Lucky Souls
Chapter 9: Fool's Idol
"Believe me I'd like nothing more than to help you. But you must understand that this is no ordinary cell, as long as I am bound by its cage, I will be unable to assist you with anything."
This is what the mage had told the distraught twin-tailed warrior, brazen and impatient, she would have rather just killed that girl Hiyori and saved herself some time, looked for another way of ridding herself of the disease, but she couldn't shake the feeling of the unknown that prickled her neck. This mage was telling the truth, she didn't know why, but she believed it nonetheless.
"Since I find myself unable to exit this rat-cage the ordinary way of doing so…extreme measures will have to be taken. The locksmith of this prison has long guarded over the master key ring of this place, I do not know if he still lives, but if he does, you will find it on his person."
She replayed the explanation over and over in her head so she would not forget the mages words, her mind was preoccupied with so many topics she found it hard to focus on a single one, no matter how important or trivial said topic was or how it correlated to the task at hand, it was on her mind.
"About that though…well, I'm not sure if it exists anymore, but the locksmith often traveled with a guardian. And when I say guardian I more mean monster, and by monster, I sort of mean demon. A powerful one too, so I'd watch out for that. Now, I don't doubt your ability or anything, but you might need some assistance with the demon, and seeing as I am currently preoccupied…I have a suggestion."
As Kagami entered the maximum security level of the prison, she couldn't help but be a tad apprehensive as she entered, when they said maximum security they sure weren't kidding. When one first eyed this area, prison certainly isn't the word that would come to mind, at least not for humans, birds maybe.
The cells were hung from the ceiling by thick chains, dangled hundreds of feet above the ground. Staircases lined the area, twirling and circling to the heavens, the only paths leading to the hanging cells. What shocked the warrior the most was that there wasn't a single squid-headed guard, in fact, there didn't seem to be a single opponent of any kind, anywhere.
She wasn't naïve though, she had learned enough of tricks and traps, and this was definitely one. There was something to this room she just wasn't seeing, but she had a pretty good idea. The floor was covered in a thick black goop, what it consisted of was anybody's guess, but it certainly bode ill.
Mixed in with the strange dark substance were bodies, lots of them, shredded like paper, whatever had eviscerated them certainly wished to make a ghastly point. The stairs leading to the cages weren't going to come to her however, she'd need to trek the goop if she were to seek the assistance the mage claimed awaited her at the apex of the level.
She wasted no time taking her first few steps into the ankle deep muck; it was stretchy, and clung to her armor-clad feet with each slump she took through the sludge. Trying to keep her eyes leveled was difficult, the goo stunk with a foul recognition, it burned at her nostrils and twanged at the tips of her eyes, attempting to keep the salty liquid from squeezing out of her orbs was proving to be more difficult by the second as she the slush slowly rose to her knees.
When she heard a slithering noise at her back, the twin-tailed warrior desperately wished to believe it was a slight howling of the wind or perhaps a cricket hiding in a bush somewhere, but she knew better by now.
She turned tail in a flash, sword in hand ready to face her ambushing foe, but was met with nothing. While she couldn't see it, a snake-like presence made itself known at her soles, brushing past them ever so delicately, she didn't even know what hit her when she was suddenly snagged from below and ripped from her staunch position, flung head first into the murky and foul goo.
It took her less than a second to resurface, hacking up the sludge and smearing it from her field of vision. While she was perhaps more disgusted than she had ever been before, and the urge to heave up any of the foul residue that had entered her system was growing by the minute, she had no time to feel sick, the beast in the sludge wouldn't give her this meager reprieve.
The beast didn't seem interested in playing games, whatever it was, it was preparing to stand at attention as well, however it went about that was anyone's guess.
Whatever the beast's true form was, it certainly didn't show, as the goo slowly began to shape into a rather bulbous and fat bubble, mixed with the heaps of bodies, it somewhat resembled a giant black slug, composed of rotting corpses covered in the sludge.
"Oh my god…" Kagami couldn't help but quiver out as she eyed the horrifying beast before her. What was wrong with demons, exactly? Did they always surmise that choosing the most grotesque and visually unappealing form was more effective in tantalizing their foes with fear? Why would they care about that anyway, weren't they mindless demons?
As the slug inched its slippery form towards its slime-covered prey, it suddenly began to glow brighter and brighter, until its entire form was illuminated by a clear and sparkling light. What it did Kagami sure didn't know, but she didn't waste any time moving as far away as quickly as her goo-covered feet allowed.
