1,134Chapter 15: Blood on the Water
*Shirou*
After so many years, it was odd – if not sometimes uncomfortable – to go from being alone for weeks and months at a time to always having at least one person around. It was reminiscent of the short time I looked after Ilya before she died: a household full of noise and chaos and laughter.
Or, after that, the few months I happily spent with Rin being introduced (Really, more like dragged) to the Clocktower so she could quote-unquote 'keep an eye on your pathetic ass so you don't wind up alone in a sand dune or something'. That… hadn't quite worked out the way either of us had planned.
Now… if I didn't have Karasuba stalking me, Akitsu dedicatedly trailing after me, or Haihane pursuing me, then I was probably hiding in the bathroom or smoking on the roof. That wasn't to say the girls' company wasn't unappreciated. Honestly, having (two) reliable shadows was a comfort – especially when it came to facing down rule-breaking Sekirei, being in close proximity of (nominally allied) soldiers armed to the teeth with guns and grenades, or being anywhere within the confines of MBI headquarters.
It felt… good… to know I wasn't alone. That I had people (well, aliens, but whatever) that I could (sort of) count on. Of course, there were other times – such as trying to go to bed alone or sneaking out of the house to retrieve magical artifacts without alerting the locally near-omniscient powers-that-be – that having such attentive company was… quite annoying.
"It's a quick errand." I reiterated. I'd been trying to leave for almost half an hour, but Akitsu had been the first to notice me packing my things to go out and had put on the Shroud of Martin over her thin, light blue pajamas decorated with smiling cartoon vanilla ice cream cones. Per her bedtime ritual, the pajama top had only the very bottom button fastened so that she didn't get too hot during the night.
The Shroud might be great spiritual protection but left open as it was, it did nothing for her modesty.
"I don't need an escort, Akitsu." Honestly, it felt like I could have gotten my things and been back by now if I was able to just go alone. "There's no threat of violence. No promise of combat. I'm driving to pick something up and I'll be back before you can miss me."
"Ah…" Akitsu paused, tilting her head in consideration. "Impossible."
What?
"Really?" Haihane chirped, poking her head up from the couch. "Hold on! I'll get my things. Yay! It's like a date!" The (recently much less) bandaged Sekirei rasped, skipping off into the bedroom to 'get her things', shedding her pajamas across the apartment as she ran into the bedroom.
I had just barely gotten Akitsu to button up her nakedness and now I had another one!
"No! Haihane, stop. There's no need." I said quickly, trying to interrupt her. Akitsu may have seen me perform my magecraft, but this was different. I didn't want to put her or Haihane – or any of the Sekirei – too close to a group of foreign (and likely unknown) Magi. Plus, it would be easier to just go myself than to explain where I was going or what I was picking up. It would be much better if I ran this errand alone. "It will only take me an hour. Two tops, if traffic is bad."
"Okay. I'll be ready in two seconds!" Her words were only slightly muffled by the top she was pulling over her head. Somehow, Haihane's brief statement did what I seemingly couldn't; that being getting Akitsu to take off the Shroud of Martin, though it stayed folded (and waiting) in her lap as she took a seat.
"Karasuba, help?" I looked over to the gray-haired woman dedicatedly ignoring my plea, nose in a thick novel.
"Not listening." She hummed. "Don't care."
"Ready!" Haihane chirped, sliding out of the bedroom on the wooden floors in her socks. "Where are we going?"
"Nowhere. Out. Just stay here, please?" I asked the most reasonable of my Sekirei and… well, wasn't that a damning statement. "I'll only be a second."
"No." Haihane responded.
"Good. I'm glad you – what?" I did a double-take. Haihane stood firm, straight-backed without her unique claws on and looking as determined as I'd ever seen her. It was an expression I'd never seen on the easy-going jokester's face.
She took a deep, steadying breath and I could see her fists balling up at her sides. There was a tremor visible through the muscles of her well-defined forearms. "I said no."
My phone began to ring in my pocket, and I canceled the call without looking at it.
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"I mean 'no, I am not staying here'." She reiterated. "I am coming with you."
"Haihane–" I sighed, taking a step towards her–
"No!" She shouted over me. It was the first time I'd ever heard her voice raised in anything but excitement. "Don't 'Haihane' me! You can't… you can't just pass me off! I can accept it when you ignore my advances. You're shy and damaged–" What? "–and I'm… well, I know I can be a lot sometimes. I can even accept it when you try to downplay my feelings for you, or when you shove me away when I forget my claws are on. I even try not to get too jealous when you and Junko go off and disappear together. I've seen enough TV to know what a personal assistant is for–" What?!
"Wait, what?" Karasuba looked up from her book where she had been steadfastly trying to ignore the rest of the household, verbally echoing my confusion.
"– and even if she has bigger breasts than I do, and is human, and isn't covered with scars, I tell myself that is okay cause you are my destined Ashikabi and I'm the one here right now. I'm the one you go home with and share your bed."
That was… so, so wrong I didn't begin to know where to start.
"And… and I get it when you don't take me along on missions or send me out alone. I'm not as strong as Karasuba-sempai or as confident as Akitsu-chan. I'm not a single digit and it shows!"
My phone went off again and I offhandedly killed the call and tossed it away. My eyes never left Haihane's, even as hers started to mist over with unshed tears.
"I'm a big girl! I can take all of that!" Then her voice dropped, sounding hurt. Vulnerable. "But you promised to take me with you the next time you went on an errand like this." Ah… I did. That was different, I needed to do this – "And I didn't say anything when you left without me the first time." The first time? That was… my meeting with Higa? I didn't think anyone had noticed that. "And today I let it slide too. But I can't take you breaking a promise a third time. I just can't."
Was this… how she felt? Haihane always painted a happy face on under her tired-looking demeanor but… how much of that was a front? I was too stunned by the drastic change in the normally cheerful Sekirei – not to mention how much more aware she was than I'd given her credit for – to do much more than stand there like an idiot. For a moment, there was silence… broken only by the quiet hitch in Haihane's throat – a sob strangled into a hiccup.
"Ah…" I moved to speak, to say something – say anything – when my phone went off again.
I reached for it, but Haihane was faster.
"Wh–"
"Shirou God Damn Emiya!" Rin yelled through the receiver before Haihane could even get a full word in. "I swear by every member of the Tohsaka line that if you hang up on me again, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass, there will finally be something in that empty head of yours that people will be interested in!"
Fuck me…
"Rin…" I groaned. It was the wrong thing to do as Haihane took a step back as I reached for the phone – almost missing the look that passed between the girls. Karasuba interposed herself between me and Haihane, the hand she placed on my chest held me gently, yet intractably still. Even Akitsu, sweet, obedient, and mild-mannered Akitsu, stepped forward and arranged herself between Karasuba and Haihane – laying a supportive arm over the latter's shoulders.
If I weren't the one on the receiving end, I would have been impressed by the seamless display of teamwork.
"Cool story bro." Haihane snapped at the phone. "But we're in the middle of something right now and–"
"You're not Shirou," Rin stated the obvious.
"No, I'm–" Haihane tried.
"I don't care." Rin rolled over her again. "Let me give you some advice, miss groupie of the week." The comment paused Haihane's thumb from where it hovered over the 'call end' button. "Your kind never lasts long, so make yourself useful for something and put Shirou on before I have to educate you on exactly where your place in the world is."
The girls' all frowned and Karasuba reached to take the phone from Haihane with her other hand, but stopped as Haihane mouthed 'I got this'. Somehow, that surprisingly worked and the grey-haired crow didn't push any further.
"Those are pretty strong words for someone who sounds like they claim to 'have a great personality' cause they're still waiting for their tits to grow in."
…
There was dead silence and I saw for a fact that my eyes weren't the only ones to widen at Haihane's words.
