Kamaitachi Chronicles

By: Aviantei

Twenty

Be thou for the people. That was the alchemists' code. When becoming a state alchemist, many saw it as your power became for the sake of the state, rather than the people at large. That had been how the unsavory title of "dogs of the military" had come about.

Fuck that.

Just because I had an army rank and a uniform didn't mean I was incapable of helping people. And so I sprinted through the halls of the building, trying to find any sign of where the rest of our bombing group could be. Whenever Automail and Eyepatch had come to get us, it was obvious they were going to take us somewhere. I just had to find that somewhere and contain the situation until backup arrived. After all, someone would eventually realize Automail, Eyepatch, and the alchemy kid weren't where they were supposed to be, and I didn't want to think about what this group would do.

They've already set off bombs throughout the city and captured civilians. I don't wanna see what happens when they decide to escalate matters.

Running through yet another empty hallway, I cursed. The building wasn't very big in terms of floor area, but it was a bit taller than I'd guessed. After finding the rest of the third floor empty, I'd gone up the stairs to the fourth, but I'd yet to find anything. "Come on, gimme something to work with…"

Footsteps.

I came to a halt as quickly as I could, hoping my jog hadn't been noisy enough to draw someone towards me. Then again, if they already suspected something was wrong, would it be so bad to just get into a scuffle and take them out…?

That's the exact sort of thinking that got you in trouble in East City. Try again, Caiman.

Not wanting to be on the receiving end of another round of scolding, I found an open doorway to tuck myself behind and waited. It didn't take too long for a couple of people to pass by, and I waited until they had made it most of the way towards the stairs and prepared to head in the direction they'd just come from.

And then a hand landed on my shoulder.

I didn't scream, but my body did instinctively move to break the sucker's wrist who'd touched me. "Easy, easy," the person said, countering my move before I could do any lasting damage—but not retaliating in kind. I blinked as I recognized that Luis had snuck up behind me. "I swear I'm here to help, Major Caiman." I opened my mouth to give a retort, then closed it whenever I couldn't come up with anything good. "I think I found the room where the head honcho is hiding. Walk and talk?"

I nodded, following Luis's lead but still feeling a bit miffed. "What are you doing up here? Didn't you go with the others?"

"Well, I thought about it, but I figured that letting you come up here outnumbered might not be the best idea—not that you're unskilled or anything, but strength in numbers, yeah?" I was glad he hadn't spouted some nonsense like I couldn't bring myself to let a girl go alone, but I still wasn't a fan of letting a civilian run around a danger zone. That much must have been plain on my expression, because Luis continued, "I told you I can handle myself in a street fight, right? Plus I snatched one of those guns from our friends downstairs. I can take care of myself in a pinch." Sure enough, he'd tucked a pistol in his belt.

"Do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Just point and fire, right? How hard could it be?"

If Hawkeye had heard that statement, Luis would be in for a lecture. But she wasn't here right now, and I was nowhere near qualified enough to serve as her proxy. "Alright, but if things get dangerous enough that I tell you to run, you listen, got it? If you can't agree to that, I'm knocking you out right now."

Luis stiffened up enough that he almost put Sergeant Ross's practiced military posture to shame. "Yes, ma'am."

By the time we did locate the room where most of the terrorists had gathered, my patience was running thin. Luis stayed a bit calmer and more collected than I did, so I let him handle sneaking up on the two people guarding the door and knocking them out. That left hook of his sounded like it had a ton of force behind it, and I had been waiting on the other end of the hall.

"Oops," he said, looking abashed. "We could've figured out their numbers if we'd kept one of them awake, huh?"

"Maybe," I said, using a quick transmutation to make some restraints. "Or they could've just shouted for help, and we'd have a whole pile of people coming down on us."

Luis watched my transmutation for a few moments—I could never tell if it was more the change in structure or the lightshow with people like him—before looking at the door. "Aren't we just going to be running straight into a pile of people once we head inside anyways?"

