Chapter 3: Wherein the Dӓmon finds out about the existence of new minesweeping teams and heads to a tournament. Wherein Sena hears about the Ultimate Puzzle-lock. Wherein Sena is unmasked.
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"Training is over. And so are the fun and games." The Oberhaupt said, chewing on paraffin wax gum. The Oberhaupt let his mouth stretch into a sneer that looked truly frightening in the light of the flickering candles around them. "Prince Charming, it turns out, is a player. And he's asking all of the princesses to dance."
At the confused looks of the people in the group, the Vater Mamori glared at the Oberhaupt. Shogun merely shook his head, while Doboroku motioned with his jug at the Vater to step forward and explain. And so the Vater did, sweeping the room with her eyes, she began in a voice that carried, "The Vatikan has determined that efforts to complete the hunt for the Quelle will be expanded with the formation of new minesweeping teams to share the name of the Schergen des Gottes."
At the murmurs that started to arise from the team, from Kuroki's "What are we? Chopped liver?" to little Daikichi's strongman grunts, the Oberhaupt grabbed at his pistol and shot it into the murky depths of their underground training hall. He glared them all into silence.
Vater took a deep breath and continued, "The current Schergen des Gottes, of the informally-known Dӓmon and Um der Ritter, Unit 40, are thanked for their service and are bid to come to the Abyss for a tournament: the Bombe Entschärfung Turnier. The Vatikan expects the current Schergen des Gottes to become the standard to which new teams shall aspire to."
"Takami, what the hell does this mean?" Sakuraba, a blonde-haired knight, whispered in the rear.
"You're not the only one wondering," came the murmured reply.
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Sena glanced at the Dӓmonen sitting all around him in various states of sleep and boredom. He could not help looking over his shoulder, as well, at the White Knights, at Shin.
He ducked his head when Shin looked his way.
Of course, he wasn't even sure that it was Shin. All the Um der Ritter had donned their golem suits, massive silver metal and white clay armor with jutting pipes in the back that spewed steam and occasionally made the knights look as if they had wings of clouds. Their faces were all obscured by their gas-mask helms with small rectangles for their eyes. And the Um der Ritter were not the only ones who had their faces obscured.
Everyone on the Iron Horse – the fond nickname of Abaddonians for the steam-powered train that went into the deeper underground levels of the Old City – were wearing masks. From beaked plague masks of doctors to the monstrous, elephantine-tubed masks of the workingmen, one actually couldn't see faces. Even the lords and ladies had delicate head contraptions of gears and glass, while the poorest of the poor had their homemade masks of 32 layers of muslin cloth and goggles. Sena, himself, had a rabbit-faced gas mask, with the ruber rabbit ears flopping over his face. Monta had assured him that it was a sufficiently cheap and decent mask and would go well with his own monkey-faced gas mask, and they could be partners, like in the story. Although the Oberhaupt had cackled and had said, What's this idiot saying? Wasn't it the hare and the turtle in the story? And weren't they enemies?
Thinking of the Oberhaupt, however, reminded him of where he was going. Sena looked ahead, where the Vater and the Oberhaupt were seated. Their captain was still easily identifiable, despite his simple black gas mask. He had his portable memory device out, and he was busily typing, the clacking of the blinking eye-keys the only sound that could be heard in their train car. The Vater, herself, in her black frock, wimple, and face-glass dome, was quietly reading.
Bombe Entschärfung Turnier.
Sena shifted uneasily. The Tournament. Or more precisely, the Minesweeping Tournament.
Sena dropped his face onto his hands.
He was much happier doing actual, useful work with the Dӓmon. Like when they were mapping the Old City and looking for the mythic Quelle. Like when they actually found some energy on the way. Not this.
Sena still could not believe it. The Vatikan had formed seven new minesweeping teams out of the other armed forces and asked them to compete! The Vatikan was practically conducting a job interview and an employee evaluation at the same time. After the meeting had broken up, all of the boys had naturally met up in their rooms, three or four or five at a time, and gossiped worse than any of the older churchwomen after Sunday mass.
Was it a slap at the Oberhaupt? He'd never been very cooperative with the Vatikan or with any authority, for that matter. Or had something happened that made the Vatikan uneasy? Like all the rumors of men turning into monsters from their crazy neighbors down south in Spiral City? Or did the Vatikan find more information about the Quelle?
