Third Ammo: Lock and Load!
"So, this is where they're all staying, is it?"
"Yeeeep. Academy of Magic, right there, Mr. Snake."
"Now, explain to me. Why did you show me this place?" the Snake of the Festival asked.
"You wanted to know where to find them," the girl with mismatched eyes sitting next to him answered. "Now you know where they are. You still can't go and attack them. Or meet them. Or do anything to them. Really it might just be better if you forget they stay here so you don't run into the temptation of doing anything."
"And why would that be?" the Snake asks.
*Thwip*
"Did you just flick me?" the Snake asks, a hand to his forehead.
"Dummy," the girl tells him with a frown. "I'm your carrier, not your brain, I shouldn't have to think for you. You're still not a fixed existence. You're barely strong enough to manifest properly, and don't remind me about that thing at Alhambra castle, you're lucky you still exist after that! Regardless, considering where you are now, you wouldn't even be able to set up a seal, which means whatever you plan on doing when you meet them won't be private. When things go badly for you or them, I'm not going to pretend to know the outcome, you'll have a whole academy's worth of mages breathing down your neck! Sometimes I wonder how you managed to accomplish anything when you go and pull things like that."
"Forgive me, I'm not used to this kind of partnership," the Snake apologizes.
"What, never worked with a little girl before?" the girl taunts.
"I usually prefer to work with people I know can be trusted to do what's required," the Snake replies.
"Ah, you don't wanna trust little old me?" the girl taunts again. "What's not to trust?"
"I like to at least know the names of the people who hold my life in their hands," the Snake replies.
"Geez. People are so suspicious these days," the girl complains. "Isn't it supposed to be all, 'Oh! Thank you for saving my life, how can I repay you since I'm sure you had no other reason for possibly doing such a kind thing since people just that saintly?' Boggles the mind."
"Indeed," the Snake replies dryly. "Now then. I suppose I simply go back to waiting for you to allow me to do anything."
"Not my fault you're so bad at absorbing energy," the girl pouts.
"And it isn't my fault you're so terrible at giving energy," the Snake replies.
"Jerk. No one can just accept anything anymore. Whatever. It's not my fault nobody seems to grasp the mechanics around their own existence. Not that I'm necessarily innocent of something like that myself. By the way, it's Louise."
"Hmm?"
"My name. It's Louise."
"Now why does that sound familiar?" the Snake asks.
"Shut up. ... Okay, look. I'll cut you a deal," Louise says. "I know someone who might be able to help and owes me a favor or two. I'll call her and see if she can set something up for you. Just give me a little bit of time to call in that favor."
"I look forward to it," the Snake says, a grin stretching across his face. "Please don't keep me waiting."
"Like I said, shouldn't take to long," Louise says. "She's not too hard to contact. Once she's ready you can go do whatever you want to them."
"I intend to."
*Saito POV*
It's been a little bit since we summoned up all the new helpers, all of whom adapted to the academy a lot faster then I might have thought they would. If you're wondering how we explained all these people showing up out of nowhere and hanging around me, Shana and the Louises... we didn't. Nobody asked or even batted an eye. If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say they were expecting something like this to happen. I asked Kirche about it, since it was starting to drive me mad.
"Well, it's not like it's the first time it's happened. You showed up, didn't you?"
She did state a perfectly valid point. 'Yeah, but when me and Louise showed up we at least came up with an excuse.' ...Maybe we didn't need to?
Not really wanting to believe that the voice in my head actually might have a point, I decided to bring this up with some of the people it concerns, my familiars.
"I don't know, it sounds like she has a pretty good point," Fuka replied when I raised the point as the three of us sat at a table in the courtyard of the academy.
"People adapt to strange situations rather quickly. You could have just said you were a friend of Louise," Eve added before sticking her nose back in her book.
So yeah. The voice in my head was right for once. Once?! I've been right plenty of times before! 'Like?' ... Um... There was... 'One point to me.'
"Got another book Eve?" She nods. "What's this one?"
"Tabitha leant it to me. It's called 'The Hero of Ivaldi,'" Eve tells me. "She said it's a favorite of hers."
I bite my tongue to keep from making a crack about how she's not calling Tabitha "sensei" or anything of the like. Considering how quickly the two became friends, and how good a job Tabitha did teaching Eve to read, it's actually gotten a little weird not seeing the two together.
"Sounds like a fairy tale," Fuka says as she leans back in her chair and props her legs up on the table. "What happens in it?"
"Perhaps you could read it yourself?" Eve suggests.
"Why bother?" Fuka asks. "It won't matter once the dream's over, and having to learn an entirely new language seems like it'd take way too long. How'd you even manage it so quickly?"
