Chapter 129: Initial Encounter Failed Totally
"Everyone?!" Pierce shouted at the Phoenix's Eye Guild Hall from a raised position on the second floor.
The cacophonous rabble that was his guild mates ignored him.
Pierce sighed. "Boomer?"
The Sound Wizard was about to step forwards, but a large, shimmering form of black and gold emerged from his boombox. "Can I try?" Siria asked.
Pierce eyed the equine yokai thoughtfully. "Sure,"
The spectral unicorn nodded gratefully, drawing breath - and sung. A sweet, melodious high note echoed from her throat, shattering every other sound in the building and drawing everyone's attention to her. Pierce's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He'd heard sirens who were worse singers than Siria. That was an impressive talent she had.
Siria stopped singing, and there was a brief silence as everyone looked at the unicorn in amazement. "Now that we have your attention," Pierce called into the guild, "we have a few announcements to make! First of all, we have four new members!"
"Are you sure you're not starting a harem?" one of the guild's elders, a senior drunkard named Larry, interrupted.
"Three of them are male," Pierce retorted.
"That doesn't mean anything!"
A tick mark appeared above the Tamer's forehead. "Will someone shut him up?"
Another mug of beer was stuffed into Larry's hand by Sarah, and Pierce nodded. "Most of you already know Erik," he gestured to the tanned Poison Dragon Slayer leaning on the stairwell, who waved, and by way of greeting, offered, "Half of you are married, stop eyeing up us young people. And most of you ladies could take a fashion tip from Donna, unless you enjoy being leered at," he gestured to the very conservatively dressed Celestial Wizard.
"How do you know my name?" the bluenette in question asked.
"For those of you who haven't met him, Erik can hear people's thoughts. So be careful what you think around him," Pierce warned the guild.
"Relax. I know when to respect people's privacy," Erik's callous smile was perhaps disconcerting to everyone except Kinana, who beamed at him.
"Next, I'd like to introduce Siria," Pierce gestured to the unicorn, who tossed her mane. "She's sort of Boomer's daughter,"
Everyone stared at the unicorn in shock. "Okay, when and how did Boomer bang a unicorn?" Russel broke the silence.
Boomer's cheeks flushed at the accusation. "I did not!" he hotly protested.
"Yeah, my mum's sort of but not really human!" Siria agreed, completely oblivious to how this did not help.
Nonetheless, their cumulative efforts seemed to have temporarily broken Phoenix's Eye. Erik just chuckled, fully privy to several people imagining Boomer having an encounter with a unicorn that ended in Siria's birth, and Artorias quietly wondering how Boomer had gotten laid before him. Erik chuckled; so the reclusive Blood Wizard had a naughty side. Donna might be very interested in that.
Pierce finally cleared his throat. "Anyway. I would also like to introduce Cal Jones, our new blacksmith!" he indicated the young, black-haired boy, who waved. "Nice to meet you all!"
"He's cute, for a kid," Ariel eyed him, interested.
"I didn't know you were looking for a relationship," Eve blinked, surprised.
"Oh, I'm not, but I'm not asexual," No, there was only one person Ariel could ever love . . but Cal's magic had a faint touch of the Canopy about it. He didn't seem like a TFEI, but she needed to investigate . . and report this to Cardinal. Feigning a mild attraction would be a good excuse to get a closer look.
"And lastly, Yurei. He's around here somewhere, if you see a green snake yokai it's probably him,"
"Hey! I'm right here!" Yurei glared from literally right next to him. A smile playing across his lips, Pierce pretended not to see him. "Oh, and whatever you do don't stroke his ego, it's inflated enough as it is,"
A few good-natured chuckles ran around the room as Yurei's frustration simmered. "Now, onto the second thing I need to tell you all about," Pierce gravely declared. "Has anyone here ever heard of a TFEI?"
Ariel turned white as a sheet.
