Chapter IX: Ace in the Hole
Day 2 – Part II
"AWW!" The male Players of the Zetta Squad all felt the urge to drop their jaws in disbelief as Origin admired the fat Noise stampeding below them. Sure, in comparison to the snarling wyrms and bloodthirsty bears they had to deal with yesterday, these pigs were relatively small and cute. The real problem, however, was that they usually only sat around in battle, existing for the sole purpose of pushing the Players' offensive capabilities to the limits before running away with a speed like no other. With all areas of the scramble once again blocked off to the Players, the pigs could stampede together as a herd until they reached the opposite side of the scramble, resulting in an unhindered attack with an unparalleled destructive force. The Game Master had altered the time on their phones so that only a few cautious Players would notice the unusual amount of activity present in the RG for so early in the morning, while the rest would optimistically believe they had a slight reprieve before the Reapers' Game continued. The darkness was added to shield the pigs waiting behind the barriers from sight, and to aid in their unprejudiced assault. Minamimoto winced as screams echoed throughout the city and other Players got pummeled.
"Grab a calculator and input those casualties," he lamented, bloody hoof prints marking the ground far below them. Kitaniji was about to respond when a loud crash caused him to look back down in alarm. Several pigs had knocked into the piles, shaking them slightly and causing the pigs to collapse on all fours in a daze.
"KILL THOSE PORKERS!" Cato yelled from the opposing pile. Zero pulled out his Reaper gun and began firing at the collapsed targets. Origin looked scandalized.
"No! Just look how cute they are!" She pouted.
"Get ahold of yourself, woman!" Cato shook her slightly. She looked heartbroken, but pulled out her gun in compliance, firing wildly at the stunned pigs below them. Minamimoto grinned.
"Well, Megs. Shall we?"
"After you." Minamimoto bowed his head in mocking gratitude before he leapt straight from the heap and into the fray. The wave of pigs was near its end, but Minamimoto landed directly on top of one still on the go.
"I meant kill the ones that are stunned!" Cato called after him, wide-eyed and alarmed.
"Invalid! Any idiot can make a meal of packaged pork chops, but I can eat 5.9736 × 10^24 kg of them for breakfast!" Minamimoto shouted back as the pigs rode away with him. Cato scratched his head baffled.
"It's the mass of Earth," Kitaniji apologetically informed Cato before jumping after his partner. His aim true, he landed on the back of the final pig as they rumbled away. Looking ahead, he saw his partner crushing the skull of his ride before teleporting to another and repeating the process. His hand soaked in blood, he looked up.
"Megs! I didn't expect you to actually follow me!" Minamimoto exclaimed, genuine surprise in his voice.
"Of course!" Kitaniji replied, watching the pigs' progress. Hearing screams far ahead, he sharply shouted, "Minamimoto! Steer them away from the Players!"
"Roger that!" Minamimoto shouted back, decapitating the Pig Jig he rode before disappearing to head of the pigs. He realized with a start that the group of Players in front of the pigs was in direct proximity.
"What the…?" A teary-eyed youth looked up at Minamimoto on the angry pig's back.
"Don't move, you stupid hectopascals!" He roared. "Stay right where you are if you don't want to die!" They froze up as if his words were magic and he nodded approvingly. Killing the pig he was on, he teleported to the closest pig on a crash collision course with the Players and repeated the process. Before long, a wall of corpses protected the Players from the infuriated swine. The pigs went around the Players, Minamimoto leading the pack. Hearing squeals behind him, he looked back in surprise.
Kitaniji, though not near as quick as Minamimoto, was still capable of reproducing the same strategy that Minamimoto had been using. Jumping from sow to boar to sow and butchering his respective porker with an energy projectile, Kitaniji made his way to the front, right beside Minamimoto.
"Nice little joyride, wouldn't you say?" Minamimoto hollered at him, amusement in his tone.
"Did you protect all of the Players?" Kitaniji asked, trying to steer his beast, but to little avail.
"C + Y do you care?" Minamimoto asked, slaying his Noise before teleporting to another leader. "I figured you were ultimately interested in the ends, not the means." Kitaniji wondered the same thing. The protection of Shibuya and the salvation of the Composer were his primary concerns, so why was he going out of his way to protect the ignoramuses around him? The Composer said that Kitaniji would never regain his entry fee, the love he had for the citizens of Shibuya. Was he developing genuine protective instincts all his own despite the lack of love for the objects of his concern?
