February 21st, 2008
Nina clung to Misora like her life depended on it as the other girl drove her beaten, rattling scooter through Rome in the failing evening light to the plaza where the latest devil had been sighted. They had been called out of the dorm more and more often lately, and all three of them were becoming irritable from lack of sleep. She felt bad about it of course, but...
There.
The devil was a much larger one this time, taller than a man and twice as wide. It carried a staff of some sort, which it was waving around and using to set fire to things. Nina shivered. Misora looked back at her, but Nina frantically motioned for her to look at the road ahead. She could see Isabella already there in the plaza fighting the devil...this was bad. He must have gone after some civilians or something if Isabella had started fighting him alone...
Misora hopped the curb and drove the scooter out into the plaza, finally coming to rest beside a tree. The two of them dismounted the scooter and Nina took off her helmet while Misora leaned the badly beaten little Vespa against the tree; the kickstand had long since fallen off.
"Looks like a tough one. Give me a series of arrows?" Misora asked as her eyes tracked the action.
"Okay," Nina replied. "Twenty three light?"
"That'll work."
They trotted closer while Isabella got the devil's attention from across the plaza so it would turn its back to them.
"Usual double team?"
"Yeah," Misora replied.
"'kay."
Misora moved out, circling around the plaza while Nina moved to stay out of its line of sight. They had faced a couple others like this one; they were tough, but manageable once you realized how to fight them.
Nina began gathering energy while Misora and Isabella moved into position. It was a measure of how well they worked as a team that Isabella knew exactly where to go when she hadn't even spoken to the other two girls.
Nina waited for Misora's signal...waited...waited...there.
"Let the twenty three spirits of Light shoot arrows at the enemy!"
"Adeat!" Misora shouted from across the plaza.
The light arrows blasted the devil off balance as he whirled around to face Nina, but Isabella had already darted up and cut the back of his legs with her knives. The demon fell clumsily to the ground just in time for Misora to come down through the air, her skirt flipped up by the wind to reveal bicycle shorts beneath, to land on its face boot-first with a satisfying crunch. She jumped off while Isabella moved away on the other side, and Nina began her second spell while the devil flailed around on the ground, its crushed face beginning to reform already.
"Spirits of light, Arrow series, Continuous fire!" It was an original spell, and one she was quite proud of. Already several papers had been written on the simple spell and what it said about the mindset of the mages, who had somehow missed such an obvious idea. It worked by creating a ball of energy that remained in location in front of the mage, constantly shooting single magic arrows by draining the mage's power at a steady rate. As a bonus, firing off single arrows took far less power than firing volleys of arrows the old fashioned way, though it was slower. The devil took seventy three before finally disappearing in a cloud of sulfurous gases.
Nina cut off the spell and staggered while Misora and Isabella ran up to support her.
"That one was tougher than usual," Isabella said as she looked at the blackened stones where the devil had been sent back to hell.
"Yeah, I must not have hit him right," Misora said as she helped Nina over to a bench, where the girl almost collapsed.
"That took...*gasp*...a lot of power...*gasp*..." Nina said as her vision blurred and refocused.
"You should sit still," Isabella ordered as she passed Nina a bottle of water.
"I would help with the magic arrows if I could, but...well...heh," Misora offered sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. She only had enough power to activate simple spell circles; anything more power-intensive left her unconscious. Isabella wasn't any good either; she had enough power, but not anywhere near enough control to use magic arrows safely. Fire magic, Isabella's strong suit in magic, didn't usually have much of an effect on devils, anyway.
"There's nothing we can do about it but keep training," Isabella said as she wiped some of the devil's blood from her knives. It was quite corrosive; if one were to leave it on a knife overnight, the blade would be pitted heavily and ruined by the next morning, often within the hour. Leave it on your skin, and, well...suffice to say the effect was much worse than a sunburn.
The team in charge of cleanup arrived shortly thereafter. Misora, Nina, and Isabella gave their report and decided to head back to the dorm.
Ciel smiled slightly as she considered what she had just watched on the computer Benedetto had set up for her. He had gone out to Rome to video the fight, which he streamed back to her via internet. She didn't quite understand the system, but it let her watch her students in action, so she didn't really care. The slight smile became a full on toothy grin as she recalled how smoothly the three girls had worked together. Teamwork! That was the sort of teamwork that she had been trying to teach them!
The phone rang, so she picked it up as the video ended.
'Did you see that?' Benedetto asked on the other end.
"Yes. They're good, aren't they?" she asked rhetorically. Good? They had been great! That class of devil was no pushover.
'Yes. I am curious as to how they would handle some of the tougher devils-'
"Summon something they can't handle and I'll kill you myself," Ciel said pleasantly. Honestly, what was she even doing associating with a devil summoner anyway? And one in the church...! Not too long ago, she would have executed him on the spot, old friend or not! But...it was those prophecies again. Helping to prepare Misora for whatever she had to face, Benedetto had said. Helping get her used to life or death combat, where even one's soul was in danger. Ciel sighed. 'Maybe I'm just going soft?' She realized Benedetto was talking again. "What did you say?"
'I have an errand to run here in the city; I will return late,' he said.
"Okay. I'll expect a report on the battle when you get back," Ciel replied, then hung up on him before he could reply. She hated being unable to accompany Nina, Misora, and Isabella in their battles. She knew it was necessary for them to do this themselves, but that didn't mean she had to like it, sitting here in this house on the outskirts of Rome. She felt far too disconnected from them, and something about that bothered her.
She went back to the monitors, which were located in a different room. She scanned through the images from the dorm and frowned. That was odd...the dorm was unusually quiet, and the reception desk was empty. Where was Rachele? For that matter... She scanned through the cameras, stopping abruptly as the view switched to one of the stairwells. She just stared at the image for a moment, shocked, and was out of her chair and rushing to her room on the other side of the house in seconds.
'I hope I can get there in time...!'
The image on the monitor wasn't that unusual. Just a stairwell; the shape lying sprawled out halfway down the stairs and obscured by the stair railing, however, most definitely was. The shape's lifeless hand, flung out as if she had fallen and simply not gotten back up, lay in clear view of the camera, shockingly pale and bloodless.
