd stepped into a marsh of loss and misery. Small figures huddled in the shadows of half-crushed homes, directing them gazes of caution and resignation. Tired voices echoed faintly from few structures where some light was sheltered, their walls decayed but whole. Every step taken sunk the demon and the child half-deity further into an atmosphere devoid of cheer or meaning. Some humbler edifices were glimpsed at the distance where weak street lights flickered, but they paled in number to this landscape.
Lubei rarely felt any temperature other than mild, but now that the haze of that explosive drink was fading, he looked around, and icicles dug into his stomach like old itches. The neighborhoods beyond the river were modest, but solid. Here were only remains and easy prey.
He wished to know who ruled here.
-
Uria
03:45 AM Nexus Time
"They're all so sad." Their eyes were filled with something resembling pity as they looked over the ragged area. There was a sense of weariness to the whole place, the way that even to its foundations the buildings were cracked. Nothing here was solid. It almost felt like a strong enough wind would send it all tumbling over!
So Uria wandered away from Lubei, crouching over one of the barely moving bodies. They were still alive, barely. But they were such pitiable things. The demigod's arm morphed until it resembled the chitinous carapace of an insect, and where their hand should have been was instead a long stinger. With a barely perceivable strike they jabbed the needle straight into the stranger's eye. Black fluid tore through the person's body. The body almost ballooned as the substances was absorbed into every bit of flesh it could get into.
Cold. Lonely. Hungry. Tired, so very tired.
If you wish for glory, choose resurrection.
There was no pain. For the first time in a long time, nothing hurt at all. It was almost like sleeping on a cloud. Gentle, comfortable, it was easy to sink into. In reality, their body began to tear under the strain. Like a water balloon someone had inflated to its breaking point.
If you wish for indolence, choose eternal rest.
Rest sounded... good. How long had it been since they had a good rest? It felt as if all they had known was this endless moment. Until now it had been everything. And yet...
God is fine with either choice.
With a popping sound the body turned into a dark puddle. There was a moment of stillness then, as if nothing was happening at all other than a brutal murder. Then something crawled out of the puddle. Claws sharper than swords, scales dark as midnight, wings that glowed with starlight. A dragon big as a car pulled itself from the darkness and bowed its head, letting the child pet it.
"Good boy! I knew you wouldn't give up. Hey Mr. Lubei, we should go and get everyone else too!"
-
Lubei
His expression only tightened, and he crossed the space to Uria in a hearbeat, snatching her chitinous arm into a grip. "What are you doing?" Lubei asked, royal iron hardening his voice. "Have you turned him into a demon?"
The frown strayed to the dragon's coils and unfurling weapons and grew on the way back to Uria. "Pity is not a good enough reason. Do you even understand what you're forcing?"
-
Uria
"Hey!" They pulled back with surprising force. "He's a dragon not a demon, and it was his choice! If he didn't want it it wouldn't have worked right anyways. Hmph, it's not like you were going to do anything for him yourself either."
The dragon spoke then, a hiss of steam that echoed the voice that had given it a choice. "If you wish for glory, choose resurrection. If you wish for indolence, choose eternal rest. God is fine with either choice."
-
Lubei
He let the arm go without offering resistance, but bared his teeth. His eyes and crest alike momentarily flared with chilly light. "God is fine with either choice, but they are not equal! Your decisions have consequences beyond your own life."
Neither the transformation nor the disagreement went unnoticed by the squatters. Some gasped and fled, and some hid with murmurs of panic, and a pair of faint lights went out as residents cowered. Lubei's thoughts split bitterly between them and the child he had taken upon himself to foolishly drag along. A blunt voice echoed behind his ears, Inaction is a choice, and his throat rumbled in response.
If he could focus on a face, then learning what to do would be easier. Smashing a foul leader couldn't feed anyone, but this barren was beyond a single thing to fix. He would rather start from a single cog than take the destitute for lost with thoughtless kindness. And humans or not, this demon king would not wrong the wretched like that.
"There's a line between doing nothing and thinking before you act. After is too late to avoid responsiblity, you reckless cub."
-
Uria
They puffed out their chest. "I'm very responsible. People don't have a choice without the power of God." They opened up their arms wide as they unfurled into strands of light that flapped about, almost resembling wings. Although there wasn't a bird in the world that could be half as beautiful.
"Oh, look at me! I'm a big special king! All my actions have big, big consequences so I'll judge everyone like they're me. I'm gonna go make my big important changes and then lecture people when they actually help." Uria stuck their tongue out at him for a moment, their shining arms a beacon to anyone with eyes as they waved them about furiously. But then a note of seriousness came over their features, a stern look in their now narrowed eyes.
"That was the only real choice he ever made."
-
Lubei
The looming, glacier-like figure of Lubei went as quiet and still as one. It took the time to light an incense stick and say a prayer to whatever god would listen for him to respond. "I am not lecturing you for helping. I am lecturing you because you did not consider for a moment what it could mean to yourself."
He sighed like an ice that groaned with cracks at the start of Spring. "We are held to account for the life we take, but so are we for the life we save."
The demon king raised an arm, and his open hand hovered hesitantly above Uria's head.
-
Uria
"Hmphhhh..." Their arms turned back to normal, and Uria soon had them crossed as they pouted. Graciously, they allowed Lubei to pat her head as the dragon heeded unspoken orders and flew into the air with a wave of cosmic air.
-
Lubei
He patted her head with enough force to rattle a human skull, and let go after a moment, exhaling through his nose. Face returned to neutrality, the demon king looked up at the newly reborn creature that flew away.
"Where will it go?" He asked the one at his side. "Will it manage to sustain itself?"
-
Uria
They started walking again, arms swinging carelessly as they moved. "He'll go where he needs to go. Maybe he'll get even bigger too! That's the kind of thing that's up to mother, though. But he'll be fine. Did you see his wings? They eat up all the starlight, even though it's hard to see. He might want a snack now but he'll be fine at night."
-
Lubei
Lubei followed slowly, his boots thumping the ravaged road one after the other. Purposefully, he looked around the street and to the corners where the misrable onlookers had disappeared.
"Who is mother?" He asked.
-
Uria
They spun around immediately with that question. Uria was all but vibrating in place in excitement! "Mother is the most important person ever! She is one of the gods of this world! She can do anything, but she doesn't want to break everything so she doesn't do anything in person. She likes to watch, though."
-
Lubei
As Uria's face lit up, a shadow fell over his. So there were gods to blame for this realm. He snickered through a faint, displeased curve of the lips. "Voyeurism is a nasty hobby. You say she's only one of them, though. What of the others? How many gods have their hands in this world?"
-
Uria
Unfortunately, Lubei would not be getting his answer. "Hey, don't say mean things about her! I don't talk about that messy, nasty bird on your shoulder. Hmph!" They turned away at the end too, marching off in a huff of angrily glowing light and writhing tendrils.
-
Lubei
He blinked. "The what."
Lubei's disdain was entirely forgotten in the casual revelation that an nigh-unbreakable rule had been not merely bent but broken. His shadowy passenger squacked. "Rude."
It took the demon king a moment to shake his head and stomp after her. "Wait, Uria! What do you know? How can you tell I am stalked?"
-
Uria
Bile bubbled up in the back of their throat for a moment. So they stopped, scrunched up their eyes, and made sure they weren't going to hurl before turning around. "I know because I know! Just like I know he's there because you did really, really bad stuff. Not just once, or twice, but again and again. But I didn't say anything about it! You shouldn't say bad things about people you don't know."
-
Lubei
The demon was stunned into silence. The sound of his grinding teeth died in a terrifying wave of cold that blew from the ground, and his hands clenched into fists. Before he could abandon his thoughts or act on them, black wings fluttered to his shoulder and spoke instead.
"Your lives have made you disdain the gods, but what was true to you may not hold true here. Do not mistake an enemy decreed by providence for a thing to hate."
Fine mist came from Lubei's mouth as he unclenched his jaw. "I am already a slave to my karma, and that is how it must be. Shun me if you wish, but what I think of gods is what they have earned from me in this life!"
He then advanced on Uria, shaking off the icy dread that clouded his figure not a moment before. "If it affronts you, I'll keep it to myself until your Mother shows me otherwise," he said. In seconds, his voice had returned to a sharpened neutrality, and he continued to walk as if nothing had happened. "So you keep my matters to yourself. Now, let's find shelter."
-
Uria
"'Kay..." It was clear they weren't incredibly happy about the arrangement, but it was better than nothing. "She already showed you though. She led you to me, and she made that guy a really cool star dragon so he'll never be hungry or lonely again!"
Still, it wasn't like they could just leave it at that!
-
Lubei
Uria wasn't lying. The demon king believed it. He believed the vulnerability behind those complaints, even if it wasn't mortal or demon. But to him, that simply wasn't enough. He imagined himself in her position and held back a growl, for his own worries were enough.
"Never lonely, hmm..." The words slipped from his lips unheeded, as though the repetition would have them make sense, and he moved on as if he hadn't said them. In the end, it didn't take them long.
Lubei stepped over a door that had fallen from its hinges, into a building whose outer layer had partly broken away to expose the brick and iron underneath, like an desleeved arm. Inside, a part of the roof had fallen in, but with a quiet breath, a window of ice covered it firmly. They found enough to make a passable cot where a room might have once been. A rusted coal heater rested in the center, the embers within long gone cold and unresponsive, and Lubei dragged a mattress and a bundle of cloths into a corner before pulling a creaky chair up from the ground.
"Tomorrow we see about the rest of these wretched streets," he said, stiffly sitting down. "For now, sleep."
-
Uria
Without a word they plopped down on the mattress, considering how to explain things to Lubei and his weird bird. "Hey Lubei, do you know what makes something alive? It's not if they can breathe. It's not if they can see, or hear, or touch. It's motion. Motion is the power of God. Without that power, everything is still. When things are still they sink away!" They waved their hands aggressively at that statement. After all, that was the worst thing that could happen!
"Even if you die, that's not the end of everything! But if God abandons you, you lose all motion. You will never come back. Ever! People will forget you because you're a still thing and just get lost! It's like a toy at the bottom of a box." They took a breath. Talking this much was hard! "But everything doesn't have equal motion, Lubei! Those people didn't have motion like you and me. They could move, but they can't move freely. Mother didn't care enough about them to do that. But my power lets me share Mother's motion because she loves me a lot! It's her gift to me to share with everyone else. They're almost still things now, but if we shared things with them they could become so much more!"
-
Lubei
The demon's head jolted upright, and he listened transfixed to the stream of words that spilled from Uria's lips. It was the most extensive explanation that Lubei could ever expect to receive from the god-child. It was a struggle to find where his response should begin to a tale that sounded as outlandish as it rang true, like the speaker had been there to see it.
"The things you say... should be familiar, but aren't as I know them." On cue, the raptor that followed him like a shadow settled on his knee, waiting, and Lubei crossed it with a faint glare before continuing.
"There is without doubt, a weight that pushes souls from one life to another. And, they say, even gods are bound to its providence. But can a soul truly become lost even to the wheel of reincarnation? I don't believe individuals are equal, but I don't grasp how something so fundamental can be biased." He breathed in. "What I do know, is that merits and sins alike hardly amount to anything if you lack the luxury to live freely."
A slight voice floated in, its owner looking him in the eye. "Are people unequal, or do their fates differ because of circumstance and inevitability? Do you want to be equal, or to be fair?"
Lubei looked back, considered it for a second, then closed his eyes.
"If you wish to give those vagrants a choice," he said, firmly. "Then I will watch over that."
-
Uria
Nexus Time 5:00 AM
It was something like a devil. Or perhaps it was more like an angel? But it bounded through the slums at breakneck speeds, a wave rippling through the stillness of the early morning.
One hand was an elongated claw. Along it were awful eyes that moves across the skin. It gouged and ravaged. It tore and ripped. But what it touched was not destroyed. Bodies cocooned up into chrysalises made of a gentle darkness. The other hand held a great blade of light. It shone beautifully with all the colors of the rainbow. It sliced and pierced. It cut and slashed. Those touched by their divinity were frozen into glowing crystals brimming with radiance.
Like an angel of God, it moved over the land without discrimination. It chased those who walked the streets. It rushed into ramshack homes. It transformed the man sleeping restlessly on the ground, the woman trying to hide away in an alley, the babe sleeping in its cradle.
It was swift. It was powerful. It was inevitable.
Uria giggled in joy as they finished the last transformation. The slums were never loud except with a sudden attack, but now they were almost frighteningly quiet. Now it was beautiful. That was no exaggeration. Webs of pristine darkness interlocked with glowing crystalline formations. Light and darkness intermingled. And soon they were off again!
When Uria finally came back, they dragged Lubei to the tallest and least ruined building in the area! From there he could see it all, all the people that had been gifted with Uria's choice of motion. "Usually they should all start at once, but I think Mother let them wait to answer until you could see!"
All at once the scenery became something from Genesis rather than this world. The crystals erupted into purest light while the darkness ruptured, spilling its contents everywhere. Some were monsters like the first he had seen. Warbling silhouettes of burning light and howling beasts with blackened hides. Others were more akin to people. A women with metallic skin emerged as the crystal shattered, and a child with pale skin pulled himself from the shadowy pod he had been stuck in. Others were stranger yet! He saw a constantly shifting creature of protean moonsilver chase a spindly, thin creature covered in holes from which shadows poured. They made sounds one could almost regard as laughter.
But all was not well, was it? Some of the crystals dimmed, dark and soundless forevermore. The contents of other cocoons were empty or half done. It was not the most common thing. After all, there wasn't much binding these people to their current lives. And yet, some still rejected the offer. Amidst the glories wrought by the demigod, there was still the mark of ruin.
If you wish for indolence, choose eternal rest.
-
Lubei
He had only left her for five minutes to lay down after she had somehow managed to blow herself up, but Uria had managed to give him the slip. He felt his blood pressure skyrocket like a cold geyser at that blunder. But in the time he was looking for her, he didn't expect her to manage this. To go and enact her designs without a single regard for the conversation they had just had.