"Tabitha thought it might have had to do with the gandalfar runes and how they interact with the familiar's mind and how it processes information," Eve says without ever looking away from her book. "I wouldn't know the exact details, since I haven't read enough about the void familiars."
"It doesn't help that we technically don't know anything about them, other then the obvious," I say.
"That sucks," Fuka says. "But if you and that other Louise know a whole lot more about that stuff, why don't you just go to someone with that? Or write your own book or something?"
"And you expect anyone to believe us?" I ask.
"Yeah, I guess," Fuka says with a nod. "I'm still not sure I believe you, but I'm willing to let it go. I've seen weird stuff before."
"So have I," Eve agrees. "Alternate timelines and time travel don't seem that impossible."
"I still have a hard time believing it, and I almost qualify as living proof," I remark.
"I don't think, 'almost' would be the proper word there."
"Hmm? Oh. Hey Kinji," I greet. "Where's Shana and Aria?"
*BOOOOM*
"Having a friendly little chat," he replies.
"That's friendly?" Eve asks.
"Considering they claim it's genuine training and not just a fight over food, yeah, I'd say it's friendly," Kinji says with a nod.
*BOOOOOOOM*
"Of course I say that, but that doesn't make it true."
"Just like a lot of things to come out of your mouth," I remark.
"I wouldn't say a lot of things," Kinji defends. "Either way, there is something I've been meaning to ask you."
"What would that be?"
"Weren't we supposed to be saving the world?" he asks. "The angel said something about that, then about getting us weapons before disappearing. Shouldn't she be back by now?"
"I forgot about that," Fuka admits. "She said she'd be back in around a week, right? Eve, has it been a week since we arrived here? You have a better sense of the passage of time then I do."
"It's been around 8 days," Eve says. "I'm not the person to ask if you want anything more specific then that."
"So shouldn't she have arrived by now?" Kinji says.
"We don't know what she's doing," I say. "She could be on her way here this very second, or she could be avoiding some kind of inter-dimensional high security police force. You just never know when it comes to things you didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago."
"I guess. Still seems a bit weird to me," Kinji says. "She's talking about stopping a world-ending threat, but can't even adhere to her own schedule?"
Thanks for talking about me, now please move!
"Speak of the devil," Kinji says before back up.
Me, Fuka and Even also stand up and take a few steps back. The table unfortunately neglects to act on Ariana's warning and is torn apart when a portal of sorts opens up on it. It's sacrifice shall not be in vain. Ariana comes tumbling end over end out of the portal. She pops up and turns towards the portal.
"Okay, close! Close now!"
The portal starts to shrink, but not before a light of some sort shoots right through her shoulder.
"D-dang," she says as she puts a hand to the wound. "Is there anything a few levels above 'a close shave?' I hope there is, it would be a much better fit for that situation."
There's a little glow, and the wound's gone. Judging by the sheer amount of blood and holes in her dress, it doesn't look like that was the only wound she had to heal. Did you just decide you wanted to be swiss cheese and then realized being full of holes is a horrible idea?
"Ha ha, laugh it up I'm... just gonna... take a nap."
With that, she collapses face first onto the floor. Or she would have, if Eve didn't do that morph thing, turning her hair into a hand to catch Ariana with.
"Good job Eve," I tell her.
"Thank you. Is Ariana okay? It doesn't look like she has any injuries."
"She's probably just tired from having to constantly heal herself," Fuka suggests. "She doesn't look like she's been in the best of health, after all."
"Didn't that use to be a white dress?" Kinji asks.
"Hence, 'constantly healing herself,'" I point out. "Let's get her somewhere to rest and round up everyone."
*Scene Break*
And that's how we all wound up in Louise's room, waiting for Ariana to wake up. Since we couldn't really do anything about someone needed to sleep, we just bounced ideas off of each other about what she was doing that led to getting all those holes and blood and stuff everywhere.
"That's stupid," Nagi said after Taiga did her speculating. "Why would police be after a supernatural being?"
"Well it's possible she took some things from a police storage, they saw and went after the thief." Taiga defends.
"But how could they see her? She could have just gotten something and warped right back out!" Nagi counters.
"And here my problem with that was that we'd be getting completely normal human-grade weaponry to fight a world-ending force," Kinji tells them.
"I was concerned with the fact that we still don't know what we're fighting," Ryuji adds.
"Maybe when she wakes up we can ask her," Hayate says.
"Just spitballing here, but shouldn't we have maybe done something about the blood drenched dress?" Fuka asks. "Like, clean it or something?"
...
"So, how wants to help Fuka out with that, or rather, help Ariana out of that?" I ask, prompting another silence.