"Feeling any better yet Nina?" Misora asked as she and Isabella helped support the staggering girl down the street in front of the dorm. It was already getting dark.
"...a little, I guess," Nina replied. "I just can't catch my breath..."
A silence fell over the trio as they paused in front of the door and contemplated how best to get Nina up the stairs. The fight had been tough on Nina; she had used a lot of power, killing that devil...it would take quite some time to recover.
Isabella opened the door and stepped inside, looking around.
Misora helped support Nina up the steps and into the doorway, and shut the door after them. She helped Nina over to one of the couches and sat her down there.
"Hey, where's Rachele?" Misora asked.
"I don't know," Isabella said as she looked around. "Doesn't it seem awful quiet?"
"Yeah..."
"I'll go check our rooms," Misora said, frowning now.
Isabella nodded. "I'll see if I can find the manager."
Nina staggered to her feet. "I'll help-"
"Oh no you won't," Misora said as she trotted over. She pushed Nina back down on the couch and put her hands on her hips in full-on housewife mode. "You are going to stay right there and rest until we figure out what's going on."
Nina looked to Isabella, but the redhead just shook her head. She sighed. "Okay...but if you need help, call me."
"Don't worry about it," Misora said jauntily as she walked over to the stairs. "I'll be back as fast as you can say, uh...Rumpelstiltskin? Yeah, that one. See ya in a minute!" she said as she ran up the stairs.
"I'll check the rest of the first floor," Isabella said as she strode purposefully away, leaving Nina alone in the lobby.
She sat there on the couch for a moment, trying not to let her imagination get the best of her, when she realized something seemed out of place. She pulled herself up and walked across the room to the receptionist's desk. Something seemed weird, something about the way things were placed on the desk. The pencil cup was overturned for one thing, so she set it up straight and put all the pencils back in. There were several papers scattered across the desk, and the romance novel Rachele had been reading for the past few days sat on the desk as if it had been suddenly dropped.
Something still seemed wrong, so she stood there for a moment with her hands on her hips as she contemplated the desk. She was about to move around behind it to push the chair back in place when someone put a hand on her shoulder.
Misora started up the stairs two at a time, but slowed to a more normal pace after the first flight. The sound of her footsteps echoed crazily in the narrow stairwell, making it sound almost as if someone else was in there with her. She paused for a moment, and the sound immediately stopped.
"Heh, look at me, getting all freaked out," she said much more cheerfully than she felt. 'Come on Misora, reality is calling...'
She shook her head, took a deep breath, and continued on up the stairs. She paused on the stairwell, looking at the open door to the fifth floor, where her room was located. The hall was deserted, but...she shivered. Something felt wrong.
"Okay, back downstairs I go," Misora said loudly. Anything was better than the sheer nothing that she heard now, even her creepily echoing voice in the stairwell. She turned around to head downstairs again, but something lying against the wall on the fifth floor landing caught her attention.
'Please please please tell me that's not what I think it is...' she thought to herself as she calmly and slowly—very slowly—walked closer to the object. It was a familiar purse; she had seen one of the other girls carrying it just the other day. A unusual shadow on the stairs screamed for her attention, and she reluctantly turned to look. The chest-height wall that served as a stair railing blocked her view, however, so she moved forward and stopped again just before the stair rail could reveal whatever was lying there. She took a big gulp of air and moved forward.
She knew the dead girl; there was no way she wouldn't recognize that frizzy brown hair.
She had been fairly new to the dorm, arriving perhaps two months after Misora, and had been assigned a room just down the hall from the one shared by Misora and Nina. They hadn't ever really spoken; the girl had always seemed too shy. But...she had been a good kid, only a couple years younger.
Misora bent over the body, which was lying on its stomach, and lightly prodded it with her finger. It was still warm. She gave it an experimental push, and then took hold of the other side and rolled the poor dead girl over.
A pale, horrified face with bulging, glassy eyes greeted her, its mouth forever locked in a rictus of pain, its throat torn out as if by a rabid dog, and not a drop of blood anywhere.
Misora screamed.
Isabella walked down the long hallway, glancing into whatever rooms had open doors as she went. They were all dark. She poked her head into the darkened kitchen and glanced around.
"Hello?"
Nothing. Nico, their cook, was always in there. This was troubling...there was something lying in the shadows.
She frowned and loosened her favorite knife in its sheath. "Is anybody here?" she called out more loudly as she carefully stepped into the kitchen.
No reply at all, just the echo of her voice. Maybe everyone had gone out to watch a game or a show? Surely not! She paused as the shape came into view, then carefully, very carefully, backed away to the door and reached out blindly for the light switch. The lights came on and she bit back a scream. There on the floor beside the preparation tables lay two girls in a pool of blood, eyes wide and unseeing. Even from here, she could see the chef's knife buried to the hilt in one girl's chest, and the deep, deep slash across the other girl's throat. She moved a little closer and saw another in the corner, lying against the lower cupboards as if she had been thrown with great force. And, now that she had moved this far into the room, she spotted Nico, leaning back against the far end of the preparation table, hidden by the table and only recognizable by the long, ragged scar across the top of his right hand, which he seemed to be using to prop himself up.
"...Nico? Is that you?" she asked hesitantly, stepping wide around the two dead girls as she approached.
"Stop, don't come any closer," he replied, his voice strained and hoarse.
Isabella froze. "Nico..."
"I said don't come any closer, dammit! I don't want to, but if you're one of them, I'll kill you too!"
Isabella's breath quickened. "Nico, what happened?" She could see him moving now, dragging himself upright with the tabletop. He stood there for a moment, looking at her.
"You're...still you, right?" he asked after a moment.
"Yes...?" Isabella said, backing away slightly. Her eyes drifted back to the dead girls. She knew she should be feeling something right now; fear, disgust, anger, but instead she felt...nothing. Clear. Ready. "What happened here?"
Nico blinked a couple times and wiped some of the blood from his face as he looked at her. Finally he spoke. "You're really you, thank God. Come on," he said, coming around the table, cleaver in one hand, long chef's knife in the other. "We have to go-"
"Wait. You will tell me what's going on before I go anywhere with you," Isabella said. Nico just looked at her for a moment before apparently realizing what the scene in the kitchen must look like.