Lubei smacked the back of her head in complaint. "Did we not speak about letting me follow before doing this? Did you somehow forget?"
Instead, the child had wilfully torn these slums asunder with a quake of apotheosis, and at this point there was little to do but gape angrily, and consider the awful mess these reborn creatures would be to manage. The spectacle illuminated and clouded the night like a symphony of holiness and desecration. Beings that were not demons, god, humans or beasts cried like newborns amid the missing elegies for those who had gone away in silence.
He could feel the raptor's glare like claws at his nape, and this time he had no motivation to glare back.
"You have no sense of pacing," he hollered, scowling erratically. "What are you going to do with this crowd, completely unused to each other or themselves? If they start fighting, what's the point? Should I read them a novel to calm things down?"
Despite the outrage, feeling in his chest grew numb. A single question echoed in his head that he truthfully wanted the answers to. How badly had he already screwed up?
-
Uria
"Hey! I know what I'm doing!" It wasn't as if hitting them was bad. Uria had even blown off their own head once or twice by mistake! All the lecturing was getting annoying though. "I did everything just right. I don't need you to watch every time I make something new" In fact, they were going to prove it!
Uria looked over the teeming masses they had changed. Things wouldn't all fall into chaos since they were part of them! They weren't all part of each other, but the boundary between the godling and her progeny had been eroded by the transformation. "Everyone, be quiet!" And then there was silence.
They gestured towards the still and quiet group, uniform in their obedience. "See? They listen good. Now you can read them the story too!"
-
Lubei
He scanned the mass of Uria's progeny and hesitated. Then crossed his arms with a deep sigh. "I don't have one on me."
Even if he did, the trash he read for relaxation wasn't appropriate for a crowd. And why was she taking him seriously on this, but couldn't be bothered to listen to more vital things? Whether the god-child did everything out of a whim or cared childishly for everything, it was making nothing but distress for him. And yet, caution, sympathy, and an unknown sense of investment were slowly stacking into a wall that stopped his mind from boiling.
Lubei carried bigger concerns with him. But there was no idle moment to consider them since he arrived at this realm.
"We should perform passing rites for those who didn't... emerge." He said, casting a long and patient look at Uria. "Will you ask them to help?"
-
Uria
"Hmm..." They moved side to side, shifting more weight from one foot to the next as they thought real hard about it. "But that sounds really boring. It's not like they won't be back. Well, maybe they will. But if they are then they weren't really important anyways?"
The thought seemed to catch them on the backfoot, brow furrowing as they considered the implications of the statement.
-
Lubei
"If they won't be back, that's all the more reason to send them off. If they will be, that's enough reason for it to matter, too." He said, furrowing his brow at her. Albeit they were humans, they had suffered. Albeit he was not their king, he had allowed their deaths to come, and that was enough to make him responsible for what came after.
"If you shared your power because you cared, then this should mean something to you as well. If not that, then just give your aid because I'm asking."
-
Uria
They swayed back and forth with a confused look on their face. "Fiiiiine." But they turned their attention to the masses with a stern look. "Okay, you all can't stay here anymore. I'm gonna help Lubei so you should all go stay in the mountains! Mother has a plan for you there."
They issued their orders and the masses obeyed, unquestioningly.
-
Lubei
As the numerous beings clambered off, a rumbling breath escaped between the demon's lips. Lubei nodded at last once they were out of sight, and made his way down with eerily light steps, his coat fluttering behind. On his search for the unfortunates to lay to rest, he only spared a glance to make sure Uria was following.
6:00 AM
There wasn't much to recover of the bodies, but Lubei couldn't make up his mind whether it was an inconvenience or a blessing. If it was his people, nothing down to their bones would have been wasted, but here he had no assets or person to entrust with those gifts.
Yet, a pyre had been made. Rather than wood, he had mostly procured the pieces of the torn husks for fuel, and stacked them upon a skeleton of planks from shattered furniture, resting around and over the withered corpses. The heads alone he had separated and buried at the foot of the nearest trees, in their own coffins of ice, while he left Uria to start the fire. It took a time to take, but it burned with faint smell and dense smoke. Lubei crouched inches from it, laying out the basic offerings. He spilled a sliver of his blood into a cracked bowl, and on the heat flushing his face, he had cooked two rudimentary "cakes" from the meat of a passing bird.
The demon king brought his palms together for a single god, and asked mercy and certainty from the kings of death, before letting two of the three offerings join the pyre. When Lubei finally walked away, he tore the remaining cake in two, and dropped half on Uria's hands. The other half disappeared into his mouth with a slight crunch and a gulp.
"Your Mother has a plan for those you transformed, you said?" He asked, looking to the retreating gloom on the horizon.
-
Uria
Nexus Time 6:00 AM
"Yep yep! I bet it's going to be something really, really fun too. I'm kinda jealous they get to go run around when I don't. But there's something important happening soon." They turned around, facing the place that they had originally come from. The forest where Lubei had found them was not directly visible but they faced it nonetheless. "The thing at the forest is going to be born soon. Do you want to go see?"
-
Lubei
The demon king's closest hand wrapped around the hilt of Three Poisons, remembering its weight on his belt. He stared at Uria's guiless, excited face. What would be born in that spillage of invasive divinity that even this little monster would take note of? He couldn't guess, but he didn't have to. He needed information, and almost as important, he couldn't let Uria out of his sight again.
"Let's go."
-
? ? ? ?
NEXUS TIME 6:15
Was I too late...?
Wow wow wow! Holy jesus macaroni, this is bad. I think you scared all the cute ladies out of here.
The ashen man's eyes narrowed, but he suddenly let out a small gasp and had to grip his cane harder than he liked. The cracks on his face were deeper than this morning...he was truly running out of time. But this meant nothing, as long as the spider succeeded in his mission.
He touched one of the cold coffins of ice and closed his eyes. Was this ambition, or complacency? Such coldness, it was all the result of an empty life. He could sympathize with trying to bring it meaning. His other half would probably scoff at the idea and just break the icy prison out of pity. Instead the Ashen man tried to give it some of his own life to save the trapped soul within... to no avail.
But this... he didn't wish for it to end like this. The fact of the matter was he could have stopped this. But that child's power... he had only seen it once. He wouldn't have been able to stop it even if he tried. The least he could do was evacuate the others. And yet-
You wanted to see it for herself, huh? I guess we've never changed even after all that time. You can't even cry over the loss of life anymore eh? The nightmare in his mindscape almost cackled, taking the form of a bird of flame and avarice. First Sakura, now this... even he had to smile at the way the detestable bird kept this all up.
But there was no malice in this laughter. No, it was the hollow laughter of a man who'd rather force a smile than cry again. "She is dangeorous." He stopped smiling, resolute. Hmmmmm? To who I wonder? The people, or your dream?
The crumbling man of ash and paper's eyes glared. No, it was more like they were focusing on his true intent.
A man of metal and broken dreams approached them. As if expecting him. After all, they were dear old friends, weren't they?
Van
He came as soon as he read the letter. By chance, he came to stumble on a lion of shade. His suspicions were only confirmed once he read the letter it brought him. A cry for help, an ominous omen. But more than anything, it addressed him by name. Could it have been somebody from the Citadel of the Sky? He had no way of knowing, he was still lost in this strange place.
And following the ebon beast, he only found his suspicions confirmed. Frightened people, hiding and cowering as if to run from some great evil.
And then he saw it. The pyre, the frozen graves. But even more frightnening was the silence. These parts of the city were not exactly filled with life, but he felt not a single living soul here.
Except one man, sitting in the middle of the graves atop a stone... reading a book. The knight's eyes widened, and he marched forward in anger. Outrage. Sorrow at the lives that had been snuffed from... this.
"You... did you do this?" He walked forward, and nearly roared if it weren't for his restraint. "Answer me."
He soon wished he hadn't. For when that man lowered his book, he saw him. To call him pale as ash would be an understatement. That man had not a single shred of life in his body. And that body was crumbling, cracking like porcelain to reveal a blackened interior. He couldn't explain it, but he had a strange feeling from that sight. It's as if he had seen it before.
It felt abhorrent. Wrong. But something told him it wasn't malicious. The lion only confirmed this sentiment, as it approached the man and rubbed its ebon sheen by its side. But to think such a pallid man would have survived this place.
"I tried to stop it, I'm afraid. But their power... it was too frightening. It was as if two evil stars had aligned. I..." That man was crumbling. Slowly, but surely. He couldn't just let him blame himself like this.
"It's alright. Were you the one who sent that call?" He approached the man, and felt a deep sorrow and regret coming from his words. Only when it nodded, did he realize. No, a compulsion in his head or perhaps some kind of instinct told him that he had probably tried to do something. He must have fought somewhat, else why would he look so hurt?
Van's eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
And so these two unlikely men met once more. For this was the will of the world.
-
Hobo Gretta
12:45
"You couldn't find any?"
An old man shook his head at the question. Truth be told, he wasn't that old. In fact, he was only 40 years old, but the stress of living on the street mixes with the actual grime in the most disgusting way possible, giving the otherwise middle-aged man the worn down eyes, baggy cheeks and a weak beaten down smile. "No..." the man muttered. "They were all out, not even scraps."
The young woman who had asked the question sighed and said, "Thats fine..."
It was a nice afternoon. That was the one nice thing about this place. A land forgotten by people slowly being swallowed by nature. The vine covered buildings grew stronger as they were swallowed in the harsh rays of the sun. Looking up at the sky, Gretta couldn't help but wish that the slums weren't more like in movies, a harsh underbelly buried beneath society. Maybe if it were like that, she could bury herself in society's sins. All that is left now is her own.
Leaving the old man, she turned a corner into the alleyway that she called her home. This alley way was all that hid her from the sunlight. She hid in the shadow cast by society, just like she always did. In the corner next to the dumpster laid a wet box.
As she stood over the sad excuse for shelter she had, she once again sighed, squatting next to the box. "Why?"
Gretta knew why. Her man was beating her, broke some of her teeth. It was her fault. She was such a gold digger. She was nothing without his money, nothing at all, yet she rushed out of the house one night and never turned back. In a sense, this pathetic hallowed out woman was all she ever really was. That thought finally forced the tears to fall down from her cheeks. "I hate myself," she whispered to no one.
The shadows that surrounded her intensified. They weren't mere shadows anymore, but darkness itself. The light outside of the alleyway faded and a pair of red eyes stared back at her from above. The girl could faintly make out the shape of a demon, with devilish wings and horns that signified its allegiance to satan (https://i.imgur.com/3JFmh2k.jpg).
"Huh... Wait.... I don't have any money" she screamed.
"Foolish human, to have fallen so far," the demon said. "Say goodbye to the person you are, as I reach into your flesh and consume your soul."
"No... please! Anything but that! I'm not ready to die."
"Oh but you will die. You struggled and thrashed, but all it brought was me and my appetite. As your reward I shall kill the weakling that is before me and consume your soul."
"STOP NO!"
The darkness crept closer, wrapping around her ankles. It dragged her back into the very pit of darkness itself. "Fear not," the demon said, its voice almost seductive in nature, soothing even. "You will be born anew."
"NOOOO!"
A hand reached into her chest and yanked out her soul. The orb, so bight and blue, almost seemed to shine like a bright star. The woman faded out, her eyes closed. Yes, on that day she died.
Aruna
1:15
Aruna's sharp teeth sunk into the soul, taking a bite out of it. The girl's stress, grief, hopelessness; it tasted like the what humans would call good restaurant food. It was worth tracking down. The darkness repaired the gaping hole, restoring it to full strength. No that wasn't true. It wasn't just full strength. When the girl wakes up, she would find that the weight upon her soul would be lifted. This would be the day her helpless self would give way to a true force to be wrecked with, free from the weight of self-loathing.
So then... what should I do with myself? What even is my problem?
-
Zeke
12:45
Continued from Xibalba (http://darksidemoon.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,762.msg64303.html#msg64303)
Relaxed, he dangled at the edge of a rooftop and observed the girl from above, like a kid looking down on ants.
Humans were foolish and weak. The kind of creatures who bred and thrived over others, ignorant and blissfully unaware of just how small they were. It was no secret that Zeke disliked humans, which was why he found sights like these quite endearing from time to time. But unlike his master, he didn't hate them. They were weak, and foolish- yes, and even worse than that, they were completely worthless. But they had something great and unique, something even he couldn't scoff at.
Heart.
A true expression of will, and the power to draw that will from bonds. Unlike other beasts, humans showed their true value when at their lowest. Some welcome the end with arms outstretched, while others come to face death incarnate, arms in hand. That conviction was something he had seen time and time again. And to see a foul beast rob a creature of that heart... no, he could not judge her. He stole the opportunity and destiny from the hands of men time and time again, so he would not insult her for following her nature as he did. But heart and logic don't always match, and he was guilty of the same thing he admonished Serana for.
Few things in life still shook or sickened Zeke. But what Aruna did to that woman made him truly frown.
Suddenly, four ebony wings stretched from his back, like a messenger from God's. But they were warped, wrong, like a chaotic imitation of something glorious. Or perhaps it was the glory that imitated that primal darkness to begin with. And that darkness was descending, wings stretched and an unhinged smile, before crashing a handful of feet right behind Aruna with a creat impact. When the blast and dust cleared off, he winked at her like an old friend.
-
Aruna
The blast of wind called, no forced Aruna to turn around, only to be greeted by the perverted image of that fake demon once again. Aruna's demonic red eyes narrowed. "False demon Ezekial? I did not think I would run into you so soon," she said, taking another bite of the soul. Finishing her meal, he released the orb, allowing it to fall into the body of the woman lying unconscious at his feet.
"Fly with me. I want to show you something."
With that, his wings flapped, blasting the ground with a rush of air. With another flap, she shot into the sky and perched on the side of the roof.
-
Zeke
With wide cheeky eyes, he brought his hand towards her and pointed his index finger up! Patience, a dramatic gesture, and then a dissappointed cross of the arms after he took a few steps forward and was looming above the human.
Poor little one... she was beaten... how foolish.
