Chapter 8: Water and Fire
And what had Hisaki been doing all this time? Trying to find Yomiko. In her quest for power Hisaki needed to find Yomiko. Not for a friendly chat or anything, however – more to make sure that Yomiko didn't interfere with any future plots for power. Weeks were spent staking out bookstores and libraries, but the bibliophile wasn't spotted anywhere. Logically, this meant that Yomiko was no longer in London and had either taken a long assignment from the Library or gone home to Tokyo. Hisaki accepted these possibilities and moved on.
To gain power, she had to find a way to break into the British Library. One did not need a stroke of genius to realize that the greatest of Great Britain's books would be stored in the British Library. As it was a free exhibition, Hisaki made some trips to the Library, always disguised under a Japanese tour group. With the aid of the translating and slightly-too-helpful guide Hisaki learned a lot about the documents on display in the Library, but they were nothing she wanted.
Of course. Why would books delving the dark arts and magick be on display? If anything, they should be locked up in a vault, away from power-hungry megalomaniacs. Like myself, Hisaki smirked with an unusually childish giggle.
The Library was large, she knew that. Hisaki spent several days trying to devise a plan before deciding on the most effective course of action: burn the Library to the ground. The books Hisaki wanted would be saved, either by the workers or the vaults. It would be an easy matter to investigate the British Library as it burned and search for the vaults and contents. Failing that, Hisaki could pretend to be a Library worker and search the rescued contents afterwards. After all, it was just a uniform.
Hisaki was now a full Witch when it came to fire magic. She could withstand her own fire and non-magical fire without a thread of fabric getting singed. Her magical fire withstood most attempts to extinguish it: short of burying the entire building in earth, the only other way to extinguish her fire was for Hisaki to command it to – and the girl had no intention of doing so.
The plan had its flaws, of course. One of them was any defensive measures the British Library had; specifically, Hisaki worried about other agents. She had yet to actually fight someone who possessed powers like her and there was no way she could practise without spilling her secret.
Hisaki spent an afternoon placing some spell circles in the Library. She was strong-willed enough not to need her chalk and leave behind physical evidence of her future vandalism. Instead it took a finger to draw and a few spoken runes to build her circles. These were designed to sense supernatural forces nearby and warn Hisaki when they were near. They served a double purpose as well: three trigger words and the invisible circles would ignite.
It'll be a day to remember, Hisaki thought to herself.
Three hours before ignition time, Hisaki was inside the Library. She was attached to the tail end of another Japanese tour group that was meandering its way through the Library. Breaking away to be in the most advantageous spot when the fireworks broke out would draw attention. Besides, Hisaki could afford to wait – she refused to allow her plans to fail on account of impulsive impatience. It had happened once and it wouldn't happen again. All of her painstaking surveillance had worked up to this very moment –
Hisaki's sixth sense, the one that was sensitive to magic, flared. She tried not to sweat in fear when she felt someone powerful rush by one of her spell circles. Images of a newspaper, a pair of thick glasses and lots and lots of books passed through her mind.
Oh shit, Hisaki thought as the group ambled by Gutenberg's Bible. Yomiko's been here all along. How was she hidden? How did she know?
Hisaki had to make a quick decision. She could go on as planned and deal with Yomiko if she came up. There was a slim, possible hope that Yomiko would leave before Hisaki acted and would return too late to stop the events. On the other hand, Yomiko was extremely powerful and Hisaki didn't like the idea of fighting The Paper on her home turf.
Besides, she had burned Yomiko's books. Definitely not a happy thing.
Would she be able to wait? Hisaki decided that this was the best chance she was going to get. Maybe Yomiko had figured something out; given enough time, that woman could thwart any future attempts.
Hisaki pursed her lips and followed the group. In three hours this would all be over.
"I think…you should all leave the Library…"
The sprinklers in the ceiling suddenly activated, spraying cold water all over the office. The lights went out as circuits tripped and power went to emergency and communication devices. In moments Joker's elegant and sunny office was transformed into a prelude to something bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Biblical Flood.