He barked a harsh laugh. "They're vampire slaves," he said, disgust clear in his voice. "Half the girls were like this, and the other half are dead. I don't know who the leader is, but he must've been here for months to turn as many as he did."
Isabella's jaw tightened. Vampires...! And now the other girls were all dead, or as good as dead.
"Don't worry about fighting your friends, they're all dead," Nico said.
Isabella focused back on Nico. What had she just heard in his voice? Regret? But he had always seemed so distant... And why the hell was she thinking so clearly?
"He did something, I'm pretty sure he killed them all. Probably sucked them dry upstairs. These three would've been up there too, if they had managed to kill me," Nico said as he staggered around the table.
"You're hurt..." Isabella said as she eyed the cook. He was covered in blood, his white chef's clothes stained crimson, torn and ragged. He was heavily favoring his right side, and blood was running down his left leg from a terrible gash in his thigh.
"Tch, I've been through worse," Nico said plainly as he moved past her to the door and looked out into the hall. Something knocked over a garbage can in the alley, and Isabella heard him heave a sigh and mutter "Oh, hell" just before the glass windows blew inward and devils poured into the hall.
Nina jumped and whirled around and almost gutted Teresa, who staggered back just in time to avoid Nina's knife. When she saw Teresa's condition, she quickly sheathed the knife and helped the injured woman over to the couch. "Oh no...what happened to you?" she asked as she checked over Teresa's wounds.
"He's a vam-"
She was interrupted by a blood-curdling shriek from the stairwell, followed immediately by breaking glass and a shout of "Devils!" from one of the hallways. The electricity flashed out suddenly, and they were buried in darkness for a few seconds before the backup generator kicked on as running footsteps headed for the lobby from several directions, and the sounds of combat filled the building.
"What's going on?" Nina asked as Isabella rushed into the lobby from the hallway and locked the front door.
"Devils outside in the alley! I saw five or six, we're under attack!"
Misora barreled out of the stairwell, breathless and terrified. "Somebody killed Karina! Tore her throat out, and there's no blood!"
"Vampire!" Isabella spat, then finally saw Teresa. She rushed over and took the bloody woman's hand. "What happened to you?"
Teresa struggled to sit up straight, her face contorted in pain. "He's a vampire," she said. "Pratchett, he's a vampire. He probably killed the real Pratchett and took his place."
"Oh, Rachele..." Misora said sadly as she looked behind the reception desk and spotted the friendly receptionist's body, which had been crammed into the space under the desk.
"They're all dead," Teresa said tiredly. "All the girls. He told me so himself; he's been feeding on them for months, there's no telling who he was impersonating all that time..."
Something began huffing and squealing and banging on the front door, and Isabella straightened up, all but snarling. "Devils. He must have summoned them. How long will the protective wards last?"
Teresa shrugged. "Five minutes, maybe ten. They aren't meant to withstand a siege; they're just designed to give the defenders time to prepare the real defenses."
"So, how do we defend?" Misora asked.
The lobby fell quiet as Nina and Misora looked at each other, then at Teresa, who seemed to be fading fast.
"Holy water, anti-devil spells, holy weapons...I can't...I..." Teresa said tiredly as she slumped further into the couch. She coughed, spraying blood through her fingers as she tried to cover her mouth. "Get my crossbow," she said, her voice thick and wet sounding. Misora rushed off into the manager's office while Teresa went into another coughing fit, spraying blood droplets everywhere.
"No...!" Nina said as she knelt over Teresa and tried to help her sit up straight. She could barely see anything in the red emergency lights, but there were splashes of some dark fluid on Teresa's side, legs, and the middle of her chest. Teresa groaned as Nina helped her lie down.
"Oh Teresa, what happened to you?" she asked tearfully.
"He hit me hard," Teresa said dully. "Something's broken inside...You girls...hah...you girls need to get away...he'll ki-" She was interrupted mid-word by another coughing fit. She looked up at Nina's face, her eyes wandering as she tried to focus. Something was wrong, something about...what was...? She felt herself fading out.
"Isabella! Hurry, help me!" Nina said frantically. "Hurry!" she repeated when Isabella didn't reply. She glanced back at Isabella, who was looking out through a window at the road, and staggered tiredly over to her. That fight earlier had taken a lot more out of her than she had initially thought... "Isabella, what are you...wait!"
Isabella turned, looked her in the eye, and rammed her hand through Nina's stomach.
"I got it! I got the crossbow!" Misora said, carrying the weapon against her chest as she exited the office. Time slowed to a crawl as she watched Nina walk up to Isabella. Something in Isabella's stance was all wrong; Isabella wasn't that big for one thing, and even in this light Misora could tell her skin was far, far too pale. She barely even realized she had pulled the bowstring back and locked it in place as the thing that looked like Isabella pulled its arm back. The bolt went smoothly into its slot on the body of the crossbow as the thing's clawed hand drove into the soft place under Nina's ribcage. Nina was still folding over when Misora hefted the crossbow to eye level, and the thing hadn't even removed its hand from Nina's guts yet when Misora pulled the trigger.
The silver-tipped bolt drove deep into the thing's side, and it let out an enraged roar and it's shape blurred and shifted in a maddening display as features melted away and emerged anew until a tall, strongly built man stood in the middle of the lobby over Nina's body. He reached up, took hold of the crossbow bolt, and yanked it out, the bloodless wound left steaming. He looked at Misora, and she dropped the crossbow and yanked out a knife as he crossed the room in three long strides.
Misora swiped at his neck, but he caught her wrist in his hand and squeezed until she let out a scream and dropped the knife.
"That was a mistake, girl," he said as he lifted her up in the air by her wrist.
"L-let me go, y-you monster!" Misora demanded, her voice high pitched and terrified.
"Shut up," he said calmly as he slammed her into the wall. Misora grunted with the impact, but it seemed to jar something back into place mentally.
"What did you do to Isabella?" she demanded as she kicked him in the gut.
