Fate/Keleid Liner Prisma Taylor
The crisis with Kelly and Gilgamesh averted, our group returned to Miyu's god-damned monster of a house. Mostly, Gilgamesh implied he was coming with us but vanished at some point on the way over. Not that I'm complaining but I can't help but think he's up to something.
I didn't raise my suspicions with the others. I figured that the locals knew more than I did about his behavior so if it was a problem they'd already be on it.
As we were heading up to Miyu's door, she turned to Vicky and I. "Uh, would either of you care for some breakfast? It's a bit early but it'll take me a moment to make something on such short notice."
"Say yes," Chloe interrupted immediately. "Trust me, you want Miyu's cooking. She's like a god in the kitchen."
"Please do not call me that."
Before Vicky or I could answer, the roar of an engine and the squeal of rubber on the asphalt in the distance cut us off. And it was getting closer at an alarming rate.
"Mama's home!" Illya chirped and took off back toward the gate.
After a second of hesitation, the rest of the group made it there just in time to see a Rolls-Royce driving faster than such a vehicle was ever intended to go twist backward in the middle of the road and drift to a complete stop in a parking position in front of the house across the street. There is no possible way any of that was legal.
Illya opened the gate and stepped out in time for a woman who could not possibly be old enough to be the mother of a teenager, with long hair the same white as Illya's, to come out of the car.
The two spoke in what I assumed to be Japanese while I tried to place why the woman seemed so familiar, before turning back to the rest of us... The woman didn't seem happy and I braced for the worst but the older woman was perfectly polite when she introduced herself.
"Hello, I'm Illya's and Chloe's mom, you can call me Iri," she said in perfect English. "Illya says you're new in town? Well, let me be the first to formally welcome you to Fuyuki." She then looked at Vicky. "I like your outfit."
Vicky, who was still dressed as Glory Girl, without missing a beat replied "Thank you."
"Uh, Ma'am, are you alright?" I asked. "You seemed upset a moment ago."
"Oh, it's nothing you should be worried about," Iri began, "It's just that on my way home I almost hit some ne'er-do-well in a catsuit and domino mask who was skulking around by the middle school, and then when I was getting over that I ran into some poor young girl passed out in an alley. Poor thing, she was obviously trafficked here. Illya, Chloe," she said turning to her daughters, "I am going to give some of your father's associates a stern talking to later."
"Where is Papa, anyway?" Illya asked.
"He got caught up with a little something, he'll be home in a few days."
"Oh, not again," Chloe interjected. "The last time you said that we spent our entire summer hiding out in rural Switzerland."
"It's not that kind of little something," Iri said defensively. "Anyway, this poor girl was wearing a shock collar of all things," she said, suddenly twirling a somewhat familiar device around her fingers. My blood cooled and I could say nothing. "So I'm going to get some food in this child and maybe see about getting her a bath. Illya, do you mind if I let her borrow some of your old clothes?"
"Oh, of course, that's fine," Illya agreed.
My only consolation as Iri pulled Bonesaw from the back seat of her car and frogmarched her into the house across from us was that the demented little psycho looked like she was suffering from severe motion sickness, presumably as a result of Iri's erratic driving.
"So... That person in the catsuit and domino mask was probably another of our friends," I started maybe a little too quickly. "Could you guys show us where the middle school is so we can try and find her?"
"Yeah."
"Of course."
"Fine."
Agreement of the locals secured, I called out "Kelly!"
The spirit in question manifested from the astral plane, thankfully once more fully dressed. "You called?"
"Could you keep an eye on things here? In case anyone turns up? And make sure nothing happens while we're looking for Lisa?"
She nodded, and I could tell that she got my meaning. She vanished into the astral plane to secretly observe the house across from us, in case Bonesaw tried something, and the rest of us took to the air, after transforming of course, and flew in what I presumed to be the direction of the middle school. Well, most of us. Chloe was still being carried by her sister.
This time, without a preset target destination, the locals took the lead and I hung back with Vicky, who was giving me the side eye.
"Why didn't you say anything?" She asked.
"I really don't want to do something that might set off the locals or... Have a long conversation digging into scars that have had barely a month to heal."
Vicky winced. "You gonna be okay?"
"I'll deal," I said. "Bonesaw's crazy but she's not stupid, she's not gonna try something when she doesn't have a support base. Kelly can manage her and once we find everyone else and regroup we can come up with a plan of action, we can say that she's from our world too, bring her back with us, and then turn her over to the authorities ASAP."
"You're assuming that we can get home."
"Opal was made by some kind of world-hopping super wizard," I countered, "and he's been to Earth Bet before. Worst case scenario we can find him and ask for help."
Vicky looked like she was going to say something else before we were interrupted by a cry of "One of you catch me!"
Vicky went into autopilot and Chloe, who'd lept at us apparently, was safely caught in a bridal carry.
"Hey," the darker girl said flirtatiously.
"Still not into girls," Vicky replied sternly.
"Seriously, not at all?"
"What's going on?" I asked, noticing that Illya and Miyu were no longer flying ahead of us but heading down to what looked like a crowd. Of shambling people. Surrounding what looked like one of Hellhound's monster-dogs.
"Yeah. Change of plans. The dead are escalating and there's some kind of monster we've never even seen before down there, too."