As the other members of the guild murmured to one another curiously, being unfamiliar with the term, Ariel hastily reasserted herself, feigning just as much confusion as her guildmates. "Any idea what a ti-eff-ee-ai is?" Eve asked her, clumsily parroting the acronym.
Temporally Fluctuated Entity Interface, she silently corrected her closest human friend. "No idea," she casually lied with a shrug. Her eyes strayed to Erik, and she twitched, making doubly sure to project false, mundane thoughts such as "I wonder what that is?" over her true processes. Thank goodness she'd anticipated Erik joining the guild and planned a countermeasure. He could have blown her cover in minutes.
"On our last mission, we encountered a member of a faction calling themselves the Canopy. He was some kind of artificial, immortal magic being, capable of perfectly imitating a human. He called himself a TFEI. We don't yet know what that means, or what the Canopy's goal is. But keep your eyes open. They've been known to replace people, mimicking them in every way. If someone's acting strangely, keep an eye on them. I don't want to say suspect everyone, because if we resort to that we'll all drive ourselves insane with paranoia. But watch out, and be ready. We don't know what these things want, but we do know that they're ruthless, insanely powerful, and they can't die,"
"Hold on, what? They can't die?" Alice parroted, stunned.
"It's baffling, I know," Pierce nodded, reflexively swallowing. "But from what we saw in the caves, a TFEI can heal from any wound almost instantly. They're made of corrupted ethernano, like red smoke, that's focused around a metal face. The only way to defeat one is to cut or break their face into several pieces and keep the pieces separate,"
Ariel's mind whirred like a supercomputer as he spoke. Pierce, and probably his whole team, had seen the true form of a TFEI? And he knew that they could duplicate a person's fluctlight - their soul? He'd even worked out how to neutralise one? They'd obviously had a run-in with an agent of the Canopy, he'd specifically mentioned the Canopy. Damnit, this put her in a fix . . on the one hand, they wanted Phoenix's Eye to fight the Canopy, but alienating the other Phoenixes from all TFEI, red and blue alike, was not on the agenda . . she needed to make a report to Cardinal. She needed instructions on how to handle these developments.
Grave looks graced every face in the guild as Pierce finished. "Any questions?"
"I have one," Everyone turned to see Master Feng leaning against the door leading into the east wing of the guild hall. "Who the hell do you think you are, standing up there and making speeches like you're in charge of the guild? I'm still the guild master here, damnit!"
"But . . it's important news," Pierce wilted, sounding almost petulant.
"Then tell the important people first! Or do you just think your guild master isn't important? Is that it?" Master Feng demanded.
"Hey, old hag! Are you saying the rest of us aren't important?" Lync demanded, standing up from his table and glaring at the Guild Master, to cheers of approval from several of his guildmates.
"Don't you brats know to respect your elders?" the aged master demanded.
Someone promptly threw a chair at her.
The guild hall rapidly devolved into a massive tavern brawl.
". . Is it always like this around here?" Siria nervously asked. "Pretty much," Boomer confirmed.
"Maybe joining was a mistake," Yurei mused. "What do you think, Cal . . Cal?" he frowned, seeing the blacksmith was nowhere to be found.
Wait, no. He was engaged in a fistfight with one of the other guild members, and seemed to be loving every second. "At least one of us is happy," Yurei mumbled.
-[CoT]-
"Hey, Donna," Erik and Kinana, who seemed to have attached herself to his arm like a bear trap, sidled over to where Donna was seated at the bar, pulling up a stool next to her. "When everyone was wondering how Boomer knocked up a unicorn -"
"Did not happen!" Boomer loudly reiterated from a few tables away.
"I caught some interesting thoughts from Artorias, and your name came up. So are you two a thing or what?" he asked.
"If they are, it's news to me," Kinana interjected, eyeing Donna suspiciously as the Celestial Witch buried her face in her robe.
"Yeah, right. If Artorias wants to get together with anyone, it's Kenzie Black," Donna mumbled.
Erik frowned. "Who?"