A pity. This bird could have soared high. She could have endured, grown, changed, and eventually shattered the lives of those who abused her. It was only fair, and it would have been just. His father learned of this justice, but the ones who did this to her never would. She would live on in blissful ignorance, find happiness for a while, only for it to be snuffed out again. Repeat the same mistakes, forget the same mistakes, and yet smile all the same. She would just suffer again, never to change or grow.
He devoured her there and then. His darkness touched her and consumed her bones, flesh, spirit, and assimilated them onto himself. And once there was nothing left, he slowly turned to Aruna with that same casual expression.
Tears were streaming down one of his eyes. Were they his, or hers? Did it matter, now that they were one? His wings flapped, and he approached the demon. Surprisingly, he offered a hand to that creature, a being he should hate more than anything. He grinned at her cockily all the same.
-
Aruna
"Ezekial stop! NO!"
Aruna reached out his hand, but it was too late. The demon watched in horror as the false one perverted the very act of feeding, committing the ultimate sin, assimilation. Long ago, the demons challenged the gods, thinking they could harness the power of the human spirit to defeat the gods, but they failed. Why? Why was this fool committing the same sin?!
"You... My MEAL! I just consumed her soul, released her from the weight of her pain! How dare you! Is that? Is that what you've been doing? Is that why you look so old now?"
-
Zeke
He shrugged, and pointed to her left arm. Her arm of light.
He raised an eyebrow and smiled slyly at her, as if that was the answer. Or perhaps it was the question.
-
Aruna
"You... Do you really have nothing to say?!" he said, drawing back his arm. "and don't point at my arm! What, you want to eat that too you power hungry beast!? What could you possibly need all those souls for huh?! What do you need my arm for?!"
-
Zeke
He blinked, and his eyes widened for a second there. Zeke floated about with a finger on his chin, thinking like he seriously didn't even consider it for a second. When he seemed to figure it out, he grinned wildly like an arrogant monster, and just pointed to the sky. The heavens.
No, beyond even that.
He cocked his head at her, and a dark power began to swell from within him. Unlike before, this darkness was far more palpable.
-
Aruna
The light on her arm reacted, shining to match his darkness. The sheer weight of that darkness was enough for her to reflexively summon the light? No that power, the one whispering to her, it was calling out to her to use it again. 'You foolish fake demon. You can't be seriously gathering this much power for powers sake. You cannot challenge the gods with human souls! Its impossible! All you'll do is end up a pale imitation!"
-
Zeke
The void stared at Aruna with incredulous eyes. Zeke... he...
"Pfsh~ Faahaahahahahahah!" Zeke rolled ovder and grabbed his stomach. He acted like he knew everything about her, and didn't even seem to acknowledge what he did. What it led to. Countless lives had been snuffed out and assimilated to his collective, there were irreplaceble things that were lost- he was laughng, and still laughing. Someone was killed today because of what he did. He was laughing.
How about another joke Aruna?
He wheezed and coughed like his lungs were falling apart, and sniffled with a giggle before wiping a tear. Zeke had not broken down eye contact once, and now he was shaking his head like she'd just gotten it all wrong.
A flash of strength, and he immediately charged forward. The darkness of his body became an inescapable void, - and suddenly pulled everything into him. He already moved with beastly speed to rush Aruna with a flurry of hand jabs hard enough to split bone. His grin and expression were as sly as they were devious.
Avaricious.
-
Aruna
Aruna sidestepped as fast as he could, returning her wings to his back to avoid them getting striked or grabbed. Except he couldn't sidestep! She was being pulled into him. Chains emerged from his arms, spikes from his torso, his only defense being the threat to skewer him on impact. The chains that emerged threatened to wrap around Zeke's throat.
-
Zeke
A gleam flashed in his eyes. She was better than last time, and much more assertive. If this were the old him, this would be the end here and then.
But she wasn't going to win by running from her shadow. Her chains of plundering were broken down into the void, the spikes were sucked and shattered into nothing. The darkness consumed, the magic returned to the void whence it came. Compared to a pure dark emptiness, something that needed to channel its properties through a medium stood no chance. They just melted and vanished from this world the moment they touched his darkness.
And his hand was already moving to grab her neck. What would follow would be a series of impacts she wouldn't soon forget.
But could she overcome?
-
Aruna
What?! Is his darkness stronger than hers now?! No.. it was more parasitic. It ate her magic.
Aruna's demonic body was pummeled. Every strike punctured him, imprinted him with everything he had. Arms, chest, legs, face: every single thing was struck until he was buy a mess. Dark energy cloud surrounded his arm and a dagger materialized in his hand.
I can't belive you made me bring it out....
Summoning whatever strength Zeke beat out of him, he gripped the dagger and thrust it into the hand reaching for his throat. It was a weapon given to all guardians, a tool for punishing those who had strayed down the path of greed. The stronger the person's lust for power, the stronger the blade would be. Thus, the weapon was known only as.... the dagger of lust.
-
Zeke
Somebody somewhere once spoke with the harbinger of the end times. The Antichrist offered that man a warning. That he wont be satisfied, but his desire will grow relentlessly, until he drowns in the very cup he wished to sup from.
He was that empty cup.
A sensation. His wide eyes didn't even attempt to hide the shock as he felt something plunge into him. And then pain, a horrifying, soul crushing pain that spread all over the core of his greed, his being. His hand was pierced cleanly like butter, but the pain traveled everywhere. It was enough to cripple a man, enough to make a man scream, enough for Zeke's vision to blur and for him to grit his teeth-
He grabbed the hand that stabbed him and foced the knife deeper in his vessel, until it touched him. And with a jerking pull, he hurled the demon so close to him that the headbutt that followed likely barely registered. And as the demon's head cracked like a melon, as the strength of that void impacted with Aruna's being and rattled it to the core, who would prevail?
-
Aruna
No way. For the dagger to be hurting him this much.... what the hell was driving him like this? Was it what he saw in his soul. Sure it was a lively, hungry soul but, its gotten more intense, more harsh, more perverted even.
"False demon! Know this! What you delve in is forbidden taboo in demon culture. Assimilation is to be done with consent or times of war," he said, screaming at the demon before reeling back from the headbutt delivered to his face. Once that moment happened, it was as if his body had felt the full weight of the strike. His vision went black. "You... stupid false... demon. I... was... helping her."
And thus, the demon fell limp against Ezekial's torso.
-
Zeke
His blank eyes were bloodshot from the pain. The clenched teeth turned into a feral snarl, and then a horrifying smile. Without pause, he let go of Aruna's hand and gripped Aruna's horn like a vice. Wailing like a shattering planet, a true monster was moving his bloodied hand to split the demon in half-
He stopped. His hand was an inch away from the battered body. Had he not regained his senses in time, this would have gotten ugly.
Fool. You should have gone easier on this old man. You almost got me too excited.
Now, Zeke looked down on the demon he grabbed by the horn, the now broken creature utterly dominated and at his mercy... with recognition. He had not felt a pain such as this in eons, even Serana's punishment was nothing compared to this. Without even realizing it, without even needing, his body was sweating everywhere and breathing heavily.
But he didn't shake. He didn't falter. And he didn't let go of his prize. It would be an insult to the demon's conviction and honor. Even in his jaws, Aruna did not lose the will to fight. Only two mistakes were made... the first was to assume he'd be the same as last time. The second was to assume his greed only applied to pleasant things. If he'd just fall over some pain, then what right did he have to seek pleasure?
He accepted everything. So let it pour down, he'll take on curses and blessings both any time.
You fought well. His wings flapped, and he carried the demon to a faraway place.
Continued in Xibalba (http://darksidemoon.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,762.msg64337.html#msg64337)
-
A-702 (Far outside CHEIRON'S headquarters)
Continued from Pine Garden (http://darksidemoon.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,749.msg66002.html#msg66002)
11:55 PM
The moon shone bright, the winds stroked the three softly. Under the curtain of the night, this story would end like it began.
"We'll have to get in stealthily." He brought them to a rooftop a mile or so away from their destination. That skyscraper where it all began. Naturally, the building was heavily guarded by sentries and armed men. Even for monsters like the three, it was best to avoid a bloodbath. Or rather...
Around the grounds, they were rounding up children, women, and the elderly. Squaring them off together, they were likely trying to use them as hostages. It was likely that they knew they were coming.
Feeling the wind blow across his hair and strings, A-702 smiled. "If we blast through, there is a chance innocents could die. Not that a piece of shit killer like me would mind... but I'd rather not have them on my hands."
And with a sigh, he turned to the two gunslingers behind him, illuminated by the moonlight like actors on a stage.
"Security is tightest around the base of the buildings, as you can see. We'll have to get through the rooftop. Unfortunately, the building is laced with sensors that detect abrupt movements. If we go in any faster than a sprinting human, the alarms will go off. Luckily, I know where the terminals are." He paused and looked up with a mischievous expression. "We can deactivate the systems, or ignore them. Either way, we can't rush towards these grounds. We have to somehow sneak in with normal movements."
-
Justice
He breathed in and patted the neck of his abyssal beast, as all four of them looked out from the silver-cast rooftop. Justice's eyes didn't fail to see what Spidey pointed out, but whether he was ready to swallow this story, that was something else entirely.
"No." He said. The Rider turned harshly towards the most suspicious of their number, in all likelihood the cause of their merry chases. "We're not going anywhere until you spill everything else you've been keeping down. Or don't. I'll leave you here, and do this my way."
-
Suerte
The skyscrapper. The place where it all began. The city was large, imposing, the skyscrapper a symbol of all its confusion and danger, at least to the simple cowgirl. For a moment, she simply looked up, seeing if she could see the sky beyond it. Keeping her hat on her head, she failed to see beyond the peak, even with her head tilted all the way back. Maybe one day she would bend over backwards to do so, but not today.
"We can always make it big and obvious enough that we give them a chance to run. At some point you just have to accept that people are just going to die no matter what you do," she said. "I'm no hero either right Justice?"
Suerte turned around. Thats when Justice made his deceleration. With the cowboy standing in protest on one side of the roof and Spidey in another, Suerte's head darted left and right. "Umm.... yeah!" she said walking over to Justice's side. "We need to know more things!"
Truth be told, she always did her missions letting fate guide her, but it was probably better to do this Justice's way. She couldn't keep relying on her luck for everything. Leaning in she whispered to him. "Wait i thought we made up! He's just a little nuts, nothin wrong with that. What else could he be hiding?"
-
A-702
Spidey blinked at Justice's rebellion... and just stretched his arms behind his head. "That's too bad. I guess we can sit down and wait for the suckers to get shoved in a test tube or turned into mulch for the plants... about twenty minutes until the guards decide to get bored. I can wait that long."
Man, to think they'd go as far as to pull this shit again. If that bastard they took down was still kicking, he'd probably be rolling in his grave. A bunch of lowlives and orphans, just like them. So why were they chosen while the others died? Even he couldn't laugh at that.
But it was Suerte's whisper that started to drag a giggle out of him.
With that same tired grin, he just sat down lazily and yawned. But he really didn't seem bothered by this predicament at all. "It wasn't so different for me... the original one I guess. I wouldn't know. Well, I guess eventually they'll just get used to it."
-
Justice
He scowled at both of them like an angry statue. Even the shadows of his hat couldn't conceal the impatient furrowing between his eyes.
"Suerte, he still hasn't answered my question," Justice said. He eyed their target down in the streets uncertaintly, but crossed his arms at Spidey. "It doesn't change anything, so stop avoiding it. Did you or didn't you murder the cyborg's brother and the other man, right in the offices of the people who cloned you, used you like a rag and kept you on a leash?"
-
Suerte
Suerte nodded. Geeze, she really did rely on her luck too much. Why didn't she think of that? Trying her best to muster a confrontational glare, she aimed that disposition at Spidey's lazy grin, only managing to convey the annoyance she was having towards his nonchalant attitude. She couldn't get herself to be any angrier than that, not like the cold calculated wrath her dear Justice was projecting.
"Yeah!"
-
A-702
The spider sighed. "My, my! I did kill them. But I am not their murderer."
A gunshot rang down below. Captives screamed as one of the now broken order, lacking the leash of the strongest generals in their group, decided to act on their basest animal impulses. It was a disgusting sight.
"This entire time, I have been on your side. My life... it's not worth that much on its own. No one mourns the spiders in the dark. If this is punishment for our sins, then we must accept them as fate. But then who to pick as the executioners?"
Under the moonlight, he bowed like a puppet on strings - or a performer.
"I guess it was the will of the world." He paused...
And spat on the ground next to him, as if to get the stench of his words off his mouth.
"Is that what you expected? Some third rate comic book villain confession? To hell with that. Yeah, I killed them. You suspected that for a long time. But you still stuck around when you could have left. Why?"
-
Justice
"Because I felt we were all being played anyway. But I didn't ask for a third-rate soliloquy, you whiny bitch." He stepped in and grabbed Spidey's collar, lifting him in the air to stare at the twitching frown on his face, lively with annoyance. "Now help us deal with this already. We must stop this. I can distract all those soldiers at once and cripple their vision, but that's not going to cut it."
Justice dropped the clone's clothing, shoving him off. "You know how these forces work, get your brain working and talk fast."
-
Suerte
Thats harsh! she thought, a complicated feeling stiring in her chest. But the world is cruel. I have to put on a brave face for the sake of survival.
"Yeah!" she yelled in agreement. "We knew you killed them. We wanna know what you want with us!"
Suerte's eyes darted to Justice, as if to say did I ask the right question?
-
A-702
"Bullshit you didn't." He quickly snapped his eyes at Suerte, shooting her down faster than Clint Eastwood or Lucky Luke. But that was nothing compared to the hand that snapped to grab the man's wrist before it could clutch to his clothes. He was fast... and strong too. As fast and strong as Justice.
He didn't need to play the weak damsel right now anyways.
"And don't fucking touch me. If you weren't so busy obsessing over those two dead shitters, I would have told you how to deal with this." He slapped his hand away with a dry scowl.
Yet he betrayed a cracked smile at Justice. One that was more sincere than before.
