Calamity Plus One

IX

A/N: It's sad to only realize it was New Year's Eve/Day because people in the game was wasting my life on were spamming chat with it. Turns out I had been on it for ehhhh 16 hours straight? Not an MMO, even. Tribes, home of the exploding frisbees and a hell of a lot of shazbot. Tribes: Ascend is the main reason I don't update like a man with a mission...The enemy has our flag! Here's a chapter while I go chase the butcher down!

"This is the police, open up!" I woke up to the sound of the front door being knocked down, and before I could even get out of bed, I was being hauled out of bed by people I couldn't see, because they were shining flashlights in my face that blocked out everything. I heard Patty yelp as she was treated similarly.

"Hey, don't hurt her!" My struggles were only met with a hit in the face, knocking me down onto the wooden floor. I could feel the warm trickle of blood down my face, and this time, it had nothing to do with

I heard footsteps coming in slowly, and through the blinding light I saw a single figure. As they walked up to me, they stepped on my fingers, causing me to wince, but I didn't give them the satisfaction of crying out in pain.

"Well, I didn't want to barge in at three A.M., but my schedule is certainly tight these days. Release them." The gloved hands keeping me pinned to the floor vanished, and I was allowed to stand up.

Standing nonchalantly against the doorway, holding some kind of gun, was the other half of the Hiiragi ball of insanity, Kagami. At least,I think it was; her helmet was covering her head completely, but lilac hair, tinted white by the high-powered flashlights shining all over the place, didn't leave many other options.

There was silence for a few seconds, with no movements besides those aforementioned flashlights sliding over our worldly possessions of our bedroom.

"So, I just came by to pick you up so we can go out and have a drink. Well, that, or you can refuse, and I put both of your asses in prison what'll it be?" Yeah, this is Kagami. But I don't think she...um...knows...about my involvement in the original set of events...in fact, I saw her in the hospital a few times while we were both recovering from our injuries...what happened to her, anyways?

"...Sure. Can I get dressed first? What's going to happen to Patty?" The helmeted figure just shrugged.

"She's free to go." She turned her head to address Patty, who, out of the corner of my eye, was leaning on the dresser, shaking just a little bit.

"Go back to bed or whatever; I'll bring Tamura-san back here when we're done having our little chat." She nodded, and proceeded to pick up the sheets that had fallen onto the floor, put them on the bed, and get in. She was snoring before I was even escorted out of the room.

Man, she's so incoherent when she needs sleep. She probably won't even remember this until she wakes up and realizes I'm not there.

Kagami had one of these other military guys open the door, stepping out onto the balcony, revealing kind of a lot of traffic jamming. Maybe it was the heavy military vehicles forming a roadblock, and more than a dozen weird-looking red armored figures walking around, while a helicopter shone a searchlight overhead into the street in front of us.

I looked to Kagami, who had shooed the others down the stairs to ground level and closed the door.

"All for me? There's no way this is going to end well for me." Helmeted gun-toting badass looked at me, or at least turned her head to me, and gestured down the stairs.

"This is all my protection; if I could've, I would've just taken a car over and asked nicely. Of course, now that I head the majority of the armed forces in Japan, I'm required to take a bull's head worth of men with me wherever I go. So, where's the nearest 24/7 coffee house?"

Jesus Christ, what the hell has she been doing these years gone by?! Apparently a lot to make herself respected...and feared, if the bad blood was in both of them, which I would bet my life on. Yeah, it's not worth that much, but at this point, I'm betting on a sure thing.

"Um...the O-Bar around the corner is open all the time...I don't think all of these guys will fit in that establishment, though." We walked down the stairs, past the saluting soldiers who lined both sides of the sidewalk, and turned to approach the crosswalk. We crossed it immediately, because the roadblock was preventing any traffic from going down the street. I pointed in a direction, and we walked in silence for a few minutes.

I looked back, and surprisingly, no one was following us.

"Why are you so paranoid Tamura-san? Like I said, I would've preferred to do this at a more decent hour, but I'm a very busy person, and we're just going to have a chat, you're going to answer some questions, and then we'll part ways." Hard to believe that when I can see 3 guns on her, plus what looks like frag grenades...a lot like the one I had...no. Don't think about that.