"A pirate, S-Class Wizard of Phoenix's Eye, she was here for the Games but she's been on some kind of impossible job for the last sixteen years and after the Games she went back to her job," Kinana summarised for Erik.
"I also saw her kiss Artorias. At least once," Donna added.
"I really think you're making too big a deal out of it. It was the marriage portion of the beauty pageant event. Besides, did you see anything at any other time indicating them having feelings for each other?" Kinana asked.
"Well, no - but they might have just been doing it behind closed doors," Donna pointed out.
"Well," Sarah suddenly interjected, having moved over to listen in, and everyone looked at the bartender in curiosity. "I didn't know her for long, but Kenzie Black came off as a bit of a . ." She eyed Kinana's innocent face. "Well, I don't think she has a lot of reservations about who she touches and how and I doubt it means anything to her,"
"I don't care about how Kenzie feels. What matters is that Artorias was kissing her," Donna hotly explained. Her grip tightened around her omnipresent wand, and her Celestial Keys jangled.
"Oh. Well, did you see how it happened? You don't know who instigated it," Kinana pointed out.
Donna frowned thoughtfully. "Well, I mean, maybe not . ." She sighed. "I thought we had something, you know? We spent three months together, training for the Games. Just him, me and his pet wolf. I thought that meant something . . but now I don't know. Am I just a guildmate to him?"
Kinana and Sarah drew breath to reassure her, but Erik had had enough. "You girls can gossip all you want, but I'm out of patience. Hey, Artorias!" he yelled, attracting the attention of the Blood Wizard from across the street. "Who's the most important girl in your life?"
Artorias blinked, paused for a second, before responding at a low volume that Erik could easily hear. "What's it to you?"
The snake charmer grinned. "Nevermind!" he added, turning back to the girls. "In order; Sif, Donna, Tyria, Master Feng, then he started thinking about why I was asking,"
Donna blushed. Kinana grinned. "Notice Kenzie Black wasn't on that list?" Sarah triumphantly pointed out.
"Wait . . so you're saying that my biggest rival isn't the sexy pirate, but his pet wolf?" the swaddled witch blinked.
"Basically," Erik nodded.
"Unless it's in ascending order," the purplette mischievously teased.
"Don't even joke about that," Donna frowned, and Sarah nodded disapproval. Kinana just shrugged coquettishly and tried not to smile.
-[CoT]-
"Oh, hey there, Ariel. How's the oh so special Nagato doing?" Asakura's simpering voice came from the screen.
Ariel glared at her psychopathic cohort. "Stuck on call centre duty, I take it?" she stifled a smile.
Asakura growled. "For a year! Just because I tried to kill Pierce . . honestly, it would have worked out. If we kill one of them, it'll provoke the others into gaining strength that much more quickly. Then they'll be able to destroy the Canopy for us all the sooner,"
Ariel glared. "We are not having this conversation again. Honestly, I don't know why Cardinal doesn't just boot you out of the Overmind altogether," Well, she did, actually . . the image of Asakura betraying them and joining the Canopy was a terrifying one. At least, as long as she was a blue TFEI, she wasn't too likely to go on a spree of mass murders - actually, was it even possible for a TFEI to switch sides? As far as she knew none had ever tried . .
"He just likes me too much," Asakura beamed, before pouting. "Not as much as he likes you, though,"
Ariel couldn't resist smiling at this, but shook her head and remained professional. "Enough chitchat, to business. Team Pierce recently had their first encounter with a TFEI. An agent of the Canopy," she explained. "My grasp of the events is limited at present, but it seems to have ended badly. This is conducive to our preparations for Full Revolution, however at present Phoenix's Eye does not understand that there are TFEI who are not affiliated with the Canopy. I am uncertain how to proceed. I would also like to report that canon character Erik has joined Phoenix's Eye in an official capacity, as well as two yokai and a new character who has a touch of red TFEI about him,"
Asakura blinked. "Do you think the Canopy's trying to infiltrate Phoenix's Eye?"
