"Why are you here, Murder Witch?" Yasaka glares at me like she's trying to set me on fire with her gaze alone. Given a Kitsune's connection to fire, I'm kind of worried she'll pull it off.
Still...
What?
And did I hear capital letters on 'Murder Witch'? Is that a thing? If it's a thing, why hasn't anybody told me? It seems like Vivain at least would have gotten around enough, and lived long enough to have seen a 'Murder Witch' before. Especially if Yasaka, who I recall being unable to travel due to her connection to the Kyoto ley node, knows what one is.
Perhaps inappropriately, I felt kind of... disappointed?
I thought I'd invented something new!
I guess rediscovering something isn't bad either, but it's really not the same...
Focus.
"I... came to do you a favor?" I offer not hiding my confusion. The tiger man growls, and Yasaka glares harder, "Sure, one I hope will be returned, but I'm going to do you that favor either way."
The tiger man growls again, and takes a step forward, "You wish to do us a favor? Why would we believe that? Wherever you go you go you leave a trail of blood and bodies behind you. Now you're here."
"Why?" Yasaka demands through gritted teeth.
Something bothers me about that tiger guy. I know I've never seen him before, so I have no idea what the issue is. Something keeps bugging me about him, though. I stare at him for a moment from the safety of the inside of my hood...
They're talking to some asshole who looks like the grim reaper aren't they?
Really need to get used to all of this.
I reach up, push back my hood, and pull down my mask. Yasaka blinks, her hostility seeming to stutter, halting for a moment, Tiger guy looks frustrated.
Really, what the hell is up with him?
I sigh, "I really have no idea what you're talking about."
And now all of them, even Mia, are looking at me like they don't believe a word I'm saying.
Tiger dude snarls, "Are you claiming that in the last three months you have not killed, two trolls, a flock of sirens, a coven's worth of fledgling vampires, five young dragons, a stray devil, and one of the kue jin?"
I blink. Wow, has it only been three months? It feels longer.
"And that you have not gained power from these deaths?" Yasaka growls, straightening in her seat as though making a point, "Everywhere you go you leave corpses, and now you are here." She sneers, an expression that really doesn't look good on her, "The research my advisor has done is quite conclusive. I would not even bother with this conversation, and instead have you executed on principle, if it were not for my agent's instance that we here you out." Tiger man looks even more frustrated at that. I have a sneaking feeling I know what the half hour wait had been about, "Now, which of my people have you come to murder?" Yasaka surges to her feet glaring down at me as she spoke, her voice rising to an almost, but not quite, shout.
I do my best not to react to the death threat. No matter how much my instincts tell me to go on the attack, to remove the threat. I mean come on! Did they have to make me sound like a serial killer?
Although I guess it does sound like I'm escalating...
Which I'm, the more traits I steal, the more powerful targets I can go after to get more traits.
And like I might have come to Japan specifically to kill a lot of yokai...
Which I did, the more Tengu talent I get the better, and they were all going to be executed anyway.
So I guess she's sort of right?
But also completely wrong!
And the ways she's wrong are more important than the ways she's right!
...How did they find out about all of this anyway? I'm pretty low key, and nobody I'd offed was important enough for their deaths to be something that they'd have heard of half way around the world. So how had they found out?
They also hadn't mentioned the Tuatha de Danann Sidhe I'd killed...
So what's different about the Sidhe? What separates that one from the rest of them? Sure, the Tuatha wouldn't advertise that they'd lost a noble to a random mortal. But there wouldn't be anybody to complain about the trolls or Sirens at all.
It's not the location, I was there looking for the trolls after all...
I hadn't gone looking for the Sidhe.
He found me because I smell like Cait, or something. Still have no idea what that's about. Every other thing they'd mentioned I found through the little spirits. Well, except for the dragons, but Pua deals with the little spirits as much, if not more, than I do. They were probably chowing down on spirit popcorn, and just watching the show with the Mo'o.
The little spirits are also the most prolific gossips in the world. Especially about things they like, and they love me. All the Yokai would have to do is ask, and they could probably find some dozen little spirits willing to wax poetic about me for hours.
And I'm the one that basically told Mia who to ask!
That's it. I'm never volunteering any information ever again, no matter how much fun the reveal would be.
"I..." I speak slowly, not really certain how to deal with this. In the show from what I remember Yasaka was really laid back and friendly. Too friendly really, her desire to live in harmony with humans being a large part of why her people are rebelling, "will admit that I'm hoping you'll let me take advantage of something that should be happening anyway."