"I'm just skittish around the police...I know they're here to keep us safe, but after all this stuff about those Marauders...no one is really safe. I mean, just yesterday, some guy got sniped right in front of our apartment. There was no one around, and he went down like a sack of bricks. I was working at the time, but I saw the ambulance pull up and carry him into the back. There was a hole right in the middle of his forehead."

The coffee shop was coming up on the right, and as the door closed behind us as we entered, she immediately removed her helmet, panting slightly.

"I hate these fucking helmets. About what you said...yes, I'm trying to keep everyone together, but there's a lot of fear, and the enemy...well, they're actually a threat."

We sat down, and she started speaking in a lower tone, despite the fact that ourselves and one other person who appeared to be sleeping behind a newspaper were the only patrons in the small shop. I leaned in as well, wanting to hear what the older...and now only, twin, had to say.

"The media has done a great job of downplaying the scope of the threat, but it might not be enough. We've had a couple of snitches in their forces, and via cameras concealed on their person, we watched their mess hall for a few minutes. Their forces dwarf our own several times over; they're receiving foreign aid, so most of them are carrying some sort of weapon."

The waiter came over and we placed our orders; an iced coffee for me and a black coffee for her. She bowed deeper than normal, if at all, because I noticed that she saw the insignia of the military on the elder Hiiragi's shoulder, along with some ranking thing that looked pretty elaborate.

I pondered what she said, as she eyed me. She might be testing me, looking for me to crack, or maybe she doesn't even know about my suspected involvement...but if she doesn't, then why is she here? I only talked to her sparingly in high school...so then, what?

"So it's actually fully possible for the military to...lose? What would happen then? Their goals...what are they, if there are any?" She folded her hands and put her arms on the table.

"Wholesale, city-wide slaughter. They're monsters, really. They're bloodthirsty, hateful, and ignorant. I'm not sure what went on to reduce such a massive amount of people, the majority of the city's youth, into a raving pack of animals that can still organize and fight effectively.

"I was part of a helicopter strike force when they first attacked and...made it through the Wall. We began our attack about 12 hours after that happened. They shot down my helicopter, but I parachuted out and took down their anti-air battery with a machine gun as I glided by. There was no remorse for the dead, and while I was making my way back to friendly forces, I had to kill many of them. the worst part is that I came upon several of them who were feasting upon the bodies of one of my soldiers.

Straight-up cannibalism is what they're resorting to. It's disgusting, and above all, it shows that there's something else going on here. Not just some rebel motherfuckers trying to take over the city. I'm fighting against that, and that war is in the public eye. But there seems to be an invisible war going on, and I can't fight against something I can't see."

Our coffee arrived, and while I sipped on the refreshingly cold drink, she downed hers in little more than two gulps. Well, someone's running on coffee. Can't say I blame her. Though some of this shit she's spewing is sounding a lot like that. Bullshit. I've talked to one of these "monsters" in the past week...discreetly of course. Which makes me wonder; how the hell is Konata-chan's cell phone still working if no one is paying...ohhhhhhhhh. Soujiro-san must've had the bill in his name, and continues to pay it. Clever.

I stopped her with a wave of the hand before she could continue spewing bullshit that would make politicians proud.

"Why are you telling me all of this? It doesn't affect me at all. Not to mention, you said before that I'd be 'answering some questions', but I haven't answered any questions yet. So what gives?"

Her eyes narrowed, and she developed quite the grimace, apparent even in the dim light of the coffee shop. But only for a second, before she was back to the same neutral expression, displaying a faint look of hurt. You two-faced bitch.

"Your words wound me, Tamura-san. I only said that so I could get away from my entourage of idiots. You are one of the few people I know of that I can talk to on any level of comfort. My family? All dead, started a string of events that's plunged the city into chaos. Ayano and Misao? Dead, and in Misao's case, she can't remember anything from about the shootings, so she's limited at best. Miyuki-chan? Confirmed to be working with the enemy. I heard her on a tapped radio signal coordinating mortar strikes. Izumi-san? Missing, assumed to be an enemy. Yourself and Patricia-san are some of the only people I know that aren't swallowed up by the madness."