"Maybe you should have thought about that one," Eve suggests.
"Thought about what one?"
"You recovered fast," Shana says to Ariana as she wakes up.
"I just needed a quick power nap," she says with a stretch. "Geez. They do not go gentle. I don't think I need to tell you guys how close I came to dying."
"What happened anyway?" Aria asks.
"I just happened to run into a few old colleagues," Ariana says as she gets out of the bed. "Turns out I'm still wanted. It happened, what, 30, maybe even 40 years ago? I thought most of them would have forgotten by now. Still shoot on sight. It's honestly surprising they still recognize me. I even changed my name like, three times."
"..."
Our group looks at each other, and the message "Okay, who's going to ask?" is conveyed among us. A silent battle of wills is held. Who will break first? Who is willing to ask about that unfortunate past event?
"Feel like explaining a bit more about that one?" Ryuji is the first one to break. Thank you Ryuji.
"Nope!" Ariana says with a giant smile. With that the topic drops. "Right! Okay, it took a bit more work, and a few more near death experiences then I anticipated, but I think I got everything we needed."
"Right. Now where is it?" Kinji asks.
"... Huh?" Ariana asks.
"The stuff you were gone for a week trying to get. Where is it?"
"Um..." Ariana pulls out her phone and starts cycling through it. "Got 'em here somewhere. Gimme a minute."
*Five minutes later*
"Here? No, those are my contacts. God, how many numbers does Sophia even have? Sorry, give me a minute. This shouldn't take that long. I know how to use a phone."
*Five more minutes later*
"No, that's pong. That's Tetris. That's Picross. Oh, this whole page is games. I don't remember downloading these many games. Nat must have been on my phone again."
"Nat?" Louise 1 asks.
"My best friend. She uses my phone for the weirdest things at times. Knowing that, it might make things a bit more difficult. Don't worry, shouldn't be that hard. They have their own folder, so I just need to find that."
*Five more minutes... again*
"I think I hit the videos section of my phone," Ariana says. "Weird. I don't remember this taking up so much space. What's-"
"OH! OH YES! OH-"
*deleted*
"..."
"Hehe," Ariana gives an awkward smile to compliment her red-as-a-tomato face. "That... That was... Stupid Nat. Ehem."
"Saito?"
"Yes, Eve?"
"Why is she so embarrassed?" Eve asks. "Was that an embarrassing video?"
"Yes. Conversation over."
Eve still seems curious. Too bad, I'm not continuing the train of discussion that involves what that video was.
Isn't Ariana technically, like, nine? 'Once you do the converting, yeah.' ... Conversation over. 'Agreed.'
"A-aha! Here it all is!" Ariana says, her face still a little red. "Okay. Saito, Louise, other Louise, Shana, you don't get anything since you're already set up with stuff, and I figured that you're quite fine with what you've got."
"I won't argue that," I say.
"Wait, am I the other Louise?" Louise asks the other Louise.
"I think so, I'm older then you so shouldn't I come first?" Louise answers.
"But this is my world, so shouldn't that make you the other Louise?"
"Eve? Sorry, but you don't get anything either, since you kind of already have everything you need," Ariana tells the little girl.
"That's okay," Eve assures her. "I don't really know what I would want anyway."
"Okay, who wants to go first?" Ariana asks.
"Me!" Nagi says enthusiastically. "I want to go first!"
"Alright, one nice and sturdy weapon for the little princess," Ariana says. She punches in a few numbers on her phone, and a low glow appears around the phone. The glow brightens and brightens until it takes a shape a little above the phone. A weirdly familiar shape. Ariana grabs the light, and it disappears, the end result left in it's place.
"Here we go! One M60, ready for action," Ariana says as she hands Nagi the machine gun. "Don't worry about ammo, it's been magically modified to replace itself automatically. You can hold that trigger down for days and never run out!"
"Woah! Awesome!" Nagi says as she swings the gun around as if it were a toy.
"M-Milady, perhaps it would be better if you not point that at us," Hayate tries to calm down the far too enthusiastic little blonde.
"No, it's fine, the safety's on," Nagi says. "I would know. I know things about weapons."
"She's enjoying all of this far too much," Hayate asides.
"Who's idea was this?" Kinji wonders. "The gun's practically as big as her. How are you even lifting it?"
"Magic!" Nagi says, waving the gun around as if it were a Nerf gun. That is a real gun, right? 'Let's not find out. I like this room free of bullet holes.' Yeah point taken. I'm just really curious.
"Milady, please put the gun away," Hayate asks. "We can't upstage everyone else, now can we?"