Oh, I was so fucking dead.
"Oh? Oho. Ohohohoho!" Rin's ojou-sama laugh merely highlighted that she was spending way too much time with Luvia. Never a good sign… "Why am I not surprised you have more spine than sense? You might have the pounds, but you lack the tonnage to stand up to me."
"I'll stand up to you anytime." Haihane gave a raspy laugh. "Provided we find a step ladder tall enough for you."
End it. End it there. End it goddamn now. Damage control, Shirou!
"Rin! Hello, Rin. I'm here." I interrupted before whatever this was could go any further. I reached for the phone again, but Haihane plopped it into Karasuba's waiting hand with a triumphant grin. Karasuba held the receiver towards me, though she kept a solid grip on her end and angled it so the girls could hear everything Rin said. "What's the situation?"
That was… less than ideal, but I could salvage this. Preferably before something more unfortunate got said about things I was trying to hide or – worse! – before Rin decided she did have to come to Shin Tokyo to kick off her own death game.
"Where are you right now?" Rin ignored the question.
"Heading towards the pickup. I was…" I paused, giving the eavesdropping Sekirei a baleful stare. "…delayed in leaving."
"I'm sure." Rin scoffed. "I've been trying to reach you and you're playing with another strange woman? I thought you'd have learned this lesson after the last time."
The words sent a barb through my chest. Was that… how Rin felt? She wasn't wrong but…
"It's not… it's not like that." I sighed. There was no way I was going to admit it was actually three. Even I wasn't that stupid. "Haihane is…" Not my Servant. But calling her just a coworker – especially in light of her outburst – wasn't right either… "with me. She's related to what I spoke about earlier."
In truth… Haihane was someone I could depend on. Possibly as much as Akitsu and…
…okay, sometimes maybe Karasuba.
"Of course, she is." Rin groused. "I shouldn't be surprised at this rate. Anyway, I wanted to confirm if the ship made it to port yet."
"It should have, but as I said: I haven't been able to make my way down yet. I was waiting for nightfall before making my approach." By that time, MBI and the port authorities should be done with their work and it would be safe to approach for the clandestine transfer of materials. "Rin. You're stalling. What's going on?"
"Fuck…" She clicked her tongue. "I hate it when you're perceptive. I just got word that some students stumbled across a body. You might recognize the name: Emile Blunt."
"What?" Emile Blunt… if memory serves, he was another Enforcer. I'd worked with him in the past on assignments and, while I wouldn't say we were exactly close – you didn't get close to people in the Clock Tower – we were comrades of a sort. "Was it a duel? An experiment?"
I'd never needed to fight him myself, but word got around. From what I recalled he wasn't exactly a pushover. Those who couldn't make the grade didn't last long as Enforcers, but getting on the bad side of a noble was the second most common cause of death – just behind being eaten by monsters.
Though Enforcers weren't in the academic or research branches of the Mage's Association, every practitioner had their own personal experiments delving into their craft. Kiritsugu once said to walk the path of the mage was to walk with death – little wonder that dying in the pursuit of research just so happened to be the third most common cause of death.
Magical accidents could be just as (or more) lethal as new discoveries.
"The Department of Policies is still examining the body." Rin continued. "What's left of it anyway. I haven't seen the report on if the mysteries used to kill him have been identified, but… well, most of the body is missing."
My blood went cold.
"Rin… define 'missing'." Her silence was not comforting. "Are you insinuating it was a Dead Apostle? In the Clocktower?"
Impossible! An Apostle entering the Clocktower – with the monsters that lurked there, dedicated to eliminating the infection from humanity – was either signing its own death warrant or an Ancestor.
"No." Rin quickly put an end to that speculation. "His body was found in a warehouse in Jeju near the port. We believe it was being used as a Workshop, though it was stripped of anything of value. However, that's where things get… bad. Emile was assigned to a protective detail for a transport vessel."
"I don't understand." No. I think I did. I just didn't want to. My words felt like I was speaking from a distance. "Rin… tell me this is just normal politics or a sealing designee trying to escape. Don't tell me a Dead Apostle is about to make landfall in the city."
"Shirou." Rin started. "I'm saying that there's already one there."
I stopped breathing.
"Emile was assigned to a transport that made for Japan three weeks ago."
No. Nononono.
"Fuck. Fuck!" I shouted. The girls jumped, surprised at my vehemence, but I ignored them. "Rin…"
"It gets worse…" Rin said hesitantly. "Tonight's shipment… no one is responding. I just found out that there are some really bad things on that ship, Shirou. Tomes and materials even I don't have the clout to know the identity of. Worse… the last stop we had word from the ship was the same port where Emile's body was found. Odds are, everyone on that boat is dead. Can you…"
"No…" I answered, "I can't stop the boat, but if I leave now, maybe I can stem the tide."
Even if I had left when I had intended… I still would have been too late to prevent the boat from reaching the port. And trying to do so in broad daylight under the surveillance satellites MBI had in orbit was a particular brand of stupid. It was night now, however, which was to my advantage; there would be fewer people around for the dead to gorge on and swell their numbers… and no witnesses to cause me to hold back or kill when they inevitably became victims of the moonlit world.
Maybe…if I was uncharacteristically lucky, maybe I'd encounter the Dead Apostle tonight and kill it before it could grow too large to manage on my own.
"Right…right. Shirou…" Rin hesitated. It sounded like she wanted to say something but whatever it was… instead she whispered "Good luck."
The call ended.
"So, um… where are we going and what's a dead apostle?" Haihane asked in the ensuing silence. "Are we at war with the Catholics again? Er… zombie Catholics?"
"I…" I didn't get much more out, looking at each of the girls. The stubborn set of their eyes told me all I needed to know; I would either be leaving with them or fighting through them. Something I did not have the time for and – given my last fight with Karasuba – not something I would walk away from unscathed without more protection than a button-up and slacks.
Gears began to move, shedding rust like falling snow. I felt the comforting heat of my circuits warm my blood.
"Get your weapons," I said instead, moving to the bedroom where my spare rune-inscribed Enforcer gear lay in my emergency bag. "We leave in two minutes, and I'll explain on the way."
*Karasuba*
One minute and 37 seconds later we leapt from the apartments' balcony, soaring through the air across the city towards the bay. Shirou, as the sole human, was being carried by Akitsu (as she wasn't a weapon-type and didn't need her hands free) and was once more dressed in that eclectic padded outfit – the one I hadn't seen him wear since he and I (and Akitsu, I suppose) hunted down the Sekirei that assaulted Takami.
It wasn't nearly as fashionable as his MBI suit, but at least it was in black.
"So, where are we going and who are we fighting?" Haihane spoke up first. For once, her allergy to silence and need to ask annoying questions was a boon. I had to confess, if only to myself, that I too was interested in seeing more of the hidden sides of Shirou.
And, well, a target that gave him pause would be a worthwhile kill indeed. It would put the foul taste of finally hearing that harpy 'Rin' speak with such familiarity about my things.
"Is it the inquisition?" Haihane continued prattling – though I suppose she deserved some lenience after how well she comported herself earlier. "I'm not sure if I didn't expect that… or if I definitely expected that. Should we call headquarters?"
"If the church is involved, we're in a worse position than I thought." Shirou muttered under his breath; the words almost stolen by the wind. How ominous. I couldn't help the shiver of excitement that rolled up my spine. "We aren't calling this in." He yelled to be heard this time. "From this point on, I need you to keep everything I say and anything you see a secret, even from – no, especially from MBI."
"Ah…"
"You've already sworn Akitsu." Shirou interrupted her as she opened her mouth to speak. Oh? I scowled at the two. Now what was that?
"Wait, 'kitsu-chan knows?" Haihane shared my incredulousness and more than a little hurt. The Scra– No, the ice-wielding Sekirei had proven herself enough that she wasn't quite trash anymore. Still, that she knew before I did rankled fiercely. "You're no fair Shirou!"