"And what is that?" Yasaka demands, sitting down and calming slightly. Though I also notice that she doesn't need to force her ears to stay up any more.
"Does it really matter Yasaka-Sama?" Tiger man broke in smoothly, "She has admitted that she came here seeking our deaths, and her past actions, which she has also admitted to, condemn her even more." I'm really beginning to dislike this guy.
And really, what am I missing about him? It's driving me nuts!
Mia rounds on Tiger-man, glaring at him through the protections surrounding him and Yasaka, "Only if you take the most superficial look at her history, and interpret it in the worst possible way!"
"Your strange attachment to this mass murderer only casts greater doubt on your judgement," Tiger-man snarls in the most condescending manner possible.
"My judgement..." Mia nearly shrieks back, black feathers beginning to sprout from her visible skin.
"Look," I cut in quickly, this has the look of an argument that could go on for hours, "I'll be happy to debate ethics with you later, and you two can have whatever pissing contest this is some other time as well. We do have more important things to go over, like what brought me here in the first place?" I glare at Mia for getting distracted, my patience is running very thin at this point. I want to save a kid! Why is this so fucking hard?
"As if we would care about whatever twisted justification..." Tiger guy starts in that condescending, and dismissive tone again.
My patience snaps.
"Shut up." In my frustration a trickle of mana leaks into my voice, causing my words to ring through the air like a giant bell.
Cool, I didn't know I could do that.
I take a few large steps forward, and grab the piece of paper that I left on top of the loose papers that aren't part of a file, the kid's schedule and planned movement routes. Most of the guards have their swords half drawn by the time I slap it against the mana curtain surrounding the dais so Yasaka can see it.
The tiger, moments after I put the paper up against the barrier, darts between me and Yasaka, "How dare you approach Yasaka-Sama! If your little scrap of paper is really so important then I will investigate it and report to her on anything of significance." He declares with offended, and slightly frantic for some reason, superiority.
I glare up at him, "You seem awfully determined to keep Yasaka away from something that concerns the safety of her daughter."
"What?" Came Yasaka's shriek from behind the large tiger, "Parminder, step back."
The tiger, Parminder apparently, snarls at me, but does step back to his position just to the side and behind Yasaka. Though, he does seem to be standing closer to her than he had been when I came in.
Probably feeling protective since I'm so much closer than I'm supposed to be.
Yasaka leans forward in her seat to get a better look at the paper, "What is that?"
"I could be wrong, but it looks like your daughter's daily schedule and planned routes." I say with a shrug.
The fox jerks upright as though she's been slapped, "Where did you get that?" She hisses, nearly vibrating with fury.
"I got it from a couple of guys in a warehouse that Mia ran down for me." I tell her with forced casualness, "What you really ought to be asking is, where did they get it."
"What are you implying?" The anger has fled Yasaka, and she's beginning to look sick.
"Well somebody had to give it to them. I imagine that the list of people who have access to this information in the first place is rather small. That's not even considering everything else they had." I hold up the stack of paper and files, "Like maps of the palace and forest, patrol schedules, profiles on important people in your court, and analysis of the wards and illusions set up here and around the forest."
"I know what that sounds like to me Yasaka-Sama." Mia volunteers.
The tiger man, Parminder, looks grim. Which is the first time since I've met him that he's actually responding correctly to the situation.
And why does he bug me so much?
I've never seen him before! I know nothing about him...
I glance down at the large stack of files in my arms.
I've never seen him before, and know nothing about him.
He doesn't have a file.
Why doesn't he have a file?
He's important and trusted enough to be inside Yasaka's protections when she's meeting somebody sketchy. Which I can admit I am from their point of view. It's why I worked so hard to have evidence before I came anywhere near them.
But Parminder, given his apparent status, is almost guaranteed to be right next to Yasaka whenever they kick off the coup attempt! So why didn't they find everything they could about the guy? I refuse to believe that there's nothing to find.
I look up at the tiger again, just in time to see him nod slightly at somebody behind me. I feel something grab a part of me that I normally don't feel anything with. Which is bizarre because it's also a part of me not attached to the rest of me.
The proverbial penny drops about the same time as somebody screams in agony behind me, and Parminder lunges forward to wrap an arm around Yasaka's neck. He levers her chin up, twists her neck to what looks like a painful angle, and lays a knife across the fox woman's throat.