Without warning, a crack of light suddenly beamed from the corpse-pile, several feet in width that assimilated nearly anything in its path, including the goo. It missed Kagami by an inch, singing the back of her cloak as she ran and disintegrating it almost instantaneously.
As smoke fizzled out from the corpse pile, she saw this as her chance to strike, it seemed the beast needed a moment before it could attack again, and this brief window of time would be her only saving grace in this battle, if she were hit by the corpse pile's beam, she'd surely be killed instantly.
As she worked her way to the beast, she couldn't help but cringe as she moved along its side, eyeing the prisoners within. Some of them weren't even dead, dying maybe, but they could definitely still feel the pain. Their skin melted from their bones as they were sucked deeper into the corpse piles murky form, Kagami preyed their deaths would be quick and painless when they were enveloped into the monster, for their suffering at that moment was surely great.
Raising her blade to the air, she swung with a fury at the muck monster, only to be met with a suspicion she feared, her blade was immediately lodged into its goopy hide. She tugged once, no use, that blade was gone. She watched with horror was her sword was absorbed into its form, she definitely wouldn't be getting that back anytime soon.
"Think Kagami, think…" She was supposed to be smart, right? She often claimed she was to her less than intelligent friends, always made a point that they were lazy, irresponsible and so forth, well if she was so damn smart, she decided she'd prove it.
This beast definitely couldn't be defeated with conventional weapons, it seemed unlikely at any rate. Her eyes drifted to where the corpse piles mighty light beam had struck, it had knocked over several pillars, which in turn caved in the heavy stone ceiling they supported.
This beast definitely wasn't intelligent, or seemingly not, she figured she could easily do the same to it.
"Hey, over here you freak!" She yelled to the pile, giving her hands a few expertly timed claps as she moved away from the beast and under several nearby pillars, which weren't just sporting a ceiling overhead, but at least twenty of those massive hanging birdcages, this would definitely work.
The slug slithered right where she wanted it, hook line and sucker. It revved up slowly, illuminating brilliantly as it prepared another attack. She needed to think of it like cutting a piece of paper, from one end to the other. Slowly and carefully she positioned herself in front of a pillar, preparing for the brief fraction of a second she would have to move or else she would be joining the rest of the poor souls in that corpse pile.
As the slug bucked, she knew it was time. She jumped to the side as the crackling bolt of light exploded from the monsters frame, slicing the pillar expertly, and just as the twin-tailed warrior had hoped, it didn't stop there. The beam of light followed her, and she definitely couldn't slow down, it was a lot faster than she had anticipated.
The light cut through one pillar, and another, and another, until nearly ever pillar in the area had been pushed over into a dusty heap.
Kagami couldn't help but let off a triumphant grin when she heard the creak of the crumbling ceiling. The caving in took only a matter of seconds, cages and stone slabs the size of carriages smashing down with untamable force upon the slug like the wrath of an angry god.
The beast let out pig squeals of pain as the metal and stone crunched into a fine bloody mess onto the ground, burying it completely in the aftermath of the cave in.
With a few last clicks and clacks of tiny pebbles falling against the pile of debris, the tsundere let out a light sigh as she wiped the sweat and goo from her furrowed brow. It was just one thing after another with this place, it was relentless, it never gave up even long after your body and spirit were at their limits.
That was the whole point though, she figured, of being a demon, far surpassing any human quality such as simple fatigue, they really were called demons for a reason.
Noticing the slightly brighter atmosphere the prison level was now presenting, Kagami noticed nearly the entire roof was missing, giving way to an eerie yellow moon, partially covered by a dense fog and dark overcast clouds. She hoped that the assistance she sought wasn't in any of the numerous cells that had met their end during the roofs collapse, but she certainly couldn't be that unlucky, could she?
Taking her original path, she began her ascent up the many flights of stairs that led to the swinging bird cages, just where was that crazy little mage leading her?
"Now, I don't exactly know if she'll help you. Actually, ten to one, she'll probably kill you. Well, she might not, but she'll definitely be thinking about doing it! Look point is, she's dangerous, so watch out okay? If you have something she wants, she'll take it, by force. You need to find some way to convince her to help you…er, sorry, I wasn't alluding to an idea or anything, you're pretty much on your own there too."
That was the end of the mages instructions, she really was a clueless little creature, Kagami was beginning to regret this entire ordeal, she wondered how powerful this guardian was, and if she would really need the help, but noticing the cuts and bruises that lined her now sore and achy body from that last battle she figured it certainly couldn't hurt.
