Kamaitachi Chronicles
By: Aviantei
Eighteen
The final afternoon of my vacation in Central found me stretched out on a couch in the library nearest to my lodgings. While I spent most of my time rifling through alchemical texts for practical use, I did enjoy a good piece of fiction now and then, too. It would have been wholly possible for me to just quickly flip through the book and peruse it mentally later, but I also had a soft spot for handling paper and ink in my hands, so I was giving myself the opportunity to do just that.
The next morning I'd be on a train headed back to East City, and the following day I was expected to report back to the office. Taking a little breather seemed like the least I could do for myself after accomplishing the self-imposed mission I'd given myself for the trip.
I'm kinda impressed at how well put together this thriller is. There's not a super lot of battle scenes, but each one feels realistic. Realizing that I was starting to compare pleasure reading to my training with Rito, I sat the book down on my lap. Okay, I definitely need to pick up a hobby again. If I spend all my time thinking about work, I'm going to lose it.
Enjoying the bit of sun coming in from the windows, I stretched back and looked over the area around me. The place wasn't necessarily packed, but there were plenty of people around, some in chairs like mine, others browsing the stacks, all the way from toddlers in the arms of their parents to an middle-aged well-dressed woman carrying a stack of books down the stairs to even an elderly couple flipping through a large print volume together while sitting side by side. Though no one was making a racket, the place managed to have a wholly different atmosphere than any of the research libraries I'd tucked myself into for work.
Idly people watching, I caught sight of a clock on the wall, silently ticking away. Though there was still a few hours left, I did have plans to meet up with the Rosomaks for dinner one more time—and the hardcover in my lap wasn't going to finish itself. Rolling my neck a few times to ease the tension building up in my muscles, I flipped the book right side up to resume the chapter—
Only for me not to be able to.
Only for my peaceful vacation to come to a close.
Only for the sound of an explosion to erupt deafeningly close.
Instinct hurled me onto the ground and under the closest table in moments, though I almost stumbled with how much my ears were ringing. Remembering Rito's lectures, I focused on taking even breaths. I couldn't smell anything like smoke, but I was just starting to hear the sound of people panicking as another deafening boom went off, and in my sliver of observation space, I could see several books tumble off their shelves and to the floor. Any kids in the place were crying without reservation, and I heard a voice that sounded a lot like the librarian that had greeted me when I entered. Had to give them props for staying calm enough to start to lead an evacuation. Since they had to know the place better than I did, I shuffled out from beneath my temporary shield, keeping my hand near my pocket just in case. I couldn't do much to stop a bomb with my scythe, but the assholes setting them off on the other hand…
I could do some damage to a human being if necessary.
Still—an increase in petty crimes and now bombings? What the hell's going on here anyways? My mind racing with thoughts and my situational awareness pushed to the extreme, scanned over the library to make sure there wasn't anyone who was having troubles with evacuating. They all seemed fine, but I hung near the back of the group, just in case. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd actually like to see Major Armstrong right now. Come to think of it, why would you even set off bombs near a public library? We're not even near any major military facilities so, what would even be the motive—?
I didn't suddenly arrive at the answer to that question, nor did I have the opportunity to act against any assailant that might have decided to come in. Because whoever had planned the attack knew exactly what they were doing, and no one came inside—not yet. But they did release some sort of gas into the air that, by the time I noticed something smelled off and covered my mouth, it was too late.
Embarrassing as it was to admit, I was one of the first to fall and lose consciousness.
I had never been a particularly easy or early riser, but I had enough of a routine going that, so long as I got enough rest, waking up was a matter of habit. All the travel had likely helped on that front, seeing as most hotels and inns wanted you out by a certain time, plus living in the military dorms had me around a bunch of other people with the same schedule and life patterns. Also, considering that I was underage and had no interest in drinking even if I wasn't, I'd never had the struggle of waking up with a hangover.