The brave front my kohai put on to hide her reaction from earlier proved to be just that: a façade.
"Because we're MBI Sekirei." I had the feeling I hit the nail on the head. Shirou's silence only confirmed it. "You are telling us now." It wasn't a question. Nor was it a statement. It was a demand. We had promised no more secrets – or I'd have to go back to thinking about ripping things out of my Ashikabi.
"Right. Where to start…I could give you the long version, but that's more Rin's speed." Shirou started – poorly – by invoking the female human's name. "The short version is this: magic is real. Its existence is a secret and kept that way by eliminating any threat to spreading that existence to those outside what we refer to as the Moonlit World. You may have heard us mention the term 'Enforcer'? Well, that's what I am. Enforcers have two main roles; the first is to enforce the secrecy of magic by any means necessary. The second is to identify and eliminate any threat to humanity before it becomes too large a problem to deal with."
Ah, the title of 'Enforcer' that that Rin girl had mentioned made more sense now. Shirou wasn't a mercenary or an assassin like Matsu and I had thought after all – though he certainly had the capacity for violence and skill at fighting. He was like me.
My lips – involuntarily – quirked upward at the realization.
"Gasp!" Haihane said the word, giggling, as she turned in midair to fully face Shirou during the next jump. She must have had similar thoughts. "Does that make you a magical girl – er, magical boy? Oh! Oh! Do you have a transformation sequence? I wanna see! I wanna see!"
Oh. No, her human shows were just rotting her brain.
"I think I need to ban you from talking to Yukari from now on." Shirou deadpanned, actually echoing my thoughts. "And no, magic doesn't work like that."
Of course it didn't, because magic didn't exist. Despite his belief to the contrary, his words were merely further proof that, during the time before I and the others in the original Disciplinary Squad were hatched to repel the Kamikura Invasion, Minaka-san, Akihito, Takami and Miya got up to something to produce Shirou. Though… I suppose growing up outside of the Nest and without Minaka-san (or even that shrew Takami) informing him of his heritage… I could see why he might think it was magic.
His words revealed more than he might have thought, however. What almost happened to us at Kamikura – nearly happened to Musubi and Kaho years later – did happen to Shirou. He was found and captured by an organization that knew of the Sekirei. The only novel facet of this unknown group he was a part of was that they too could perform such 'magic'.
Perhaps there were lingering traces of Sekirei in their bloodlines granting them the barest facets of true ability? It wasn't too far-fetched for a million monkeys throwing shit at each other to stumble across their greater past eventually. Most of the Ashikabi had some level of Sekirei genetic markers – a fact that prompted MBI to build and refine the gene scanners at the security checkpoints in the first place.
"So, what can it do?" Haihane pressed, somehow still able to make the next jump and pull ahead of the rest of us, all while navigating backwards and without taking her eyes off Shirou. "Can you summon monsters or spirits? Or control the elements? Oh, or shoot laser-beams? Pew pew!" She even made little finger guns.
"Ah… Well, yes. There are some families–" Families? Now wasn't that an interesting piece of confirming evidence. "–that can do those things. For instance, Rin is what's called an Average One–" My eyes caught Haihane's as hers flicked over to me, and I mirrored her smirk. The little hellion was going to go far with that tidbit of information. "–meaning that she has an affinity for each of the main elements."
Oh. Despite myself, I raised an eyebrow. That… was impressive. Elemental-types were an uncommon breed and usually only limited to one element. Wind, water, ice, fire, earth and plasma were all single digits – a testament to just how powerful elemental control could be. For a human to have not just one, but multiple elements…
Even if she were just a human, that was a feat worthy of acknowledgment.
"As for myself… my magic is a bit more straightforward in nature. Trace On." In demonstration, two familiar flashes of light filled his hands with two even more familiar blades. One white. One black. That cheeky… no wonder I had never been able to find the swords he took on missions.
Wait… of course!
That's how he did it! I knew there was a trick with how he had summoned a spear during our fight after I'd disarmed him. Not to mention the surprise dagger he pulled just before I claimed him. He didn't have concealed weapons, he conjured them.
"In many ways, I am limited in the variety of mysteries I can perform. However, what I can do is almost perfectly recreate any weapon I've seen." The twin swords disappeared in another flash of light and were replaced by a nodachi.
My nodachi.
With a casual flick, he sent it spinning through the air towards me. I caught it by the hilt, examining it. The weight felt exact. The grooves my fingers had worn into the wraps of the hilt fit perfectly. I gave it a test swing and then another. Material creation was yet another rare power, even among Sekirie. Usually only the most powerful elemental-types were capable of it, barring very few exceptions. For him to instantly craft any weapon he saw so exactly might be limiting to those without imagination, but to be able to change reach, shape or weight on the fly and do it in any configuration he desired was powerful.
No wonder he was able to draw a tie from me – even if I had gone easy on him.
"Coool! Do me, do me! Hehehe." Haihane finished with a wink, drawing an elongated sigh from Shirou and myself. My hand was suddenly empty, as if the sword was never there in the first place and Shirou's hand was covered in Haihane's old, clawed gauntlet. "Yay! Right. Back on topic: magic is cool. Does this mean we're gonna go fight evil wizards? Please please please, say yes. "
"Dead Apostles." Shirou corrected. "And no, to answer your earlier question: they aren't related to the catholic church. Well," he made a complicated expression, "sometimes they are, but that's not relevant, I hope."
"A Dead Apostle is… think of it as a type of vampirism. Creatures – some that may have once been human – that have given up their original natures in order to become more powerful or remove the yoke of mortality. These cursed beings need to feed on blood and flesh. The weakest of them are more akin to beasts, but with every year and every kill they change. Become more intelligent. More alien."
"Woah, wait. Like vampire vampires? Those are real?" Haihane balked. "Are we talking Twilight vampires or Buffy vampires?"
"What? No… I." Shirou shook his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Dead Apostles and their familiars – be they Dead or true Vampires – are no longer understandable by mortal standards. Their reasons, morals, and understanding of the world are intrinsic only to themselves. What remains is twisted with a desire – a need – to feed. Each is intrinsically magical. Stronger, faster, more durable than a human and the older they are, the smarter and more powerful they become. The eldest can even alter the world around them."
"Oh, so Masquerade."
I tuned out of the conversation between Shirou and Haihane. Dead humans? Resurrected bodies? That was novel, I suppose, but not very interesting. Oh, I'm sure dead people were a threat to normal humans – they were generally weak and stupid – and if their numbers grew as they killed and fed that could eventually be a problem.
But I was far from weak. Hell, I'd single handedly held off part of an army without taking more than a few flesh wounds for days. Was… was this Shirou's big secret? The one I was so eager to drag out of him? It had to be. His concern – his upset – at the situation was too like him for it not to be. But drawing us into it, trying to make us keep his secrets from the company like they were actually serious…
What a disappointment.
After all the intrigue, of each little moment of anticipation and pleasure prying each little slip Shirou made apart from his greater whole – each little nugget of insight won in blood and strife. I clicked my tongue. This resolution was lackluster. I didn't even have a decent fight to look forward to at the end! How hard was it to kill something that was already dead?
At least it wasn't long until the docks were in sight. There was a large gap between the buildings and the outskirts of the city and the first row of warehouses by the water that was dominated by the curve of the highway and the on/off ramps leading to the empty storage lots. One last leap carried us most of the way over the road and a quick hop off the lit street lights got us the rest of the way to land grouped in the lot not far from the nearest warehouse.
Not a soul could be seen or heard. The entire area was dead, pun not intended.
"Wow. Talk about dead." Haihane kicked a loose stone, sending it clattering loudly across the lot. "Pun intended. Are you sure this is the right place?"