Every day, energy prices were getting higher anyway.
Everybody had a theory. And Sena thought the only one he saw that night who wasn't preoccupied with the news was Shin Seijuro. When Sena passed by their training room, he saw Shin training by himself. And watching Sena again.
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The tournament was to take place in the lower levels of the underground Old City, beneath Abbaddon, levels that had already been cleared by the past and present Schergen des Gottes. See, if Spiral City built upward, Abbaddon built down to the earth's core.
The levels of the Old City went as followed: Sheol, Gehenna, Tartarus, and the Abyss. The Vatikan had already started to rehabilitate Gehenna and Sheol to house the minesweeping team participants, Abaddonian citizens and visitors from other City-States attending the tournament.
The actual minesweeping tournament would take place in the Abyss. Far below the spectators to protect anyone who might get caught in the blast.
The whistle train blew and the conductor's voice came over the scratchy horn in the wall.
"This is the last stop in the Abaddon Line to Old City. Please disembark and take all your belongings with you."
The Dӓmon and Um Der Ritter began to stand up and stretch, gathering their belongings and moving towards the exits. Whispers followed them. As they stepped out of the train, they crowded and jostled against people, voices echoing back and forth in the cavernous space of Gehenna. The ceiling of this level reached so far up that it was shrouded in darkness. The electric torchlights and streetlamps of Gehenna could not pierce the shadows above.
And Gehenna lay before them in all its glory.
An island mass underneath the earth, surrounded by an abyss and connected to the train station by land bridges that led to the northern and southern parts of the district, like veins branching off from an artery.
Dӓmon and Um Der Ritter members became separated as they obtained their luggage and moved to the lobby of the station to obtain a Flyer or to hire a Horseless Carriage. Sena ended up being separated from Monta, as well, but was left with the Vater.
"Ah, we're lost," said the Vater as she craned her neck, looking for their companions.
"That's not a good omen," muttered Sena. "We should just meet everyone on the other side of town, Vater?"
The Vater looked down at Sena, "Sure," she said after a moment, sighing.
She looked around her at the crowd that still had not thinned. "I'm sure the Oberhaupt and the team will get to the inn eventually. We might as well just meet them there. We might also be able to get messages out to them. It'll be hard to get a carriage, though. It's rush hour."
"Why don't we walk?" Sena suggested. "The bridge leading to the other side of town leads there."
The Vater nodded and they began to allow themselves to flow with the river of humanity and Horseless Carriages that went through the thoroughfare leading to the center of the city. At a certain point in the land bridge, when it branched off to the northern and southern parts of Gehenna, the crowds thinned till the Vater and Sena all but owned the bridge as they walked in the middle of the road.
They were both quiet as they walked side-by-side. Sena, strangely feeling comfortable. He stole a look at the Vater who was serenely ambling with her satchel and bag. He should feel worried. The Vater, for all intents and purposes, was the face of the Vatikan placed among Schergen des Gottes to watch them.
However, Sena felt that she, rather than spying on them, was rather an advocate, an angel, if you will, for a bunch of unrepentant devils.
She caught him looking. "Are you nervous?" She asked, smiling, looking all the more kindly because the glass dome did not hide her face, framed in her habit.
Sena's eyebrows climbed, "nervous? About what, Vater?"
She shrugged, "The tournament, of course. Even if the Dӓmon are the true Schergen des Gottes, you'll be up against extremely capable and frightening armed units of the Vatikan's army. And as a Decoder, a lot rests upon your shoulders. You are, shall we say, the key to victory."
Sena shrugged. "I trust my team," he said simply.
The Vater was quiet for a moment. She shook her head. "I should have known. Of course, the team members of Dӓmon are not ordinary. Why else would your Oberhaupt change so much?"
"What do you mean?" Sena curiously asked. "Did you know the Oberhaupt before?"
She smiled. "I knew of him. But anyway, it's good that you are not nervous. I actually think that your team would have the best chance of defeating the Ultimate Puzzle-lock."
Sena privately thought that the way the Vater had changed topics distinctly felt like a door had been slammed in his face. There was a lot behind that door. But he merely nodded, and followed the turn of the conversation. "I've heard of that term bandied about among the older members of Dӓmon, but they never tell me what it is."