He didn't react to the blow. "The devils should be taking care of her in the back hallway by now, I suppose," he said blandly as he turned to glance back across the room at Teresa. He reached down and picked up the knife Misora had dropped, then absently flicked it across the room, where it sank into Teresa's stomach. Teresa let out a squealing breath and folded forward on the couch, clutching the hilt of the knife in her abdomen with both hands. Misora struggled wildly, kicking him as hard as she could and trying to grab his face with her free hand until he snatched that wrist too and held it against the wall.
"You are a handful, aren't you?" he asked, making an expression that was probably supposed to pass for a grin. The fangs ruined the image. He absently brought up a knee and slammed it into her stomach, driving the breath from her lungs. He abruptly let go of her, and she dropped to the floor in a gasping heap.
There was a shout outside, followed by an otherworldly squeal of pain and fear, and another shout. Something exploded, and then the front door was blown from its hinges and none other than Ciel stepped in, wielding a large hand held pilebunker and wearing an odd short blue dress. Misora pushed herself half up to see what was happening and her eyes met Ciel's for a moment across the room. Ciel turned her attention back to the vampire and Misora shivered. This was definitely not the Ciel that had been their instructor, the Ciel that had eaten lunch with them and loved curry and joked about boys with them. This Ciel was another creature altogether.
Ciel looked around the room, eyed Teresa breathing messily on the couch, the body of poor Nina lying on the carpet in a rapidly spreading pool of red, and Misora, trying to catch her breath and deal with the agony in her stomach. Her gaze went to the vampire, and he took an unconscious step back at what he saw.
"You are the vampire known as Dexter Marlowe, one of the Great Vampire Lords from Mundus Magicus. The Church has seen your crimes," Ciel said in a deep, authoritative tone.
"Oh? And what are you going to do about it, executioner of the church?" Marlowe asked, once again sure of himself. Ciel's eyes widened at the sound of steel scraping against leather. She whirled around just in time to avoid the wild downward swing of Benedetto's sword. She brought the pilebunker around in a vicious arc and over a hundred pounds of metal smashed into the side of her old friend's head. Marlowe rushed her, fast as thought, as she struggled to bring the weapon to bear, but he was too fast and Ciel was sent flying by a swift blow to the chest. She bounced off the wall hard and hit the floor. Benedetto's control of the devils outside, already tenuous at best, snapped as he struggled to retain consciousness. The devils surrounding the building outside, freed of the constraints put on them by their summoner, howled in rage and excitement and began to run wild.
Marlowe strolled over and kicked Ciel in the side before she could get up. "Hmph. That is the problem with you people. Always talking, never actually paying attention. So easy to fool, too." He kicked her into the wall. "Your friend over there in the doorway has been under my spell for years. Who do you think convinced him to become a heretic and learn to summon devils, hmm?" he asked, kicking her again. Ciel clamped her teeth together, refusing to cry out as he kicked her again.
"Adeat!"
Marlowe whirled to face Misora, too slow, and Misora's knee connected with his face with the force of a freight train. He let out a garbled yell as he was thrown across the room and hit the corner of the receptionist's desk, smashing it back into the wall as he rolled into the darkness of the unlit interior hallway beyond, where he disappeared in the shadows.
Misora rushed over to Ciel, who was already getting to her feet. "Ciel! I'm so glad you're here! Nina's hurt bad and-"
"Nina is dead," Ciel said abruptly, her voice cold and professional and only slightly strained. "The other students are all dead, Teresa is dying, and Isabella is likely dead as well." She fixed Misora in place with her stare. "Do you want to avenge them?"
Misora, who had gone quiet at the first 'dead', nodded silently.
"Good," Ciel said as she picked up her pilebunker. Benedetto reached out and grabbed her foot.
"Thiel," he said through his mangled face and jaw, miraculously still alive. "He'll kill hou, Thiel."
Ciel just looked down at him in disgust. "Go to hell."
Misora glanced back at the man as Ciel headed toward the shadowy hallway, then moved to follow her teacher.
Isabella thrust her knife at the devil standing in her way, burying the blade in its throat. It was a sloppy thrust, and the blade, badly used and heavily damaged by the corrosive materials that had been spilled with it, snapped off near the hilt. Nevertheless, the lesser devil exploded in a cloud of sulfurous gas and Isabella stumbled past, coughing raggedly as she pressed her eyes shut against the corrosive gasses. She pushed on down the hallway, limping in agony and using the wall to help support herself. She had no idea what had happened to Nico in the chaos of the dark hallway.
She slipped into the first open room to try and catch her breath. "Damn devils..." she muttered, her voice strained and wet sounding. She coughed again and almost collapsed at the sheer agony in her chest. The devils hadn't given them any time to plan; they had burst through the windows and flooded the unlit hallway in an instant and, even before she could react, Nico had shoved her out of the way as a big one made a wild swing for her head, then she had been among them, pushing and shoving and trying not to get torn apart before she could draw her knife. Something had struck her a tremendous blow in the chest, and she could tell something in there was wrong. She had a feeling several of her ribs were broken at the least, maybe even her sternum, but at least nothing had punctured her lungs; her breathing was free of the foam she had been taught to search for in the case of a pierced lung.
That didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell, though.
She stepped badly and put too much weight on her twisted ankle and had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from crying out as she fell in an agonized heap on the ground. She lay there for several minutes, tears in her eyes, as she listened. The sounds of combat from the way she had come seemed to have stopped; either the demons had won, or Nico had managed to defeat them. Somehow she had a feeling it wasn't the latter. She struggled back to her feet and peeked out around the door frame, looking down the dark hallway. Just another thirty feet, then a right turn into the east hall, and then follow that seventy feet or so, and then could she find out what had happened to her friends in the lobby.
She started off again.
Ciel stalked straight into the darkness of the hall where Marlowe had disappeared, but Misora paused where the shadow of the wall cut across the floor, forming the border between the lobby and the darkened hallway, and looked back at the others. Teresa was bent over on the couch, breathing noisily as she concentrated on surviving, but poor Nina still lay curled up in a puddle of blood on the floor. Misora glanced back into the darkness where Ciel had gone, than trotted back over to Nina and knelt down to check the girl's pulse.