"I can't honestly answer that right now," Kitaniji responded carefully, "but I feel the need to. Perhaps it is the result of something greater than myself that motivates me to help those suffering in front of me."
"Not me!" Minamimoto laughed loudly. "These decimals are just numbers needed to solve the ultimate algebraic problem."
"And what would that be?"
"How to bring the numerator to the denominator," Minamimoto replied. His face twitched slightly as he said this.
"Overthrowing the Composer is still your ultimate objective, huh?" Kitaniji asked. Minamimoto nodded.
"Teamwork is low on my statistical graph, but if I have everything else and still can't add the Composer to the heap, this shows that my low-grade ability to use people is the missing factor! With this, I can flip the vertical line and be on top!"
"And what if it's not what you are missing, but rather, what the Composer was missing?" Kitaniji asked.
"Go longhand with your explanation," Minamimoto replied confused.
"The Composer can only speak with the Conductor and the Producer, so when He lives in solitude, His almighty power and tactics are unstoppable. But if the Composer has friends, then He is willing to compromise His position for a chance to live a normal human life like everyone else."
"Where does this logic come from?" Minamimoto asked unconvinced. Before Kitaniji could answer, Minamimoto swore loudly.
"The wall is coming up! If we let these fatasses through, we'll have to deal with them when they come back out again," he exclaimed.
"Not gonna happen," Kitaniji said confidently. "Begin your killing spree. Rest assured, they will not escape the scramble." His partner did not understand what Kitaniji's strategy was, but resumed killing the Noise nonetheless. Kitaniji did the same, and before too long, corpses lay scattered on their tail. The wall was approaching, however, a red-coated Support Reaper perched safely on top of the Statue of Hachiko, grinning at the returning pigs in delight, apparently believing that they had been unstoppable. As they grew closer however, he gasped as he realized that two Players riding the hoard.
"What the…you two shouldn't be there!" He exclaimed.
"No shift, Sherlock," Minamimoto cackled. "That's what we wanted you to conclude!" The Reaper's stupification made Minamimoto's insult worthwhile, but the wall remained a problem that Minamimoto was not sure how to solve.
"Whatever your plan is, it's now or never, Megs!" He yelled. Kitaniji pushed his glasses against his face.
"Time be still." Minamimoto could not even gasp in surprise as he felt a wave of energy explode from his partner, affecting everything in the immediate vicinity. He was frozen as were the pigs, but Kitaniji was not. Utilizing his energy further, a red coil extended from his arms, like a snake, and he slingshot himself off the pig to the front of the wall. Raising his finger, he traced a line in front of him, targeting each and every remaining pig Noise. Yelling wilder than he ever had before, Kitaniji released all of his energy into a laser-like blast. As it left his hands, time resumed. For Minamimoto, who was no more permitted to act under Kitaniji's power than the pigs, all he saw was Kitaniji moving in a flash and annihilating every last Noise in sight. The mathematician fell to the ground with his dead pig, a mixture of fear and respect sweeping over him, but even more so, pure awe.
"I knew you had to be powerful as the former Conductor, but I had no idea you had that kind of power…why didn't you just do that earlier?"
"Too many enemies," Kitaniji gasped, sweat caressing his face. "This power is my ace in the hole…but it is also a double-edged sword if I am not careful."
"Gotcha," Minamimoto kicked a dead Noise on the ground as it slowly vanished. Peering through the wall, he exclaimed, "Yo! We took care of the garbage. Open the rest of Shibuya up!"
"Wall…clear." The Support Reaper meekly said, dispelling the walls with the snap of a finger. Passing through, Kitaniji looked at Minamimoto.
"Think the others will be all right on their own?"
"Oh, sure," Minamimoto replied, "but in the meantime, we still have work to do. You have your ace in the hole and I have mine, but we need to cover most of Shibuya before we can use it."
"So we're still going to…"
"Yeah," Minamimoto grinned. "It's Taboo time."
Author's Note: Oh man, I was so stoked writing this chapter! Expect to learn more about the Zetta Squad in the upcoming chapters and the role that they will have in shaping Shades and the Grim Heaper.
Crow