"Then again, if you listened more and bitched less, you'd have gotten what I just told you into your thick skull. I'm not trying to get you two into another fight. I'm trying to get you two in the building. How else are we going to free the other ones? Like I said, the ones down there are just like me. The rest of the answers... they're in there, not here." He tapped at his temple.
This was the easy part. Thanks to the two of them, the strongest in the organization had fallen. Either way, they were pretty much safe.
-
Justice
There was no resistance to Justice's hand being slapped away, and no response. Not a grunt of anger even from Punishment, next to them. The Rider's unfazed stare had, at this point, changed substance. It was no longer of made unflappable patience, but instead of bone-deep, sorely unimpressed fatigue.
"Get us into the building, to see something you would rather show us but not speak of, to get answers you know are there but can't name yourself, to save people you say are there while leaving the ones in risk right now for later, or never. Did you already forget how you were appealing to my morals just now? You're not stupid. Don't pretend like you think that highly of yourself. I didn't keep you alive to be fed such rubbish."
He shook his head and dragged a gloved hand through his face.
-
Suerte
Suerte stopped talking. Staring at the two of them, she frowned. The anger on her face had subsided and all that was left was sadness. Even so, she kept her hand wrapped around the butt of her gun, ready to act at any moment. Although she was not entirely sure of what she would do.
-
Justice
There was no resistance to Justice's hand being slapped away, and no response. Not a grunt of anger even from Punishment, next to them. The Rider's unfazed stare had, at this point, changed substance. It was no longer of made unflappable patience, but instead of bone-deep, sorely unimpressed fatigue.
"Get us into the building, to see something you would rather show us but not speak of, to get answers you know are there but can't name yourself, to save people you say are there while leaving the ones in risk right now for later, or never. Did you already forget how you were appealing to my morals just now? You're not stupid. Don't pretend like you think that highly of yourself. I didn't keep you alive to be fed such rubbish."
He shook his head and dragged a gloved hand through his face.
Spidey
"They're data logs. More reliable than the words of a killer who'd chop up his friends like sushi. Words and thoughts I can't recollect because they were stripped from my memory banks. Some I can only recollect slightly because I managed to snatch them back. A lot of them were plans the boss was trying to implement. And like I said, I'm trying to free the other ones in there. I got shot thrice in one day, but you don't see me moaning like I just got out of Elizabeth's dresser. And I'm just not the type to start giving a heartfelt confession or start justifying myself, so give it a rest."
He glanced at the girl. Noticing her expression, for a moment, he grew concerned. "I told you guys, I'm not letting anyone die. Not the kids outside, not the ones inside, and not us. So what is it? Truth or Justice? What do you really care about?"
-
Justice
He rolled his eyes at Spidey like he was dealing with a stubborn child. Had that been so difficult to say? The Rider let the weight of the discussion roll to a stop in his gut. It was never pleasant to deal with those that dealt with everything circuitously - even if it was for the sake of survival. But he decided that when this worked out, he'd give Spidey less of a hard time over it. If it worked out.
"There's no choice to make," he rumbled, free of animosity. "You said it yourself. If you won't let anyone die, then we'll get them and the truth out."
-
Suerte
Suerte looked at Spidey, then at Justice. "So then are we going along still?" she asked. "Are we going to finish the mission or are we abandoning it here?"
-
A-702
"It's the only thing left to do for me." For a moment, he looked flustered and glanced away.
They could never understand. It was better that way, the truth wasn't so tidy or pretty that there were words to spit it out with. It was... too disgusting for his heart to experience twice.
"The mission was just to get the killer to them. Now that my cover's blown, you could probably use me as a chip to clear your name. Are you sure you're not going to dip?" Fot a second, he hesitated. "Truth or justice? If you had to choose only one, which one would you grab?"
-
Justice
Justice looked back, eyebrows softly raised. Unimpressed and something else. "Why would I want to cut a deal with a volatile and unstrustworthy group that's tried to kill us three times in the last day, irrespective of the circumstances for why?"
He shook his head and crouched over the end of the roof, popping his stiff neck. "It's not my style to get the truth handed to me. Let's do this."
-
Suerte
"Truth or Justice huh?" she said, parroting his words.
Suerte walked past both of them, letting the wind carry her long flowing hair. One hand on her belt and her gaze drifting beyond the horizon, she looked back at the two. "You know spidey. We are cowboys. We live free, choosing our own path. So long as we know the consequences, it doesn't really matter to me. I'm just...."
The cowgirl began drifting off of the edge of the roof, winking at the two just before she started her decent. The wind from her fall blasted her outfit upwards and she let out a small giggle.
"Chasing a feeling."
-
Spidey
He blinked at them, incredulous. Were they... seriously...
"Assholes." He looked away and blushed. "Fine, let's do this. Suerte, you can make any bullet you want right? So you can make something like a bullet that fires silently and slowly?" He glanced at her, his mind already at work to devise a plan. "Something that can cross a distance slowly and quietly, without being too flashy. You can make a shot like that, right?"
-
Suerte
"Its called a silent bullet hun," she said, her face turned back so that he could only see one eye and the side of her smirk as she strutted forward. Her hips swayed confidently from side to side as she pulled her twin pistols from their holster. "Where ya want me to shoot?"
-
Justice
He fell with them, letting the wind and Spidey's webs carry them to the ground and the cover of night. Punishment shook its head, protesting the stretched wait to mayhem, but made no sound. Justice waited, hefting his gun and sword. The feathers clinging to his armor shook slightly in the breeze, as unnatural as a metal sculpture bending like cloth.
-
Spidey
"Right there." As he landed, he crawled like a christmas gremlin so he'd sit on her shoulder. The spider held Suerte's hand gently and pointed the gun to the rooftop. "But before that, I need to tinker with the bullet a bit. I'm going to attach a string to it. As long as we can have it impact slowly, we can use it like a grappling hook and walk slowly till we're up there. After that, it'll just be basic infiltration and assassination."
It didn't look like it immediately, but as he glanced at the two, you could see he was sweating. "Do you think you can handle it?" He focused his gaze on Justice.
-
Justice
"Underestimating each other is getting a little old," he answered. Sliding the sword back to its chain, the pistol to its holster, he squeezed his hands into fists and out, unwinding them, and proceeded to pat Punishment's flank solidly. "Be patient, pal."
-
Suerte
Suerte looked at Spidey, as if she didn't even need to look to hit her target. "Let me give you a tip spidey. When your helping a woman handle something, you want to use a gentle touch unless you know she really likes it rough. I take it I need to fire after Justice, mask my quiet bullet under his?"
As she spoke, she yanked spidey's hand onto her own.
-
Spidey
The sweat started dripping down from his face. R-rough?
He shook his head. "No. We want to use quiet takedowns for this. And remember, the sensors will sense any object moving faster than a man running at full speed. Until we get rid of them, we need to be mindful of any speed advantage we'd have... and rely on close-quarters blow from the shadows."
He scratched at his neck, trying to look away from the sudden hand contact she initiated.
"But we need to be careful. We've got one shot at this. If we're caught up there, that'll be the end of it. So... ready to fire?"
Even despite the sweat, he managed to crack a stressed-out smile at Suerte. No... he was relaxing, or trying to at least.
-
Justice
"We're gonna be waiting an eternity for a projectile to breach the perimeter without setting the sensors off then, and another eternity just to get in."
Justice scratched his scalp under the hat. The way he said it, there was no inflection to take a stand against the idea, but his eyes fell on the prisoners being rounded up in the distance anyway, ever closer to disappearing into the building's maws.
-
Suerte
Click. BANG!
The bullet glided from the barrel of her gun. A muffled click was the only thing heard from the gun itself as the bullet slowly made its way into the rooftop, disappearing into the night.
-
Justice
"We're gonna be waiting an eternity for a projectile to breach the perimeter without setting the sensors off then, and another eternity just to get in."
Justice scratched his scalp under the hat. The way he said it, there was no inflection to take a stand against the idea, but his eyes fell on the prisoners being rounded up in the distance anyway, ever closer to disappearing into the building's maws.
Spidey
"Didn't you just say underestimating one another is getting old?" He friendlily nudged the rider's side. With a more relaxed smile, he sat on the ground and searched for something in his pocket. Soon, he pulled out a deck of cards.
"How about a quick round of Pazaak to spend the time? Not like waiting while brooding will do us good."
And of course, he'd involve real money. He might as well make a quick buck after all. But it'd be the best way to skip out on the awkward staredowns.
-
Justice
"This is just estimating, not underestimating," he scoffed. "Not inaccurate estimating either."
He leaned against Punishment, not taking his eyes away from the path of the bullet and the shadow of their targets. "You can play, I'll keep watch."
-
Suerte
"Pazak? Is that like poker?" Suerte said, sitting her ass on the ground with a tilt of her head. "You know I guess it doesn't matter. But your going to have to teach me."
The young cowgirl was actually terrible at gambling, at least from a technical standpoint. Before she was blessed by the goddess, she lost every game she entered. Gambling was just not her forte until after that day.
-
Spidey
"Uhhh, nah, more like blackjack. Here, don't worry." He started shuffling from his own collection deck, since she didn't have her oown cards. This way, it'd be a fair match. "Well, it's pretty simple..."
5 Minutes Later
"How can this be!?" He stared, wide-eyed at the ground - at Suerte's winning hand, to be precise. 5 times. 5 times in a row! "This is outrageous... it's UNFAIR!" He never lost a game of cards this badly. Never!
But that girl... she was some kind of card monster!
"Youuuuuuu...!" He immediately grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her like a pepper shaker, maintaining eye contact to keep the last of his gambler's pride. "Dummy, dummy, dummyyyy! You're actually a total natural geniussss!! You're even better than meeeee!! What is your seeeecreeeeeeet!!!"
-
Justice
He lowered his gaze towards the game, unmoved and unshakable. Like a mound of stone shaking off dust that was no statue but a long-sleeping automaton, deeply groved and worn by time, his body dragged itself slowly to face the two, barely rustling his clothes.
"Glad you're having fun, but the shot seems to have landed. We're up."
-
Suerte
Suerte's head bobbed back and forth, a card stuck to the top of her cleavage, another on her exposed midriff. Boobs fell and rose with the shaking, while the hand she had fell to the floor next to them. "Spidey what are ya talking about? Its just first timers luck! I just had to get uno right?"
Nailed it.
"Oh hmm we finished a whole game... maybe I should have made a faster bullet...."
The young cowgirl stood up. "So now what spidey?"
-
"Oh! Okay... I'm guessing it should be able to keep the grapple on, even if it's the three of us..." He scratched his neck a little and backed off, thinking to himself while hiding the sweat on his cheek.
With a light tug, he tensed the string that was now reaching all the way to the other building's rooftop. He tied it to the end of the chimney on their side, and made sure it was nice and stable. Then, with a foot on the string, he smiled under the moonlight.
"I'm guessing I should go first. You go behind me and watch for guards. From this height, they won't be expecting us."
You'd think he'd offer the ladies to go first... but if you thought about it this way, it made sense. If he was behind them, he might cut the rope or leave them standing. By being in front of them, he was also giving them insurance that he wasn't planning to betray them.
"Hope you're not scared of heights. Remember, we can get away with some light jogging - as long as we don't go faster than 45 km/h. No, not converting that for you. Miles are for suckers."
-
Justice
He gave Punishment one last pat in the head, ignoring the steed's ferocious protest, before jumping onto the string ahead of Spidey. Smirking, Justice looked back at him and Suerte.
"I'm better protected, I should go first. Besides, if something broke the string on the other end, it wouldn't be good if only you were left there," he said. "And the lucky one gets to go in the back."
-
Suerte
Suerte grinned at his comment and said, "well then Mr. detective, go ahead and go first. Spidey you go second, provide support and I can go last."
-
Spidey
"Well, if you insist..."
It worked! It friggin' worked! Now, he got to have a total hottie behind him. It'd be really bad if the string started to shake and she'd have to hold onto something.... heheheheheheheheheheheheheeh!
"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" He laughed evilly out loud, thinking that it was all in his head. "Let's do thiiiiiiiis! Big booooobs! BIG FUCKING BOOOBS!!!" His eyes glowed with intense energy, and he stepped on the string with the confidence of 10 0000 men!
"Well, that takes care of the schmucks... and the sensors." He wiped his hands off all the blood... as they probably should. This was all very exciting and all, but it was best to cut straight to the chase. Luckily, the three's big brains were enough to save the hostages. At least, those outdoors.
There was just one problem. Or rather, one last obstacle. Having cleared the offices and found no data, this was the one place left. The science division branch of the building.
Of course, it was guarded by a heavy high-tech door. But they'd break it easily. They came this far. So why was the air so tense?
The moon doesn't shine over the restless. There was only one thing left to do.
"You had questions, right? Well, the answers are though this door. So... how about a cool combo attack to wrap things up?"
This was their chance to show off like in those Japanese anime.
-
Justice
Justice grunted, and reached for the handle over his shoulder. The scimitar-shaped hunk of steel went free from the chain with an emotionless schwing, tip glinting in the dim artificial lights. The Rider raised it upright in a two-handed grip and breathed. The mantle of fury washed over him, unfolding cinder-covered wings, into a silhouette of ruin that stretched the weapon until its burning point kissed the ceiling.
"Mmm-RRAAH!"
The howl propelled him forward with a massive swing, sinking into the center gap of the door with a ground-shaking clunk. The horrible grind of metal on superheated instrument of murder replaced Justice's voice while he pushed on the base of the blade, driving it deeper into the final barrier.
-
Suerte
Suerte giggled, pulling a pistol from its holster and pointing it at the tip of the barrier just above him. "I do love a man who makes noise when he works.... The grunting is.... mmmm. I'll go for the final touch."
Several bangs went off, followed by a succession of explosions, enveloping Justice's body in fire and smoke.
-
Spidey
His shark teeth chattered in a maniacal grin, as he jumped and twirled dramatically. His strings danced and zipped like tentacles, lashing out to form seven spears that circled around him.
"JUSTICE!! YOU GET TO PICK THE SPECIAL ATTACK NAME!!"