Parminder doesn't have a file because they don't need one on him. Fucker is in on it! He's part of the god damned coup!
He's also clearly never cut a throat before. His technique is terrible.
###
Every guard in the room takes a half step forward, and reaches for their swords, at almost the same time, they also stop moving after that half step at almost the same time. Really it looked rehearsed. I see this out of the corner of my eye, and via my ears as I keep my eyes fixed on the knife at Yasaka's throat. If I can find the right angle, a bit of telekinesis would at least solve one problem.
Parminder is staring at the far end of the hall looking absolutely furious, "Anant!" He yells with a tinge of panic, and snaps his gaze back to me snarling, "What did you do! What did you do to my son?" He demands almost unintelligible in fury.
I casually turn my head to look at where the scream has trailed off to a faint pained whimpering. At the far end of the hall is another tiger man, this one looks somewhat younger than the one holding his leader hostage, though there's a clear resemblance. What really attracts my attention though, is that the new tiger boy, Anat I guess, has tried to pick up Sclamhaire.
I'm morbidly fascinated to see that the hand he's gripped Sclamhaire's hilt with has frozen solid, and was in the process of turning black. The frost is climbing up his arm at a very quick pace, even his clothing is freezing and coming apart where it touches parts of him already affected. The crystal which serves as Sclamhaire's pommel stone, is usually almost perfectly crystal clear, now though it's blazing with light. That light seems to be making things worse for the thief, as where it lands on the frozen parts of him, those parts start to crack and break.
Thermal shock is a hell of a thing.
A morbid part of me wants to just keep watching him. Just to see what happens. For science.
I have other concerns though.
Science would have to come later.
As I turn back to the hostage situation I run my eyes over the guards. How many of them are still loyal to Yasaka? How many are part of the coup, and just biding their time? I pick out all the ones with odd conically shaped face plates, figuring that they're probably Tengu.
Finally I return my gaze to Parminder, flipping my hood up as I do, and shrug, "I didn't do anything. Sclamhaire doesn't really like being touched though. She's picky like that."
Parminder snarls something at me but I'm not really listening any more. I glance at Mia under the cover of my hood. She has her eyes locked on the situation on the other side of the mana curtain as well. She's produced two wakizashi from somewhere, and is gripping them hard enough for her knuckles to turn white.
She seems ready to act though.
I turn my attention back to the hostage taker just in time for him to scream, "Are you even listening to me?"
I blink at him once, a gesture lost under the hood, "Honestly, no." I tell him cheerfully, and pull up my face mask, "I had more important things on my mind."
Mia glances at me with a frown, Parminder stares at me incredulously, and I'm pretty sure that even Yasaka is glaring at me out of the corner of her eye.
"What could you possibly have to think about that's more important than this?" The tiger demands.
I'll admit that some part of me wants to trade quips with him like the lead in an action movie, 'cause really, what kid never wanted to be the quipping hero that saves the day? But this is reality, not an action movie, so it seems like a really bad idea. Besides, showing is better than telling right?
The bow string in my head pulls back and snaps forward, launching the knife out of Parminder's hand, and burying it up to the hilt in the decorative wooden siding. As soon as I let go of the string, I spin already pulling the string back again much harder, and let it go with the same thought.
Anant, the tiger thief, screams again, his hand and most of his arm shatters as Sclamhaire rips free of his frozen grip. His arm comes apart like it's made of tofu instead of flesh, and he crashes to the ground sobbing.
I don't have to look to target Sclamhaire, and send her flying through the air right to me. Just like I don't have to look to know where to put my hand so that her hilt smacks perfectly into it.
I finish my spin ready to try and cut through the mana curtain surrounding the dais to rescue Yasaka. Only to find that she really doesn't need the help. I come around just in time to see her tails fling the tiger man into the back of the alcove hard. She turns slowly to look at him, a blue flame igniting to hover just over the tip of each of her tails. The thin disguise of her humanity begins to tear away as her face elongates into a muzzle, and gold colored fur begin to sprout from her skin.
Parminder managed to get his voice back and yell, "What are you waiting for, get her!" Before Yasaka is on him and all he does is scream and burn.
The hall though explodes into chaos.
Two thirds of the guards turn on their fellows without warning. The ones that aren't occupied stalling the other guards rush me and Mia. Or rather they rush the dais where their boss is being burned alive by a pissed off mama fox. Mia and I though, are in between them and said boss, so they have to go through us first.