Ariel frowned. "I don't know. The subject, Cal Jones', extradimensional magic signature is extraordinarily weak, less than 10% that of an average TFEI. However, if he were some kind of attempt by the Canopy to optimise a TFEI for stealth as we can, I would expect his extradimensional magic to be completely imperceptible like mine. I believe something else is going on,"
Suddenly, the speakers in the summoned screen crackled, and a voice that was all at once high, low, old, young, and completely alien, spoke. "Could there be a hitherto-unknown third faction?" Cardinal directly asked.
"No. The residual magic I detected on Calvin Jones is identifiable as matching that used by the Canopy," Ariel was completely certain about that.
"That is not definitive proof that he is not part of a third faction using TFEI agents. Do not reveal your nature. Monitor the situation and gather intelligence on Team Pierce's encounter with the Canopy, as well as Calvin Jones," Cardinal commanded. "Dismissed,"
Ariel nodded and, with an idle wave, shut the screen down. Cardinal's instruction made sense; revealing herself to Phoenix's Eye as a TFEI, when they had already known her for a while, would invite awkward questions and cause them to see her as untrustworthy. Especially if they found out she'd been altering their memories for years to hide her immortality. And she already had a plan for how to get close to Cal.
-[CoT]-
Fleur frowned, taking in the sight before her.
Cal was sitting at Team Pierce's table with Pierce and Grace, eating lunch and animatedly chatting. This in itself wasn't too unusual.
The unusual part was that Ariel was sitting at the next table over, not-so-discreetly watching the three through the folds of a newspaper. The paper, as it happened, was being held in place by Water magic (and slowly disintegrating as a result) while she scribbled notes in a language Fleur didn't recognise.
Frowning, she tapped Ariel on the shoulder from behind her chair. The bluenette started, looking at her with the eyes of a particularly jumpy rabbit.
As it happened, Fleur knew that Ariel was fluent in several languages, including sign language. So, with a flurry of motions from her hands, she questioned, "What are you doing?"
"Spying," Ariel furtively whispered back.
The silver-haired nineteen-year-old took a seat next to the younger girl - come to think of it, Fleur didn't know Ariel's exact age. If she were to hazard a guess, though, she'd say fifteen - and peered at her notes, but they were in an incomprehensible alphabet. "In code?" her dancing hands asked.
"It's Ancient Shandoran, a language I'm certain no one else in this town can read . . except maybe Levy McGarden," Ariel frowned thoughtfully. "Point is, no one knows what this says but me,"
"Why are you spying on the new kid?"
Ariel flushed. "None of your business," she squeaked, silently wondering; 'Did I get that right? Should I have stuttered more? Doesn't matter, she's buying it,'
Fleur cast her a knowing look. "Do you think he's cute?"
"Definitely none of your business!"
"Well, then what does that say?" she inquisitively asked.
Ariel pointedly looked away, refocusing on Cal.
The Petal Mage tapped her shoulder, drawing her attention. "Tell me,"
The greenette disregarded her.
Fleur tapped again, and Ariel glared at her. "Tell me or I go over there and get Totomaru to tell them exactly what you're doing,"
Ariel sighed. "I'm transcribing their conversation and making notes,"
"That's intrusive. Have they said anything interesting?"
"Hypocrite," the secret TFEI scoffed. "Cal's just been asking lots of questions about their magic styles," 'Was he gathering intelligence,' she wondered. 'Had the Canopy dispatched him to gather information about the Phoenixes' fighting styles?'
"Makes sense. He probably wants to learn to mimic them," Fleur's fingers mused.
Ariel frowned. "Excuse me?"
As if to settle the matter, a grey magic circle appeared in front of Cal, and he declared; "Mimic! Reality Dragon's Roar!" before blowing a significantly weaker version of Grace's attack upwards.