I could feel my eyebrow twitch. I;m getting really sick of her innocence card. Oh look! Her MP just ran out, and the jig is up.

I slammed the table with one hand, careful not to slam my drink.

"Cut the shit Hiiragi, the pleading innocent shit isn't working. What do you want from me? You're pretty fuckin important, apparently, so just having a drink is a shitty excuse."

Finally, the hard look came back, and didn't leave. Finally, we're getting somewhere.

"Fine. You don't like formalities and gossip? I'll tell you what I want from you. Konata Izumi's cell phone number. I know you have it, and I've heard more than a few of your conversations in the past. You seem to know her quite well, but you don't seem to know the truth, either."

Uh oh, time to walk the fine line. One side is nothing but an endless abyss, the other, a safe place. Oh dear. I have to step very carefully, or else I might slip, fall, and impale myself on something horrible.

"...What do you mean, the truth?" Play stupid, or at least, ignorant. Yeah, ignorant is better than stupid.

Kagami sighed, reaching down and pulling one of her guns off of her thigh, setting it on the table, the barrel aiming out the window. So she wasn't looking to use it on me...yet. That's a good sign...I think.

"Konata-san is an enemy. She's killed many people. Her preferred method of...'disposal'...is a pistol, similar to one of these. From psych profiling, I've gathered that she believes that because she doesn't use a large weapon like her allies do, it makes it okay, and in her eyes, she's only doing it 'to survive'. Yet you can talk to her and act like nothing is wrong. Did you even know that she's suspected to be one of the main leaders of this army of rebels? Did you?"

I feigned horror, which was only partially a lie, anyways. I still don't like to think about what's going on, but I can ignore it most of the time and shut it out while working.

"...No...I mean...I knew she was living outside the city...but...I didn't think she'd ever...you know...kill someone." Okay, I think I did a good job on that, and she's not aiming that gun in my face,so I think that's good too.

"Yes, Tamura-san, people are capable of doing terrible things when under duress. You haven't done anything you regret? I doubt it, but that's neither here nor there. So where's her number, hm? I want to have a little chat with our friendly neighborhood blunette as well."

I looked at my pants; they were sleep pants, lacking pockets. I looked back to her, who had a hand outstretched.

"Ummmm...my phone is back in our apartment. I'm wearing sleep pants, and they don't have pockets. Can I have your number, and I'll text it to you as soon as I get back there?"

She seemed to mull it over for a second, before sighing and quickly grabbing her pistol, only to slide it back into her holster. Holy shit, she almost gave me a heart attack.

She took out a pad of paper and a pen, wrote down a phone number, and ripped off the piece of paper, handing it to me.

"There. If I don't get the text within an hour, I'm coming back with an arrest warrant for failure to comply with an officer." I laughed at this statement.

"You're not a police officer, Hiiragi-san." Her vein moved. Okay, she's mad. Heh.

"Maybe not Tamura-san, but I still have the power to throw your yuri-drawing ass in jail."

Oh, she just had to bring that up.

She got up, retrieved her helmet, and began walking towards the door. I just now realized that her armor is pretty beefy...she could probably walk through a killzone with nothing but a scratch. The black armor plating was overlaid with red armor plating, and all of it together looked like i weighed at least 70 kilos.I don't want to get in her way...

She turned back to me.

"Remember; one hour." Then she was gone, out into the street, walking slowly towards her men, or whoever they were.

Well, this is quite a pickle I'm in. I quickly finished my drink, and by the time I left the small shop after paying for the drinks with money Kagami had left on the table, the...armed forces were gone.

There still wasn't any traffic, as it wasn't even 5 A.M. yet, so I dashed across the street and to the apartment, grabbing my phone from the nightstand after kissing Patty on the cheek, and slipped out onto the balcony.

It rang and rang, before finally she picked up with her usual tired 'Helloo?'.

"Konata, it's Hiyori. Kagami Hiiragi kind of interrogated me and she has your phone number. I don't know what that means, but it might be really bad. I'm sorry, but she was tracking me or something. Just...stay safe."

She laughed, uncharacteristically...I think.

"Don't worry about it. If she's even half as crazy as her sister was, she'll come after me, and get her stupid ass killed in the process. I gotta go Hiyorin, talk to me later."

