Please read the author's notes for this one.
Chapter 8 - Finger on the Trigger Part 1
Fugo stared at the new hole that had materialized in his palm. It had the same exact dimensions as the first hole, with blood trailing out of it just like its twin. Such an abnormal sight would have stunned a lesser mind, but Fugo's was honed through countless encounters with the most ridiculous of abilities. He recognized an attack when he saw one, no matter how unorthodox the attack was. His mind instantly recalled the ticket the police officer gave him, and how it had a hole in it, one very much like the ones now on his flesh.
That cop...that bastard had an ability…
Fugo swallowed. He clenched his wounded fist to put what little pressure he could on the bleeding and stared out towards where Labrys was.
Son of a bitch. That cop drove off into the direction of where Labrys is. The bastard isn't a Stand user...or he could be one of those Shadow Human freaks!
The gangster wasted no second in taking off into the direction of the safehouse, his mind set on reaching his destination before his assailant did. He knew he couldn't outrun a police cruiser, so he was already on the wire. The thought only compelled to run faster.
Only, he had to stop. He only managed to clear a block before being hit with an abrupt shortness of breath. He felt his strength partially sapped, enough for him to have to lean against a wall for support. He became slightly light-headed, the edges of his vision blurry.
He exhaled slowly as he reached for his face with trembling fingers. "What...what the hell is this?"
He noticed his sleeve was entirely wet. He shivered as he raised his clenched fist. He opened it, to find his palm smothered with blood, and a reason why. There were now five holes instead of two, and all of them were bleeding.
Fugo went as white as a sheet. "Shit."
He now knew the purpose of his attacker's ability. It was a slow but certain killer, one designed to achieve one goal: to completely bleed out its victims. He clenched his teeth, but forced himself to not give into panic, for that would only make things worse. His gifted mind thought through the situation methodologically, unhindered by the direness of the situation.
A human being can lose about 40% of their blood, or roughly 2,000 mL, before the body loses enough oxygen to no longer support life. Judging by the rate my blood is pouring out, I only have five minutes if I don't stop the bleeding somehow!
He looked down and saw the only thing of use. He ripped the bloodied sleeve of his suit and wrapped it around his palm in a makeshift gauze, making sure the knot was tight enough to buy him some more time.
He glanced around the street, realizing running was no longer an option. His remaining strength had become precious. He couldn't risk overexerting himself, less he makes the effects of the bleeding worse, which meant he had to commandeer some transportation, something he was used to doing as a gangster and general delinquent.
His eyes fell upon a motorbike, parked right near a street sign to his immediate right. In front of it was a man around Fugo's height, clad in a dark green leather jacket, his back turned and his face obscured by a sleek bike helmet. Around his waist was wrapped a checkered uniform of sorts, along with, strangely enough, two long sheaths.
He ran to the man without a second thought.
"Hey you!"
The man turned around. He stared at Fugo without saying a word, his eyes unseen behind the pitch-black visor.
"Sorry, but I'm going to need that bike. It's an emergency."
The man tilted his head, scanning the gangster from top to bottom. He remained silent, which annoyed Fugo.
"Look asshole, if you don't lend me your bike," Fugo clenched his fist. "I'm going to take some of your teeth. Capisce?"
The man continued to stare. He tilted his head towards the red-tinged scrap of cloth wrapped around Fugo's hole-filled hand. He looked back at Fugo and finally spoke. His voice was nasally like a teenager's, his Italian broken but understandable.
"That's not gonna happen pal."
An overwhelming mass of pressure suddenly slammed down on Fugo's body, forcing him down onto all fours. The gangster gritted his teeth and tried to move against what felt like a giant invisible hand pinning him to the pavement. He managed to tilt his head up against the pressure to stare daggers at the man.
"Who...who the hell are you?"
The biker tilted his head down at Fugo, who could feel the contemptuous glare he was given even if he couldn't see it. He reached for his helmet with his gloved hands and removed it, revealing the face of a young Asian man with fiery red hair and unusually blue eyes. His most noticeable feature had to have been the X-shaped scar across his face, a remnant of some harrowing battle or mishap perhaps. His mouth was curled into a cocky smirk.
"The name is Sho. Sho Minazuki."