"Hmmm. Yeah, good point," Nagi nods her head. "Right. Where do I put it?"
"Who's next?" Ariana asks. "Hayate? You want to go, since Nagi did?"
"Do it!" Nagi says.
"If milady says so, I suppose I don't have much a choice," Hayate replies.
"Awesome, now..." Ariana starts clicking through her phone. "You'd think I'd have these weapons organized, but nope. They're just all over the place. Hmmm. Here we go!"
More buttons are pressed, more light, and the next weapon pops up. Ariana grabs it by the handle and hands it to Hayate.
"A sword?" He asks as he takes the new weapon.
"An indestructible sword!" Ariana confirms. "It might also do some other things, I don't know. I didn't have much time to actually check out the weapons, I just had to grab them and get out."
"Shoot on sight, right?" Ryuji says.
"Yep! As such, please don't worry if you find out the weaponry does some other cool thing that I didn't know about."
"Okay, does that worry anyone else?" Ryuji asks. "We're fighting a force that we have no idea what it's capable of, using weaponry that we really don't know how it works."
"Shouldn't you know how it works though?" Ariana asks. "Magic runes and all that stuff?"
"It's very easy to simply ignore anything the runes tell you," I explain. "It's almost like a cross between instinct, and a voice whispering in your head. You don't know how to use the weapon, but you 'know' how to use it. Lemme show you. Nagi?"
"Yes Saito?"
"What can you tell me about your new gun?"
"Oh! Well... It shoot bullets... and it's kind of heavy," Nagi says as she picks it up, causing her runes to shine. "How do I learn more about it?"
"It's not an automatic thing," I say, finishing up my point.
"That sucks," Ariana says with a pout. "That really sucks! I thought it was all, 'touch a weapon, become an encyclopedia.' That's really disappointingly awful. Well... Oh well. Continue with the plan!"
"What was the plan?" Taiga asks.
"I believe it was, get weapons, then wait to find out what we're supposed to do," Shana replies.
"Sounds about right," Aria says.
"Don't talk to me."
"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Taiga."
"Then why was that reply given to me?"
"They're not going to fight again, are they?" Eve asks.
"Probably not," Fuka assures her. "Let's shoo them out just in case."
And that's how we locked Shana and Aria out of the room. I don't think they even noticed. As much as I like the two, I'm happy they're not here with us right now. Well, as much as we like Shana so much more then Aria. Fixed it for ya. 'Your perverse lust for Shana is your own, leave me out of it.' It totally concerns you! I'm you, you're me, so we're exactly the same! That means that everything I think, you agree with, even if you won't admit it! As such, you totally think Shana is hot and wanna make out with her! 'And cheat on my wife?' Hell, the Louises can join in! 'You're not providing much evidence for your earlier claim.'
"Okay, so that's them taken care of, who's next?" Ariana asks. "Actually, since we kicked her out, let's at least get Aria and Kinji's weapons out so we don't forget. Okay, a few buttons here, and there we go!" Two pairs of guns pop out of the phone this time. Ariana hands the four firearms to Kinji.
"These are our guns," he notes.
"Yep! Exactly!" Ariana says. "We even made sure your beretta can still swap between normal and 3 round burst. The only differences between the old guns and the new ones is that the new ones are like Nagi's, with the infinite ammo. Ammo would be pretty hard to find for your's and Nagi's guns, after all, so it's better to not have to worry about it, right?"
"Sounds good enough," Kinji agrees.
"Make sure to give Aria her guns, okay? And make sure not to confuse the two. It shouldn't be that hard. Just keep firing it. If it runs out, it's yours, otherwise, it's a gun I really need to return once we're done with this."
"Then why are you giving it to us?" I can practically hear Kinji thinking. Unfortunately, we won't be getting answers to that one. We still have 3 people who need their new equipment. Next up? The couple with zero weapons experiences. More buttons, more beams of light, and two new items popped up, a pair of swords, one that looked like a Katana, and another that look like a sharpened chunk of metal with a hilt. Hey, Saito, you're not sheltered enough that you don't know FFVII, right? 'Of course I know that one.' Awesome. That new sword. Bigger or smaller then Cloud's Buster Blade? '... Bigger. Definitely.' Shit man. That's a giant-ass sword. 'Again, it's more of a giant chunk of metal that's been stuck on the end of a hilt.
"Okay, Tagia gets the nodachi, and Ryuji gets... whatever the heck this thing is," Ariana says as she passes the two out to their respective owners.
"And what are we supposed to do with these?" Ryuji asks.
"Aren't swords kind of self explanatory?" Ariana asks.
"It's not so much a sword, as much as it is a chunk of metal on a stick," I finally vocalize.
