Chapter 10 - Waves of Fiery Passion

Friday, October 16th, 2020

After a few minutes, the two sat down in a nearby building, away from the construction workers that were coming to fix the destruction in the student union. They were sitting in the lobby of the Political Science building, in a lounge area facing large floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked a courtyard of planters and fountains. Emily stopped to admire the scenery for a moment before facing Naka.

"I believe I asked you why you decided to wear the shrapnel on your neck?" She asked, lazing back into the lounger she sat in. Students passed in and out of the building beside them. "Does it have some meaning to you?"

Naka nodded slowly. "I wear this to remind me of my father. Look, I know it sounds odd, but I never get to see him that much due to the distance, and he's always treated me well." He began to fiddle with the vial to keep his hands busy, staring into the container. "I really enjoyed that summer with him, exploring the wreck. We shared some good times inside that research submarine, even if it was cramped." He sighed, still lost in recollection. "I still call him sometimes, but he's often so busy with work that I felt alone, and was too insecure to reach out to others."

Emily stared into his eyes as he avoided her gaze, staring at the metal. "I know I've said this, but I was always there if you wanted to talk. You know we did, until a few weeks ago. I vas confused why you stopped texting me."

"There's a reason for that, but it's hard to explain." Naka admitted with another sigh, although with different feelings behind it.. "The first week of school, I was walking back from the first meeting of the anime club. Yeah, I know, stereotypical weeb shit." He sank in annoyance as Emily smirked at his confession. "This guy snuck up on me and tried to stab me with something. I broke free from him and ran away with only a scratch, but I didn't see his face. Weird things started happening after that…" Naka tried to form his next sentence carefully. Emily was just about to interrupt when he continued, slowly. "Let's just say I met another, um, friend, um, at the weeb club, who started talking with me. I started to get more schoolwork and we both helped with each other's…needs." He spoke timidly. "I was just busy, and I forgot about other things for a while."

Well that's vague as hell. Emily thought. She had concerns and suspicions about the figure she saw earlier, but his speech brought another topic to the front of her mind. "Well I think that you should've said at least something. We've been friends for years. You could've introduced me to this person." She pouted.

"I know, it's my fault, I should've made more of an effort." Naka admitted, his hands now tightly clenching the side of the fabric chair he sat on.

Emily found her mouth begin to move before she could properly rationalize her next sentence. "I was getting worried that you didn't like me anymore. I mean, I know you tend to have low self esteem sometimes, but I thought I understood you! I'd even been planning to ask you out for a while now." Naka's eyes widened as Emily realized what she said. Before she could backpedal to him, Naka began to glow with a bright orange aura surrounding him.

"Emily, I had no idea-" He was cut off by the FWOOSH of a miniature firestorm enveloping him. Emily jumped to her feet and stepped back as the flames dissipated, revealing the same woman from before, her red kimono dress flowing in the wind left by the firestorm. She held her finger up to sush Naka as her other hand removed the golden phoenix mask from her face, resting it on top of her flowing black hair. Her crimson tinted eyes pierced Emily's senses as she pointed a finger at her, the loose dress sleeve draping down from her outstretched arm.

"So I was right about you, girl of iron blood." The woman announced in a soprano, teasing voice that gave Emily goosebumps. "Naka's told me sooo~ much about you, and I was worried that you'd become a threat." She waltzed in front of Naka while saying this, the sound of each footfall amplified by Emily's fight-or-flight response.

"So you were the girl from the psych class!" Emily exclaimed in anger, raising her hand to point as the woman lowered hers. "Why the hell did you slip down your dress earlier?" By this point, a few students had stopped to watch the argument, confused at why the girl was yelling at the transfer student about a dress.

The woman raised her hand to her chest. "Don't call me 'girl', child. I~ am Taiho, the most advanced aircraft carrier of the Sakura Empire." She boasted in that taunting voice that was already getting on Emily's nerves. "You're quite naughty for pretending you didn't see me earlier. And to think, I teased you with a sight that only my Naka has seen." She flaunted, rubbing her chest.

Emily's face reddened as she leaned over to look Naka in the eyes. "What the hell is this, Naka? What has this... temptress been doing to you?" the vitriol spilling from her words.

"Okay, so maybe my dad wasn't the only reason I wore the shrapnel. I said it was complicated!" He panicked. "Taiho, please stop this, she's just a friend-"

"Tsk Tsk Tsk" She wagged her finger, interrupting him. "Now, my love, don't be so naive. The girl says she had feelings for you." She shifted her gaze to the premed student, who had taken a defensive stance. Her arms stretched outwards and to the side as she began to step towards Emily. With each step, a large extension of her dress that appeared to be a scaled-up Japanese hand fan unfolded from her back. Many fine white silk panels stretched and connected at regular intervals, utilizing multiple golden spears as struts. At the very end of each side of the oversized fan were what appeared to be miniature flight decks of an aircraft carrier. The peacock-like fan seemed like a creative stylistic choice, but Emily wondered if they served any practical use aside from intimidating the hell out of her.