I then proceeded to text her number to Kagami, who immediately sent me a message back.

It read "Stay safe? My, my, conflicting loyalties. But I guess she's your friend, still, so I can't blame you for that. Wait, yes I can. You're totally correct, this is very bad...for her. We've got lasers.

XOXO

Major Hiiragi Kagami

P.S: Lasers.".

I sighed.

"Damnit."

/Breaking the fabric of space and time, in order to transcend the laws of reality is only recommended if one or both parties contains a member with lilac-colored hair.

/...Well, does it count for Hiiragi-sama?

/With any luck, it will. When the time comes, we will break all limits imposed upon us and crush the enemy with impunity, with the help of our deity.

/We still need to locate the artifact. It could be anywhere; my money is on the enemy keeping it safe.

/Then find it, and kill anyone who gets in your way.

"Hiiragi-san?" The figure hunched over wearing a blood-stained sailor fuku couldn't be anyone else, I'm assuming, but it's best to be nice...for now. After all, an unsuspecting enemy is the best kind, right?

She looked around for the source of the voice, her face serene, but as her eyes landed on mine, her face turned into a mask of anguish and hatred.

"YOUUUUUU!" She jumped at me, but froze mid-lunge.

"...You're not Konata..." Ah, the resemblance must be great, then. Not sure if that's a bad thing.

I walked over to where she was still hanging slightly above me, and sat down, cross-legged, before rising to meet her at eye level.

"I'm Kanata, her mother. I'm going to assume that you're Hiiragi Tsukasa, judging from your outfit."

She flipped upright, sitting down as well, but giving me a cross look.

"Who told you that?" Okay, one eye is drooping, and we're dead; she's as crazy as they say. Good thing I enacted a contingency plan before I came to Madame Madness herself. Actually, either way, it'll be helpful.

"Your mother and older sisters, as well as the telltale indicator that you're wearing a school uniform that is drenched in blood that is unlikely to be yours."

She giggled, squeezing her skirt, and sure enough, blood trickled out, coating her hand.

"Yeah, I know I could wear anything, but I like to wear this. Reminds me of how I changed the world."

Oh yeah, you changed it all right. That's why I'm probably going to beat the crazy out of you in a minute here. No one corrupts my daughter...well, except Soujiro, but that's different. My daughter is not a murderer. A pervert, probably, after living with him for 19-odd years, but it took a special kind of evil to make someone kill another...right?

I frowned outwardly, smoothing out the creases on my sundress, careful to not come into contact with the blood-soaked garments clinging to her loosely. We were seated quite close together, and I could clearly see that her left eye was lolling to the side, even as the right eye stared at me intently.. Creepy.

"Yes, I came to you to ask you about that time...well, for you, I guess it was the last few days of your life. I'm quite curious, you see." Curious is one word you could use to describe it. Livid is another. Boiling with rage would be three words, but it would also aptly describe my feelings at the present time.

Good thing I'm quite adept at hiding my feelings.

She tipped her head to one side, still playing with her bloodied skirt.

"Sure, what do you want to know? I mean, it was a pretty ingenious plan, and we did think it out pretty carefully. Your daughter helped me arrange the most important part, in fact. I bet you didn't know that, huh?"

I tensed up, not wanting to hear her lies; I was quite close to punching her right square in her droopy eye, before she started talking again. But now it was with a different tone of voice entirely. Almost like a different person. I paused, not moving just yet.

"It was great, really. Those dumb fuckers never saw it coming. We went to a think-tank on the waterfront near where Konata hung out with phreakers. We got poison gas from the scientists. I had them at gunpoint, they had to acquiesce; to test it, she locked them in a room and pumped the stuff in there. We watched them die slowly, in agony. I laughed with glee, but I always knew that Konata wasn't truly feeling the fun.

I knew, so I subverted her anyways. I forced her, in subtle ways, to go along with it anyways. Right when we started, she was hesitant. She looked in those kids' eyes', and she saw fear. She was afraid too, but with just a subtle nod from me, she did it anyways. Out of fear of death, from me. She didn't have the guts to stand up to me right away; if she had, none of this would've happened. Since she didn't want to kill me, she killed for me. It was a beautiful thing, really. We had to have shot a hundred students before she attacked me.