Rotating around the three, the string lances zipped and shit into the gate, drilling and expanding into a flurry of string slashes to make the door more and more brittle - for one last shot.
-
Justice
The bullets cracked and shook the structure, the strings drove wedges through the pieces of the lock and the pressurized rods that connected the door to the wall.
"Really?" He asked, skeptical through the deafening symphony. But then his eyes shone. "Then PERISH."
The bright glare sent a torrent of devastation crashing into the obstacle, pushing the sword named Absolution in an unstoppable march forward. Roaring, shuddering such that every rivet in the pillars and windows of this floor partially unwound, it ate the pitiful barrier until it gave with a gigantic slam.
Light and sound and dust burst into the other side, and the two halves of the door tumbled in like hurled bricks, ruined and crinkled. Their rolling and bouncing echoed a few times inside, distant to the trio. Justice swung his hissing weapon to the side, fumes tracking its length, and dismissed the titanic form with a huff.
"Ladies and sticky boys first."
-
Suerte
Emerging from the choas was a single cowboy boot. Clouds of smoke emanated from her arms and back as if she herself were steaming. A hand pressed down on her hat, a shadow cast over her eyes, but a smile beaming to replace that presence.
"Personally I like trinity," she said, pointing the barrel of her gun to the ceiling. "What about you spidey?"
-
Spidey
Spidey posted cooly, twinkling from the sheer badassery of that combo attack. They totally had that door, wrecked its shit too.
Then the two just had to get him out of the zone and make him embarrassed of all things.
"Huh? I thought the name was Ladies and sticky boys first. It sounded kind of weird, but I thought that was cool." He looked away shyly, thinking they were making fun of him for not getting something.
-
Justice
He swallowed a chuckle, hooking his sword back into place, and found himself stretching his hand, checking Pity's weight in its holder just to be sure. It was just right.
"No, that's more like a Band name," Justice said. He waited for Spidey to take the lead, letting the smoke of their stunt blow past.
-
Suerte
"Yeah Justice is right, sounds like a band," Suerte said, holstering her gun once again.
Scanning through the room, she noticed the room was essentially empty if you didn't account for the tied up hostages in the center of the room several meters in front of them. There was a massive TV to the side of them that was essentially the wall itself. A table with test tubes was the only other furniture for the room and it rested on the opposite side of the TV.
"Oh lord have mercy. They have a TV," she said, walking over to the hostages and beginning to unwrap them. "This means we either get to watch HBO while we work, or someone is going to talk our ear off. Let me unwrap the hostages. I'm better suited for traps and the like. Make sure no one strong gets in while I am getting them free."
-
Spidey
What was the source of this uneasy feeling? Soon, the sound of static buzzed, and the black screen lit up with a message.
--STAY TUNED--
For an important announcement from your employer.
The spider started to sweat slightly, and only tried to smile. "Oh, I'd rather Netflix." Sadly, this wasn't what was happening. Instead, a lithe old man appeared on the screen, wearing an expensive but unkept turtleneck. He looked as if he hadn't left his place for years. Unshaved, unkept, and pale as a ghost. Was this... the boss?
"It has been a while since I had a visitor. I am quite thrilled."
SLAM!
The buzzers went off, and the room closed off through a gap between the gate hinges. Unlike before, this gate would be tougher to break out of. Even if they could, they probably wouldn't be able to do it all at once.
"This sorry facility was once the testing ground for the Vanguard project. It's where we developed our first enhancement drugs. Soporil, a drug you must have heard of, was also tested in this facility. Our most promising soldiers and scientists were run through my gauntlet to ascertain their suitability. Let us see how suitable you are."
The screen flashed to static once more, and a timer flashed. Five seconds. But... for what?
"Suerte! Wai-"
That's when the numbers on the hostage's necks crossed Suerte's line of sight, and one of them moved to grab Suerte's hand immediately. About ten 'hostages'. Five seconds. Plenty of time.
STATISTICS:
STR CLASS - INCREDIBLE
AGI CLASS - INCREDIBLE
CON CLASS - INCREDIBLE
-
Justice
He wasn't too slow to react. Never too slow, even when it was no guarantee. If lightning was going to fall on his head, he would smell the ozone before the flash. But Suerte was too far, the hostages too close, and his body was still lead, not lightning.
Justice had drawn his gun and instantly popped off a shot towards the one that tried to grab her, a non-lethal hit to the reaching arm. He was running next, charging at them, and blasted the taunting screen with two other shots as he went.
-
Suerte
Suerte's eyes widened as the bullet grazed her body, the rippling wind sliding across her body and fluttering her top. "Told you," she said with a sigh. "Still, I was hoping for HBO. Ah well, I hear game of thrones is a bit overrated, something about the ending or whatever?"
Reaching for her holster, she slid back, hips pushed back and ready to take aim at the next thing that tried to attack her or Justice.
-
The Test Fodder
The bullets shot into their bodies, some even groaned in pain. But they didn't stop. Their eyes were almost empty, like a doll's. Even when they tried to rush hopelessly at the woman, even when others removed their lab vests to reveal explosives attached to them.
4...
3...
Spidey
His eyes darted, and as soon as they found their mark - the strings shot to cut what was in their way. The explosives were the real danger here, so he focused on the ones closes to Suerte.
"No need to hold back. They're just dolls without a shred of consciousness." Despite his usual nervous attitude, and the sweat on his face at the moment, he didn't look surprised.
His eyes were cold. Just like back then.
An unknown number of years ago.
In the mid-18th century, accepting the hospitality of women in the southern mountain regions of China presented an unusual risk. People told tales of women who seduced travelers, feeding men meals laced with a powerful poison known as gu poison to keep their lovers from returning to their homes in the north.
Gu poison, so the stories went, was collected by sealing venomous snakes, scorpions, and centipedes in a jar and forcing them to fight and devour each other. The surviving creature containing a concentrated toxin. Gu poison was considered a slow-acting poison. It was said to have no taste, allowing unsuspecting victims to go about their normal lives for as long as 10 days before they started feeling ill.
Many years ago, in this very lab, a series of Gu rituals took place. No, even calling them that was too kind. This place was nothing more than a factory.
"..."
The spider stood over a web of decimated test weaponry and turrets, cleaved and cut along with those who manned them. The terminals and cameras watched over this feat, but only one man oversaw the result.
"Excellent. Most excellent. Your performance is befitting of an A-series class model. If you keep this up, you might just be able to rival our Z-class models."
A-347's eyes narrowed, and he looked down at his work dispassionately. The more tests he was put through, the more of those visions flashed in his head. But... could they be true? Was this why all of them had to be dragged into this uncaring meat factory?
"But I don't understand one thing, boy. That woman manning the turret, she was the one who showed you kindness in the labs. The test subjects you just trampled on, they were your comrades. And yet you showed no hesitation. Why?"
The sole survivor cracked a smile and looked up at the terminal with an ironic look.
"They're not people. They're just dolls that happened to fall in my web."
The spider's eyes never looked so furious. Without the slightest hesitation he grit his teeth and launched himself against the giant screen, and kicked the crack where the bullet crashed. Suddenly, cracks grew and expanded across the glass, and blew all accross the room. What was behind the screen... was a black pit, leading downwards. It looked like an elevator's hangar.
2...
He grabbed onto the wire and roared with all his might.
"FOLLOW ME, QUICKLY!!"
-
Justice
He bit down on his commentary and bent his knees before launching himself at the pit. He held the trigger and released it as he fell into the darkness, pointed over his shoulder, letting loose an explosive impact between them and the bomb-rigged hostages.
-
Suerte
Suerte offered the hostages a somber glance, eyes soft and a frown before tipping her hat over her head to obscure her face in shadow. "I hope you all are alive when we come back," she said, leaping into the abyss where the television once stood. "Sorry about your friends!"
Wind pushed up Suerte's miniskirt, filling the space with a loud flapping noise. "Spidey! Next time use a little more compassion when freeing hostages," she said. "Mercy is a sign of skill! And be a gentlemen and don't look up!"
-
Spidey
He swung acrobatically once they slid down to a low enough floor, and he advanced through the secret halls and dark corridors, machinery exposed and cracking with electricity as if they were already cleaved by something else. However, when the fork split, he took the unused routes, which showed little sign of damage.
"Dude, I'm the killer. Do I look like I have mercy to spare? Go take your compassion, and shove it up your-"
Suddenly, he jumped off his running course and dodged an explosion at the last second. Being at the lead meant he'd be the one having to face the mines and triggers, but it's not like he was trying to set them off. Plenty of traps and explosions for the babies to deal with. Not that it wasn't a run in the park, after all, they had been through.
He sighed, constantly moving forward.
"Besides, those are test units, not hostages. Did they look like they were hesitating to blow your brains off?" He pointed to the vents around them. "The building's the front, but this labyrinth is what connects the main testing chambers. There's plenty of ways to sneak around here, but all the corridors lead the same way."
He looked dispassionate, but there was some concern to his voice, even while more bombs and triggered traps were in their way.
"Don't you get hit by those. If you die I'll kill you myself!" He sounded a bit concerned, but even here there wasn't any of that goody two-shoes act. That's because the caring part of his performance... wasn't an act. "Have you guys watched the Cube?"
-
Justice
"No," he said. Shaking his head, absently shaking dust from his coat as they carried on, the cacophony of traps sounded like a a trail of bells ahead of them that led to the underworld, Justice thought. "But demons really like death trap puzzle mazes, so doesn't seem very different. Easier when you can cheat."
-
Suerte
"No I haven't seen it, but don't worry we won't die."
Suerte giggled as she placed her arms at her side and straightened her legs, dive bombing past both of them. Still holding onto her gun in her hand, she mindlessly pulled the trigger of the gun, each bullet bouncing mindlessly through the corridor. Each trap she approached was struck by the bullets, causing explosions to clear her path. "Follow me!"
-
Spidey
His eyes shot up wide-eyed, not because of the traps he dodged or even because of the girl picking up speed. This was unbelievable! "Jesus, are you two serious!? Then I'll have to get you to watch it at my place! You're missing out!"
Explosions rippled the air, the corridors started to catch on fire behind them. No matter. As far as the spider was concerned, he was already resolved to this. He'd always keep running forward. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX_p8-HPCn8)
His eyes dropped embarrassingly, and for a moment he refused to look at the two. Was this what it was like? To feel normal happiness?
"Let's just watch movies when this is over... together..."
But soon, the sound of static cut through the explosions. Drones began to slip through the cracks, buzzing around with their guns to shoot the trio down as they advanced. Was this also part of the test? Before the answer could be uttered, the spider began to cut them down with his web. "Don't fall behind!"
And the static warned of an ominous future.
"We wished to create a hero. A perfect organism that would protect this city. But time after time, our project proved unsuccessful. Until we met that man."
And as it spoke, the black gaps that surrounded them lit up to reveal more tv-screens, images, and recordings of children being cut open, experimented on, tested in the same wy the three were tested. Again and again. Despite the pleas, despite the cries, you could only move forward. The static soon cut to show a man hidden by shadows. His features were indistinguishable, only his skin as pale as the most pallid parchment showed through his clothes. And as soon as he flashed on the screens, he vanished to show a flood of data arrays, scrolling down with no appearance to ever stop.
"It was an incredible discovery. To think we could harness the power of the old world to awaken humans. With our newly developed enhancement drug, anyone's latent potential could be unlocked. We could have made a world of Gods."
-
Justice
The steedless Rider was not as fast as the two. He stretched his senses, he honed his steps, and he sped after, focusing not on the traps right around the corner, but the ones after that, the dangers that were looming seconds ahead in his descent. He ducked under hails of gunfire before they roared, he rolled through explosions before they could strike him head-on, and he allowed the less of many harms and those that he could not flip away from to break against his armor and dissipate against his constitution.
Justice ignored the screens. Static would be better. Somehow, these words were like a wind riding the desert dunes, revealing old, buried thoughts unbidden.
"Flawed castings from a perfect mold. There was no deviation in the process, therefor, the materials must have been impure."
...
"Did you ever believe it was the Creator's hand who seeded you?"
...
"You will never be anything but weapons."
...
"Ere long, you will see the mistake thine siblings have made. The lie all ye have accepted in place of the inevitable."
A silver tree, weeping black fruits onto a lawless realm. A youth that never was, drenched in blood. A starless land, hateful and longing for your return, where you were first carried by something other than your own feet. Deceit, regret, anger and fear.
Justice dragged Absolution across the screens at his side, and eviscerated signals and gutted electronics threw a pall of wretched noise over the echoing transmission.
-
Suerte
Revolting.
That was the only thought that came to mind as Suerte ran through the corridor. Those children ripped away from their families, the thought forced a scowl onto the cowgirl's face. The world of the gods? How arrogant. As if the gods could be reached by throwing away a few human lives.
Suerte slowed down the second she heard the drones behind her, hiding within the debris created from Justice's blade. Bullets sailed towards her, only to miraculously strike the peices of metal flying from the walls. Guns in hand, she aimed at the drones, the cracks of her guns barely signaling the bullets that flew out of them.
"Or one piece!" she yelled with a smile.
She didn't need the corridor to remind her. The only option is forward.
-
Spidey
One by one, the drones fell and burst like the expendable machines they were. But as they fell and burst into flames, the machinery leaked fluids for a moment. It was too short to truly sink in, they were running past the traps too fast. But perhaps not. Perhaps it was better to simply ignore it.
The broken drones revealed small brains trapped in the machinery. The sort of underdeveloped organs more befitting a child's than a grown human brain.
"Oh right! Uh, One Piece's kind of lame since the time skip though! Why not Redline? It's got badass races and stuff!" He cut, and cut, and cut more. Following Suerte, he cut along the screens until the gap was exposed. "Wrong way! Your path leads to safety! But the answers are straight down hell." He jumped into the darkness and proceeded through the dark corridor.
Like Vergil, leading Dante into the circles of the inferno.
"But it was a mistake."
Blades and more came shredding through the dark hall, like a trapped corridor trying to slice and skewer them on the spot. But he didn't give up. He couldn't. He had already started a long time ago. Tonight, this ends.