Taiho once again turned to face Naka. "Shikikan-sama, I shall remove this distracting pest for you."

Emily was nearly overwhelmed by the threatening sight before her. This was compounded by Taiho making the creepiest fucking thousand-yard murder stare that she had ever seen, now directed straight at her. The warship cracked the widest evil grin Emily had ever seen, and the remnants of the swirling fire around her helped to make Taiho seem like an incarnation of the devil itself. Red streaks of light and flame began to fly off of Taiho's flight decks, quickly forming and coalescing into the shape of miniature airplanes, complete with the accompanying roar of propeller engines.

"And now, my dear, you must pay for your insult to my commander." Taiho began laughing maniacally as the blazing red aircraft continued their arc inside the atrium, lining up a petrified Emily in their sights.

"EMILY, RUN!" Naka shouted as the aircraft opened fire, strafing with miniature bullets of fire. Snapping out of her paralysis, Emily jumped over the back of the lounge sofa she once sat at, hoping to avoid the projectiles. The bullets shredded the fabric and stuffing of the sofa, creating a cloud of white feathers and flames that obstructed the carrier's view. Using this to her advantage, Emily began a sprint to the lobby's main glass door before it was cut off by a high flying aircraft that bombed the tiles in front of the entrance, creating a flaming obstruction in front of the door. Emily slid to a halt, barely avoiding the burning floor. At the same time, the students that had once been watching and recording the argument were now screaming and trying to avoid the holes, fires and flying tile shards that were appearing around them, seemingly out of nowhere.

Emily watched in horror as all the hallway entrances were similarly bombed by the waves of red aircraft. She took out her crusader's crossbow as Taiho stepped out from a column of smoke, casually strolling towards her. She readied the poisoned crossbow bolt and tried firing the weapon at the harrassing aircraft carrier, but one of her planes swooped down and shot the large glass projectile to harmless shards.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Taiho taunted. "Quite a pesky girl you are. No matter, you're cornered anyway."

Shit, she's right. Emily thought. She was backed into a corner of the lobby, the interior wall on one side and the large glass window on the other side. Naka attempted to get to Taiho, but the smoke and debris made it difficult for him and he began coughing from smoke inhalation.

"Any last words?" Taiho asked, an aircraft arcing around on another strafing run towards her. Emily thought back to the hole in the wall she saw in the student union. She then glanced down at her crossbow. Well, here goes nothing. She thought while loading another bolt.

"Oh please, what makes you think that's gonna work. You already tried it, silly." Taiho teased. However, the carrier's eyes widened as Emily turned and shot the window, cracking it. Emily started running towards the glass. Taiho tried to order her planes to fire, but she was interrupted by a surprise coughing fit, as if she were inhaling the smoke that billowed yards away from her.

The glass shattered as Emily slammed into it, her body tumbling into shards of glass on the pavement of the exterior courtyard. Ignoring her multiple glass cuts, she got to her feet and sprinted off in an adrenaline-induced panic.

"Oh dear."Taihou thought aloud. "Why did I start coughing?" The realization dawned on her as she remembered the quirks of her sharing her bond with her stand master. "NAKA! I'M COMING!" She screamed in fear, darting past the cowering civilians to reach her beloved. In the meantime, she ordered her aircraft to search the surrounding area for her "pest" as she reached Naka, cradling him in her arms, away from the smoke. She carried him out of the building, through the destroyed window pane.

"Please, don't hurt her." He pleaded in her arms, his voice raspy from the smoke.

"Shikikan, you know I can't do that." She cooed, rubbing her hand on his soot-covered face. "At this point, it's personal." Taiho announced, aura of flame surrounding the two as blood red aircraft poured from the building and buzzed into the sky.

…

Emily ran until the adrenaline began to wear off, the pain in her body growing more apparent. Stopping by an outdoor bench next to the University's massive tailgating lawn, she stopped to inspect her wounds. There were cuts and shards of glass covering her exposed arms and legs, and her blood was dripping at her feet. Mortified, she quickly pulled her medigun stand equipment out and pointed it at her body, resting it on the bench. She pulled the gun's trigger, and a beam of healing light poured from the hose. She watched in relief as the shards expelled themselves from her body, and the cuts began to close.