"Well, yeah." I stood and clapped my hands together, sketching out another transmutation circle on the wall with chalk. "But we can at least gain a bit of advantage by blasting our way and throwing them off guard." And, after confirming that Luis was ready to go, I did just that.

Alchemy was the process of understanding, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Of course, no one ever said you had to go the full way. A little breakdown was enough for the wall I transmuted to break down into pieces. Luis dashed in, taking point before I could, and I followed with my scythe ready to strike at whichever poor sucker decided to be in my range first.

Except the problem was that the room was empty.

Well, that wasn't wholly true. Luis and I had entered, and my collapsing wall trick had left plenty of rubble on the ground. But there wasn't a collective of waiting terrorists there to become shocked by our sudden entrance. There was just one person, sitting on a stiff-looking stone chair that maybe had been created by alchemy—it was hard to tell from a distance—and he didn't look the slightest bit shocked at what had just happened.

Luis and I both remained stock still, all our anticipation rendered pointless at the lack of a large threat, and the man on the other side of the room stood up, his hands held behind his back. "Don't move!" I shouted, shifting my stance and somewhat regretting that I had let Luis hold onto the gun. Sure, Hawkeye hadn't taught me more than the basics thus far, and I didn't have a lot of confidence in my aim, but the ranged threat would work better than the four feet of scythe I had to work with. "We've restrained the rest of your little friends. Whatever you're planning, you're not going to get away with it."

"Considering that you've made it this far, I suppose you made a compelling case," the man—Ringleader seemed appropriate—said. Despite his words, he didn't look the least bit concerned. "I will say, I didn't expect hostages to come and try to stop me. Wouldn't it be better for you all to escape and call for help?"

"For civilians, yeah. But you didn't quite pick up just civilians." Ringleader's eyes flickered between Luis and I, but his gaze at last settled on my scythe. "Let me just tell you that it's in your best interest to surrender and let me take you in. No one's gotten hurt too bad, and we can end this without much hassle."

Ringleader hummed. "That's a rather optimistic view of you. You don't understand that the military doesn't take too well to surrender, especially in their opposition."

My hands tightened on my scythe, but I didn't have a proper retort. I hadn't read every history book out there, but I had gone through enough to tell that Amestris had more of a "shoot first, ask questions later" type of policy. Ringleader wasn't wrong.

"Yeah, but what's pushing forward and resisting going to do for you now?" Luis asked. His body language was still tense, on alert, but it wasn't like he was telegraphing an upcoming attack or anything. "Just give it up, man. The sooner we end this, the less likely you are to get hurt in the process."

Ringleader let out a haunted sounding laugh that echoed against the remaining walls. "Less likely to get hurt? Do you think that's true?" He knelt down, steadily rolling up his pant leg to reveal the metallic surface of automail. "This thing goes all the way up to here," he said, pointing at a spot on his thigh that almost connected to his hipbone. "I had to get it because the last time I tried asking for mercy, someone decided that it'd be easier to blast me full of bullets instead." He stood once more, his voice lowering. "So, sorry if I don't find your whole surrender narrative to be compelling."

"Fine," I said, recognizing a debate dead end when I saw one. "You've had a bad experience before. How does that equate to bombing central and kidnapping civilians?"

Ringleader shook his head. "There's no point in making you understand. Talk at this point is cheap. No matter what you understand, it won't change the past outcome." He spread his arms. "So why don't you help me finish what I started?"

"You just expect us to—ah…" Luis's impassioned refusal turned into a groan—and I recognized the smell of the same gas that had knocked me out in the library too late to make any difference. I scrambled to pull my shirt over my mouth for some sort of filter, looking for the source of the gas so I could maybe cut it off. And I did find it. It just didn't do me any good.

The alchemist kid from before was standing in the doorway, a mask covering their face. There was a small canister they'd strapped to their chest, and it had a still glowing alchemy circle on the front. Still struggling to regulate how much I breathed and worrying I'd already done it too much, I noticed the blood dripping from the tips of their fingers.

They injured themselves and used their blood to make a circle to escape?