Despite my own motivation having waned, I scoffed – making a note to beat some more awareness into her during our (surprisingly cathartic) training. The salty tang of the sea and the blunt reek of fish sat heavy in the air, and I couldn't help but scrunch my nose as it mixed unpleasantly with the smell of oil. Underneath the stench, however, danced the sweet bloom of spilt blood. For it to be noticeable at all, there had to be a body close by…
Or there had to be a lot of blood.
"Blood." I wasn't surprised that Shirou noticed it too. His senses were exceedingly sharp. "Fuck. Right. There's too much ground and too few of us to set up a proper cordon. Priority is to find and secure the ship, secure the material and expand outwards from there."
"Ship." Akitsu pointed. The top of a ship was just barely visible from the other side of the row of warehouses to the right.
"Good eyes." The red-clad Sekirei preened under the compliment. "Alright let's–"
An explosion boomed, violently ending the silence of the night. A bright flash of orange and red illuminating the sky from the vicinity of the boat, flickering over the top of the warehouse between us and the ship. Half a second later it was followed up with a trio of gunshots – loud and heavy, more like a cannon or large rifle than a machine gun – and another explosion.
Smoke started to rise from the ship.
"Gun toting vampires?" Haihane blinked, even as Shirou sprinted towards the structure blocking line of sight. "So… Underworld?"
"Guns means people!" Shirou barked – he moved fast when he wanted to – and leapt in time with us, cresting the top of the warehouse without being boosted by either Haihane, Akitsu or myself. A blink-and-you-missed-it light filled his hands, solidifying into a… bow? The corrugated metal roofing of the warehouse made an awful racket underfoot, nearly drowning out Shirou's next words. "There must still be a survivor trying to scuttle the ship and prevent the Dead Apostle from getting to whatever is in there!"
From the high vantage point, I could see the top deck painted red with blood and littered with corpses. A mob of people – momentarily backlit by another explosion that collapsed one of the entrances below decks – clawed their way into the belly of the ship. More were lingering around the bodies scattered across the ship.
Those – presumably the so-called dead apostle vampires – loomed over the corpses, heads down and tearing into them like pigs at a trough. One of the closest pulled its head from its grisly meal, dripping blood and viscera as its head slowly turned and raised to look at the roof we perched on. Strips of meat dropped from its snaggle toothed, fanged maw as it rose to its full, unimpressive height to face us.
"Shirou…" Haihane sounded as bored as I was. "I think those are zombies, not vampires."
"Focus. Don't let–" I snorted, ignoring the rest of what he was building up to say. Haihane was right: this was a waste of time and ability. The dumb looking 'zombie-slash-vampire-slash-about-to-be-killed-again' staggered forward a step on visibly flayed legs.
Ugh. Disgust welled up – at the dead human or my Ashikabi, I wasn't sure – but the sooner I dealt with the former the sooner I would take the latter to task for this colossal waste of an evening.
Shirou didn't get the chance to say any more before I leapt from the roof. The pull of the air against my skin, the feeling of winning against gravity – only to force it to my will as I accelerated towards the ground – never failed to set my blood alight.
I could never resist attacking from on high, even for trivial kills. Its flesh shivered and split as half the length of my nodachi pierced through the heart of the now-once-again-dead human before its foot even hit the ground. It slumped, letting out a pathetic wheeze as it fell limp on the impaling blade.
Was… Was that it? Wasn't even a satisfying kill. All whimper and no scream. I could clear this whole infested ship in minutes if I cared.
"That was it? The big scary dead apostle?" I turned back to glower at Shirou. "You can–"
My eyes widened as the weight of the body shifted on my blade. That brief moment of distraction proved enough for a hand of iron to clamp around my sword wrist. Instinctively, I tried to pull back, but the thing yanked. Strong! Too strong for a human, it pulled me off balance and towards it even as it impaled itself further on my blade just to get to me. It's other hand – clawed and vicious and inescapable – latched onto my shoulder and wrenched my head to the side. Fetid breath swept across my neck as it pulled me down, hot with blood and hunger, its bared fangs kissing my skin and I couldntpullawayiwasgoingto–
A flash of silver and gray – its head jerked back from my neck, its hands falling limp. I felt the slight pull at the back of my head as a plume of hair burst into the air. A silver dagger – the very one that pressed against my heart as I claimed my Destined One – pinning the thing's jaw impotently open and snapping its head back with the force of its impact.
I staggered, suddenly free as it fell backwards and – from the silver blade burst into silver-white flames, the unnatural fire spreading across the creature's body like it was made of dry kindling. A lock of grey hair – shorn from my now shorter ponytail – splintered into strands and fell like snow upon the pyre.
"Akitsu! Wall off the boat from the shore! Nothing gets on or off unless I say so!" Two more streaks of silver flew through the air, the daggers impacting the ground near more of the creatures as they charged – somehow halting their advance in their tracks. "Haihane, protect Akitsu! Stay clear of direct engagement. Target their legs so Akitsu can freeze them and take out immobilized targets if and when you can! Decapitation if you're capable, otherwise wait for me to finish them. Karasuba–"
I watched as the gray hair curled silver and then black, crumbling to ash. I'd never given a thought to the dagger Shirou pressed against my heart. Not really. Could he have… would he have–
"Karasuba!" A hand – rough, calloused and familiar – pulled at my elbow, turning me to face cold silver eyes. No, wait. They were molten golden-brown. Against my better judgment, my body tensed in strange anticipation. "Go home."
I didn't get to question before he pulled me again, this time behind him. Another dagger summoned instantly into his hand as it left my skin, cleaving a burning silver trail through the face of another creature as it leapt towards us and then drawing it on his bow like an arrow. The dagger shot off, lethally finding its mark in another.
"You're compromised. A liability." He shoved me back on numb legs, turning his back on me. "Go home before you get yourself, or worse, one of us killed."
Liability. Failure. I sucked in a breath, the word echoing in Takami Sahashi's voice. Something was building in my chest and behind my eyes. Unwanted, Yume's pity was no kinder. It grew tight and dark and thick, sucking in my breath and thoughts. Disgusting. Miya sneered, just before her devastating last word to me after Kamikura: Wrong.
Oh.
I could feel the hilt of my sword groan through my bones, the wooden haft under the leather cracking.
What I felt was pure. Unbridled. Fury.
Three more of the things charged Shirou, traversing the deck faster than anything human – living or dead – had any right to.
Not fast enough though.
"Aaaargh!" I screamed, as my nodachi cleaved through the air – as well as the legs of the stupid, worthless things. The reverse slash separated their heads from their still moving torsos. My rage flowed from my core down the blade as I pierced their rib cages with my third and final thrust. My core pulsed and those feelings exploded – a shower of viscera erupting much more literally as a shockwave pulped the dead flesh around my sword.
How dare they. How dare they!
I panted, snarling with teeth clenched, searching for the next victims. I didn't have to wait long as they came to me. My swords scythed out, hacking apart limbs. Then heads. Then torsos. Then through the steel deck and torsos. Enough to make sure they stayed dead.
Another explosion below deck sent the boat swaying in the water.
"If the boat sinks before we kill them all, they might swim to shore." Shirou muttered at my back, his own back nearly touching mine as he covered my advance. "Karasuba, are you here?"
"Shut up." I snarled, earning another kill in response. "I'm here. How do we kill them?"
"Decapitation and or burning." Good. I had frustrations to work out. "Cut us a path to the lower deck." Shirou ordered – an act that would have had consequences were it not what I had already intended. He followed in my wake as I cleaved a gap through the horde. The strange daggers in his off hand flickered out, stabbing the remains of my kills as we cut a swath to the half-collapsed stairwell down.
