Stronger Than Fire

By: Aviantei

Chapter Nineteen

Renzo's mouth opened, though he was unsure if it was to speak a greeting or a curse. He kept checking, kept following Konekomaru's gaze, but it was unfocused, save from the occasional hard look at the black flames dancing across the ruined festival stalls—but Renzo was still invisible.

He could just run, could get out of here. It was his job to keep an eye on Okumura Rin, not play around with his former friends, but he couldn't bring himself to move. What the hell was holding him back? He had already made the decision whenever he'd left the letters be, whenever he didn't respond, that he was going to cut off his ties with his True Cross life, aside from the whole double agent thing, right? He didn't need this.

And yet, with Konekomaru looking at him, even if he wasn't looking at him—

This is the worst.

"Shima-kun," Konekomaru was saying, stumbling his way over the wreckage towards him. There was blood drawing a bright line down Konekomaru's face, a few drops having flecked onto his now cracked glasses. "Yamantaka's the only one that can make flames like that, so you have to be here. Shima-kun! You're okay, right? We haven't heard from you at all, so we've been worried sick!"

Oh, gods, Shima had been wrong. This was the worst: Konekomaru running his mouth and almost blowing his cover. What if Emília came back and overheard—the thought was almost enough to make Renzo nauseous. Not having much other choice, Renzo pulled himself up from the ground, black flames still burning and all, and raced towards Konekomaru, slapping his hand over the shorter boy's mouth and praying whatever had set Yamantaka off wouldn't hurt Konekomaru in the process.

Maybe that would be better, though, since it would make me look way less like a double agent.

Man. He hated his thoughts sometimes. But at the same time, he knew Emília would have praised him for it, and that made the hatred fester a little less.

But there was no need to worry, no muffled scream from Konekomaru. Oh, Yamantaka's flames were still burning, yes, but they were only dancing hot and warm over Renzo's skin. At the very least, his power didn't seem to think that Konekomaru was threat enough to need fought against—his running his mouth aside.

"Don't be stupid," Renzo hissed, keeping his voice as quiet as possible. Konekomaru's eyes widened, and he didn't struggle. "I'm not on your side anymore, so stop acting like it. Wake up already." Just in case, just in fucking case, he chose his words carefully, making sure they had enough meaning to remind Konekomaru of the goddamn situation they were in but still sounding derisive for any Illuminati who might be around. Ever so slightly, Konekomaru nodded against Renzo's palm. "I don't have time for you right now, so stay out of my way."

Please, please, please don't get in the way right now; I don't have the time to clean up any mess we might make for ourselves, so give me a break, Konekomaru!

Renzo shoved him—not hard enough to hurt, but enough to put some space between them. Konekomaru stumbled, but managed to catch himself before falling to the ground. Konekomaru kept gaping at the spot where he thought Renzo was, doing a good job at not looking like he was trying too hard to seem stunned.

"I…" Konekomaru said, starting to shake. "I… I can't believe you!" Oh, he was going to put on a show of hurt, that was helpful enough. At least Renzo hoped that it was a show—right? "You just up and left without warning, and for what? You know they want to destroy everything, don't you? So how can you just act like it's natural to side with them? Shima!"

Yup, it was an act, because Konekomaru wasn't crying like he always did whenever he got worked up—but Renzo was the only one in the Illuminati who should know that, so it was fine. But there was a show to put on, so he'd go ahead and put on a show, whenever it was necessary.

"I don't have time to answer all your questions," Shima said, because he didn't. He had one job, to keep up with Okumura, and he was doing horribly at it. "Deal with your feelings myself. It's not my job." As if he wasn't a hypocrite for saying that, but it was what he needed to do for now. "I'm leaving, Konekomaru. Unless you think you can stop me."

It was an unfair taunt, even if it was just an act. Konekomaru was an Aria-in-training, with no real skillset geared towards fighting. Against Renzo, who had both basic Knight training along with his Tamer contract with Yamantaka—well, it wasn't even close to a balanced matchup in the slightest. Renzo didn't know if he'd planned the taunt to seem convincing or if he meant it. Either way, Renzo didn't give himself time to see Konekomaru's reaction, instead retreating as fast as he could.

"Shima!" Konekomaru shouted after him, sounding a very convincing mix of desperate and angry. "Get back here! Coward! Shima!"

Renzo blocked Konekomaru out, not wanting that surprisingly fragile section of his resolve shatter as he ran, as he tried to find someplace that was still safe. The black flames crawling along his body hadn't faded in the slightest, which meant he had a much bigger problem than Konekomaru slipping up and potentially blowing his cover.

Yamantaka's flames were still visible, still uncontrollable, and that meant that Renzo wasn't safe from either side, Illuminati or True Cross.

Yukio wouldn't have ever admitted it out loud, but it was a struggle to keep his hand steady as he aimed his gun, though he couldn't have said why. He had faced down demons before, had faced down hoards of the creatures, and yet this one woman who had been following him shortly after they'd left the Patiti building was throwing him off.