"We tried everything. From hypnosis therapy to drugs and radiation. But it wasn't close enough. Our prototypes were too unstable. By taking them at a young age and using suggestive techniques to change their identities, we thought we could reach closer results through placebos. To make them truly believe their new roles, and acclimate their souls to the artificial implants. But that was a failure as well. Rather... we had already failed the moment we put our faith in that substance. That thing... was surely not meant for humans."
That devil... it truly thought nothing of this even as it spoke up. And yet, the feeling of unease did not end.
"The failures were unstable rubbish, barely worth selling to some cults as expendable soldiers. But two of our top projects managed to pass preliminary testing. Let us call them... A and B. No, V and Z. But their minds reacted aversely to the procedures. The recessive simply threw away his entire identity. The dominant one... his mind split and fragmented into a myriad of 'heroes', trying to fill some kind of void. Or perhaps to cope with the experiments. Oh well... In the end, our project was aborted. Our dreams were rendered null by this world's will. It simply can't be helped."
The spider just kept cutting, silent... and suddenly somber.
The halls and traps lead to a much more spacious room underground, with cold echoes and drips ominously topping the darkness. A dim light flickered under a doorway, the only visible bastion left in this place.
"This is it. End of the line." The killer looked sad. "Thanks... for helping me get back at these assholes." His eyes trailed down.
Once they walked through that door, there'd be no going back.
However, another door laid hidden in darkness.
"You know, you're a lucky bastard Justice. I wish I had a girlfriend like yours." He managed to smile at Justice. "So, ready to move forward?"
-
Justice
Justice felt like spitting, inundated with naked frustration. He was sick of this nonsense, running them ragged like they were circus monkeys. The avalanche of blades at last made him crack the ground with his steps, and out came his fury. A fan of spinning saws shattered against his empowered skin, and with a sweeping glare that blinded the entire corridor and sailed over Spidey and Suerte's heads, he melted through a score of the ones that followed.
When they stepped into the unnerving darkness, gaining a moment to breathe, the Rider shed his titanic seeming and rolled his shoulders. "Partner, not girlfriend," he corrected. For a second then, he placed Spidey in his sights, but shook his head. "It was nothing. What next?"
-
Suerte
There wasn't even a thought. The cowgirl stepped into the room, tightening her grip on the butt of the weapon. Her once lazy eyes now laser focused on the new target. Suerte licked her lips at the idea of a new battle, even as she realized she probably wouldn't be able to see all the lovely things she usually got to see in these types of encounters.
"Yup partner!" she said, beaming. "You can have a little piece of me if you want it Mr. Darkness."
-
Spidey
"Dude, kind of late for a boss fight." He looked at Suerte straight as if she were loony or something, totally unimpressed. "And who'd name their mook something that lame anyways?"
It's almost like he was stalling. Or perhaps he was scared, scared of what came after this. But... he sighed, and gave up on that fear soon enough. "The tapes are over there. All the intel and data collected over the last 16 years. What you decide to do after that... well, that's up to you."
He put his hands in his pockets and grinned.
"I guess I was chasin' a feeling too."
-
Justice
He breathed deeply, like the hot air from the burning bowels of a mountain rushing through the dust-cobbled tunnels, turning up a wheezing wind through its face. The natural battle-poise went slack, and he released a stubborn crack from his neck by twisting his head to the side, before laying eyes on the place Spidey pointed.
"I mess up people and turn in their rotten brains for daylight to sort out. Managing such a wealth of prickly, vital information doesn't fit my skillset," the Rider said. He tipped the edge of his hat up, staring clearly at their gangly companion. "If I had someone to turn to, maybe. But no roots to speak of yet."
"You on the other hand, Spidey, must know some people. I'd like you to lend us a hand. It's plain you wanted to do something about this. So stick around and see it through." He gestured at the young man with a shake of his shrouded chin.
-
Suerte
The cowgirl mirrored her partner's body language, tipping her hat down to obscure her face. Only her smile was visible to the two. A hand rested on spidey's shoulder. "Yeah, i'm no good at this sorta thing either, can only fight and gamble. I have faith in that feeling of yours. Go get it tiger."
Suerte nodded at him before pushing him forward.
-
Spidey
"Tch, you know just what to say to make me feel like a bad guy." He put his hand behind his head and kicked a piece of equipment. "So you're saying I get to choose what to do with it? Oh nevermind, you just want to put more work on little old me. Fine, fine. But..."
He grinned weakly and pointed forward.
"Aren't you just a bit curious? To see what's on the other side of that door? Heck, no need to posture, just kick it open or something."
-
Justice
"I'll obviously look, but I suspect I won't care for the details," he said, slumping. Which only made him look slightly less built like an impressive statue, as opposed to not at all. "Suerte, do you want to do the honors?"
-
Suerte
"Yaaaaay! Destruction!" she cheered, a beaming smile on her face.
For a moment she glanced at the guns she was holding, then at the toned body she had crafted but never really used except for parkour and lifting. She could just blow up the door, or.... The guns were holstered back on her belt. A hand grabbed hold of the hinges and ripped it off like a kid tearing through a Christmas present. The door split in half midway through, pieces of it flying in every direction.
"Yeeeesssss!"
-
A-702
The door blasted wide open, and of course Spidey posed cooly in the back. That's when they saw the room filled with monitors and recordings. Tapes, data and more. So this was the end huh? End of the line.
That's when they heard the banging. Wait, no way, this had to be a mistake.
There was an ominous feeling in the air. It couldn't be.
C-9K9
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
A monstrous creature blared its fangs at the trio its one eye wide open as if to burn them to death with all its hate. The moment the lights flickered in the data room, Spidey's eyes sparked and he basically dashed and hopped straight forward.
"GAAAAARRRRRRRRRGHHH!!!" The creature also charged forward with its fangs bared to slash and gnaw at them. However. (https://imgur.com/2obvZcM)
SLAM!!
Spidey smacked straight on the protected glass pane, flattening his mug over it. The creature also bumped against it. It looked like it was trapped in a giant glass tube, floating and unable to get out. The dazed spider shook his head and looked at the monster like it was an old friend and grinned from ear to ear like an idiot.
"Chop!? Where the hell have you been?" With a full combo slash of his strings, the glass was ripped apart, and he hugged the giant vicious ball of eyes and teeth with all his heart. The one-eyed monster also grinned, its entire existence smelling like death and destruction.
"Jesus, you've got fat! C'mere good girl! Oh, that's right, you love dem scritchy scratches huh? Huh? Ohoooo! Goochie goochie goochie!"
Suerte and Justice would never believe it. This night of terror all lead to something like this!? This was a story you couldn't spin even to your grandkids. It was utterly surreal. But A-702 was so happy, you couldn't believe it. Tears streamed from his face, and he just laughed. "She's here! She was okay! We can get her out safely now! Big sis! Big sis!"
Then, the monster slipped out of the hug and cheerily went up to Suerte and Justice, slobbering them wet with big loving licks. Justice's grace reacted harshly at the sight of it, sending Justice a signal at the back of his head. But his senses would tell him clear as day, this creature wasn't malicious. This was just a reunion between siblings. Yet it felt strange, it hadn't reacted like this before. Were they connected somehow?
A-702
"Oh man, so that's where they kept you!? I'm a dumbass. All this time... if I just had the guts to pick this door over the other one..." He sniffled and grinned. Wait, there was another door?
"It has been a while since I had a visitor. I am quite thrilled."
But a familiar voice suddenly cut the reunion. It cleaved it like a knife, mocking this reunion too. Wait, no. It was too familiar. It sounded... exactly like something they heard before.
"Let us see how suitable you are."
"The reasons or context behind the attack are still a mystery to us, I am afraid we cannot divulge information that we lack. However, we may ask any other question. Please, do as you may. Who we are, where you are, and our activities. Those will surely be relevant in your investigation."
"Excellent. Most excellent. Your performance is befitting of an A-series class model. If you keep this up, you might just be able to rival our Z-class models."
A smaller screen showed the same flashing images as before, but they ran through a loop.
The boss was just a recording. There hadn't been a boss in this place since the old days. This whole organization... ran on a fucking recording. It was created for a purpose, but no one was there to even remember it. This whole organization's original purpose has long been forgotten and, and they simply continued the same experiments over and over because it would otherwise be irrelevant if it went to waste. No one had ever seen or interacted with the boss face to face. Just following orders blindly...
It had brought this entire branch to ruin.
"Thanks. Now, this nightmare's finally over. We... are the last models. The Vanguard project's done. Even if they wanted to, there's no way they'd be able to get kids like us to fight their battles. The organization is finished."
The monster looked straight at Suerte. After all these years, it had finally found love.
"Care for some sushi? It's on me."
-
Mai
6:00 AM Nexus Time
This is a morning in the life of Mai. She opens her eyes, as restless as ever from an eight hour meditation session. She rarely sleeps anymore, as things more real than dreams await her in her unconsciousness. She makes sure not to rub the bags under her eyes. She has been told that makes them more pronounced. She spends the first few minutes head bowed in prayer, and she begs forgiveness from the gods for the sin of kinslaying. The memories are fresh but her eyes are dry.
She asks forgiveness for that as well.
Mai dresses herself, she combs her hair, and then she goes out to beg. She could make great profit with a sword. If she sold her skills like a common mercenary, she could undoubtedly make her fair share in bounties. But she will never raise her sword for the sake of profit.
The Demon is quiet this morning, even if her hands are never far from her sword. She seats herself upon the concrete and leaves her bowl out in front of her, and the infrequent generosity of strangers sometimes seems it filled with the occasional coin or bill. She ignores the gnawing of her stomach, the pain of a weakened body.
Mai does not relish in pain, but she has come to acknowledge it as deserving.
But today, there is a disturbance. She raises her hands to her mouth and breathes a puff of warm air over them. Except, they do not feel cold. She flexes her fingers and feels the distinct warm of the rising sun, almost confused. Then the mildest shiver traces its way through her body. She exhales harshly, and even though it is as pleasant as any other day she sees it distinctly in the air as if it was winter. There is a chill in this place, even if it was not physical. A cold that branches out from the soul.
If it was her, then Mai was sure that it would be simple to identify exactly what the source was. She was always more sensitive to such things after all. But Mai has no choice to awkwardly fumble her way though such a world, her eyes darting back and forth until the source revealed itself.
He was taller than her, for one. Black hair fell past his shoulders and a strip of white ice seemed to sparsely span his face. Then there were his clothes, finely stitched, and the way he carried himself. He was certainly no demon, no. But he was certainly more than human. Some sort of spirit, or youkai, or god. Still, if it was only that then there was no reason to be concerned. Then she notices his cold, blue eyes looking at her. Not generally, not curiously, but with an intensity and focus that has her hand ache for her sword. But why is he--
Her sword is already in her hand. She can taste the coppery flavor of blood in her mouth, so thick as if to be overflowing, even though she has not even bit her own tongue. The anticipation, the curdling bloodlust, the silhouette of a phantom limb restlessly rising from her back. Mai is suddenly aware of it, all at once. The one thing she had refused to recognize but was drawn to. The fact she could not shake from her mind now. He was wielding a sword.
What an embarrassing display.
She sinks then, as if deflating. Her sword clatters to the ground next to her and she resumes her sitting position. Her eyes shut, and her focus returns to meditative exercises and harsh discipline. And, the faint hope that the stranger will not investigate her actions.
-
Lubei
His first mission from the Seraph begins at the crack of dawn, and Lubei does not have illusions it will be pleasant. He and the escorts provided by his... friend, do not speak between themselves, no more than necessary to confer the operation. If the lack of rest was making him sullen, then he was allowed that indignity without remark. Lubei can't say the same for the suspicion that Ivanna's troops scream at his back with their eyes, or even at his face when they think he's not paying attention.
He doesn't need an excuse, but he finds a reason to make himself scarce anyway, once they have begun in earnest. They have the supplies and they know how to distribute them, but he's the only one familiar with Uria's creatures, so he'll go on patrol for their presence and send any streetdwellers left in the ravaged area towards the nuns. The search is as fruitless as expected. There are no new bodies to mourn, but the few lives that remain here will not leave their shelters or homes for him. Lubei wouldn't either, not willingly, so there is need to grease the wheels... he's still an invader, and this is much like conquest.
But rather than countless soldiers, the faces of the few stick longer to memory.
He notices her before he hears the sword ringing as it falls, but then he sees her. The figure tries to seem small, but there are things that can't be missed once they are within reach. The cold is homely to the demon king, but a chill touches his spine for an instant, and he searches for what it was.
Her hands are calloused, the fingers worn as far as the knuckle from training. Her posture betrays years of being forced into formality even in slumping. The features she carries bring to mind the people of Dongying - there is no Dongying here, no more than there is Shenzhou, but individuals of all colors and shapes frolick easily in the Nexus, Ivanna said. Lubei's gaze comes to rest on a perfectly mundane sword, but Three Poisons suddenly hums in his sheathe. His arm itches to grab the hilt of the sabre, but something hazy in his nerves warns him not to. Lubei knows better than to defy himself outright.
"Come with me," he says, out of his mouth with conviction before he can take it back. His boots cover the distance between them with soft crunches on the cement and trash of the street, until he is properly a swordspan away, much more vivid than seconds before. "You look in need of alms. Some have come to provide, and more besides."
-
Mai
Generosity? Her eyes narrow for a moment at the offer. Was this some sort of trap? But she saw the strength in his limbs, and the frost of his spirit still sent chills through her soul. No, there was no trick here. He was mighty enough to simply kill her or kidnap her now. And she will not cling to her poverty out of pride. So Mai stands and looks at the stranger she nearly tried to butcher just a few breathes ago. Then she bows.
Her back bends with a grace that disguises how long it has been since her last exchange in formalities. Mai's hands come together to show she cannot reach her blade. Her face looks only at the ground, leaving her neck bare for a sudden execution. No one will ever say that Mai has forgotten humility.
"Thank you for your kindness, my lord. This vagabond is called Mai. If you wish to provide, then I will follow." Then she straightens, and quicker than most can see her sword and bowl are both in her hands once more.