"Oh, Nina..." she said sadly as she looked at the corpse of the first friend she had made here. Nina had been the first to make an effort to know her, Nina had been the first to try and teach her the language, Nina had been the one to introduce her to Isabella, a girl she had dismissed as a cold, distant brat when they had their first brief meeting in the stairwell on her first morning in the dorm. Together, the three of them had become strong enough to face devils and demons alone; for that matter, the three of them had accomplished things in the short months she had been here that veterans of the special agencies had thought impossible. The three of them had been a perfect match.
And now, Nina was dead, and probably Isabella too.
Misora stood up and absently wiped some of Nina's blood off her hand onto her skirt. There would be time for mourning later. She swiped the growing moisture from her eyes, smacked some dust from one of her boots, and strode purposefully into the darkness of the hallway, following in Ciel's footsteps.
The Bishop Marco Costa, the man in charge of the Secret Agencies, was jolted out of a sound sleep by the sound of a ringing telephone. He sat up and reached for the telephone by his bed.
"Bishop Costa," he said. "...what? WHAT? Alert the Guardian Agency and Special Exorcism Agencies immediately! If anyone from the Burial Agency is still in Rome, alert them as well. We go into battle at once!"
He slammed the phone down in its cradle and was out of bed in an instant. He walked over to the locked wardrobe by the closet and paused. He hadn't opened it in almost ten years; he hadn't had need of any of the things in there since then. But...times were changing, apparently. When one of the Great Vampire Lords decided to walk freely on the Earth, steps had to be taken.
He opened the wardrobe and took out a large, lightly glowing sword. "Sorry I have neglected you, old friend," he said softly as he propped it against the wall and began preparing his other equipment. For the first time in fifteen years, Slayer Marco was going to war.
Misora stepped into the darkness of the hall and flattened herself against the wall. Her hearing, naturally very fine, was sharpened by the adrenaline roaring through her system; her sight, already eagle-sharp, sharpened further still. Her reactions, honed by years of training under Sister Shakti and now Ciel, were nearly instantaneous, and this enabled her to drop twelve inches and avoid the vampire's attempt to rip her face off. She dropped to her knees and drew her knife in a single motion, thrusting it up and into the soft tissue under the vampire's ribcage, but he was too fast and the knife only penetrated a few inches as he jumped back. Misora rolled with the motion and ended up flat against the opposite wall, perfectly still, hidden by the deep shadows of the unlit hallway. She concentrated on controlling her breathing and trying to remain motionless.
Some small object bounced off of something further down the hallway, but Misora knew it for a trick and remained still. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, then thirty. A full minute rolled around with no sign of movement from the other two people in the hall. Misora's arm was starting to get cramped in its awkward position underneath her, but she knew the first to move would be the first to die.
"Nina...!" Isabella said back in the lobby, her voice betraying the emotional agony she must have felt upon finding one of her best friends dead.
Misora jerked in spite of her best intentions to remain still, and the vampire lunged in almost the same instant. There was the quick blast of a pneumatic piston, and something thudded into the wall six inches above her head as she rolled out of the way to avoid Marlowe's downward strike. His fist went through the floor, accompanied by a metallic clang as he hit the top of the underground bunker that housed the objects Teresa had been set to guard. The pneumatic piston hissed again and something thudded into the vampire's side, and he cried out in rage and agony, a wordless howl of pain as he yanked his mangled hand out of the ruins of the floor.
Misora scrambled to get to her feet, but Marlowe spun around and snagged her by the wrist and flung her at Ciel in one fluid motion. Misora collided with Ciel with a grunt and the two hit the floor in a tangle of arms and legs as Ciel's pilebunker slid off into the darkness. Misora started to move off of her, but Ciel grabbed her arm and squeezed, and Misora froze.
The hallway was deathly quiet, and Isabella, if she was still in the lobby, had gone silent as well. Back to square one.
"Protecting innocents..." Isabella's voice came drifting through the hallway echoing oddly, making it impossible to locate her.
Misora felt Ciel jerk in surprise underneath her, and then she was pushed off as Marlowe drove his clawed hand down into Ciel's midsection before she could get out of the way.
"No!" Misora said, but Marlowe grabbed her by the neck and lifted her high in the air. She pounded on his wrist and kicked futilely in a fruitless attempt to free herself. She couldn't see anything other than vague silhouettes in the shadows of the hallway, but she could see Ciel's body curled up on the floor nearby.
"Destruction of evil..." Isabella's voice continued.
Marlowe slammed Misora's back against the wall, knocking down a nearby picture. He looked around wildly, trying to locate the source of the voice, snarling.
"Defending the land from corruption. These are our duties," Isabella continued.
Misora could barely breathe, and spots were beginning to appear in her vision, but she could tell Isabella was closer, and something in her voice sounded...off. Marlowe let up on the pressure on her neck for a moment, and she gulped in air greedily.
"Stop that!" Marlowe shouted, his voice echoing wildly through the corridor.
"Those who would do evil will not be forgiven," Isabella said.
'Defintely closer,' Misora thought as Marlowe dropped her to focus on the new threat.
"I said SHUT UP!" he bellowed. Misora took the opportunity to crawl over to Ciel and check on her.
"How bad is it?" she whispered as quietly as she could.
"You who do evil will not be forgiven," Isabella said.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" Marlowe bellowed as he went further down the hall, away from the two of them.
"...pretty bad," Ciel whispered back, her voice strained. "He got me in the side. Put pressure on this," she said as she took Misora's hand and pressed it against something warm and wet, with a distressingly large hole ripped into it. Misora flinched back initially, but ultimately did as Ciel said. She felt Ciel moving around as the sound of tearing cloth reached her ears. After a moment, Ciel pushed her hand away.
"Make your peace with God, for you are about to meet him," Isabella said.
"What's that all about?" Misora asked.
"The Code of the Defenders," Ciel said stiffly. "Typically recited before facing a dangerous enemy. Isabella thinks she's going to die, and she's probably right. Here, help me up. Did you see my weapon anywhere?"