It wasn't the fact that she was an Illuminati member, as her uniform indicated. It wasn't that she was following him, as proven by the fact that she stuck around whenever he sent off the Exwires. But there was something about her smile—a feral type of grin that indicated an undeniable form of excitement, even when at gunpoint.

And Yukio's left eye burned.

"Hey there, Okumura-kun," she said with a wave, as if they were old friends or something. Of course, considering that he was one of the sons of Satan, it wasn't surprising at all that an Illuminati member knew just who Yukio was. "You having a good time over there? Because I'm having a blast."

"Who are you?" he asked, though he knew getting an answer was unlikely. The woman just smiled back, as if she knew how much staying silent on the matter would irritate him. She hadn't been around, though, back in Izumo, whenever he'd met Lucifer, so then who…? "Did Tōdō send you?"

That question earned him an outright laugh, the woman throwing back her head. "That's right," she said, once the laughter had died down. "You worked with him before he bailed in Kyōto, right? The higher ups sure were pleased that he managed to come back with Karura, too, but it's my job to be way more interested in you."

How much of what she was saying was truth and how much was a convenient distraction to get his head spinning? Yukio didn't know, and the pressure was mounting, especially as the woman hopped down from the rubble she was standing on and started walking closer, not caring that doing so made Yukio's aim all the more accurate if he chose to shoot.

"Don't look so worried," she said, which did nothing to help Yukio's nerves whatsoever. "I'm not here to hurt you or take you away or anything like that."

Yukio grit his teeth. "Then what are you here for?" Pulling the trigger would be so easy, but he didn't trust himself to hit true, and that would just show how rattled he was—as if she couldn't already tell, if the amusement in her eyes was any indication.

"Did you know that I'm using an Aria spellwork right now?" Of course she was the type to answer questions with more questions; why wouldn't she be? "I'm rather proud of myself for this one, you know. So you shouldn't be able to see me right now." Except she was right there, standing right in front of him, stopping just short of the barrel of his gun pressing against her chest. "How long has that eye of yours been bothering you, Yukio-kun?"

He couldn't help it; he pressed his hand to his face, covering his eye as a twinge of pain pulsed through it. The movement left him vulnerable, but the woman didn't press it. She was still just smiling, still watching like Yukio was nothing more than a toy for her overall amusement. He hated it, just as much as he hated the heat that pressed against his palm, almost burning, but not quite.

"I didn't realize that the Illuminati cared so much about my personal health," he said, though the comeback didn't have anywhere enough of a bite to it.

Another laugh from the woman, though this one was a more subdued chuckle. "You should know by now that we're always interested in everything about you, Yukio-kun." We, she said. Which meant she was acting for the Illuminati as a whole, and not just on a personal interest level, which was somewhat relieving—and yet. "But, yes, your eyesight seems to not care about Aria spells, I guess. You seem to be blessed."

Yukio had already been aware of the changes in his eye, had already been theorizing in what they meant for him. "I wouldn't call this a blessing." Not with why he had the ability in the first place.

"Well, I know some people who would argue otherwise. But that's neither here nor there." The woman shrugged, clasping her hands behind her back and skipping back a few steps. "You've just given me something fun to work with, plus some good intel. Not a bad opportunity back out in the field for once. Oh, but there's a couple of things I wanna let you know, Yukio-kun." She held up two fingers. "First up, Renzo's doing fine so don't worry about him. And second—"

The woman disappeared from sight, but her voice still lingered over the rubble:

"Do be sure to let them know that Emília Nussbaum was here, yeah?"

Since the younger Okumura twin's eyes were tapping into Satan's power enough that he could see through her spellwork, Emília had chosen a retreat. After all, the Intelligence Division's goal during the mission had been to uncover whatever secrets they could about the sons of Satan. Uncovering that Okumura Yukio's abilities were now manifesting was plenty to satisfy every one of the higher-ups, Lucifer included. The one disappointing thing was that Emília would have to rebuild her stealth Aria to be able to stay hidden even from his level of eyesight, but that would at least give her something to do while wasting away in the office.

Still, one big win wasn't enough to call the game closed, so Emília had headed out, scouting for Renzo and his target. Maybe she shouldn't have thought of it that way, but spying together seemed like a fun continuation of their earlier date.

Except the problem was that she found Okumura Rin, but no Renzo.

It shouldn't have been possible for her to not be able to see him. After all, it was her stealth spell, and she'd set it so they'd always be able to notice each other; there wouldn't be much point otherwise. And yet he was nowhere in the vicinity of Okumura Rin, not anywhere around where they'd split up, either. As she widened the area of her search, Emília's mouth started to curve down into a frown.

He hadn't been injured, had he? Captured? No, the latter option wouldn't make any sense. So then what happened? The fact that she was starting to worry wasn't helping her out in the slightest. Sure, she'd agreed to play along, agreed to go on dates, but…

Oh. She cared for him, more than she thought she did. It wasn't enough to make her blush, but… She compartmentalized the feeling, setting it aside to unpack later. Right now, she was still on the job, right now, the Illuminati was still waging battle against the combined True Cross and Patiti forces, right now, she couldn't afford to get distracted, so—oh, it wasn't going away like it should have, that was an issue.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I can't do this right now, I shouldn't even be doing this in the first place, now where the hell is he?