Thus, waking up with a pounding headache obliterating the inside of my skull wasn't something I experienced often at all.
"Fucking hell…" I muttered, trying to rub at my temples. Which I couldn't do thanks to the rope restraints binding them. With the memories of what had happened before I'd knocked out, it didn't take a lot of brainpower to tell that whoever had set off the bombs had taken me and—judging by the sounds of groans and curses around me—others from the library hostage. Of course I get taken hostage right at the end of my vacation. Goddamn, I hope Rito doesn't hear about this. Just the memory of her boisterous laughter was enough to make my headache worse.
Okay. Enough distraction. Crisis management. Pay attention.
Sucking in a breath, I did one initial assessment of the space for any immediate danger—none, aside from the obvious fact that we'd been knocked out and contained—then a slower look at things once I confirmed we'd be fine long enough for me to do so. There were roughly a dozen of us here, all faces I recognized from being close to me in the evacuation line at the library. Our mystery bomb squad hadn't seemed to have taken all of the people there, as I noticed a couple of children absent along with the elderly couple that had been sitting near me. Of course, there were a couple of other options, like maybe they'd chosen not to hold us all in one place for extra leverage.
Or they also could have already executed a couple of hostages as leverage.
Don't worry about that. You can't protect anyone you don't know about. Your job is to determine what's going on in this room first, and then work from there.
Including myself a more accurate number of us was eleven, and we all had our wrists bound by the same ropes. A few people were still unconscious from the gas, with the rest waking up with groans that indicated their skulls were splitting at least as half as bad as mine was, but there weren't any visible serious injuries or blood. Whoever had done this was out of their mind enough to think setting off bombs in the country's capital and taking hostages was a great way to solve whatever their issues were, but they had enough calculation to understand that initially unharmed prisoners were better in negotiation.
Since no one likely had anything worse than scrapes, a few bruises, and splitting migraines, none of that was the issue. The real problem was the room we were in. It was about half the size of Rosomak's materials storage room (which was, to say, a normal sized research room), but without any shelves, there was enough space to cram us all in and still have some spare room when we were all spread out on the floor.
As expected of a place for holding hostages, there weren't any windows. The problem was that there wasn't a door, either. The fact seemed to be dawning on a few of my fellow hostages, if their growing distressed murmurs were any indication. Adjusting so I could use the wall behind me as support, I pulled myself to my feet getting a decent vantage of the corners of the room. It didn't take a genius to find the rectangular marks along the baseboards.
Alchemy sealed this room, so that means alchemy can get us out. However, I had absolutely no idea where we were, so even if I could perform a transmutation, there was a strong chance that all I'd end up doing was giving away my skills to the enemy waiting on the other side of the sealed off wall.
Of course, that was assuming I could even pull off alchemy right now. No matter how much knowledge of the theory you stuffed into your brain, if there wasn't a way to draw a circle, you couldn't pull off a transmutation. What you drew it with didn't matter too much (I'd once used some leaking oil in someone's tractor to repair the very leak because I'd forgotten to restock on chalk), and creativity could go a long way, but our delightful captors hadn't left a thing in the room besides us.
Given that my arms were tied up, I couldn't exactly pat myself down, but I knew the weight well enough to tell my scythe capsule was still in my pocket. The piece of chalk that I carried out of habit seemed to have snapped in half in my back pocket, but that didn't make it any less usable. Even my valuables, like my wallet and my State Alchemist's pocket watch were still on me, which meant that we weren't meant to make a quick buck.
Either that or the people behind this have other ideas for how they can use us to make money.
No, don't think about that. Because they didn't clear your pockets out, you're still armed. Hawkeye and Rito have been training you. It may not have been the plan, but you're still a soldier and an alchemist, Ivrena Caiman. So be thou for the people and figure out a way to get everyone out of here safely.