The deck rocked once more, this time as a wall of ice grew between the docks and the transport ship, grinding against the hull and leaving the ship with a slight list. The creatures were sure-footed and vicious – the second they thought our footing slipped they darted from the shadows below deck to strike.
The first didn't make it past my blade, its head sliced in twain before it realized that I was a Sekirei and thus my footing didn't slip, though its compatriot managed to halt its momentum before it suffered the same fate.
"Duck." I was moving before Shirou spoke as he turned, firing a dagger over my shoulder and into the deck at the other attacker's feet. Once more, the creature froze unnaturally from the missed attack and stayed frozen, its muscles twitching but unable to move. A flick of the wrist sent its head tumbling off its shoulders and a solid kick sent the rest of it flailing down the stairs – upon which three more daggers turned arrows pin cushioned it until it ignited in silver flames.
The insides of the ship were plunged back into darkness as the dead apostle finished burning to ash. Between the cloudy night and the lack of power, there was no ambient line inside the dead transport.
"Take this." A small piece of hard plastic was placed in my off hand, though I could feel a soft strap of some kind attached to it. "The strap should be able to fit your harness, so you don't have to hold the torch."
"I thought you wanted me to go home." I snorted mirthlessly, my fingers tightening on my sword with one hand as I reached out for the torch with the other. Clicking it on, I shoved it (possibly rougher than necessary) through the top strap by my shoulder where it wouldn't inhibit my swing. A second later, a second torch lit up as Shirou did the same. "Make sure you keep up. I don't want to hear Haihane yapping if you get injured."
"That's my line, crow." Shirou deadpanned. "Of the two of us, you're the one I'm concerned about falling behind." Blood roared through my ears and I almost rounded on him when his shoulder nudged me forward. "Fight your way forward and down. I'll take aft so we don't get flanked. We'll go deck by deck and kill anything that moves."
"Shut up." I hissed, feeling antsy. Like I wanted to flee, but that was cowardice. Wanting to hit him, but not wanting him hurt. I felt… I needed to kill something. "Don't tell me what to do."
I did none of those things – unsure of what I would do if I stayed – and stalked down the hall seeking more prey before he could say another word.
*Akitsu*
Shirou commanded, and with a wave of my arm, I obeyed. A wave of hoarfrost lanced across the deck, erupting sharply in pointed spires of ice. The things – enemies of my Ashikabi – managed not to impale themselves, but they were cut off from pursuing Shirou-sama as he went after the reckless – arrogant Karasuba.
"Shit. Shitshitshit!" Haihane sprinted past, cutting off the thought of revisiting words with the other Sekirei should Shirou-sama be harmed by her thoughtless act of pride. The trail of enemies following in my friend's wake were more important at the moment. "Fast zombies. Fast zombies!"
A thought sent another arc of frost towards them, bristling spears of ice nipping at their heels as the creatures leapt over my attack.
"Ah…" I frowned, shifting my posture to better feel for the ice underfoot, thrusting my chest forward. They were faster than the soldiers, both in how swiftly they moved and how quickly they reacted. Catching them was proving to be… "Frustrating."
Footsteps approached from behind. I didn't need to look, conjuring a wall of ice that cut off the attack launched at my back. What may have been enough to shake Karasuba wasn't enough to pierce my defenses. The sea air made conjuration easier and from my wall burst forth spears of ice impaling the creature that was too close to dodge this time.
A streak of silver arched overhead, impaling one that I hadn't seen leap my wall, and pinning it in place. Now was not the time to bask in the warmth of my Ashikabi's support and attention, even as he dealt with the other single digit's tantrum.
"Akitsu! Wall off the boat from the shore. Nothing gets on or off unless I say so." I shattered my previous conjurations and widened my stance, already feeling the weight of the sea water fighting against my will – Shirou-sama's will. It would lose.
The sound was less a CRACK! and more the rumble of a mountain as the ship heaved and sea roiled, trying to fight against the mass of ice I forced into being. A jagged hand of ice grasped the front of the ship, cutting it off from the land.
"You…" I panted under the weight of the ice and of the ship but remained standing. The creatures that had been trying to flee scrambled at the surface or were caught in my grasp, unable to escape the prison now encasing half of the vessel. "Shall not… escape… Shirou-sama's judgment."
Without a clear path to escape and with Shirou-sama and Karasuba a roving thresher wherever they went, the only route became through me – and as the multitude of hungry eyes and maws turned my way, they all knew it too. The horde split from my Ashikabi, rushing to tear me – and thus the walls of ice entrapping them – down.
But Shirou had commanded they be held here, so the creatures would all just have to freeze and die. The field of ice at my feet expanded, rushing towards the closest group rushing forward. Spears or ice exploded upwards – too slow – the creatures leaping over the spears before they could pierce their targets.
"Boing!" Haihane cried as she landed on one of them, driving it lower and impaling it on the spires of ice. "Got your legs!" A swipe of her claws as she drove the first one down – immobilized, but not dead – took the legs off two more and sent them tumbling to the deck. Ice rose once more to meet them.
"Oh, shit! Running!" Haihane leapt from her perch as the trail of creatures following her caught up, the ice slowing them down just enough for her to keep ahead of them and not get buried under the weight of bodies.
"Waah! Help!" She cried as she scuttled away, only to run into another pack ahead of her. That far away, my attacks might have been too slow to catch them… but I didn't need to as I conjured a thick spire of ice between Haihane and the pack trying to cut her off. I didn't catch any of her attackers… but I wasn't aiming to.
"Ha!" Haihane's feet barely touched the spire before she leapt off, halting her momentum and reversing it with a single powerful heave of her legs. "Backsliding!"
Haihane was correct in her earlier summation: she was not as strong as Karasuba, nor was she as versatile as me… but in terms of arial maneuverability, she put us both to shame. Something she put on full display as she corkscrewed in mid-air around her pursers – not anticipating either the abrupt reversal in direction or the sudden assault – with her claws flashing out. Three-and-a-half limbs fell alongside a tangle of bodies in her wake and her next jump sent her spinning above the horde.
I collapsed the wall onto the fallen bodies, entombing them. Any that survived would be dealt with later.
More footsteps. While I had focused on one direction and Haihane, more came circling from the other direction. I sucked in a desperate breath and heaved, a crackling trail of frost expanded my territory in the other direction – a rolling wave of ice that caught nothing as the creatures leapt or parted around the ever slower – heavier – spears of ice.
With a grunt of exertion, a closely formed wall did what spears couldn't. Dead Apostles hit the wall, bouncing off before my retaliatory strike could reach them this time. Two came over the top, only to be met by javelins of ice.
A shadow passed over me – one of the creatures leapt from my blind spot around my earlier wall – using its compatriot's deaths to cover its advance.
"Nope!" Haihane tackled the creature midair, her claws shoved into its face as she drove it to the ground on the other side of the wall and out of sight. "The only things that get to take Akitsu from behind are me and Shirou-kun!"
I conjured javelins of ice from the water in the air and sent them off in the direction Haihane leapt from to discourage her pursuers. The javelins were lethal – proven as the closest Apostle was impaled with the full volley and brought to the ground but the others dodged, ducking away unscathed to hide behind my own walls. If only I could give them wings, so I might alter their path mid-flight.
"Ah!" Haihane shrieked while out of sight. "Bone stuck! Let go!" I could only hear a wet, muted thump over my own labored breath and the roar of my heartbeat. "Clingy guys are not attractive!" She growled and then I couldn't hear or see her anymore as more came and I was forced to put up another wall. And another.
Holding this much together was… pain blossomed in my temples and I felt more than heard one of the walls keeping back the tide shatter. There were too many enemies. It was too much. I sank to one knee under the weight of the ice – refusing to let anything else break – keeping it together with intent alone.
Footsteps! Through the gap in my crumbling defenses two of the Apostles rushed from each end, hugging the inside of the ice walls and flanking me.