A shadowy figure appeared behind the boy's back. The silhouette of its head contained the distinct shape of a crescent that fanned outward like a horn, parts of it oozing into nothing above it as if it was in a constant state of liquefaction. It glowered at Fugo with red eyes set inside the sockets of a gold, mouthless faceplate, glowing like small suns. Its body was clad in a strange red and green coat with multiple flaps that pranced in the wind, while the body itself was black with white, vertical stripes. In its hand was a sword, its black blade having the same constantly evaporating effect like its moon-shaped horn.
The boy pulled at his sheaths, revealing the sleek, long swords that was housed in them. They were shaped like katanas, though their handles had triggers and finger grips more akin to those found on modern military-grade firearms. He bounced one sword on his shoulders while pointing the other one at Fugo.
"What's the matter? Feelin' under pressure?"
"Does this mean anythin' to you?" Mila tossed the bloody button to Labrys. The robot caught it and studied it.
"No, not really," Labrys replied. "It just looks like an ol' button to me."
Mila sighed. She crossed her arms and leaned against the wall. "Great. We're back to square one."
"Perhaps not," Lynyrd chimed in, flapping to perch on a nearby chair.
Mila turned to the bird. "You got an idea in that big bird brain of yours?"
"Ms. Schon, think about it. There's blood on that button. However crusted that blood may be, it contains DNA."
The bird tapped his head. "DNA that could be analyzed."
Mila frowned. "Alright fair point. But we don't exactly have a blood lab lyin' around, do we?"
"No, but we do have her."
Labrys realized Lynyrd was twerking his head her way. Mila followed the bird's gesture towards the gynoid.
"Her?"
"Yes, her. Have you forgotten that she has the most sophisticated technology on the planet installed in that unassuming exterior of hers?"
"Um...it isn't that sophisticated," Labrys meekly replied.
"Well, it is sophisticated enough for you to practically learn everything about something by just looking at it once," Lynyrd raised a wing. "Fugo told me everything. It was how you learned our language so quickly, was it not?"
Labrys nodded. "Yeah."
"Oh right," Mila rubbed her nose. "Forgot you can do that. Pretty dang convenient. I'm seriously jealous."
Labrys supposed it was convenient. Had it not been for her database and ability to scan things on the fly and match it to whatever information she had in it, her amnesia would've rendered her even more helpless. She stared at the button again with renewed interest as she focused her sensors on the tiny object.
She wish she hadn't.
The moment she did, her database had a signature match with something she saw in her corrupted memory files. A hazy figure surrounded by distorted static...everywhere except its single golden eye.
Almost immediately, she buckled over in pain as the memory decrypted, jolting her CPU like a lightning bolt. A migraine hit her as the memory forced itself upon her, Instantly, she was transported out of the room, and onto a large bridge under a murky night.
"I admire your tenacity...I really do. But you're a fool if you think you can halt the 「inevitable」, Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon."
A loud flash rocked Labrys's vision as the one-eyed creature fired a shot into her stomach.
She let out a growl of pain as something hard punched into her stomach.
But it didn't strike through her as she had thought, didn't land a fatal blow. Rather, she was fine.
She looked down and saw a large fist had erupted out of her stomach, its fingers clenched tight around her attacker's hand. It wasn't an arm she recognized as belonging to her Persona, as it was nearly completely black instead of white and silver like Ariadne's. It was sheathed in chains to give it a more aggressive appearance, its fingers ending in segmented, bone-pale plates that ended in sharp claws. Gun smoke leaked through the spaces between the fingers, the hand having blocked the creature's blast.
Strangely, Labrys's found that the Evoker device inside her wasn't activate, so the arm definitely didn't belong to a Persona. It had materialized without her knowing, lacking the flair of a Persona summoning. One moment it wasn't there and the next it was, drawn out like a sword acting on its own to reflexively defend its wielder.
The peculiarity of the arm was not lost on the creature, who studied the eye curiously with his one eye. "How...curious."
The hand squeezed. The creature's fingers broke with a loud snap, causing him to let out a bloodcurdling roar, the first damage he has been dealt since Labrys first encountered him. He threw the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon, causing her to roll across the slick pavement of the bridge.
Labrys moaned and sat up. She rubbed her sore and slightly cracked neck and instinctively sucked in breaths she didn't need, inhaling out of reflex. The arm had vanished from her stomach just as sudden as it had appeared.