Wendy burst into the room. "Joker-san!" she yelled. "The – "
"Yes, The Paper and I noticed," Joker responded gravely. His groomed hair now resembled Drake's on a particularly bad day.
Paper was flammable, an unavoidable fact: the older it was, the more easily it burned. The Library took every precaution possible to protect itself. Fire-retardant foam in the sprinklers was designed to protect rooms in danger as quickly as possible by filling the room as quickly as possible; water was used in rooms where no historical artefacts were stored, such as Joker's office. In the event that the fire was uncontrollable, power went out and the system was to activate all over the building.
However, never in the history of the British Library had the entire emergency system been needed. Hence, Wendy's reaction.
"We need to evacuate!" Wendy yelled, recovering her sense of panic.
Joker pushed aside the streaming hair in his face with one hand; the other found a remote control and pushed a button. From a monitor hanging over the corner of his desk a scene of chaos appeared.
"Joker!" a voice gasped. On screen someone's face appeared. Elias was dishevelled and covered in wet soot; a stray piece of paper was stuck to his hair, but he didn't seem to notice.
"What happened?" Joker asked. He seemed more annoyed that his hair was a mess than that the water in his room was ankle-deep and getting higher.
"Fire," answered Elias; in the background Joker could hear people screaming. "Four locations spontaneously combusted simultaneously. The sprinklers couldn't extinguish them."
"I see," said Joker. "Are there any Agents in the building?"
"Uh…" Elias ducked off-screen, presumably to get this information. In a minute he had returned. "The Paper, Drake Anderson and a former."
"Hisaki," said Yomiko.
"The former Firestarter," Joker said. "Thank you, Elias. Send me Drake, if you find him." Just before he shut off the connection a familiar American voice could be heard saying, "What does he want now?" A minute later, the owner of the voice waded into the room, looking like a particularly large and waterlogged blond rat.
"I better be getting paid for this," Drake snarled.
"Drake-san!" Yomiko yelped.
Drake stared at Yomiko for a few moments, then turned back to Joker.
"I came here to collect some money, and as soon as I get it it's soaked, along with everything I'm wearing. Then you call, and I find out one upset pyromaniac is actually inside the Library. And on top of that I find out she's here," Drake practically roared, pointing at Yomiko. "Let me guess – this is going to be a mission where I either burn to death, drown, or actually receive a pay check!"
Silence, except for the hissing of the sprinklers and sounds of rushing water.
"Would any tea make you feel better?" Wendy asked timidly.
Drake glared at the bedraggled secretary.
"I want a gun that works in this damned place."
"I'm sorry, but – "
"Joker," said a wheezy, tinny voice. Everyone took a minute to look around, then realized (at varying degrees of speed, Joker immediately and Yomiko and Wendy taking half a minute) that it was coming from the monitor hanging over Joker's desk. The voice was barely audible over the water.
"Mr. Gentleman?"
"Yes. Give him the prototypes."
"But – "
"Wendy, go get it," said Mr. Gentleman. As Wendy opened a secret compartment in the far wall, Mr. Gentleman explained. "It was a mistake allowing Hisaki to go free. At the very least, we should have kept her under our surveillance. Now it's too dangerous to let her live. As soon as STN get wind of this we're going to be in trouble that will be deeper than this water.
"These work by using compressed air and will work underwater. They're loaded with orbo bullets." Wendy handed Drake a pair of what appeared to be semi-automatics with a small gas canister installed on the barrel. Drake popped open a clip and found clear plastic bullets filled with a thick greenish fluid. He reloaded the gun as Wendy gave him a long vial on a chain, also filled with orbo.
"We have enough orbo, taken from the Japanese branch of STN, to make our own chemical copy," Mr. Gentleman went on. "It hurts Witches like Hisaki, who've developed their abilities, and negates their power. We haven't actually tested it though, so you'll need some faith."
"Just perfect," muttered Drake as he slid the chain over his neck. The vial rested on the centre of his chest. He noticed that Yomiko had a slightly ill look.