Misora shook her head, even though Ciel couldn't see it in the dark. "It's too dark. What about-"
"Found you...!" Marlowe said. There was the sound of running footsteps, then someone grunted and Isabella let out a scream of mingled pain and rage, quickly mirrored by a terrified scream from Benedetto, back in the entryway.
"What was that? Did something get that guy?" Misora asked, referring to Ciel's old friend.
"We have to do something about the devils outside," Ciel said professionally as Misora helped her up. They could hear Marlowe's labored, ragged breathing as he struggled with Isabella, surprisingly loud in the darkness.
"I have to help Isabella...! Are you going to be okay?" Misora asked. There was a sudden squelchy sound, and Marlowe barked a short cry in the darkness.
"I don't know," Ciel replied as Misora helped steady her. "You go ahead and help her, I'll go try to keep the devils out of the building," she said as she staggered away in the shadows of the hallway, using the wall as a support.
"Wait Ciel! How am I supposed to help her? I can't even see!" Misora whispered loudly.
"You're a big girl, use your imagination," Ciel replied from the darkness ahead.
"Ciel? Ciel!" Ciel didn't reply, and Misora found herself alone. 'Great. Juuuust great,' she thought. Now, to help Isabella and somehow not die. 'I need a weapon. Weapon...weapon...' She patted her pockets, looking for anything she could use. The two knives she normally carried were both missing; she must have forgotten to secure the sheathes again... She continued searching. 'Some change, my wallet, the key for the Vespa...wait.' She took out her wallet and fumbled around with it for a moment before pulling out her license. It was made of some kind of hard plastic. Perhaps it could be used to cut...? The key, too. She had killed ghouls and devils with less threatening items, but this enemy was a powerful vampire, much stronger than any enemy she had ever faced before. What had Ciel called him? A 'Great Vampire Lord'? She had never heard the term before, but it sounded pretty important. Were vampires ranked like devils? She didn't know, but it didn't seem likely. Vampires were people too, they weren't as single-minded or lacking in personality as the average devil seemed to be.
Marlowe suddenly let out a horrible scream and Misora jumped.
"Make your peace with God, for you are about to meet him!" Isabella screamed. "Practe Bigi Nar, Ardescat!"
The hallway was lit by a burst of fire, revealing Marlowe, pinned to the wall through the stomach with a short sword, and a beaten and bloody Isabella, barely able to stand, building an unstable fireball bigger and bigger.
"You killed Nina! You killed Marie two years ago! You killed everyone!" Isabella screamed, her voice hoarse and the look in her eyes unsteady. "You're going to die!" she yelled as she left the unstable fireball floating in place and rushed forward to throw her arms around the struggling vampire's torso, knocking him off balance back against the wall just as he freed himself from the sword. Suddenly, Misora knew exactly what the girl was about to do.
Misora screamed for her to stop, knowing it was already too late as the fireball wobbled, bulged, and exploded in a massive blast of fire. She had a brief glimpse of Isabella flinging Marlowe off balance so he couldn't escape, and then Isabella was opening her mouth to scream as the flames engulfed the two.
The whole building shook with the blast, and Misora was thrown back against the wall where the hall took a turn, silently thanking her extensive training for the body reinforcement spell she had thrown up without even thinking. Even so, the impact had been brutal, and floating blobs of light moved in and out of her vision, interfering with her sight. Had there not been a support beam there, she likely would have gone through the wall. She hurt all over, and her first attempt to stand up left her sprawled on the rubble that had been one of the interior walls.
She staggered up, trying not to look directly at the fire that was now raging in the dorm. Something collapsed nearby, and she realized the whole place was about to come down. She pulled herself up and leaned back against the wall, trying to catch her breath. Her head felt fuzzy, and everything sounded muffled. Isabella...she had sacrificed herself to ensure the vampire's destruction. Why? Why would she do such a thing? If you ran away, there was always a chance to fight again later, why would Isabella do something so, so stupid? She stumbled forward over the debris that littered the hall and made her way to the center of the destruction caused by the fireball. The ceiling had collapsed here and temporarily put out the fire, but too much was burning nearby for that to last. She climbed over the piles of debris and continued on to where she had last seen her friend, where she fell to her knees and began digging, pulling chunks of wood and plaster aside.
She found her perhaps thirty seconds later.
She was badly burned, the beautiful hair that Misora had secretly been jealous of burned almost completely away, her beautiful skin horribly scorched, forever ruining her face. Isabella's eyes flickered open and Misora barely managed to hold back the contents of her stomach.
"Who is it?" the girl asked in a dry, crackly voice.
"It...it's me, Isabella, Misora," Misora barely managed to get out.
"I can't see..."
Misora's stomach lurched again. "I-it's okay, don't worry about it," she said soothingly. "It's...it's really dark here," she lied.
"Oh..." Isabella replied. She tried to move, groaned, and stopped right away.
"I probably shouldn't have done that," she said after a moment. "With the fire."
"P-probably nuh-not," Misora replied, her voice catching as she tried to keep from sobbing. 'Oh, Isabella...'
"I...I wanted...I..." Isabella's voice trailed off as she weakened. "I..."
"Don't worry about it, Isabella, don't worry!" Misora said frantically. "It'll all be okay, you'll see! Just...just you and me and, and Nina. We'll get you two to a hospital and...and a doctor...a doctor will...Isabella? Isabella?" She paused a moment, gave the burned girl a shake. "Isabella? Isabella! A-answer me Isabella! Come on, you have to answer me! You have to...you...you can't..." Misora trailed off and looked down at the other girl. "...Isabella...?" she asked quietly as she reached down and lightly touched the other girl's face. Some burned tissue sloughed off and she dropped Isabella's body and retched.
After a moment, something moved in the rubble behind her and she lurched to her feet, almost stumbling over Isabella as she did so.
The vampire's arm moved and pushed a piece of the collapsed wall aside. Misora backed away warily as Marlowe pulled himself halfway out of the rubble before stopping, gasping for breath and shivering violently as his body tried to undo the extensive damage from the fireball.
He reached out blindly, grabbed Isabella's arm, and pulled, and something in Misora's mind snapped. Her lips curled into a snarl as she strode over and kicked his hand away.
"Don't touch her!"