She looked up in time to see the monster holding up his hand, glaring at its broken fingers with its enlarged yellow eye. The eye flicked to Labrys.
"I don't believe it. The Arrow has granted you「new abilities」 the same it did to me!"
The creature sniffed the air. He growled.
"I knew it...the thing that crushed my hand. It reeks of the influence of the Arrow. It's a「Stand」, not a Persona!"
"Stand?" Labrys whispered, the volume of her voice restricted by the tightness lingering around her throat. "What...what the hell are you talkin' about?"
The creature didn't give an answer before he charged, his other hand raised, poised to fire. The chains around him rattled uncontrollably as he ran towards her.
"I have to eliminate you now! The Arrow has made you a far greater enemy than I had imagined!"
Labrys raised her hand at the oncoming creature. She was weak, but she had no control over her actions that were driven entirely by her will to survive.
She was seconds away from launching her chain fist before she was stopped by a loud bang that tore through the air. The creature stopped as flashes of gunfire struck him in the chest.
"Get away from her!"
The voice came from behind. She looked back and saw her sister, Aigis, standing behind her. She held her arm straight, her fingers smoking. She was heavily injured, with cracks and wounds all over her body that oozed the same kind of oil that came out of Labrys's. Her other arm hung limp to her side, and one of her eyes were closed as a line of oil dripped down upon it.
The creature looked at his chest. It smoked...and nothing more. There was no wound, despite Aigis's bullets being designed specifically to be strong enough to puncture through Shadows.
But it wasn't entirely ineffective. A tiny object dropped from the creature's coat and onto the bridge, shot off by one of Aigis's stray bullets. Labrys's vision zoomed in on the object, where she saw that it was a single button, stained by the creature's blood.
The creature looked up at Aigis. Then, the whites of its teeth appeared, coming together to form the shape of a grin.
"Well well well. I thought I had taken care of you," The creature popped his neck. He raised his hand, whereby his fingers began to snap back into place on their own accord. He flexed his hand and clenched it into a fist, which had become good as new. "But I guess you prefer to die together with your sister, don't you?"
He held his arms to his side, his fingers lengthening, clicking like revolvers as he flicked them, one by one. "I can oblige."
He clenched his knuckles and flexed each one of the gun barrels that constituted his fingers. He flapped his coat behind him and assumed a pose that reminded Labrys of the one assumed by the gunslingers in one of the spaghetti Western movies that Akihiko showed her.
"Those gun-hands of seem to have a pretty rapid rate of fire, though I reckon mine are quicker on the draw," The creature narrowed his eyes. A cross-hair appeared in where its pupil would have been. "This is exciting...it's as if I'm in a Sierra Leone Western. Let's see which one of us is the faster gun, machine."
Labrys looked at her sister. Her eyes were filled with a fierce determination. As hurt as she was, it was evident she wasn't about to back down from the fight. Even if it was a fight with a being they knew that neither of them could win against, not without help.
Then her sister stared at her, and she saw a tinge of sadness in her pale blue eyes.
"Don't look back and run. Get word out to Kirijo-san and the others. They must know of the threat residing in this country."
She glared back at the creature, who had remained as still as a statue, calmly stuck in his pose. "A threat even greater than Hi-No-Kagutsuchi."
Before Labrys could say anything, the memory ended, right as Aigis fired into the beast and the beast fired back.
Labrys's vision snapped back into the interior of the safehouse. She saw Mila and Lynyrd looking at her with concern.
"Signorina, are you alright?"
Labrys shook her head, along with the last lingering details of the sudden memory being unlocked. Her human mannerisms caused her chest to heave as she recovered from her shock.
"I'm...I'm fine," Labrys wiped her forehead. She held up the button. "This...when I scanned this, one of my memory files decrypted itself."
"In English?" Mila said.
"It means she remembered something the instant she scanned that button," Lynyrd replied. "Looks like Fugo's hunch was correct, that seeing something from the bridge would help you remember."
"Yeah," Mila placed her hand on her hip. "Only it looks like whatever she remembered, she didn't want to remember."
"It's fine, really," Labrys murmured. She looked up at both bird and human, hesitant to recall what she had just remembered. "I know where this button came from."