It was probably two hours in, right near the end. We scuffled in the hallway, she tried to shoot me, I her. We both lost our guns, my grenade brought down the ceiling. She escaped, and I knew I had lost. It was a victory for the masses, but I myself was done for. So I didn't care anymore, and when I tried to bite a soldier, they gunned me down.

My death was painless, a bullet through the brain. I was dead before I hit the ground.

Your daughter won't have that luxury."

She ended her speech, her head coming back to straight, a smile forming on her face that revealed teeth that were stained by blood, and possibly other things. Of course, as her appearance could be anything, she was the most vile thing possible.

I'd had enough.

I exhaled deeply, reaching up to itch a non-existent itch on the back of my neck.

I looked her in the eyes, and changed my expression to what I was really feeling. It took her by surprise.

"I hate everything about you. You were a conniving, selfish, demented, evil person in life, and you are even more so in death. You made my daughter do terrible things, and that by itself would make me never be able to forgive you. But you went so much farther, and probably knowingly, set these events in motion, causing what may well be the death of millions. You got off relatively easy, too; you didn't even feel pain when you died. But I know that you can feel pain in death. I think I may have to make up for lost time."

But still I didn't move; I wanted to gauge her reaction, even as my hands balled into fists behind my back.

She leaned back and laughed. And laughed. And laughed.

"You're a riot, Izumi-san! You want to fight me? That's new! You are just an absolute riot, you know that?"

I looked up for a split second, looking at those who had amassed behind her while we were talking. Her victims. They looked at me, completely silent, waiting for me to make the first move.

That had been my plan. I talked to her victims, told them I knew where she was, and was going for revenge. We all got together, and I formed this plan, which we are all following.

I would make the first punch, at which point they would join the fight as one, and together we would make her life a living hell. But we're all , it works.

I smirked at her, bringing a bit of confusion to her face.

"No, Tsukasa-san, I am the riot." And with that, I drew back my fist and hit her right in the face, delighting as I heard her nose crack and break. Wow, that's satisfying, even though we're dead!

Then started the war call from her victims. I backed off, deciding to let them get their fill.

Tsukasa screamed, and I her things snap and break more than a few times. Hearing what they had to say as they fought over her scraps, literally, was interesting as well.

"Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice, shame on me!" That came from a girl that was conveniently wearing a nametag. Rachel Scott. Interesting.

"You ruined any chance we had at a life, a family! My dream was to find a guy and get married, have kids, be happy! You ruined it! But not, we get to ruin you for as long as we want!" Oh, they're all wearing nametags. I get it now. That one was a girl by the name of Ayano Minegishi.

Though the beatdown, or rather, curb-stomp, was no where near finished, a figure crawled out of the crowd to sit next to me. He had vivid red hair, as vivid as my hair was blue. He sighed, setting his hands on either side as he crossed his legs.

"Thanks for leading us to her, Izumi-san. She's getting what she deserves, finally. The name's Kamiya, by the way." He was lacking the nametag the others possessed. Was he perhaps not a victim of...her machinations?

It must have showed on my face, because he chuckled.

"I lost my tag in there somewhere, not that it's too important now. I snapped her leg and shattered her pelvis, I'm content to leave the torture to the others." Actually, as we spoke, more arrived and pushed their way to the center, where her screams and cries were muffled by the sounds of movement.

These newcomers were different; instead of having no signs of their cause of death on them, they were mutilated by gunshot wounds, or blown apart, trailing limbs, or bloated and disgusting, most likely the effects of that gas Tsukasa had mentioned.

It was by preference that they were appearing like that, but to be beaten up by people whom you had seen dead on the ground must have been quite the harrowing experience. Also, it might need to be mentioned that these "bodies" have almost instant regeneration abilities, meaning that there was going to be dismemberment pretty soon.

As if on cue, I heard the most intense scream yet, and a thin, frail arm was held above the crowd for a split second, trickling blood onto the combatants, before it vanished among the throng of those taking revenge.

"So how long do you think this will last?" The red-haired boy was still watching intently, with his fingers drumming against his thigh.