"Misora..." the vampire said consideringly. "You will be the next—urk," he said, cut off when Misora's boot hit his head.
"Don't say my name, monster," she spat. A large section of the second story floor collapsed nearby, but Misora just looked down at the vampire in fury.
"You won't be so proud when I have finished regenerating," Marlowe said. "I will drain every drop of blood from your body, and then go after that trainer of yours. Then again, I could also make you my slave; it has been some time since I last had one, and you look like you would be...suitable for my needs," he said, sneering at her through his pain.
Misora just looked down at him. Somehow, he was no longer frightening. Maybe it was his blackened, peeling skin, maybe his scorched hair, maybe it was the fact that he was trapped under just a few hundred pounds of debris and yet couldn't free himself, she didn't know. But whatever it was, she saw him for the easy target he was. This guy was nothing like Eva-chan.
"Heh..."
"What? What are you laughing at?" he demanded.
Misora just looked at him for a moment. She stepped up and absently kicked him in the head, eliciting another grunt from him.
"You don't dare-!"
"Shut up," Misora said as she absently looked down at her boots, the so-called Seven League Boots. Quite an amazing artifact, when one got down to it. Oh, she had been so utterly stupid to think they were only good for running away...! They could be used in many ways; from jumping huge distances to making innumerable tiny leaps to give the impression of running quickly, to a decent copy of the flash-step, there were many uses. But one she had never really considered until now, one she had only ever noted idly during after-battle damage reports, was the effect that using the boots had on the launch platform. Her first hint at the destructive power of her artifact had been when she had been chasing that little flying devil months ago, and had used the roof of a small car as a launchpad.
The car had been all but flattened, she recalled as she looked down at the trapped vampire. Of course, it had taken until this very moment for her to realize that the boots didn't actually give the power to jump far, but rather, the ability to generate a lot of directed force. It was all just a matter of compensating correctly...
Something exploded and rocked the building, and walls collapsed here and there. Misora just looked down at the vampire, then moved to stand on the rubble above his chest.
"What are you doing?" he asked, but she didn't reply.
"Protecting innocents, destruction of evil..." she said.
"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about!" Marlowe screamed.
"Defending the land from corruption. These are our duties," Misora continued. How had the rest of that gone...?
Marlowe began struggling in earnest, his charred skin cracking and tearing painfully as a result.
"Those who do evil will not be forgiven. You who do evil will not be forgiven."
Marlowe gave one last mighty heave and almost rose out of the rubble. Misora kicked him in the neck.
"Make your peace with God, for you are about to meet him," Misora finished. All it took was careful control of directed force, and the ability to compensate for the recoil...
"No! Get away from me, get away-"
Misora knelt down, looked the Great Vampire Lord Dexter Marlowe in the eye, and smiled.
Marco waded into the battle, enchanted sword spilling smoking devils' guts and blood on the pavement as he went, followed by every fighter his people could dig up in short order. They were a mismatched crew wearing a mishmash of clothing and armor, some bearing the symbol of the Guardian Agency, some bearing the symbol of the Special Exorcism Agency, still others bearing the symbols of more mundane groups, but they fought with a will, and that was all that Marco needed. These men and women, many in competing organizations, were all working together, united under his command, many for the first time, and they had an important job to do. A vampire had infiltrated the church, enthralled its honest followers and led them to heresy, enslaved some, killed others, and now had set free an army of devils in the heart of Rome itself.
They had fought their way up both sides of the street, making sure to not let a single devil past, when the building they were heading for shook with a huge explosion. The devils in front of the building squealed and ran into the swords of Marco and his knights, who gladly took advantage of the opportunity.
"The target building is on fire, Bishop!" one of the men said. Marco just nodded as he gutted another devil and kept moving on.
"We fight on. We must do what we can for those living there," he stated.
"Yes sir!"
Ciel sat on the floor, leaning back against the couch Teresa still sat on.
"Huh...look at the two of us. We're pretty pathetic, aren't we?" she asked her old rival as she carefully peeled back her makeshift bandage. She frowned as she looked at the wound in her side.
"Heh...y-you're right," Teresa said wetly. "Don't make me laugh, it hurts too much," she murmured a moment later.
Ciel heard a pained grunt from the far hallway over the sound of the fire that threatened to consume the building. For now the fire seemed to be concentrated in the western half of the building, but it would spread here before too long.
"Arrrrgh...dammit..." someone muttered.
Ciel thought the voice was familiar, but she felt too lightheaded to think, and couldn't place the voice until the man pulled himself upright using the shattered remains of poor Rachele's desk.
"Nico," Ciel said tiredly, nodding.
"Ciel, Teresa," he said hoarsely in return as he leaned on the wall. He looked around and spotted Nina. "Dammit. Aren't we all a beautiful sight?" He coughed raggedly, spraying almost as much blood as Teresa had earlier as he struggled to stay upright. "Dammit..."
"I guess Isabella died," Ciel said absently after a moment. She knew in a disconnected sort of way that she was likely going into shock, or perhaps she was simply bleeding out. The wound in her side was a mess, and her head felt weird and fuzzy.
"Probably," Teresa said sadly. Nico muttered another 'dammit' from across the room, and Ciel realized the old mercenary was probably bleeding out too.
"You haven't moved since you got that knife in your gut. You aren't paralyzed, are you?" Ciel asked absently as she watched multicolored blobs float around the room.
"Can't take it out like this or I'll die," Teresa muttered. "Too weak to move, really."
"Yeah," Ciel said as she fumbled with her bandage.
One of the devils that had been lurking around the doorway finally decided to step into the building. It put a clawed hand on each side of the door frame and poked its head in cautiously, looking around. It spotted Ciel and Teresa at the couch and snarled, showing far too many teeth. It took one step into the room, then another, and paused, sniffing the air.
Ciel picked up a knife that one of the girls had dropped on the floor earlier and held it out in front of her clumsily, her arm weak and shaky. Nico staggered toward the devil, but it daintily sidestepped and swatted him aside. He hit the wall with a wooden crack and collapsed, growling in pain.