-
Lubei
He crosses his arms in lieu of any other salute, nodding firmly. The scowl above his eyes doesn't look any less like it belongs there, but it nearly shakes itself off for an instant, before settling. It is inquisitory but his response is even and clear.
"Think nothing of it. I am Lubei. I've come on behalf of the Seraph of the Fourth Rome, along with her handpicked subordinates. Her wish is to recover this devastated town, and place it under her watchful dominion."
He thinks to mention what precipipated it, the recent event that bled this already withered area further. But if she has been here, she would have noticed already. What comfort can he offer?
"If you have questions, the others will help answer them," Lubei says, turning to the direction he came. He looks to make sure there is space left between them. Her movements are decisive, honed, but strangely careful. Restrained.
The greeting that was waiting for him feels knitted with thorns, and Lubei takes it like a boar running through a hedge.
"I was starting to consider getting a group ready and tracking you down. Where have you been?" The severe-faced woman (https://danbooru.donmai.us/posts/4270199) stares at him with eyes more like a dead fish than ones that belong in a living human. Red, like her hair, but betraying little on their own. Clawed nailguards tap against her forearm impatiently, and they make her more resemble a student of the dark arts than a nun.
Her name is Raisa. Derived after a certain kind of flower, as provided by a single friendly face who spoke out from her entourage earlier. Lubei holds back a scoff.
"Performing the task I was assigned, as agreed," he responds."There wasn't any trace of the creatures. Physical or spiritual. It took longer because I was surveying for survivors willing to come now."
Lubei tries to move past her, to lead the girl to the building the other nuns have commandeered, a tall-windowed, gray-walled community center of some description, which has acquired a thin stream of population headed in, and a handful of female guards around every cardinal direction. But a clammy hand clamps around his upper arm, tugging him back with more than mortal strength towards an untrusting face.
"Hold it. What about her? Is she human?" The nun asks. Flakes of snow fall from the bridge of Lubei's nose and his furrowing brows when he rumbles his answer back. "Why does that matter?"
This time, she flashes her teeth in a sneer. "Because some demons eat humans."
-
Mai
Mai's brow furrows at the question. Would she hurt anyone here? She looks back towards the procession of victims. Some carry weapons, it is true. But her heart does not itch. Her hands do not ache. She breathes, but not even the mildest excitement rises to the surface. These people are empty already. It will not pursue them. It would not even think to pursue them. Such a thing would be like a river flowing uphill. Try as she might, even the image of it slaughtering these stragglers is alien to her.
It reminds her of the faces of a decimated clan, its best warriors freshly slaughtered and the ground red with their blood. She remembers, oh so clearly, how the Demon saw the trembling survivors hidden in their homes. She knows how easily it could have killed each of them. But it could not, and that makes her glad. For no matter how monstrous her obsession, she was at least not cruel.
So Mai shakes her head. "I do not partake of human flesh, and I am no danger to any of the people here. If they will not raise a sword to me, they have nothing to fear."
Although these protectors... yes, her sword feels close to her when she looks at them. They are strong, and they have the will to fight if necessary. But for now, she faces her unexpected benefactor with a raised brow. What was he expecting, bringing her here?
-
Lubei
"You heard her. She's not lying." Lubei can tell there's something fragile and hazardous there, but it is not ill-intent. He rips his arm free, and the nun doesn't protest. "Are you done scrutinizing me instead of performing your tasks?"
"No." She answers, skeptical and dry. Instead of continuing to give him a headache by questioning the mission, she marches up to the girl and accuses her, as though her word was equal to evidence. "You're possessed by something. Is that what it means when you imply that you will be a danger if anyone raises arms?
A murmur spreads through the nuns outside, the ones close enough to listen in. One or other among their number nodding to their sisters. Raisa coldly acknowledges them at the edge of her vision before twisting with a frown at the demon king, as her claws gesture at the girl in question.
"You're too easy to convince. Didn't you feel anything when you saw her? You should have questioned her first. Not much of a demon king if you're easy to dupe. Understand? Put people in danger instead of helping them, or threaten Her Holiness's vision... and I'll make sure she reconsiders your usefulness."
Lubei grinds his teeth together, but the calm of his voice the next moment is surprising. Fractal blooms of ice spread beneath his boots in lieu of the pressure he expects to hear. "Look for whatever reasons you wish to criticize me, but I am not careless. Did Ivanna not send you with me precisely for these reasons? Then anyone who looks to be in need, until decisively marked otherwise, is to receive."
Raisa shakes her head, but primly steps out of the space between him and Mai. "Hmph. Indeed. Carry on then," she says through a grunt for his troubles.
His shoulders slump in release, and Lubei walks forward, shaking his head for the girl to follow. Raisa marks them both with her eyes, and barks out one last thing to her. "You, ask for Sister Lana after you've settled in. Perhaps she can do something about that thing inside you."
-
Mai
This ends up with them sitting across from each other at a table, bowls of vaguely greyish soup serving as their meals for the day. Mai's hands come together and she utters a basic prayer in thanks to the gods. She has food, she has shelter, she has pleasant company. In this place, all three things are luxuries. So if her words are more genuine now then they have been for the last few weeks, she feels no great guilt over it. After a few mouthfuls of surprisingly filling food, she looks at her unlikely benefactor again.
"That holy woman called you a demon king, but you don't seem obsessed enough to me." She absentmindedly stirs the leftovers of her meal with her spoon, turning her gaze to the ever-present vigil of the nuns for an instant. Some were human. But the others had a familiar intensity to them.
Mai sees it in their faces. Human skin stretched taut over obsession. Like fire enclosed in a shell of wax, it shines brightly through them, and at the slightest shift everything but that fire would melt away. Or maybe she was simply seeing someone else in them. A bitter smile stretches its way across her features. Trust this strange this place to almost normalize her condition. Yet her eyes are soon back upon her benefactor. She had simply left him in awkward silence after that remark, hadn't she?
So she feels the discipline rooted in her soul school her features, her face a perfect image of pleasant neutrality. "My lord," she begins, "why did you bring me here?"
Yes, it was a good question. Even as she eats, the eyes of this place's protectors never leave her. Mai does not truly blame them. Death hangs over her as a shroud. The unpleasant smell of corpses and blood seeps from her body. Her sword is stained with flaking, dried blood. She knows she should have cleaned it long ago, but she could not rouse the effort to do so. Now it is simply another indicator. Yes, death clings to her. It is on her hands, under her fingernails, behind her eyelids, almost seeping from her like sweat in the sun. Even the ashen-faced citizens can see it. They look anywhere else, they play little games, but their eyes are drawn in morbid fascination. Mai has killed, and she will kill again. She knows this even as she defies it.
But for all that Mai sees herself, she is still so very blind.
She defaults to unkindness because she feels it is deserved. She cannot see the pity in the eyes of one of the nuns that watch her, her features just a tad softer and kinder than her sisters'. She fails to understand the meaning behind the chef's frown as he looks at her, his kindly features angry not at lithe limbs that promise violence but arms that are too thin. She is not just coated in death, it hangs over her already like a specter awaiting its due.
All these things that Mai will never know. Still, her gaze is sharp. Her eyes sees through Lubei's skin, peering at the pulse of blood through veins and the twitching of muscle. The things she can see are not few. An unyielding sternness keeps her back straighter than a rod of iron. It focuses fingers that would otherwise fidget and maintains an almost meditative stillness.
Mai would not accept, or be fooled by, any petty lie.
-
Lubei
Not obsessed enough.
Bitter memories come rushing down like a river that's slipped from its shackles. It's true. The sardonic nun had a point. Perhaps in his last life Lubei was more like a demon king than he ever will be in this one. Is he doomed to always misread his surroundings? He doesn't want to acknowledge that. Everything so far has to have some value. He's fine with being a demon no monster aspires to be, if only he can do his duties right. And he realizes something, thanks to these thoughts. What he was feeling about her. Her wariness, this marrow-seated discomfort of expecting the world to blame her because she must deserve it, and any alternative is unclear at best, duplicitous at worst.
It hits a little too close to home for Lubei. He clears his throat. "Our respective demons may not be the same entities. Nor our gods." As for the rest, it is easier to answer. It doesn't fill him with vinegar.
"I am repaying my debts. I told you not to mind this kindness, because it is not my own. I'm merely the executor," he explains. But his eyes run from hers after, and he covers the shape of his mouth, lacking even a shitty fan to guard his expressions. There is a flutter of cold feathers at the edge of his vision; he chooses to ignore it. "And you looked miserable. Not by choice."
-
Mai
She laughs. It's an awkward, throaty thing that soon breaks down into a slight cough. But a smile lingers on her face after. "That is a very foolish position to take, my lord. Would you say that a soldier who carries out the will of his master is blameless? Are his hands unsullied, no matter the crimes he commits?" Her hands gradually come together, and while her smiles diminishes it lingers. The slightest crack in a wall of politeness.
"If sin is a matter of one's own actions then virtue is the same. You cannot live under one while escaping the other. If we must judge ourselves, then we must keep an honest ledger, yes?" Her hands come apart, and her eyes are caught onto the way his shoulders bend under an unseen weight. How his hand guards his face from her, as if he was a noble lady in want of a veil.
And he sees the sympathy in his eyes reflected in her own. "It is hard to remember such things, I know. It would be better if it was more obvious." She draws her stained blade then, even as the gaze of the nuns fall on her like a hammer. She lays it across the table with all the grace it deserves. So it clatters and shakes when she drops it like a common tool. Her finger scrapes off a chunk of dried blood. "Like my sword. Everyone knows it is an ugly weapon by sight. They know it has taken the life from many men by the blood on it. But as shameful as I look, I will never be half as clear. Anyone who sees me would never know the evils I have committed unless I make it clear. I could live my life as shamelessly as I desire. So why is it that we desire others to see our sins?"
She looks at him, and her eyes are cold. They are still. Her gaze makes his soul ache with phantom chills, the emptiness reminiscent of a frozen eternity.
"We desire it," she begins with a slow intensity to her voice, "because we know that we are weak. We know we are cowardly. Because punishment awaits for me, my lord, just as it may for you. And I know that if I was not reminded I may very well run from it. I wish to be seen in all my unsightliness, if only so that their hateful eyes and barbed words can push me towards that punishment, towards redemption. And if we are anything alike, you will know that even that pain is fine. Because what we were before makes us sick simply to think about."
But her voice holds no dread, not even a trace of fear. It is almost airy, almost peaceful. "I've rambled, I know. But all of that was simply to tell you my understanding of the situation, my lord. There is no need to distance yourself from the good that you do." There is a pause then, and when she speaks again it holds all the certainty of a gallows victim. "It will not change your punishment, if that is what you face. It will not alleviate the slightest thorn of suffering. So if you will do good despite that, it will be the purest your kindness ever was. Because it will not save you."
-
Lubei
Lubei balks at her. It wasn't humbleness that motivated him, but he was ready to denounce a response that claimed anything of the sort. Not this. He barely pays attention to the blade, how it raises the hackles of everyone around them. His blood threatens to freeze over, but another voice keeps it flowing.
'Denying the good you do will not discount from your sins; denying yourself even the dignity of how you've changed will not alter what you owe.' His eternal shadow whispers.
Mai continues, and his throat grows tight, because this is so much more than he wanted to hear, but can't bring himself to interrupt. She holds his attention hostage as much as the scoldings of the raptor. If she knew every detail of the things he's seen and which await him, it would not feel more like knives. Indeed, it is like being seen, in all of its terror. What has she done, to be able to speak like this?
He wonders what she means, if punishment then, leads to redemption. If that was all, he should not be alive, should not have ever worried for penance. Should they not be ashamed? That is what their sentence tells them, what the brand for their crimes inflicts, whatever those may have been. If it's ambiguous, how can they know what to do with the temporary freedom of this life? It has nothing to do with his wishes for a birth he didn't choose. Lubei cannot be satisfied if he does not see the length of his chains before they pull him down.
What he understands the least is how accepting she appears at the last of her argument. There is an important concept there. A revelation. It lies on the edge of his awareness, and he can almost make sense of it. This he knows, but he can't tell the shape of it.
'You wish to be demeaned,' the raptor says, sad and weary. 'Because you think there is nothing else for you; but that is not the meaning of this journey. Hearken unto my words - this was not compelled of you. Do you not wish for proof of the distance you have walked? It will not avail you to blame the self because it is less arduous than to look back with eyes purified and a mind opened. Bear with the repugnance. It has only ever been you.'
The demon glares weakly at the shoulder where it stands, as far as anyone else realizes merely angry at empty space. Shaking his head, he hisses for air.
The instant strains like a taut string, and Lubei raises his face to her. "How can punishment bring redemption? It is... compensation. But it is not amends, nor can it fix anything that is gone."
-
Mai
Her smile is sad, but there is a glimmer in her eyes. She is not herself. In this instance, she is someone a tad wiser and much stronger. She is the sister who can tell this story, even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts. "Imagine," she begins, "two sisters. One is the moon and the other is the shadow. By her nature, the shadow cannot help but be drawn to the moon. Yet she is always lesser compared to her sibling. She grows to hate the moon, because the moon shows the shadow her own face. And the shadow hates herself more than she could ever hate the moon. But the moon is not free either. She is a mirror in the sky, and because of the light she reflects no one is interested in her true face. Not once has anyone thought to understand her."
She exhales then, a shuddering thing that makes her hands quake. "They suffer."
"One day, the shadow finds the answer to her suffering. So she kills the moon. She kills her father and her clansmen. She sullies her hands with the sin of kinslaying until they are stained beneath the skin. She embraces her own nothingness, and she never feels pain again. What punishment does the shadow deserve?"
Mai blinks away the tears before they can form, yet her smile is a sly and bright crescent. She shines like the moon. There is no room for an answer here. "One day, the shadow remembers what it feels to live, and she regrets her choice. Because she regrets, she becomes something human again. So she can be punished. The answer given to her is simple. Walk."