Determining my resolve, I let myself focus on the rest of the hostages. Many more had started to wake up during my assessment of the room, and panic was quickly multiplying as they realized the situation they were in and that our prison didn't have an easily accessible escape option. Whether it was planned or not, leaving us in such a hopeless looking situation was likely to cause everyone's minds to turn to dread, and that would kick down how rationally we could approach the situation.
Or that would be true at least in any group of people that didn't have someone like me in it.
"Everyone, please listen," I said, being sure to keep my voice stern and even, but not too loud to startle those with already frayed nerves. "I know that this situation looks bad, but you are going to be okay. I'm a State Alchemist and a member of the military. I'm going to do my best to protect you, but I'll need everyone's cooperation to make that happen."
There were few beats of stunned silence before everyone registered what I had just said. A couple of women to the side exchanged looks, as if not believing what they'd heard, and there were even a few mutters of the "Is she really an alchemist?" and "She looks too young to be in the military" variety floating around. Given that I'd dressed casually so I wouldn't be bothered with work matters for my vacation and was a teenage girl, I couldn't really blame them, but my pride still took a messy dent from the reaction, right there along with my temper.
I sucked in a breath to form a scathing retort—which was not what you were supposed to do in a situation like this, but good luck getting me to care—but someone else got to responding first. "You must be the young alchemist I heard about from King," said a woman with green eyes and her brown hair—definitely a few shades lighter than mine-swept back into a ponytail. Though subtle parts of her well put together attire, the pearls around her neck and in her earlobes served as an indicator of some form of wealth. "You should have your pocket watch, right, dear? That should serve as plenty proof."
Feeling a bit foolish for not having thought of the solution after having gone through the trouble of confirming I had all my belongings on me, I nodded. "Any chance that someone wants to pull the thing out of my left pocket for me?" The same woman was close by, and I squatted close to her back so that she could reach. It took a couple of false starts, but soon she'd tugged on the chain and the watch bounced against my leg as I stood back up, which made most of the mutterings die down. "Okay, any more objections to my credibility? No? Great. Anyways, I'm Major Ivy Caiman, sucks that we met this way, but we're gonna have to work to get out of here alright. Understood?"
"Ma'am!" a woman sitting close to the alchemy marks on the wall said, easily startling the people next to her. With how her posture went rigid, I got the impression that she would have saluted if it weren't for her hands tied behind her back. She had dark hair that was cropped very short, and a mole underneath one of her blue eyes. Even in civilian clothes, it was obvious she was a soldier. "Sorry," she said to the others, then lowered her voice. "I'm Sergeant Maria Ross; I've heard about you from Major Armstrong. I have experience working with the MPs in Central. Please allow me to help."
Inside, I wasn't sure how to feel about being referred to as a superior (just because I technically outranked a lot of people didn't mean I had the experience to back it up), but I didn't let it show on my face. "Glad to have you on board, Sergeant. Okay, before we plan anything else, I need someone to snag the capsule out of my right pocket." The helpful woman in pearls started to do just that, and I looked out at the expectant faces now watching me.
"Okay, but then what?" a young man sitting near the front asked, sounding half pumped up to go and half cautious.
"Like I told you, I'm an alchemist, right?" Accepting my scythe capsule, I smacked it between my tied together palms and let the light from the transmutation cause amazement only matched by the awe that followed as I produced my now unbound hands and my scythe modified into the shape of a clunky knife. Thinking of how Mustang bristled with near arrogance at every move, I smirked. "Next up is figuring out the best way to use all my fun little tricks to our advantage."
[Author's Notes]
I find that I don't have much to say notes wise on these chapters, so let's just get to reader acknowledgements, yeah?
Thanks to Golgothax and The Moonwatcher for the fav and follows! I much appreciate it.
I also just wanted to drop Maria Ross in here, because she's cool.
I've been slowly poking at this fic alongside a few others in the background so the next chapter should be out by the end of the month. Please look forward to it!
-Avi
[10.01.2022]