Dear Christ, that vas a close one. She thought. After she was healed, she checked the gauge on her medical pack. What greeted her gaze was a near empty tank, with only a few drops of precious healing fluid remaining. Well that isn't gut.

Emily could now hear the sound of sirens as fire trucks were likely nearing the building. She could see smoke coming from it, but her fears quickly returned as another sound began to drown out the sirens: the roar of aircraft engines. Emily gazed up in horror as nearly a dozen red shapes scattered out from the courtyard she ran from, and spread out in a search pattern. She ducked behind a nearby tree and prayed that the planes wouldn't find her, but her hopes sank as another student walking down the sidewalk noticed the trail of blood that stopped at the bench. The student screamed and took out her phone to call the police.

You've got to be fucking kidding me. That trail's gonna lead her straight to me. Emily slumped. She thought about beelining to another hiding spot, but all the area around her was open to the sky, and she couldn't afford to take a strafing attack head on. So, reluctantly, she continued hiding behind the tree. Her luck ran out, however, when a recon plane noticed the blood trail leading to the bench and began circling overhead. This signaled a group of bombers to join it, and they released their payload onto the surrounding area. Emily was forced to run for dear life as the ground around her erupted in flames and dirt blasted from the bomb hits. She pulled out her crossbow and prayed for the best as the aircraft began to follow her.

Emily now found herself in the middle of the tailgating lawn, and began to frantically search for a way out around the newly forming craters. The aircraft seemed to come from the direction of the political science building, and a small firestorm marked the ground she had just fled to her left. She could try dashing to her right, where a smaller pathway meandered off into a small maze of other buildings, but her hopes were dashed when she spotted the now infamous red kimono appearing across the field from her. With direct eye contact, Emily guessed that the carrier could easily pinpoint her aim and gun down the student before she could reach cover.

Focusing her vision, Emily saw that Taiho was carrying Naka over her shoulder as she approached, as if against his will. Apparently Taiho liked to play with her targets, as she sent only two fighters screaming towards Emily while the rest returned to her flight red wings of light soon transformed into two fully formed miniature A6M "Zero" fighter planes, the emblem of the rising sun on full display as their propellers sprung to life.

She's testing me. Emily growled in her mind. Looking down at her crossbow, she figured her odds at shooting them down were low. That wouldn't stop her from trying, however, as she thought back to the countless times she'd spent doing target practice in her mom's backyard. Her mother had always told her to keep her powers a secret, to not rouse suspicion. As much as Emily had wanted to brag about her aim to others, she hadn't even told Naka about her countless hours thumping bolts into a crudely spray-painted target on her fence. She'd even altered the distances and trajectories as she grew up and kept archery as a sort of hobby that her stand allowed her to enjoy every once in a while. However, everything she had done in the past had prepared her for this moment.

Adrenaline once again began to pump through Emily's body as she tuned out the world around her. The wail of fire engine sirens, the screams and shouts of passerby watching the blazes, and the doubts in her mind faded away as the only sound she let in was the roar of the two aircrafts' propellers. As if thinking in slow motion, she felt the wind gently blowing through her hair to give a perception of its resistance. She guessed that at the current rate the planes were approaching her, they were about a football field out. That was way too far for any sort of accurate shot, even accounting for wind, so she decided to wait. The aircraft were much smaller targets than full size craft, being only around the size of her bookbag. Even so, that meant that it would likely take only a shot or two to take one down. There was still a gamble, however, as she needed either enough time to reload a shot for the second plane, or attempt to dodge its fire and hit it on the second pass. She quickly settled with the latter option as she didn't want to miss the first shot just to reload faster. Taking aim, she released the trigger only when she thought the planes were crossing the 60 meter mark.

*TWING* The weapon rang out as the bolt carrying her hopes and dreams was rocketed into the sky. Taiho, still approaching the girl, watched in awe as the projectile cut through the sky and found its mark, shearing off one of the fighter's wings, and it tumbled into the ground before dissolving back into shards of red light. This gave Taiho an idea, and she began to smirk as the other Zero opened fire with its cannons and machine guns. Emily ignored her first instincts, which were to run sideways or backwards. Wanting to make the shot on her as difficult as possible, she instead ran forward and dived down to the grass. The bullets passed over her, and the opposing aircraft was already flying too low to point its weapons further down, choosing to instead make a loop around for a second pass. Emily was just getting to her feet when that same voice called out to her.

"Ara ara, aren't you persistent?" Taiho called out, her impressive body shining with an orange glow. She set her captive user down on the grass next to her, and to Emily's surprise he was tied up by the arms and legs, with a crude gag in his mouth. His eyes pleaded defeat and regret.