The realization floored me as much as the gas did, and my knees hit the hard floor with more than enough force to bruise three times over. I could just barely keep my mouth covered, for all the good it was going to do me, and none of the pre-drawn circles I had on me would make much of a difference. I could collapse the floor, maybe, but that wouldn't undo the effects of the gas…

And so I ran straight into another problem again. Great work, Caiman. Glad to know my list of military accomplishments was going to include some vague research and passing out in the middle of important battles.

"That's enough," Ringleader's voice said, and I could hear his footsteps approaching. "Any more of that and you'll knock me out, too, and then we'll be in trouble." The alchemist kid nodded, then pressed their palms to their canister once more, causing the gas to retreat back inside. While I wasn't unconscious by any means, my body felt heavy, and moving at more than a slug's pace soon didn't seem to be in the cards. Ringleader stood above me, kicking my scythe out of my grip and skittering across the floor. "Well, I would have preferred our initial hostage target for this, but I suppose some bodies are better than none. Sorry that you two are going to get dragged into this, but there's no other way to make our point."

"Make…your point?" My lips didn't fully cooperate, so the words came out slurred. Maybe if I can get him to talk long enough…

"Yes." Ringleader didn't seem to have much intention in indulging me, and his footsteps echoed as he moved across the floor to tie up Luis the same as me. "I don't intend for things to go too far, so you'll hopefully stay safe. But if not, know that your sacrifice will help make up for a tragedy that's happened before."

"More blood…with blood, huh?" Luis said, sounding just as drugged up as I did. Whether he hadn't passed out all the way before or he had just reawoken, I couldn't tell. "Guys like you…are part of the problem."

"Us? Part of the problem?" Oh, that struck a nerve. From my unfortunate faceplant, I couldn't see Ringleader's expression, but his posture stiffened. "Have you ever been put under attack for no reason? Have you ever seen harmless civilians get slaughtered? Have you ever watched an entire town turn red? The military is part of the problem, and they're not going to see that unless something important is taken from them!" Realizing his outburst, Ringleader took a shuddering breath and stood. "Nikola, help me get the girl; we're moving on to the next stage."

Given that the alchemist kid was the only other one in the room, it wasn't hard to figure out who Ringleader was talking to. Two terrorists dragged two hostages to their feet, and I stumbled with very little control over where my legs were going. This guy's obsessed enough that being at this much of a disadvantage isn't enough to stop him. What's next? Public declaration of demands? Execution of hostages? I looked over to Luis, who was in trouble because I hadn't forced him to escape with the others. If he died, that would be on my hands.

"If you gotta...off anyone," I said, feeling lightheaded as Nikola's uneven gait bounced me around, "make it…me. I'm part of…that damn military you hate so much."

Luis let out a sound like a groan that might have been meant to be a protest, and Ringleader looked over his shoulder to me. I couldn't muster a glare anymore, but I sure resisted the urge to blink in the face of opposition. What he thought about my little declaration, I didn't know, because the next moment the building rumbled. "Well, then, it looks like the military decided to pay us a vis—"

The crackling of alchemy erupted in the air, and soon the walls and floors were sporting oddly shaped protrusions. One of them knocked me in the side, but Nikola got the worst of it, and I was able to partway stumble out of their grip for what little good it did.

"I suggest you surrender now!" an all-too familiar voice boomed, and I was so exhausted that I couldn't even feel exasperated. "Otherwise, I, Alex Louis Armstrong, will take you in by force!"

[Author's Notes]

Armstrong is on the scene, baby!

Also chapter twenty is happening. Only took me ages to get here. That said, I have a stack of chapters piled up from doing some work this year, and I plan to keep going along as I have time. We'll make it to the end of this first arc of the story yet!

Want to read a fic of mine that didn't take years to write and is complete right now? Go check out walk steady on this cruel world's path, I'm super proud of my work.

Next time: this chapter has been passed down through the Armstrong family for generations. It'll drop next month around Christmas for my anniversary special, so please look forward to it!

-Avi

[11.26.2022]