"Ah," the Vater launched into a lecturing tone. "The Ultimate Puzzle-lock. It seems almost a story, if not for the historical documents that prove its existence. It is said to be the final barrier, and the most difficult one to the Quelle. It is said that a river of blood and guts has washed the Puzzle-lock. From the many minesweepers that have reached it and failed to unlock it," she finished softly.
Sena shivered. "But that doesn't make sense. We're still mapping the Abyss, so how could minesweepers in the past have reached it."
The Vater smiled down at him, "You don't understand, Sena. The nature of the puzzle-locks is that every one of them could possibly be the Ultimate one. The lock moves, Sena. It moves around in the Abyss."
And that made Sena's insides go cold. "H-how?"
The Vater shrugged, "Well, all the puzzle-locks, you see grids that are different in sizes, from the 9 by 9 to the 21 by 21. But really, if you look closely, each one has a potential to be 21 by 21." And then she began in almost a sing-song voice, "Twenty-one by twenty-one, where no one ever won. Sing me a tune, tell me a rhyme, for the first is always a mine." She looked back down at him. "I'm surprised you never heard that from the children's games they play in the streets."
"I've heard," Sena muttered, "I just never knew it meant the puzzle-locks."
The Vater nodded. "Yes, the 21 by 21, where the first tile you turn is almost always a mine. And hence, the blood. Hence, the guts. A river of blood to wash the puzzle-lock. Isn't that why you never see any 21 on the medical ward rooms or building numbers? It came from that. It's considered unlucky."
Sena swallowed. And they both fell quiet, each lost in their own thoughts.
From the other side of the bridge, a man was also walking in the middle of the road. And he seemed to take up more space than a crowd, merely from the arrogance that radiated in the way he walked, in the way he held his head, and in the predatory way he watched them come his way.
The Vater and Sena tacitly stepped to the side to walk around him as they passed the man, and Sena could have sworn that they had already walked past him, but he was suddenly just there, in front of them. Blocking them. And they stood in his shadow, looking up at a face that was thrown into ominous shadow by the lamplight. Sena could have sworn he could still see the frightening smile, even in the shadowed face.
"Lost, are you?" The man purred. Like a mountain lion with blood still dripping from its teeth and new prey now sighted.
The Vater gave a start. "N-no, sir. In fact, we were just trying to pass by you."
The man peered down at both of them, still grinning. "But you both look lost," and his blatant carnal interest made Sena shudder. He said nothing and merely pulled Vater Mamori to the side and to walk past him again.
And again, Sena didn't even see it happen. The man was simply there again. Sena frowned. Was this man…cursed with ability, as well?
"That's not very nice. I'm trying to help you, little rabbit."
Vater Mamori, ridiculously, pulled Sena behind her. "We don't want to inconvenience you, sir, but we must simply go."
The man loomed over them. "But all I want to do is help you. My name is Agon. Agon Kongo." And he reached out to them.
He was extremely surprised to find that he was clutching at empty air.
Twice more, he tried reaching for them, but for one reason or another, Sena had pulled Mamori precisely in the spot where his hand would not be. He growled, and with a speed that shocked Sena, Agon Kongo had a hand around Sena's throat and was lifting him off the ground.
"You should let him go," a voice behind him said.
Agon swung around, still holding Sena, and there stood Shin Seijuuro. In his white armor.
"Well," Agon chuckled, "the White Knights. You here for the tournament, too?"
"Let him go." Shin repeated, dangerously.
From behind Shin, Sena could see the Oberhaupt grinning like a madman, cackling.
"Agon." Another voice.
When Agon turned, a bald man wearing the same tunic as he was, was waiting for him pointedly.
Agon made a sound of disgust and threw Sena down. "Trash," he muttered.
Sena, shaking like a leaf, stood up with the Vater's help. But as soon as they saw Agon and the bald men go, the Oberhaupt unceremoniously pushed Sena to Shin. He pulled at the Vater and was beginning to ask her questions in a furious whisper that all began with fucking vater.
Poor Sena, he was not much recovered when Shin easily scooped him up in his arms as they walked to their inn. Both of them said nothing.
Sena wished that it had remained that way. For when Shin set him down in his room, he paused on his way out and said, "You will fight with me in the morning."
"What?"
Shin's eyes bored into him, "You will fight with me in the morning, psychic."
And then, he was gone.
Sena collapsed into his bed, knowing now, he would never get any sleep.
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The End of Chapter 3