"Ah…" The breath tore from me as I splintered the one wall – momentary relief ignored – the cracking and shattering fragments reforming midair as I crafted and hurled javelins of ice at both. The closest was pinned with the full volley and brought to the ground, but once more my attacks were too slow – too easy to dodge once they were launched in the air – as the other ducked under the deadly spikes unscathed and at speed.
It leapt and I had nothing but the ice at my feet between us.
"Bird…" I gasped, the frost at my feet cracking as it formed a replica of the 'abomination' as Karasuba called it – using the last bit of my energy to physically, bodily throw the bird sculpture at it.
The creature juked, its unnatural speed getting it out of line of fire from the desperate last-ditch attack – until the ungainly construct folded its wings and spun, diving into the Apostles face and driving it to the frost covered deck.
"End." I breathlessly growled and this time it couldn't dodge the needle thin spires of ice erupting from under its body.
Whether it was dead or merely immobilized didn't matter. It was out of the fight. Fanged jaws of ice rose from the ground and snapped shut, sheared through the soft tissue of its knees, elbows and neck – just to be thorough.
My breath was coming in ragged gasps. More undead poured into the gap – too many to repel and I barely got up another desperate wall to cut them off. Heavy… I sagged, leaning bodily against the wall. A wall that became a circle as I was surrounded… and then a dome, cutting out all sight and sound as I huddled under the crush of ice and metal and bodies.
"Ah!" Agony tore at my temples, tears freezing at the corners of my eyes as I tried to turn the outside of the wall jagged. Without sight… I didn't know if I hit anything.
The ice shuddered under blows. It was dark… like the lab. Dark and cold….so many hands. Intrusive. Pawing. Grasping and wanting.
Haihane…
"Shirou-sama… "
…it hurt…
Pain lanced through my head and heart in time with my heartbeat. I couldn't hold… If I did… I would fall. My body would collapse. My focus – my powers – would fail and they would grabmeandtrytotakefrommeagianandI–
I would fail Shirou-sama.
The world slot back into place with a single word: Unacceptable.
If I fell, Shirou-sama would be left unguarded. Haihane-chan would not be enough and Karasuba… No. I could not allow myself to fall.
Stand. I commanded myself, hearing Shirou-sama's voice in the words, and I was on my feet. If I couldn't handle more ice, then I'd have to do more with less.
The dome protecting me – imprisoning me – shattered, though this time with purpose and direction. Razor thin darts of ice fragmented outwards. The horde roared in anger and pain as the closest to me were shredded – but still alive – by the shrapnel. What remained of my defense were interlocking sculptures – legs and torsos of ice rose from the deck while a forest of arms and hands intercepted the rush of bodies.
"No… biting!" I could see now, through the gaps of the facsimiles made of ice. Haihane-chan was pressed against the deck, the armguard of her right arm lodged firmly in the maw of an Apostle as it held her down with its weight.
"Ah…" I pulled from the icy hand I'd grasped the ship in, pulling what wasn't needed and reinforcing what was. I rolled my shoulders back, the weight falling from them as I planted my feet and resumed my stance. "No one bites my Haihane." I echoed her earlier words when she protected me. Jaws of ice rose, snapping at her assailant. So close to the deck and distracted, it had no chance to dodge. While the Apostles might be fast and strong, they were neither fast nor strong enough once I had hold of them. The fangs of ice cleaved through its flesh. "No one but me and Shirou-sama."
The words didn't make sense, much like when Haihane said them… I'd ask Shirou-sama what that meant later.
"'Kitsu-chan!" Haihane gasped, freed from the parts of the Apostle falling away from her. She rolled and an arm of ice reached out from where she lay to momentarily impede the lunge of another enemy. Haihane grabbed the arm, twirling around it with grace. Her rotation brought her claw to bear, taking the thing's knee with the first pass and its head with the second.
A hand of ice grew – small, just enough for her to get a foothold – and she launched herself through the air at the ones trying to climb the cage of statues. Their attempts were futile, however, as I could see them now. The hands and arms they used as handholds shifted with the low groan of ice grinding on ice. The ones Haihane didn't cleave through in her first pass over were chewed apart by snapping maws of ice.
From there on it was merely… implementing Shirou-sama's will. Arms of ice rose to impede or capture. Haihane laughed as she danced among the statues, using arms and hands and legs as they grew and shattered as holds and launching points – bouncing back and forth with every dodge becoming an attack. The crippled and amputated bodies in her wake fell to the waiting jaws of ice.
An explosion rocked the ship once more, its bulk grinding against my bulwark of ice – listing heavily as it tried to take on water. Shirou didn't mention if he wanted the ship intact… but he was below deck. That would not do.
"Woah!" Haihane pinwheeled atop the cage of sculptures as the ship then rocked to the other side – though this time it was my doing as I shifted my grip on the boat. "Wait. Hey! Are they getting away?"
Haihane pointed to where a small ship – only a few meters long – on the far side of the deck was being cut loose and piled with what few survivors were left atop the deck.
"Haihane." I frowned. Changing my hold on the ship had allowed them the space to cut that tiny boat free. It was now too far to reach… I'd have to readjust my grip on the ship again – impossible so long as Shirou-sama remained below – or chance breaking my current defenses for the chance at halting them.
"Right!" Haihane chirped, intuiting my intent. "Deal with the stragglers!" Another arm of ice acted as a spring for her to launch herself across the ship. "I'll deal with the runners!"
*Shirou*
I hated fighting inside ships. Lower decks were all close quarters with blind corners and tons of hiding and ambush points. Even the long bits of halls were practical kill zones with little to no cover. And all of that was before considering if any part of the ship was boobytrapped.
Two decks down and the sound of fighting up above had disappeared completely. Nothing remained but the steady echo of water lapping against the hull. Condensate dripped onto the metal deck in irregular ker-plops. The sound of my own breathing was too loud over the ambient silence.
The torch wavered in the otherwise pitch darkness of the bowels of the cargo liner. Unlike the Dead, I couldn't see in absolute darkness. Its light allowed me to fight, yes, but it was also a beacon.
'Here comes a warm meal.' It signaled.
Thankfully, I'd learned to use more than just my eyes, or I would have died a long time ago. Kneeling, I placed a hand flat onto the cold metal of the deck.
"Trace On." I whispered, the firing of the hammer in the back of my mind sent prana surging through my circuits – and from there through the hull of the ship. Structural Grasping was one of the few spells I was quite adept at – in fact, it could be argued it was one of the fundamental underpinnings of Tracing. It was a mystery that allowed me to 'read' and know aspects of an object that I saw or touched. Things like its shape, construction materials, if there was damage or wear. With greater mastery, even things like an object's history and insights into those who held it were possible.
In this instance, I used it to sense the distribution of weight on the deck in a short radius. Information – raw and unfiltered – poured into my brain and I blinked hard against the growing strain. The hallway around the corner was clear…
At least for a few meters.
A thought reformed my bow. For once, not the one Archer used in my future to launch noble phantasms, but a copy of the bow in my locker at MBI headquarters. The shortbow made from the unusual alloys MBI used to craft the weapons of the Sekirei was more appropriate for the confined spaces below deck than Archer's longbow.
I nocked a Black Key to the bow and ducked the corner – the Key Altering, growing longer and sleeker like an arrow as I drew back on the drawstring. I'd first seen – and experienced – Archer perform the mystery firing swords like arrows by adding and amplifying the concept of [arrow] to his swords. What worked for the Heroic Spirit (if you could consider him Heroic), through trial and error eventually worked for me too.
The light flickered around the corner, loosely following my aim. Clear? Nothing moved in the short hallway that terminated in a half-opened bulkhead and a short staircase to the next deck down. I kept the Key in a half-draw as I advanced, hearing nothing but my own footsteps and measured breathing.