"As accurate a statement as there ever was," Hayate agrees.
"Well, maybe it's a bit on the ostentatious side, but it was the easiest thing for me to get my hands on," Ariana defends. "Weapons are hard to get. So, Fuka? Ready?
"It's about time. So what do you got for me?" Fuka asks.
*Ding* Double bladed war axe, fresh off the phone! Well, it's kind of an axe. I mean, each blade is probably as big as Fuka is. What is with these comically oversized weapons?
"Awesome! Just like I'm used to!" Fuka says enthusiastically, as she swings the axe around the room. She's clearly very experienced, though I shudder to think about what could lead to her gaining that much experience.
"You're used to using things that large?" Louise 1 asks.
"Seems a bit impractical, wouldn't you think?" Louise 2 adds.
"Only when you haven't mastered it," Fuka says. "When you're as experienced as I am with weapons like this, impracticality isn't a problem at all!"
But they took out the weapons mastery system in Disgaea 4! 'What?' Metahumor, you wouldn't understand. 'Is that what you call it?'
"Alright, we're all set!" Ariana says with effort.
"Set for what, dare I ask?" Taiga asks. "You still haven't told us what we're fighting, and it's starting to really bother me."
"Um... Right, you see..." Ariana hesitates. They have a right to know, don't they? I know but... "Look. I'll tell you. Just, bear with me, it's a little tough to explain. You see..."
Then there was grey. Ariana stopped dead in her tracks. Not because she noticed the grey, it seems as if she had been frozen in time. Hmm.
"What just happened?" Ryuji asks.
"One sec," I move to the door and open it up, just to see Shana and Aria, presumably with the same idea.
"Shana, this your thing?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "No. This certainly isn't a seal. It feels completely different."
"Wait, what happened?" Nagi asks.
"Time stopped," Eve says. To prove her point, she closes her book and throws it in the air. It stops moving as soon as it leaves her hands.
"How is that possible?" Aria asks.
"Shana, you have your seal, don't you?" Louise 2 asks. "Is this one? Or someone else's maybe?"
Shana shakes her head again. "No. This is something else entirely, like I just told Saito. I..."
Shana stops. Her eyes widen, and she rushes to the window.
"Shana? What's wrong?" I ask.
"It can't be," she says.
"What can't be?" I ask.
Instead of answering, Shana's fist flies through the window, sending glass pieces flying. She follows this up by jumping out the window herself.
"S-Shana!" Louise 2 cries out.
"What's wrong with her?!" Aria asks. "We're several stories up!"
"Shana can fly, and I doubt a landing like that would even hurt," Louise 2 assures her.
"Come on, let's go," I say. "I don't think I need to mention the possibility that whoever's behind this little bubble of time might be down there. Be on guard everyone."
The obvious stated, we make sure our new weapons are ready and head down to the courtyard where Shana landed. Disappointingly, not through the window. We took the stairs, like normal people. Eve probably could have made the jump, but she decided to stay with the rest of us. Good. Now our inferiority complex won't grow even larger. 'I don't have an inferiority complex. I'm just kind of jealous that I don't have any cool superpowers.'
The trip through the academy was eerie. It's not like everyone was gone, people were still very clearly there, but everything being greyscale and no one moving made for a very unsettling combination. I had to remind myself every few steps that yes, these people were still alive. The rest of the group didn't seem to fare much better. We all kept a tight grip on our weaponry, hell, I even brought out Blutsauger, the sword Shana lent me a while ago, just as a precaution. Also, if we being entirely accurate, Eve didn't have a tight grip on her weapon. She can't really do that. She kept her hands transformed into blades, for what it's worth.
When we got into the academy, an odd scene sat before us. Shana was standing there, her coat on, her sword in hand, looking straight at a boy who stood on the other side of the courtyard. He looked kind of scrawny, with a mess of short brownish hair paired with a set of greyish-blue eyes. He looked kind of young, maybe 16 or so, but he had a weird aura, presence, state, whatever you want to call it. It made him seem a lot older then his body looked. His clothes weren't stylish or impressive, they seemed quite normal. Who's this guy, and why's Shana seems so shocked to see him?
"Yuji," Shana says, seemingly directing it at the boy.
Isn't that the person Shana used to love? The one who she said she killed?
"I'd be flattered that you remember one of my names," "Yuji" says to her in reply. "But that's not entirely accurate. I quite prefer Snake of the Festival, or the God of Creation. Either name works though."
"What?" Pretty much our entire group says in unison.
"What do you want?" Shana asks, rage barely held back.
"I simply want to have a chat," the Snake of the Festival says with a smile.
We're fucked.