The devil approached carefully and reached out slowly, almost tenderly, and smacked Ciel's hand, knocking the knife away. It stepped closer and leaned over her, sniffing. It grinned toothily again and bent down to bite into her face when it was swept aside violently in a spray of blood, and a familiar face looked down at her.
Ciel looked up at the man groggily for a moment, unable to process what she was seeing. "...Bishop Costa...?"
"Don't worry, child. We will take care of these beasts," he said pleasantly.
"Mishora's in there," Ciel slurred, pointing toward the burning hallway. "'N you hav'ta help T'resa. An' Nico," she said weakly as her tension bled away.
Marco smiled down at her. "Don't worry about that; we have several of the best healers in the church with us." He waited a moment to see they were taken care of, and had just started toward the burning hallway when a shockwave blasted through the building, causing a sizable piece of the rear to collapse spectacularly.
"Evacuate the building! Bring out the injured!" Marco bellowed as he rushed into the hallway.
Misora lay there in the ruins, sheer agony coursing throughout her whole body, as she watched the splattered remains of Dexter Marlowe. Her idea had worked far too well, it seemed. The impact of the shockwave on her body in the confines of the hallway...she coughed and wiped some of the blood from her mouth. Stupid main support columns...she had smashed into it because she hadn't properly controlled the recoil. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid.
"Should've thought about that," she said weakly. It felt like her guts had been scrambled. She had used too much power, too. A simple kick would've torn his head off and ended it then and there, but she had just had to make a big production out of it and stomp the stupid idiot's chest with both feet...
She took another look at Marlowe. Definitely dead, and that was for the best. Poor Isabella lay partially buried by debris off to the side.
"Sorry Isabella, I couldn't help you. Hey, at least I killed the bad guy though, right?" she said as her mind wandered. "Looks like a zombie...vampire...thing... He came apart, haha..." she said, idly poking a chunk of the vampire's flesh that lay within reach.
She was more unconscious than awake when Bishop Costa came into the hallway and picked her up as if she weighed no more than a feather. She looked up at him, her mind foggy, and giggled lightly. She thought she saw Nina and Isabella behind him, looking over his shoulder. It was weird, and for some reason hugely amusing.
"Heheh...See? Told you it'd be fine," she said as she slipped into unconsciousness. She thought she heard Isabella say 'Idiot', which made Nina laugh. She smiled.
Misora was in the hospital for almost a week before she regained consciousness, and when she did, the numerous aches and pains from the bruises and broken bones almost made her want to fall unconscious again. Instead, she settled for a low moan. She had been in the middle of a nice dream, where she was having a picnic with all her friends, and Cocone was jealous of Nina, and it was really funny...
"Congratulations on surviving a fight with one of the most powerful vampires around," someone said nearby.
Misora opened her eyes and looked around groggily. "Ugh."
"Don't force yourself. You broke half the bones in your body and almost reduced your insides to pulp with that stunt. You are lucky to be alive."
Misora finally managed to focus on the location of the voice. "...Bishop...?"
Marco nodded and smiled slightly. "You shouldn't do things like that, you know. If you had made the smallest mistake, you could have ended up in low earth orbit, or left in as many interesting pieces as that vampire. As it was, you did something we once thought impossible: you broke one of our vaults."
"Vault?"
The one Agent Teresa was guarding. You cracked the roof; quite a feat, let me assure you."
Misora turned her head and looked up at the ceiling as she fumbled with a small gray device with a big button. "Isabella?" she asked as she pushed the self-medication button.
The man's tone changed abruptly. "I'm sorry."
"N...Nina?" she asked as tears started to flow.
"...I am sorry," Marco said quietly. She pressed the button again, but nothing happened.
"The other girls? Karina? I...I saw her on the stairs..."
Marco shook his head sadly. "I am sorry."
"C-Ciel Sempai? Teresa? Nico?"
"Ah, now those three are survivors," he said jovially, trying to take her mind off of her losses.
"Where are they? Are they going to be all right?" Misora asked, clinging frantically to the last few people she trusted here.
"Settle down, Misora. They are in private rooms here in the hospital, receiving the best of care. You and I have much to discuss when you recover."
"What do you mean?" Misora asked woozily as the painkillers started taking effect and her mind abruptly began to wander. Ooh, pretty colors.
"We have discovered the existence of a collection of old prophecies, several of which involve you personally," Marco said, sitting down in a nearby chair. "Regrettably, the man who made the original discovery, Benedetto Mancini, was...ah...'removed' by devils before we could save him. His research into the prophecies, however, has proven invaluable."
"Removed? Ciel-sempai hit him with her...her big...metal...thing. Wait...prophecies?" The reflection of light on that...shiny...thing...on the table was really...really...neat...must be the medication kicking in.
"Suffice to say, when you recover, you will have a lot to do, Misora. Congratulations, you have been promoted to head of the newly formed Special Investigations Team, Mundus Magicus branch. Now," he said, grinning down at her. "Get some sleep. You will need it."
"...wow..." Misora said sleepily as she pressed the button a third time. "That might be fun..." ...light fixture...
"It will be the toughest task you have ever undertaken," Marco said pleasantly. "Even worse than fighting off an army of devils led by a high level vampire. Don't worry Misora, everything will be taken care of."
"...that's good..." Misora said as she nodded off. It looked like her life was going to get interesting. But...she had lost two of the best friends she had ever had. She had wanted to take Isabella and Nina back to Japan to meet Cocone and everybody, but that would never happen now. She hurt too much all over to wipe the tears from her eyes, but that was okay. She could undergo a little more discomfort.
'Head of the Special Investigations Team, huh?' she thought as she slipped off to sleep. There would be months of recovery and therapy first, and she had wanted to go back to Mahora to help Negi with whatever it was that that Fate kid had in store for him in the magic world, but...she had a feeling things would be okay. It looked like she would be part of a much bigger adventure soon.
Author's Notes: And so ends this story. So, how was it? This chapter was a lot longer than I wanted it to be, but I guess that's just how it works out sometimes, huh? Anyway, Misora is now in a position of authority...scary, isn't it? And what's the deal with that prophecy, anyway?
In any case, there will be a shorter story about Ku Fei next, and then Still Waters 3 will start. Probably. Thanks for reading!