Cautiously, I passed through the bulkhead and started down the staircase, already sensing an attack coming.
I wasn't disappointed.
As soon as my foot hit the next deck – too late to retreat past the hatch – the first Dead burst from the shadows. The already drawn Black Key pierced its shadow – illuminated by the torch – freezing it in place. The one behind it leapt, pouncing over its suddenly immobilized comrade in a tandem attack that might have caught me off guard hadn't I not anticipated it. The second Black Key arrow caught that one mid-air where it couldn't dodge, its body curling around the arrow and falling to the ground in a cloud of ash and silver-white embers. As soon as the arrow fired, I ducked, just in time for a clawed hand to pass through the space my neck was a second ago. The last spare Key held in my off hand arced up, severing the offending limb from its owner.
The Dead turned, bringing its other claw to bear – too slow – as I kicked its leg off the stair stumbling it and hip-checking the off-balance monster into the wall. The remaining Key turned into an arrow and I fired it into its hip, pinning it to the wall. Three more Keys Traced into my hand and a second arrow pierced through its chest.
I unhurriedly drew the next Key and executed the still immobilized first Dead. As its body was consumed and turned to ash along with the others, I paused and listened to the ensuing silence…. waiting. Would there be another attack as soon as I relaxed my guard and moved on? An attempt to capitalize on the shift in attention?
Slowly, I crouched to the ground, laying my palm once more upon the cold, slightly damp metal floor. Trace On.
"Bullet Trace. Fire." A short mantra for a simple mystery. A trio of mundane daggers formed in the air above my head and shot off like bullets into the darkness concealing a fourth Dead. It ducked, sweeping a claw through the air and knocking aside two of the blades and dodging the third.
The last Black Key arrow I fired – hidden in the shadow of a dagger – was not deflected, however, and lodged deeply in the abomination's eye socket.
"Hmm." I waited as the embers burned themselves out, letting the silence linger. "Now it's clear."
Numbers hadn't worked the last two decks and now the Dead Apostle's Familiars were trying to get tricky. Still, that they had even that much intelligence meant that either the Dead had gorged themselves to an alarming degree… or more likely, their master was still on the ship.
Good. I thought, grasping the silver lining of this little cluster fuck. There were too many thralls in the ship. Way too many for the Dead Apostle to have been set up in the city for long. MBI would have noticed the disappearances…
…right?
Maybe I'd lucked out for once and I could nip this in the bud right here, right now. The last cargo area was just up ahead. Unless it had gotten past Karasuba, they were right up ahead with nowhere to go. My circuits hummed in agitated anticipation. I didn't even feel the cold. Couldn't as my skin practically steamed against the cold air this far down in the hull.
And explosion echoed through the hall from up ahead, mixing in the pained, angry and hungry roars of Ghouls and the shearing of metal. Gunshots – heavy and deafening like an autocannon – drowned out even those cries as the air reverberated with concussive waves reflecting off the confines of the ship.
The survivor? They were still alive? And what the fuck kind of ordinance did they find down here that was capable of what I was hearing? A fucking tank? Whatever it was kicked the nest something fierce. I could feel more than hear a new onslaught of Dead rushing headlong towards the hidden cargo hold, their feet echoing off the metal floors between the thunderous booms of the gunfire.
I pushed forward into the next corridor and entered a charnel house. The hallway reeked of blood, gunpowder and burnt meat. My footsteps sent ripples through the blood pooling on the floor. Spatters of blood, bone and charred organs painted the walls in irregular pieces like a Pallasch painting. What remains weren't burst open were pulped and charred and sections of the hallway were cratered or shorn through.
Whatever heavy ordinance caused this was clearly effective – the undead were too young to reverse time on the explosive wounds and the hallway too narrow for their superior speed and agility to matter.
Two figures blurred past the open bulkhead at the end of the corridor, a burst of light and sound illuminating their shadows against the hull as another hail of gunfire met them. A third dashed past, just in time for its torso to pop like a pulp filled water balloon as an explosion turned its upper half into a grisly puree.
A fourth figure didn't even get that far – falling in separate, burning pieces as I intercepted it leaping through the bulkhead and into the cargo space. I let myself crash into the wall opposite the door, relying on the immovable hull to arrest my momentum as I took the turn at speed, bow already drawn.
No survivor. No Ghouls – moving ones, anyway. A trail of bodies led to and piled across two large cargo containers. Like the corridor, great rents were blown out of the top and edges of the containers. Both had their doors pried open and boxes – some smashed open and empty and others still intact - littering the interiors.
The sudden spike 'scent' of fire and gunpowder was the only warning I had as an explosion rocked the ship, sending me stumbling back into the wall. The pressure wave carried me through the air, spinning when–
"Rho Aias!" Even off balance and mid-air, the seven-petaled pink shield – a defensive Noble Phantasm where each petal held the defensive strength of a fortress wall – unfolded and sealed the hallway between me and the onrushing explosion.
And then my vision was consumed by light and fire.
The ship groaned over the torrent of fire and the deck dipped as the explosion and the defensive Noble Phantasm both cut out. I fell and water poured from an unseen breach, the world spinning as the tide sucked in everything not nailed down. My head crested the water, just in time to see the bubbling, gaping hole in the ship roiling with inky black water as the ship listed dangerously into the sea.
Swords blinked into existence, and I slammed painfully into the flats of the impromptu wall, the tide threatening to drag me over and/or through my makeshift barricade – but it was enough. The ship groaned once more, metal grinding as the ship then rose and listed in the opposite direction.
I gasped, breathing painfully as the city lights became visible through the hole punched through the ship. The cracking sound of Akitsu's ice was audible over the groan of metal. I could see the frost curling over near my feet – another second and I would have been lost to the sea.
"Good… girl…" I coughed up salt water. I made a note to myself, managing to roll my waterlogged body to my elbows and knees, that I needed to reward her. The bodies and debris had been swept by the sea, but the containers had thankfully not moved. Had those been pulled down with me…
The sound of motors climbed over the ringing in my ears and the sound of the churning sea below. I looked up to see a small boat arcing across the waves – almost invisible against the water with its lights off – traceable only by the white crests of its wake. Did the boat contain the survivor – or Magus looter, as that powerful demonstration of pyromancy suggested – or was it the Dead Apostle?
I picked myself up off the ground, too late to stop it even if I wanted to. The boat had crested the other side of the docks and was now out of sight. Instead, high above the city skyline I could see the spotlights of aircraft pulling up from MBI headquarters and heading in this direction.
Dammit. That didn't leave me much time to clean up this absolute debacle.
I staggered over to the nearest container, dripping uncomfortably, searching for anything that might be left after the raid and the water. Hopefully, even if the items were gone, I could find an accounting of what had been transported. The first container was a wash: it had been busted open from both ends and the wave had funneled from one end to the other. Scant remains of soaked wood and packing material and empty plastic totes were all that remained. What little paper records might have survived were illegible to the point of disintegration.
Fuck. Nothing salvageable and not a clue as to what could have been taken by the Dead or by the sea.
The second container was riddled with holes, as if from a cannon, but the back of the container facing the gouge in the ship's hull was still sealed. Other than a little standing water, the materials were mostly intact – including a sheet that labeled the crates with where they should be going. A lot of the materials were going to several hospitals, among which was listed Hiyamakai Hospital.
The hospital that Chiho Hidaka was being treated at. How interesting…
Ah! A thread of what could be a silver lining to tonight: my name was on the sheet. The form directed me to a (unopened!) crate near the back of the container, sitting nice and dry on top of a bloodstained and water damaged one. Prying open the crate was easy – a combination of a Traced crowbar and a little Reinforcement assisted elbow grease. The inside of the crate was dominated by a large, heavy black duffle bag, which I pulled out with a grunt of exertion.