As the one in armor, I step forward to confront the first traitor guards to arrive. It's impossible to tell for certain through the armor, but judging by the large size of him and that instead of a sword he swings a tetsubo, studded club, at me I'm betting on him being an oni. I might have been able to match him strength for strength, but even if I can that just sounds exhausting, and likely to end with me getting early flying lessons.
Instead I bring Sclamhaire forcefully to center guard position, smacking his club off line and letting it crash into the floor next to me, instead of pounding me into the floor like a nail. Taking advantage of his over commitment I roll Sclamhaire over the top of the tetsubo so she's parallel to the floor, then swing up for the gap between chest armor and helmet. Sclamhaire cuts through his gorget without slowing down, or me even noticing aside from the odd sound of cleanly shearing mettle, and drinks down the oni's life as his head comes off.
Stepping around the large falling corpse, and feeling the mana that Sclamhaire has just fed me rushing through my system, I do go strength for strength with my next opponent. The hint of a shell on their back makes me think Kappa. They're shorter than me though, and have a sword, so flowing from my last kill I brought Sclamhaire down on an angle to flatly impact their blocking sword as hard as I can. I get two rushes of mana from that one, the first from cutting through their sword, and the second when Sclamhaire shears through their armor and splits them from shoulder to navel.
I free Sclamhaire from the body by using her to sling the corpse out of the way, so I won't have to fight around it. I find my next opponent, and feel a twinge of anxiety. They have the odd conical face plate that makes me suspect they're a Tengu. The way they hold their sword, the same indescribable comfort with it that I had seen Tengu display at the SCA practice, tells me I'm right.
I swear silently under my breath.
I've gone out of my way to not get into a physical confrontation with any Tengu. I might be stronger than them, but skill beats strength every time, and in that category I'm hilariously outclassed by any of the bird demons. The one coming for me though doesn't really give me any chance to think of a way out of it though.
I block the first two strikes on sheer instinct and luck, they come too fast for me to really track, and as soon as I have the Tengu steps back. Behind them I can see another several headed my way and swear to myself again. I really don't want to fight more than one person at a time, I've never done it before, and every instructor I've ever had told me that it's a losing proposition. Doing so for the first time vs several Tengu sounds like the last mistake I'd ever make.
I check with my ears to see if Mia might be available to save my ass, and find that she's fighting off three of her kin on her own. Her dual short swords making her into a walking blender, the four corpses at her feet speaking to how much better than me she's doing.
Still she clearly had her own problems, I'm on my own.
The next exchange doesn't go nearly as well. I block the first swing to my shoulder again, and even manage to get in a counter swing, just to try and keep them back. Unfortunately they're apparently waiting for that and slip around my swing to bring their sword down on my elbow and knee in rapid succession.
The only reason I'm not testing my troll granted ability to regrow limbs is because my armor takes the blows without trouble. So well in fact that I don't even feel the impact. The traitor guard takes that as a challenge, they lean around my attempt at a counter, and lunge forward faster than I can respond with a thrust aimed for my hood. I manage to lean enough out of the way that their sword scrapes across my face mask, and gets caught in my hood instead of cutting out my eyes.
I nearly take their arm off on my back swing, with their sword stuck in the thin cloth that acts like an inch thick metal plate to anybody not me. They let go of their sword with one hand though causing me to miss, and they recover before I get another swing off. I take another three hits to my leg, ribs, and head in retaliation though, as they dart in and out of my range. Baiting my sword into the wrong position, over and over again as I frantically try to block phantom strikes that they seem able to make me hallucinate at will.
This is pretty much what I was afraid of when I thought of fighting a Tengu. I'm completely outclassed, and unless I do something soon they're going to figure out how to stab me in the eye, and that'll be the end of it.
What do I have to work with?
A stab to my foot, followed by an uppercut that scrapes along my breastplate staggers me back a step.
A scream is my go to, but it would debilitate Mia as much as everybody else.
A sword bounces off the top of my hood, and then it's point scrapes across my gorget, forcing me back again.
Telekinesis? How would that work in melee?
This is what I get for not really practicing with my powers.
Fuck it. I'll make it up as I go, that's worked for me so far.
Mostly.
I swing down at them hard. It's an obvious swing, and no faster than anything else I've done so I expect them to doge with the same ease they've dodged everything else. This time though just as they begin to move, I pluck my mental bow string, and one of their feet slide out from underneath them.