"I could say the same thing to you." Emily glared, reloading her crossbow. She took a potshot with her crossbow at the still turning Zero, but it missed by a few feet. She turned to face her attacker, still fumbling with loading another bolt as the plane began its final approach.

"Now, don't go thinking I won't regret your demise, dear." Taiho teased. "I do value you for all the times you've made dear Naka smile in the past. I was almost ready to spare you before you made that outburst back there." She pointed back to the burning building in the distance, where firefighters were already hard at work. However, Naka's eyes perked up at that Taiho's statement, and he began wiggling to attempt to free his bonds. Taiho didn't notice this, however, as she was still focused on Emily with that same creepy death-smile gesture she makes.

"You're completely insane." Emily grunted as she raised her crossbow on the incoming Zero, which was flying higher than last time. Her aim was steady and her focus was clear, but as she squeezed the trigger Taiho made a moaning noise to mess with her. Even though Emily suspected she'd try such a lewd tactic at this point, it still somewhat threw off her aim, and the bolt only damaged the plane's wing's tip instead of hitting it head on. It began to spiral and roll, but the descent was still controlled as the plane began to curve in her direction.

"I never doubted your aim." Taiho admitted. "But that plane is still equipped with a bomb."

"Just what are you trying?" Emily raised an eyebrow at the carrier before she continued to watch the plane's descent.

"Tell me, have you ever heard the term 'kamikaze' before? It means 'divine wind'. Quite a fitting name, don't you agree?" Taiho then began her insane laughter again as Emily finally realized why the spiraling plane was barreling straight for her.

If that thing continues on its course, I can't hope to escape it. Emily thought. I don't even have time to load another bolt. The only way I could take it out would be to alter its trajectory, but how? The Zero tumbled within thirty yards of her, it's engine still roaring, when Emily got her answer. She noticed the wingtip that was damaged revealed the red light that formed the magical aircraft, now visible underneath the metal.

Taiho settled down from her cackling fit to watch as the student dropped her crossbow and pulled out what appeared to be a hose. Emily thought back to seeing her medigun gauge nearly empty, and prayed that she would have enough for her plan. Time slowed for her once again as she focused on the tumbling aircraft. She counted its approach. 20 yards, 15 yards, 10 yards away from impact. Only then did she turn on the medigun and point it straight at the Zero. Normally, the medigun couldn't heal physical objects, only organic ones. However, Emily was betting on the fact that the plane was an extension of Taiho, and that it was created from light at first rather than metal. Her hopes did not fail her, however, as the damaged wing of the aircraft was completely repaired by the beam just as her tank's fluid ran dry.

Taiho, expecting even more damage from the hose-like weapon, increased engine throttle on the aircraft, which had not recovered from its spin. As a result, the newly repaired plane was thrown off course by the extra lift and did a loop in the air before slamming into the ground several feet away from Emily. Even though it helped her avoid a head on collision, the blast still threw her several feet into the air before slamming back into the ground. Emily took a few seconds to recover from the blast, her ears ringing and her vision blurred. As the world came back into focus, she saw that her arms and legs were really messed up by the blast, and throbbing pains in her right leg told her that she may have broken a bone or two. She tried moving it, but the pain was too much to stand up.

"Well, my dear, I must say that I'm impressed!" Taiho clapped her hands together as she stepped forward a few more yards. "I applaud your cunning and resilience, as I expect of any Ironblood descendant. However, it appears that cunning can only get you so far." With this statement, Taiho launched six more aircraft, which began to swoop around for the final blow. "That poor leg wound of yours means that you're finally mine~. I will say this one more time, girl. Any last words?" Emily sighed in defeat, staring down at the ground as she rested on the cool grass. The roar of the aircraft engines steadily grew in her ears.

Emily had never thought about facing death this soon. She always assumed the reaper would come to her after a long life of helping people. Instead, she only shuddered at the thought of going out here and now, her life snatched from her by a psychotic aircraft carrier. To her surprise, however, another voice piped up above the dull noise of the engines and maniacal laughter.

"TAIHO! Stop this shit RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" Looking up in surprise, Naka was standing between her and the carrier, arms outstretched in a protective gesture. Taiho must not have tied his bonds very well, as the ropes were lying on the ground away from the carrier's feet.

Taiho stared at him, annoyed. "Shikikan, please move out of the way. You know that I must eliminate all threats to our love."

The audacity of this bitch. Emily thought, still wincing at the pain of her wounds.

"I told you that you need to work on this behavior. Look what you've done to this place!" He boomed with a determination Emily had never seen in him before. "Besides, there's no reason for you to target her." Naka responded.

"And why is that?" Taiho said in a noticeably more serious tone, cocking her head slightly and resting her finger on her lip.

"Because I don't love Emily." Naka announced coldly.