I sighed, looking around. Besides the patch of road-and-curb that someone had generated, for a true "curbstomping" experience, it was still as white and featureless as ever.

"Time doesn't exist here, and no one is going to need to stop, so it could be awhile."

He nodded, before turning back to watch again. Now there was a wooden cross being erected; someone was building a crucifix. Oh, how lovely.

"Let's have nails! And hammers!" I heard another especially blood-curdling scream from the demented killer, and her blood-drenched clothes flew into the air, landing outside the large pulsating mass of revenge covering her.

Kamiya looked away quickly, having seen the blood-soaked panties. Or maybe he hadn't, and only seen the massive pool of blood that seemed to be constantly emanating from the garments. When I said clothes, I meant all of them.

"Please, no! You can't-" Her scream was cut off into a gurgle, and her shattered and broken form was lifted up onto the crucifix, before one hand was nailed into place by a very...rotund young man with a baby face.

She hung in our view, naked as the day she was born, but there was so much blood and chunks of her own flesh coating her that it was hard to make out anything. She tried to scream, but someone had slit her throat and nothing but a loud gurgle occurred.

Now she hung from her arms, but they had been broken, so she hung at awkward angles, and even I had to wince from the sight.

She tried to kick at the crowd below her, but someone grabbed her leg and took an actual bite out of her leg, causing her to flail weakly. Even at this distance, maybe ten meters, I could see the portion missing.

Damn, they were pulling out all of the stops, just for her. She must feel pretty damn special. But was that guy really developing a taste for meat, or was this just a case of "do unto thee as thee hath done unto me"?...she didn't actually eat any of her victims...right? Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick.

Oh dear, the just nailed her feet to the cross as well. And now she's yelling; her throat must have healed up enough for that. A shame; her voice is quite grating. I liked the gargling better.

"By putting me on the cross you're likening me to deities of old! You're making me a martyr! Even in death I rise above all of you infidels to spread my truth to those around us! Hear me! As the lord of the people, I will save everyone! Death is only the first ste-"

BANG.

A nice hole showed itself in the middle of her forehead, and all kinds of meat of various tints of red blew out the sides. Her head dropped down, and those who were carrying the cross stopped their torture to see just who had temporarily put a stop to their sweet, sweet revenge, and in essence, stopped the fun bus, for nicer terms.

Standing opposite of myself and Kamiya, a middle-aged man with grey hair and wearing business attire stood, holding a smoking revolver.

He looked at everyone in the crowd, who looked right back. He turned to walk away, speaking as he dissipated into the white.

"No daughter of mine will speak about gods and goddesses in such a way. As a shrine maiden, she should know better."

With that, he was gone, as though he were never here.

Wow, I'm going to have more to tell the Hiiragi's then I thought. Everyone's getting their revenge now, aren't they?

Looking down, I realized my dress was coated with a fine layer of...Tsukasa, I think. I hope that's who it is.

I need to change before I go back to the remnants of that idyllic family. Their tea is quite good...how do we taste when we're dead? I've never figured that out. It's a question best left unanswered, I suppose.

More to the point, now, that her catalyst has been dealt with, how am I going to help my daughter? Do I dare visit Soujiro...with so much..."transit" between life and death, I'm sure I could sneak in without too much trouble. But what do I say?

'Hi honey, I could've visited sooner, but didn't, you know, being dead is hard, I'm here to help our daughter, but it's good to see you too, okay, gotta go now.'

Not going to happen...I wish this had just never happened in the first place, and I'd just be able to wait until they got old, died happy, and we could be a happy family in death, forever.

Wishing doesn't make things come true, unfortunately.

A/N: Herp, things happened! More buildup to their next skirmish, and that needed bit from Kanata's point of view. Originally she was going to do all the nasty herself, but then I realized that not everyone in this story is a raving lunatic, so I brought in her victims, because hey, everyone's dead, right?

There's also a reason why everytime lasers get mentioned, someone says "Lasers." in italics. Don't forget, Kagami's got her special forces which haven't seen combat yet and the opposite side also has no idea what's coming. Which is bad. For everyone involved.

Ooooh, and I begin to mention a sub-plot which sounds like it makes no damn sense!...just like everything else, so you're not allowed to be surprised at this point.