She saw that Mila and Lynyrd waited for her to answer with baited breath. She looked back to the button in her hands, her fingers trembling.
"This button...came from their「king」."
Mila raised an eyebrow. "King? Whose king?"
Labrys clenched the button in her fist. She answered Mila without looking at her.
"The king of the Shadow Humans."
Silence came over Mila and Lynyrd as they stared at Labrys in disbelief. It took them a few blinks each before they could register what Labrys had just said.
"The King of the Shadow Humans," Mila repeated. "You mean those freaks have a leader? And you've met him?"
"Trust me Mila-san, I'd rather not have."
"Do you know anything more about him?" Lynyrd asked.
Labrys shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. "I don't know much. All I know was he was the one to have hurt me on the Ponte della Liberta."
"Can you tell us what he looks like at least?" Mila pressed.
Labrys thought back to her glimpses of the creature in her memory, doing her best to recall whatever murky details she could. A difficult task, given that the only few times that she glimpsed the creature, it was obscured by darkness. However, there were a few details that stuck out, ones that were unforgettable.
She ran her hands around her torso. "He has these chains constantly floating around his body…"
She pointed to her left eye. "He only has one eye."
She held up a hand and grabbed at her wrist. "And he has...these guns for fingers."
Mila pursed her lips. "Well that makes things easy. Not a lot of one-eyed, chain-wearin' guys with guns for fingers around these parts."
"Do you know anything else about this so-called King, signorina Labrys?" Lynyrd inquisitively asked.
"I don't even know his name. All I can give you is bits and pieces of his appearance from what I've seen of him."
Labrys suddenly looked up as she recalled more from her memory.
"There was something else. I remembered someone bein' on the bridge with me when I was attacked by the king. A girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, who was built like me."
Mila raised an eyebrow. "Built...like you?"
"Yeah," Labrys slowly murmured. "I definitely could tell...she's a machine like me."
"Another mechanical maiden?" Lynyrd stroked his chin inquisitively.
"Yes. But there's more. She talked about gettin' word out to someone called 'Kirijo-san'...whoever that is."
"Kirijo?" Mila interjected. "Hey, isn't that the name of the company that Murolo fou-"
Before Mila could finish, something fast and tiny whizzed through the open window, striking her in the arm. The woman dropped to the ground, hissing in pain.
"Mila!" Labrys immediately crouched to her.
Lynyrd squawked, flying around the room.
"We're under attack!"
The bird flew close to the ceiling, lingering over the broken window. He stared down at Labrys, hunched over Mila. "You two! Get to safety!"
Labrys stiffened. She stared in shock at the gaping hole in Mila's forearm where she had been struck. Her arm warmer had been partially shredded away, revealing what was underneath.
An arm made of chrome metal.
"Fuck," Mila groaned. She raised her arm and stared at the hole that punctured through its surface, along with the sparking circuitry underneath. "I got really lucky there. Good thing it only nicked my prosthetic."
She hissed towards the window. "But the damn thing is supposed to be bulletproof! Either I just got shot with a round from an anti-tank rifle, or I got seriously swindled when I got this thing!"
Labrys couldn't stop staring at Mila's robotic limb as she stood up. "Mila-san...what's with your arm?"
Mila turned to Labrys. "It's a long story…"
The edges of the window chipped away as more of the tiny objects flew and collided into the edges of the window. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were being shot at.
"I'll tell you later!" Mila shouted. She grabbed Labrys by the cuff of her hoodie with her robotic limb, then rolled the gynoid towards the doorway in a freakish display of strength. The gynoid landed hard against the wall of the hallway, right as Mila ducked after her. Lynyrd flew to join them.
All three took shelter in the hallway as the room became pelted by gunfire. Pieces of shredded wood and furniture flew where every one of the shots hit.
"Son of a bitch," Mila growled. She retrieved her Black Blade, flicking its sharp point out of its handle. "To think they would find us this early."
"Indeed. Most troublesome," Lynyrd spoke in a serious tone that was at odds with his appearance.
Mila turned to Lynyrd. "Who do you think it could be?"
Lynyrd's mohawk unfurled. "There's only one way to find out."
A form began to materialize beside the bird. A form that settled into the shape of a very bizarre creature.