Emília was so busy trying to shove her feelings down that she almost missed the buzz of vibration in her pocket. She'd silenced her phone, but allowed it to go off if there were emergency transmission coming through—which was the case now. She'd wandered closer to the ongoing battlefield, and she had to swerve out of the way of an incoming familiar soaring towards her. She found a safe spot with her back pressed up against the closest building. She gave another glance over her surroundings, then pulled out her phone.

The message wasn't anything explicit: just a string of numbers. They were coordinates, but nothing that anyone would recognize. No, they were part of the coordinate sets they had prepared for the location in advance. And if Renzo was sending those to her—

Emília took off running so fast that she almost knocked over an Illuminati member in the process, and she didn't even care that she'd almost given herself away.

Emília found Renzo by the time that the fighting was over, Patiti being forced to give up the location as a total loss, even with the True Cross's support. With the Knights' forces being small in number and scattered, there had been no turning the tides for them, securing the Illuminati's victory.

But though Renzo had been looking over the general situation reports, he still hadn't moved, still hadn't dared to leave his hiding spot. The black flames hadn't faded, and he was starting to feel drained—in fact, he was surprised he hadn't already passed out. But he'd done what he was supposed to do, sending out his location to Emília, and all he needed to do was wait.

When she arrived, she pulled back the broken festival awning he'd used as a shield. Renzo looked up, more than prepared for the sarcastic comment or the scolding that he'd received—but instead Emília fell to her knees, pulling him into a tight hug, not concerned in the slightest for Yamantaka's flames.

"Don't do that," she said, and he caught the tremble in her voice but didn't comment on it. "Don't take so long to contact me if you have trouble, you got it, you little brat?"

"Yes'm," he breathed. He was much more worried about Yamantaka's flames than she was, so he hesitated to hug her back, but Emília didn't seem like she was going to let go anytime soon, so he gave in. She wasn't shaking, but he'd worried her, which hadn't been what he meant to do. "I ran into Konekomaru, plus Yamantaka acted up, and I panicked…"

Emília breathed a laugh against his shoulder. "You need more training, then. You can't lose your cool like that." Renzo nodded, deciding now wasn't the time to tease her about panicking. Keeping her arms locked around him, she shifted back, looking him in the eyes. "But this fight is over, and I got some intel, so it's okay, I can cover for you messing up here."

Renzo chuckled as well, too tired to do anything else. "That's why you're the boss, Emília-chan. You can way outclass me." Her mouth flickered into a smirk, as if to say, I know. Still, the feeling of lightness didn't linger over them long, and Renzo sighed. "I…I tried, but I can't turn it off. Yamantaka's just acting up, and I don't know what to do. Konekomaru didn't get hurt, and neither have you, but…"

"But you don't know if we can get you back home without blowing up a helicopter?" Emília asked, and Renzo nodded. "I'm guessing it triggered whenever you were in danger? That's common for some cases of familiars." Renzo nodded again; what she was saying made perfect sense, but he'd been in danger plenty of times before, so why now…? "Well, that sort of thing is Har and Cy's jobs to figure out. Though if that is the trigger, I probably shouldn't try to knock you out and see if that ends up working out in our favor."

"Even if I can't control it now, I'd never let Yamantaka hurt you, Emília-chan." Her mouth opened, then closed, which was the closest he'd ever seen her get to being flustered. "Man, today must've done a number on you; you can't even think straight, and you're a total mess."

"I don't wanna hear that from someone who went hiding because his familiar wouldn't turn off," she said, clapping back without any hesitation. With a huff, Emília stood up, ruffling Renzo's hair before offering him a hand. "Come on, Kid. Let's go home."

There had been some hesitation before, some sense of not knowing where he belonged. After all, the game he was playing meant that he was transient, left between different places with nowhere to call his own. Being confronted with a perfect reminder of his origins hadn't helped matters—and even his power was a clear indication of whence he came.

But there, in that moment he'd decided:

Here. I belong here.

[Author's Notes]

And so the Festival Infiltration and Defense arc is a close. All sorts of interesting snippets this one. I particularly enjoyed giving Konekomaru some time to shine and watching Emília realize she's caught some genuine feels, heheh.

Thanks to maimilianoismiranda for the favorite and follow! You're the bomb.

There are going to be Consequences in the fallout of this mission, so I hope you're ready to explore all that because I sure am.

Also? The last day of 2021? I don't even know what to do to reflect on this year properly. What I do know is that I appreciate every single person who reads my fics, and this has been a record breaking year for me. At the start of next year I'll be continuing my updates on walk steady on this cruel world's path and Muse, so do check those out if you're so inclined.

Chapter twenty on this week will release in 2022, so keep your eyes peeled. Please look forward to it!

-Avi

[12.31.2021]