"At first, the shadow is confused. But she obliges the voice of heaven. She walks as the sun sets. She walks in the dead of night. She walks even as the sun rises once more. She walks as her sandles fray apart and crumble." The words become quicker, chained together by a rapid pace. "Her feet blister. They bleed. They are rubbed raw of skin. And she continues to walk. But then one day, she looks up and sees that her destination is no closer. And she remembers what it means to suffer again. She bemoans her fate. Did her regret lead to nothing more than empty cruelty? But that was not the case!"
There is a forcefulness to her voice, an intensity that is almost fearful to see. "She is asked to turn back instead. And behind her she sees herself when she began her journey. She fears this thing more than death, now that she can see it in its totality. She becomes impossibly glad that she has distanced herself from it, and yet she is still too close. Even if she cannot see her destination, she must hurtle herself towards it. It is a journey measured in the paces taken away from herself. So she keeps walking, even to this day. The meaning of this story may be different for you, my lord, but I assure you that it contains the answer to your question. You need only clarify the tale to know it." Her smile shifts into a neutral expression and the piercing quality in her gaze dulls. Yet something lingers in the air, like the heat from a coal taken from the fire. It will burn, even without light.
"Is punishment the steps taken from yourself, or is that redemption? Is redemption the steps taken towards your destination, or is that punishment? Once you answer, you will have solved the previous question as well, my lord."
-
Lubei
It is not such a strange story, in the broad strokes, and it is plain to him after the first act where she fits in it. It's no less horrid. Lubei keeps to himself the morbid question of how many times she has recounted it. He remembers driving a cousin to kinslaying for his sake, in his first life, and he's not confident he will be able to keep himself from mentioning it if he speaks now.
His fingers dig into the table, releasing splinters, as he is pulled between commiseration and an inexplicable fury for the suppressed sorrow under her eyes. The demon hears the echoes of Hell in her words, and he wants to scream before he's pulled under and silenced. And most of all, he hears the same plea, the same message as from his cursed phantom guide, and he feels sick to the stomach of riddles.
He begins to mouth words, then pauses. Shedding ice from the ugly lines furrowing his face, as he forces out a response. "To live modestly and pitifully, to accept judgement, to be struck down for every life I damned, all of these are simple. But I cannot trust my objectivity. Should I gamble eternity on the same thing that sent me to the depths of sin? Shit."
Lubei's voice is barely a whisper when he finishes, and it takes the shape of a confession. For an instant he doesn't know how they got here, where he is. But his raptor sits between the two, its croon soft and yet razored.
'Yet you must. It is not a trap, and it is not objectivity that you need, but reflection. Fear alone will take you from one uncertainty to another.'
-
Mai
"You do not see yourself." Her voice is suddenly accusatory. Mai's hands do not move at all, and yet the phantom sensation of a blade against skin presses against Lubei's neck. "Is it that you cannot look? Or do you simply choose not to? No, the answer is meaningless. You will never understand the question as you are. You have not even taken a single step on the path. You merely mouth the words, stumbling blindly without direction."
"Coward." She practically spits out the word, as if she can barely stand saying it.
Her hand throbs with the killing impulse, with the barely restrained desire to sever his head from his shoulders. To sentence him to whatever eternity he so fears. She can see it so clearly that the man before her seems little more than a phantom. As if the headless corpse before her was true reality.
But Mai knows restraint. So even as her body sits on the verge of action, she does not move. The shadow grants him a chance. "In the story, the shadow hates herself most of all. She despises her sister, the moon, for under her light the shadow's ugliness is revealed. Those who have never seen their own face can continue in their unsightliness. Consider this question carefully, you who fear your own face. Do you seek to escape your punishment or yourself?"
-
Lubei
Mai accuses him, and this time Lubei slams the table between them, spilling the tableware through a crash. He roars at that one word of insult, coward.
"And what of it?!" Admitting is like an explosion of bitterness in his mouth. The black ice that serves him shudders to be set free. On the verge of action he thinks - coward or not, it's none of her business, least of all to judge him!
But it doesn't come out. He knows exactly how dishonest it would be, and it turns into old ash on his tongue.
If it was solely his life on the scales. But it is not. Lubei Sang has responsibilities. He has a duty, with a whole lifetime of hubris to motivate him. He has not stopped thinking about those he must return to but for moments where instinct overtakes all else. Even now, he is acting for this destiny to come, expecting to return to Ivanna and hear all she can tell and collect that may offer a clue to leaving the Nexus. But... a king cannot be a coward. If the difference between a tumor of a ruler and a blessed sovereign lies in discerning what should be done from what must be done, and choosing the right one, he will have to try.
Lubei has never been meek but for his second lifetime, when he hurt and regretted too heavily to not cower, to not do precisely as the King of Death demanded. But he was not a coward by nature, and all he had held back came rushing out foolishly in the transmigration that followed. It is fear of the frozen hell that restrains him. Fear of that future, the self-flaggelating terror of proving that he belongs there and that is all he will be remembered for.
In the end, he struggles through the silence, but finds purchase. It is like emerging from a frozen lake without air, and on the other hand, like letting go and floating to the clouds. He sighs. "It... has only ever been me."
He cannot explain the way that shifts the weight from his shoulders. It feels incomplete. But it lets him breathe. It lets him feel his fingers again, curled into fists, and relax them. He raises his gaze to her cold one and inhales. "You are correct. I am, have been... afraid of beholding myself."
-
Mai
She exhales then, and the tension bleeds from the air. Tiredness suits her. With this lull in her heated demeanor it reasserts itself. And perhaps there is vulnerability. Perhaps he is not the only one with a companion, even if hers is not the guide but the lesson incarnate. For a moment, it is possible he sees It behind her eyes. The seat of nothingness, a place where no one exists, the blind pursuer of the peak of swordsmanship. The thing that can never know what it possesses, even as it clutches its deepest desire in its hands.
Or perhaps not.
Mai truly is feeling exceedingly charitable. It must be the soup, she decides, that has made her tongue so loose. A full stomach makes one chatty. Yet this creature is so pitiful that she is compelled to continue. "You will never escape your punishment. To focus on its inevitability is to be as the man who shakes and sobs every night for he knows he will die. Understandable, perhaps, but stupid. You will die whether you fear it or not. You will only change if you wish to change, not because of your cowardice. If you do not think yourself capable, simply say so. That too is understandable."
Her hand grasps the hilt of her blade, but her eyes hold nothing more than mild curiosity. "Say so, and I will take your head for you. It will be painless."
-
Lubei
Lubei leans back, forcing himself to relax into the bench, and he does not see how their surroundings release a sigh of relief. He sees, whether by trick of the mind or by the momentary shedding of a veil, the very picture of frozen eternity, incarnate within a sleeping corner of her spirit as the gruesome mania of cutting. It makes him shiver, but there is a sliver of clarity in it.
"I decline," he answers to her proposal, and for the only time in this conversation he is devoid of hesitation. "Whatever awaits me at the end, there are things I must do on earth, and responsibilities I needs must answer. I am not an island apart from the things and people who have made me, and I would not disappoint them when bearing the ability to ensure otherwise."
It is not untethered from the destined outcome to his soul, it's not a resolve fully actualized. But in this he is focused on the present, and not fixated on the future.
The lull is brief, because his thoughts run away from him without something defined to address. Orbiting around the detail of Mai's chastisement, they prompt examination and doubt. How much could she know, simply by conversing with him and looking into his eyes? But the curse that clings to her, borne of what appears to be her own extremes, is no lie, and her words sank true in the cracks of his defenses, loath as he is to think of it. If his penalty is unavoidable, then he has misunderstood from the onset the purpose of this reincarnation. It is not a chance to avoid punishment, because it cannot be nulled, and neither can the past. It is an opportunity to become better and to prove himself. To do good with the decisions he has left instead of leaving the earth lesser, before... before the time comes where he can never do so again. Stasis unending with only sour introspection left.
It is not a cruel possibility. The truth of your errors can be painful, but she does not offer it out of cruelty. Maybe he deserves the disdain, though. How simple was it to fool himself into the prisoner of an undefined test? How much did he want for it, to be blind to the real terms and limitations that imprison him? It's enough for a headache. Lubei has more to work on than he realized.
He lets the silence wash over them, after that. No one still quite dares to approach.
-
Mai
Attachment. Who, she wonders for an instant, could be waiting for one such as him? The bitterness behind the sentiment almost surprises her. It erodes, pushing through the cracks in the mountain of duty that she shoulders. Why does he have something return to? How dare he?
How dare he wring his hands, and bemoan his fate, and shut his eyes meandering about when he has a life!
She tastes ash. How long has she been doing this? This path measured in only steps from herself, was it really only for her sake? No, no, impossible. She can still see them. She can still see her. The man before her might not know his destination, but Mai knows her own. She is a corpse haunted by phantoms that will not even speak to her. They simply stand apart, ever distant, even as her feet are left raw and bloody. All this time and they are no closer. All this time and the Demon is still but one step behind her.
A sharp crack breaks the silence between her and Lubei. Mai blinks in surprise at the shattered chunk of the table in her hand. She feels like she should cry, or perhaps howl, or maybe even laugh. But she fails to do even one of those things. The moment is gone, and whatever is left of that fire choked on the ash. She feels empty, again. But that is no surprise. Things have always been like this. There has never been any catharsis in her outbursts. Not even when she was younger, weeping with guilt, and drawing repentance across her flesh as if that meant anything. It was as hollow as when she spilled her heart to a sibling that was no longer here.
Dear sister, everything is gone.
Mai drops the chunk of the table on the ground and finds her sword in her hand. She does not grab at it as it falls. It is intuitive, an understanding as fundamental as water flowing downwards. And when she looks at her fellow sinner she seems just a tad lesser than when they had met. "You are kind," she admits, "so I will take advantage of your kindness. If the time comes, please kill me. It would please me, I think, to die at the hands of someone who would regret doing so."
She stands then, and Mai can only feel a vague disappointment that she does not even have the sincerity of tears to offer in exchange. The nuns do not impede her. She walks through the door and vanishes like an apparition, like a breath of warm air in the freezing cold.
She walks because that is her punishment, because that is her redemption. She walks because there is no other path.
Because nothing else remains.
-
Lubei
She calls him kind, but the only request she makes of him is to kill her. It would be funny, in a morbid sense, but there is little that remains morbid for those such as the two of them, he understands. Strangely, he understands. There can be honor in death, there can be dignity in vanquishment, face and merit can be bought with sacrifice, and one life can be exchanged for another. But this is none of that. Her end at his hands would be a relief, compared to perishing for all intents and purposes to whatever haunts her breast, yet being dragged unwittingly into horror.
It would go against his wishes, but he would do it. It's a slightly mean jest, that she asked like this. But he watches her go, empty and worn out, like a vessel filled with only dust, without offering even a token retort.
As he is, he can't muster the words to reach out to the young woman. But he knows. If she had anyone or anything else in her life, after the way she spoke, she wouldn't be in the middle of nowhere, waiting for passing pity on her own, with no intention to do anything for herself.
As she disappears through the door, an unforgettable feeling takes root in his heart. One day, he may be the one meant to pull the curtain on her damnation. Not by saving, but bringing the eternal rotation of carnage to a halt, where its meaningless momentum can hurt no one else. And she would thank him for it.
-
Hours later (https://forums.darksidemoon.net/index.php/topic,764.msg69490.html#msg69490)
? ? ? ?
The setting sun let out its final rays on the decrepit heaps of what little humans scraped by. As the veil of night soon stroked the city, a lone man in dark attire leaned by an alley-way, holding two fingers uip his temple as the communication arrays tuned up like a telephone.
Around him, dozens of wolves devoured the remains of a broken gang. Before long, the sounds of gnashing and devouring were cut by a searing tone. "I was under the impression that apostles survived by living a life of subtlety. But it appears your survival up to now must be nothing but a miracle."
Of course, the Vampire shook his head with a flustered smile. Hard at work as ever, he took the time to follow-up on his briefing. With no laughter, his humored tone sounded like nothing more than that - a tone. "Hey, hey. I took a lot of care following your instructions. You saw the coded message didn't you? We're allies. That just happened the easiest way to get the job done, that's that - and this is this." With a hand in his pocket, he walked around before stepping on a dead mobster's face, crushing it like a tomato. Meat-sauce spilled all over the floor wordlessly, with no more than an irritated tone to answer on the other side of the line.
The communication relay answered. "And don't be so proud of yourself. You have put me in an impossible position. I know your mental defenses aren't up to par with the rest, if you were tempered in any invasive way, that would expose far too much." And yet, Costin shrugged, crouching down as a wolf approached him so he could rub him pleasantly. Was that a smile crawling on his lips at the sound of his employer's irritation?
"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry, the whole story with the mental lock? She bought it without too much fuss. She didn't even try to torture me for intel - it's just as you said. She's a good person. Lying like that almost breaks my heart."
A sudden spark. Like electricity, it was enough that he didn't even need to smell his employer to tell there was simmering anger there.
"Spare me the heartbreak. So, did you do it?" And with that question, his answer came with his smile fading seriously. His tone took an entirely business-like approach, and he nodded as if there was some living being that could tell he were. "Yeah. It's almost scary, it's as you've predicted. I have an order to put down all impediments to the city's safety. So you know, it might be better if we cut direct contact for a while. I'm not sure if the order is compulsion-based or observation-based, but it'll be a problem if I kill you on the spot."
There was a tense silence. For a moment, even the vampire looked uncomfortable. Suddenly, a chuckle echoed along the alley. But it wasn't his own. And so, Costin's hand tensed, like a professional on-guard for whatever was to come.
"That is perfect. I already made arrangements to make up for the handicap. But in the meanwhile, I have another target for you."
Costin's ears perked. "Already? Ever so tireless in your generous delegation. So, who is it this time?" The following message was encrypted, but it got his brows raising even beneath the sunglasses. "Heh, you fucker. I see, I see. That won't be a problem." He chuckled, and the man on the other side of the line chuckled in turn. "Alright, I'll get on that. Don't worry about that, I'll get it done without a fuss. I'm always willing to help a friend."
Costin got up and looked up at the now darkened sky, his face content and elated. "It's as you say boss. This is all for the sake of this world's Salvation."