Ariel's eyes widened in realisation. Cal's magic was the ability to duplicate other forms of magic. Some kind of variant on Rufus' Memory Maker Magic. That was why he had a faint taint of the Canopy; he must have Mimicked the magic of the red TFEI he had encountered.
Cardinal would be relieved. This boy probably didn't understand at all what he had gotten his hands on. The chance that he would become a threat was statistically insignificant.
Ariel dimly became aware of Fleur poking her. She turned to her guildmate with an irritated frown. "What?"
"Do you think his magic is sexy?" the other witch smiled with a triumphant look in her eyes, having totally misinterpreted why Ariel had briefly lost all focus after seeing Cal's magic.
"Wha - no!" she squeaked, a little louder than she had intended, and was rewarded with Pierce, Grace and Cal all turning and staring at her.
As if on cue, her Water magic finally soaked through the newspaper and it collapsed in a shower of wet confetti, revealing her notebook.
Ariel stood and left the table. "I have to go check on something at the Nest!" she squeakily declared and ran off. The four Phoenixes watched her go, and Fleur guiltily reflected that perhaps she had pried a little too much.
-[CoT]-
"So, to conclude, I am reasonably certain that Cal Jones is not affiliated with the Canopy, nor is he a threat to us. As a new member of Phoenix's Eye, it is substantially more likely that he will be just as useful a weapon against the Canopy as any other member of Phoenix's Eye," Ariel reported.
Asakura eyed her, the picture of boredom. "Uh-huh. Uh-huh,"
Ariel resisted the urge to let her irritation show.
"Excellent work," Cardinal's barely-comprehensible voice echoed through the screen. "You also ought to be made aware that I have determined the best course of action through which to ensure Phoenix's Eye is open to working with us, rather than blindly opposing both TFEI factions. I am assigning a new agent to work the Phoenix's Eye mission alongside you,"
Ariel's breath caught in her throat. "You - a new - but . . Phoenix's Eye is my mission. It's been my mission for decades," she weakly protested. "No one knows this guild like I do,"
"Is that an issue, Operative Aerial?" Cardinal's transdimensional voice somehow conveyed disapproval.
The TFEI blinked, and bowed her head. "No, sir," Aerial minutely nodded.
"Good. Rest assured, TFEI B/0297 will not be directly joining Phoenix's Eye," Ariel couldn't stop herself from involuntarily gasping at the name. "Is there an issue?"
"Is - is that right, sir? Oh-two-nine-seven?" the bluenette repeated. "There . . there's only two hundred and ninety-six TFEI in the Overmind,"
"There have been beneficial complications that have allowed us to create exactly one additional TFEI," Cardinal sounded impatient. Aerial knew she had kept him for long enough. "Further questions?"
"None, sir. I look forward to meeting B/0297," Her tone was not as measured as she would have liked, but Cardinal didn't seem to care.
"Anticipate her arrival during the Tartaros arc. Dismissed,"
Ariel nodded and closed the window, noting with some satisfaction that Asakura had been about to say something but cut off before she could. She sat on top of a box in the storage room and stilled her breathing. A new TFEI . . there had always been five hundred and ninety-two TFEI exactly. Two-ninety-six with Cardinal and the Overmind System, two-ninety-six with the Sky
Canopy Dominion. That was how it had worked out, that was how it had always been.
She let herself smile. There was a new TFEI, and they were a blue, like her and Yuki and . . hopefully not like Asakura. That meant they had the advantage. That might even mean that Cardinal might be able to mass-produce TFEI. If the Overmind System could assault the Canopy with an army of thousands, or even millions of TFEI, that . . . that would make her redundant.
Ariel banished the selfish thought, but it rubbed at her brain discomfortingly. If Cardinal could make more TFEI, then what was she, Aerial, Ariel, worth to him?
"Calm down," Ariel told herself. "He said he only made one more. Just one. One more TFEI won't be a problem, right? . . . Right?"
A/N
A/N
Right, Ariel. Sure.
Nothing much to say about this chapter, mostly just stuff happening between arcs. Peace!