It had a head shaped like a beehive with eyes that looked like honeycombs, its mouth a miniscule, curved beak. The head was attached to a torso consisting of a ribcage and a spinal cord which trailed beneath it like a tail, while a pair of miniscule angel's wings grew out of the back of its shoulder blades. Its arms were long and bony, ending in clawed hands that gripped what looked like an old-fashioned video game controller, its wire plug leading to the back of its scalp through the open spaces in its ribcage.
"You're goin' to use Free Bird?" Mila said.
Lynyrd stared back at Mila. Despite being a tiny bird in an adorable vest, his avian eyes held the same powerful will that Labrys saw in the eyes of the other robot girl in the memory of the attack on the bridge.
"You got any better ideas?"
Mila stared back into the room. The gunfire had stopped, the room desolated. Holes covered everything from the fallen paintings to the toppled bookshelves and chairs.
"No. I don't. But be careful."
"Ms. Schon, I'm always careful," Lynyrd said. A purple glow covered both the bird and his Stand as it raised its arms and pressed the "start" button on the controller. The moment it did, Labrys saw a single insect leave one of Free Bird's honeycomb eyes, flying into the room and out through the window, towards the direction of the gunshots.
"Huh. I missed."
On the roof of an adjacent building stood a monstrous creature. His skin was like charcoal, his face taken up by a circular blue mask that had a diamond-shaped mouth and droopy, bug-like glossy yellow eyes covered in vertical bands. Beneath the mask was a large chin that contained a pair of thick lips, formed into an annoyed scowl. His bulky body wore the same police uniform that he wore as Officer Ciambella, his human disguise.
The creature flicked the gun in his hand, its barrel still smoking. A silver revolver, which the creature spun with the dexterity of a master gunslinger despite his cumbersome appearance.
"The Colt Single Action Army. The greatest handgun ever made," The creature sniffed the gun. He popped the barrel open and discarded all six bullets inside which disintegrated before they hit the ground. He spat a dark oily substance from his lips into the empty chamber, which formed into new bullets as they settled.
"Six bullets. More than enough to kill anything that moves."
The chamber locked back in with a dexterous flick of the creature's wrist. He pointed it back towards the open window of the house where his target has found refuge.
"And that's especially true with my ability , 「Finger on the Trigger」. As long as that Sho brat does his job of keeping that Fugo guy off my back, then this will be an easy kill."
The creature licked his lips as it formed a grin that stretched to his dark ears. He tipped his officer's cap, looking small on his bulbous head.
"I, Peach Fuzz, shall be the one to earn the honor of slaying the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon!"
~BRIBED FUZZ-TYPE SHADOW HUMAN: PEACH FUZZ~
Peach Fuzz's finger wound tight around the trigger of his gun. He leveled his aim, specifically at a spot in the room that was free of the holes he had made. He didn't see his target, but that was fine. He just wanted to make more holes in the room.
He was about to squeeze the trigger, when he was distracted by a buzzing noise.
The Shadow Human looked at his shoulder. There was a bee on it. One that had the same striped eyes that he had, along with a body covered in a metallic sheen, antennae that looked like satellite dishes, and a thorax and stinger combination that resembled a three-pronged electrical plug. The insect's abnormal appearance was not lost even on a creature as strange as Peach Fuzz.
"What the hell?"
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Notes:
This chapter is a bit on the short side, but I still had fun writing it. Namely because it introduces Sho Minazuki, everyone's favorite edgy Rule-Smashing Pun Machine, as well as more set up to move the plot forward and the proper introduction of Peach Fuzz, the next Shadow Human opponent.
But, now for the downer piece of news.
I might not be updating for a while, but for a good reason. I'm finally fed up with my current job which has pretty much robbed me a good chunk of my life and stressed me to the point of illness, so I'm currently doing extensive job hunting. Between preparing for interviews and having to deal with the stress and workload of my current job, I don't really expect to have much time to update in between, at least before I finally accept a new position. I can't really put a length of time on when I will finally land another job, so I just ask my readers to be mindful and respectful of that. Getting a new job is very important to me.
Once I do however, I do plan on getting more updates for this fic and my other one (Devil Hunter Yang, which seems to be more popular than I expected despite two chapters in), perhaps on a potential alternating schedule. Even the grueling process of a job hunt cannot diminish my love of writing.
Thanks for your understanding.
Best,
Beef