"You okay?"
"Orbo will have some negative side effects on Yomiko," Mr. Gentleman explained. "Keep your distance from her and, if you can, try not to shoot her."
"You're a Witch?" Drake asked Yomiko.
"No!" protested Yomiko.
"How're Special Ability Users and Witches different?"
"We can have that discussion after your mission," Joker said. "Right now Hisaki must be stopped, killed if possible."
"My lucky day," Drake muttered. Yomiko looked slightly pale, but nodded. "Where is she? And can you shut these damn sprinklers off?" The bit about his guns working underwater – why had Mr. Gentleman added that?
"The vaults are unusually dry," commented Mr. Gentleman. "Firewitches don't take to water very well, do they."
"I can switch off the sprinklers in a few minutes," Joker said. "The Paper will know the way to the vaults."
"Your paper holding up?" Drake asked as Yomiko led the way out. Yomiko nodded. "What about you?" Yomiko sighed.
"Ano…" Yomiko said hesitantly. "I want to talk to her."
"You heard Joker," Drake said. At this moment Yomiko needed a friend, but with all his anti-Witch equipment Drake kept back a respectful distance. "Hisaki attacked the Library and she's dangerous. She's the enemy. Besides, if she wanted to talk, she would've come to us. She had weeks to talk it out."
"But…" Drake had a point. Yomiko remembered how Hisaki was only happy when she learned something new and more powerful, or when she used her abilities successfully. In the vaults were kept the most powerful and dangerous books; a popular rumour was that the Paper got access to a set of books that unlocked all the secrets of the past Paper Masters, making him or her even stronger. Thinking of her collection of diaries, most of them missing from the fire, Yomiko thought that they weren't that far off from the truth.
The sprinklers shut off, accompanied by an audible sigh of relief from the two Agents. The water around their feet quickly drained away and the pair took a moment to wring excess water from their clothes before continuing.
"So what're we going to do when we meet her?" By 'we' Drake had actually meant 'Yomiko'.
"Fight her," Yomiko said. She pulled out a handful of soggy cue cards; with a squeeze of her fingers a faint mist of water sprayed out from them as she forced moisture out. "And probably kill her." She sounded a little unhappy but resigned to the fact.
Yomiko and Drake progressed through several hallways and down numerous stairs. As soon as they were underground heat – likely magical – began to evaporate moisture from their clothes; within ten minutes the two were completely dry. Even the socks and feet in Drake's boots, which made him a little more pleasant to be around.
"Hey, Paper," Drake said after a few minutes. "Look at this."
Yomiko turned around. Drake was holding up the vial. Inside, the orbo was clearly giving off a faint glow.
"It means the Craft is being worked somewhere here," Yomiko answered. Yomiko lacked any sense of magic, and even she did have some Drake's orbo would've cancelled it out.
Drake waved the vial around slowly, watching it glow and fade. "I think there's a spell somewhere," he said. The orbo got the brightest when he touch a particular point on the wall. Yomiko moved in, a piece of paper in one hand. This paper had some Japanese characters on it, and when Yomiko mumbled some words the paper seemed to glow.
Yelling "Begone!" The Paper slammed her ofuda on the wall, pinning it with two fingers. Immediately gold fire raced around the wall, revealing a glowing spell circle with runes for hiding, walls and fire written in the sides. When The Paper released the ofuda it burned up and the spell circle became interesting burn marks on the wall.
Somewhere not too far away Hisaki looked up. They're here.
1 ofuda – a Japanese spirit paper, used to banish demons. You've probably seen Sailormars use it. Written on the paper is Akuryou taisen, meaning ,"Evil spirit, begone."
Yeah…so it's been a while since I last updated. I could throw a lot of excuses here, such as me spending several weeks teaching or in another country. On the other hand, this chapter took a long time for me to write: prior to me being busy, I had written up a completely different chapter, but I didn't really like it.
Yes. So. I'm sorry, and here's the chapter. One more chapter, then maybe an epilogue-type deal. Maybe.
Thursday, June 30, 2005