Behind me, in the broken open crate lay an empty pedestal that I placed the bag onto so I could open it. Inside lay a deformed envelope with the words 'Heroic Idiot' lovingly handwritten with a fountain pen. Snorting, I placed the envelope aside for the moment. Underneath it was a simple black suit, and red tie painstakingly inscribed with runes using metal thread hidden in the weave of the fabric. The spiritual protection and Reinforcement amplification was at least threefold that of the fumbled first attempt at runes I was currently wearing.
Plus, unlike the now waterlogged clothes I had on, with the sole exception of the button down being black instead of white, it was an almost perfect match for the suit assigned to me by MBI.
The next item was a box containing a silver watch – a mystic code that Rin built to help with my quite frankly abysmal ability at Hypnosis. A few notebooks and books on alloys and ancient forging techniques I'd been reading to try and recreate Archer's longbow as well as a failed prototype lay under the suit. The books would be useful, along with my notes to create a Workshop here.
The bow, however… I had failed to recreate the strange alloy MBI used in making their weapons. The bow I'd received from them (currently in its case in the DS office) was much closer to the real thing than the prototype I'd been working on.
All of my gear was accounted for, so I packed it all back up sans the envelope which I opened.
Inside was a piece of parchment – a letter.
I am using a command seal! Under no circumstances are you able to disobey. I hereby order you: Don't die. I'll be wanting this back.
It read. A silver chain tumbled from the parchment. It was luck, more than skill, that the silver chain caught on my pinky. A red gemstone hung, swinging in the momentum of its arrested fall. It was purely psychosomatic, but I could feel the necklace thrumming with imbued prana.
Rin's necklace, painstakingly invested with her prana every night for seven years. Seven years since she summoned the Servant of the Bow, Archer, as her partner. Once more, the catalyst she used in the Grail War – one of her most precious possessions – was held by a Shirou Emiya.
"Fuck…" I whispered, staring at Rin's necklace as it swung. Swung across something else that caught my eye. The crate with the empty pedestal I was using to hold my bag had writing on it. Printed in easy, big block letter font.
Just three letters.
M. B. I.
"Fuck…" I hissed. Heaving my bag off the pedestal. MBI? MBI! The crate recipient list only had MBI's name, and the crate was likewise marked only by the company logo. The pedestal, however, had an inscribed tag chiseled into the base:
A Primer on Ritualcraft by Zouken Makiri
This was a shipment from the Mages Association. The confines of the metal container seemed to shrink, pressing in on all sides. Hidden in a place on the ship that should only be accessible to Mages. The damp smell of wet metal and the salt of the sea turned musky. Yet there was a shipment to MBI. That meant…
That's right, Sempai. Sakura Matou whispered in my ear. Say it.
"There's a Magus at MBI…"
*Minaka*
Shin Tokyo. A shining beacon of what could be accomplished with the right vision. The lights in the office were out, save for the soft blue glow of my terminal, allowing for just the faintest reflection of the room to superimpose on the windows.
It gave me the perfect vantage for when the door to my office opened without a sound. Kaede-san had gone home hours ago, as had the rest of my workers. Even the overtime-chasers. My twilight visitor stayed in the shadows by the door… but that was their nature.
I turned, stepping into the light cast by the monitor, letting myself be seen.
Such was my nature.
"Did you get it?" I couldn't keep the anticipation out of my voice as I addressed the shadow.
"I did." The Magus pulled from their cloak a parcel, wrapped in fabric, and emblazoned with eye-searing glowing labels. A real magic grimoire. With Karasuba-kun's failure to find the Matou library in Fuyuki, there had been the distinct possibility of needing to delay the Project's timeline. "Though, in order to get it I had to burn the last of our agents. There will be no further supplies or information from the Association."
"A shame." But we had what we needed from them. Instead, I focused on the book. Even if I hadn't known what it contained, the tome gave off a malignant, disturbing aura. I only wondered what it would be like to look at (or be in the same room with) were I magically sensitive. "We'll have to rely on Emiya-kun to forewarn us of any movements should they decide to mobilize."
My eldest son really didn't have nearly the poker face he thought he did. Silly boy. He had inherited Takami-kun's straightforward manner.
"Speaking of Emiya." The Magus continued. "He was there. At the ship."
"Did he see you?" Pride (nonsensically enough) warred with the realization of how disastrous that might be for this stage of the Plan. "That would be hardly Ideal."
"No. We would be having a different conversation if he had." The Magus stated, taking as fact that if they had met the Enforcer, my son wouldn't be the one to walk away from the fight. Though not as gifted as the once-in-a-generation genius that was Akihito… the Magus's talents were much more suitable for direct confrontation. That might not be an incorrect summation…
"Good." I ignored the casual threat to Shirou's life. That was an old conversation at this point, and I had more pressing matters than rehashing that topic. A real magic grimoire! "With this, we can proceed to the next phase of the Plan. How long until the additions to the ritual will be in place?"
"The secret arts of the Makiri magecraft is to 'bind one onto another'." The Magus repeated the words Akihito laid out in the trajectory of the Sekirei Plan. "So long as the grimoire holds what secrets we believe, I should be able to decipher the mysteries and implement them in a few weeks."
"Excellent." The tournament arc was almost here! "I'll have the committee run through a proposal for match pairings. We can update it with the losses between now and then." The Magus didn't leave to perform his much-needed task, however. "Is there something else?"
"There is. I can confirm the existence of a Number 109." The Magus said gravely. "I fought it and its minions trying to retrieve the grimoire."
I frowned.
There was no Sekirei Number 109. Not really. The False Number Contingency was a backup plan, crafted in case any of the more… esoteric… entities of the world decided to 'grace' Shin Tokyo with their presence. If something like the stories of what Akihito described arrived, information on its 'abilities' could be leaked to the Sekirei and Ashikabi, as well as our own security personnel. It was one thing to fight some arcane horror or monstrous beast… to fight merely a 'Scrapped Number', however, was comparatively easier to accept. Business was always about plausible deniability.
Number 109 was…
"The moon vampires?" I think that was correct. I didn't understand the higher concepts very well. Magic was magic and should be magic. "Is Shirou-kun aware?"
"He engaged its Familiars, distracting it enough that I was able to retrieve the package."
"And you thought you would be unable to work with him." Ha! That got a reaction past the artificially dead expression of the Magus. "Good. If there really was a Number 109–" Vampires! Honestly "–then Shirou won't be able to leave it alone. He'll be too busy trying to hunt it down and kill it," something that was both his job at the company and his role in the Association, "to dig around further into our dealings. Plus… I think I rather dislike having others try and muscle in on my games."
The Magus held their peace, clearly wanting to disagree, but Shirou was trained to track down and eliminate such threats. He was a better candidate to sic on the vampire than the Magus, and they knew it.
"See to it that your games do not endanger our plans, Hiroto." The Magus said in parting, turning on their heel to return to their workshop. "And that your priorities are in their proper place."
"Oh, yes." I spoke as they disappeared into the darkness. Once more alone, I couldn't help but smile in the ensuing silence as I leaned forward at my desk – resting my elbows and steepling my fingers in front of my nose to hide the wide (possibly manic) grin.
"All is going according to plan."
*Chapter End*
As always, thank you to ParadoxicalThought, HibernaLupus, and OctZ. I dropped a full and complete chapter on them without warning and they are wonderful in catching my many mistakes.
Onto chapter discussion: So… things happened. Before anyone complains that Akitsu should have been able to body her opponents solo… yes. She could have, were she not holding up a multi-ton cargo tanker. Most of her focus and power was utilized on that aspect alone. Now she's learning control to go with her frankly absurd amount of power. She's going to be right terrifying.
Also, for those wondering, yes. Karasuba did just unlock the first step of an uncontrolled Prana Burst.