It isn't much, they only stumble for a moment, and most likely would have recovered with the same grace that they've managed everything else in this fight. Before they can though, at the worst possible moment really, Sclamhaire hits their sword. Her light eating blade cuts the well made katana in half, in a manner that I believe the Mythbusters proved is impossible, then goes on to split them in half from shoulder to hip.
The next guard about to arrive is also a Tengu, and I really don't feel like getting used as a pinata again. So I pull the string way back, and launch the oncoming traitor guard into the two coming right behind them, hard enough to send them flying clear across the hall and through one of the decorative wooden pillars.
At least I hope they're decorative.
That gets me some breathing room, so I take the opportunity to take a look around. The battle between the traitor and loyal guards... is anybody's guess. I have no way to tell the difference between those trying to protect Yasaka, and those trying to capture her, so no way to tell who's winning.
Mia is playing with her three... though, I think that they might be a different three than the ones she was fighting the last time I looked. A plucked mental string rips one of their swords out of their hands, something that Mia wastes no time in capitalizing on. Which somehow allows her to take out two of them at almost the same time.
Would love to know how she did that.
Maybe if I ask really nicely?
Parminder is a large and vaguely tiger man shaped chunk of carbon, sitting on the floor where Yasaka had flung him. As for the lady fox herself, she's directing a column of blue flame as big around as a beach ball into the mana curtain. A curtain which apparently does as much to keep her in, as us out.
I was wondering why she hadn't joined us yet.
I take a couple of steps, and swing Sclamhaire down on the mana curtain, after making sure I won't get hit by fox fire if this works. Sclamhaire slides into the barrier without resistance, sucking down mana as long as she's in contact with the curtain. The barrier doesn't break though. Weakened certainly, but unfortunately doesn't shatter. I'd just stick Sclamhaire through it and wait, but there are more traitor guards on the way and I really can't lose my weapon like that.
I'm trying to figure out what to do next, when a bit of movement catches my eye. I look down to find the papers and files I dropped when all of this kicked off. One paper lay face down separate from the rest because of how I'd been holding it up against the curtain to show Yasaka...
That's the kid's schedule.
The kid that's the actual point of all of this.
If Parminder had set off things early here, might they have set off the other parts of the coup as well? At least the parts they could do with no warning?
Like kidnapping a twelve year old girl that would be hustled off anyway as soon as there's trouble?
Trouble like what's happening right now?
I glance down the throne room, and grimace. The fighting is taking up the majority of the hall, and there's no way I'll be able to get down it in a hurry, especially not since I'll be embroiled in the fighting again in a moment or two.
I can fix that though.
"Mia!" I shout over the din of mass battle, "They're going after the kid! I'm gonna stop them. Cover your ears!"
Mia pales, I don't know whether it's from the idea that Kunou is likely being kidnapped as we speak, or at being subjected to my scream.
... Though I don't think Mia's ever been in position to see what I can do with my voice, so it's probably the latter one. She covered her ears anyway. A plucked mental string had the palace map with Kunou's travel, evacuation routes, and schedule on it in my hand. Facing forward I inhale deeply, and scream.
I try to keep most of the mana pointed forward to try and lessen the impact on Mia.
Not sure how well that works though.
All the lights blow out plunging the room into darkness. All the guards in the room clutch their ears and doubled over. Several fall over and, from the sound and I can smell, at least one person throws up. I don't keep it up long enough for the wooden pillars to start splintering, and I don't stick around to watch the aftermath of the first use of my voice directly on people.
I take off at my best sprint, shouldering shaky people out of my way as I go. One person, something large with the horns of a bull, seems to have either shaken off my scream faster than the rest, or been affected less in the first place. They step into my way like a closing gate, and set themselves to stop me.
I don't slow down, or even break stride. Instead, I duck slightly, and slam my forearm between his legs as hard as I can. I actually lift him off the ground, and neatly toss him over my head to get him out of my way.
With that, I have a straight clear shot to the doors. A quick pluck of telekinesis snaps my athame into my hand, I hop over the one armed groaning tiger boy, and then I'm at the doors. I kick them as hard as I can and nearly take one off its hinges, splintering both around the latch.
Darting through them I'm into the hallways with working lights, so I look down at the map, trusting my ears to navigate me while my eyes are busy.
Now, if I was a fox kit in the midst of getting kidnapped, where would I be?