At the top of rail-less staircase, the path came to a halt, leading to another one of the bird-like cages, except it appeared to be more of a box, no bars whatsoever, just a cube of solid iron walls with a door, was this person really so dangerous?
Carefully, the twin-tailed warrior opened the peep-hole of the cell, leering into the utter and absolute darkness within. The insignificant trail of light illuminated what appeared to be a body, curled up onto the floor and unmoving, it was impossible to tell whether or not the figure was alive or dead.
"Great, well, that was a fantastic waste of time…" Kagami mumbled as she turned to leave, only to hear the slinking of chains within the cell, and a low-pitched and ominous gurgle of a laugh, it sent not only shivers up her spine; it nearly made her drop her blade.
"What's the hurry?" A voice chimed rather playfully from the cage, and more out of morbid curiosity than anything else, Kagami decided to humor its owner. Carefully, she pressed her eyes through the lone hole of the cell once more, and peered at the now sluggishly moving figure.
"Show yourself, prisoner." The twin-tailed warrior apprehensively demanded, trying to sound as dominating in her tone as possible, but it came off rather docile, almost as if she really didn't want to see the face looming in the dark.
The boxes life form made little haste in following the order, casually sitting up for a curling lion stretch, the sound of a relaxed yawn bellowing from her pit as she slowly slunk upwards, this woman was very calm in her demeanor, it seemed.
As the figure un-bathed herself from the shadow, Kagami couldn't help but back up a few feet in case a hidden blade was suddenly thrust through the peep-hole, precautions and all that.
The woman was tall and fit, her lanky figure was adorned with deeply colored leather stitched armor, and her hair was a light gold, the long mess lazily tied into a thin ponytail that striped down her back. Her sharp emerald eyes were half-lidded and listless, still attempting to adjust to the overbearing light breaching her confined dark spaces.
Approaching the peep-hole, the woman seemed to look her would-be-savior over, size her up just in case the inevitable would come, but her serious attitude and expression quickly melted into a much more chipper façade, whether it was genuine was a mystery.
"Hey, well here I am. Cute, aren't I? Can you believe I'm still single?" The strange woman playfully cooed, her moaning face revealing a sharpened tooth at the edge of her mouth. "Not as if there's really many bachelors these days, though…" She joked, running a hand coolly through her hair as she leaned against the cell wall nonchalantly.
Before Kagami could interrupt, a hand was suddenly and erratically jutted from the cell, open-palmed and ready for shaking, a dumb goofy grin present on the face of its owner.
"The name's Nanako Kuroi. Some people call me the silent scholar, others call me a friend, some call me their worst nightmare, others a maiden of pure beauty and some a dark and evil temptress…but for now, you can just refer to me as, Sensei." The prisoner now aptly named, Nanako Kuroi, peeped with the chipper of a child, grasping a hold of the twin-tailed warrior's hand and shaking it to and fro.
"N-Nice to meet you…" Kagami hummed gently, releasing herself from the gentle grip of the in mate. While Hiyori had placed some pretty heavy emphasis on the level of danger this woman presented, she didn't exactly seem that way, a little chipped in the head maybe, but definitely not dangerous by Kagami's standards.
"So, what brings you to this little slice of paradise I call home? Surely it wasn't the exotic food and fun, eh?" The prisoner joked as she cocked her head with a grin, revealing that same omnipresent fang that protruded so noticeably every time her mouth opened.
"Well, I was told to seek your assistance by a…acquaintance, of sorts." Kagami started, trying to seem as official about this as possible, she wasn't entirely an expert in the art of asking people for help, she didn't really do it all too often.
"An acquaintance? And who might that be, if I may ask? Not many acquaintances left these days." Kuroi noted, her wily smile never leaving her face as she disinterestedly paced back and forth in her cell, treating the situation as if she received a visitor in her damp cell everyday of her life.
"Uh, a mage. I think it was…Tamura-San." Kagami recalled, not really remembering to bother the mages name, she was more interested in what the mage could do, not who she was.
At the sudden sound of the name, the demeanor of the prisoner seemed to shift slightly, but to an untrained eye it wasn't noticeable, the scholar's demeanor was trained for such things, to be ever calm and collected, the slightest change in facial expression or tone of voice could swing favor in a conversation, and the slightest difference in emotion could mean victory or death in battle.
"Tamura-San, you say? Hmm, the name seems familiar, perhaps we've crossed paths. Must just be one of those names you remember, yeah?" The prisoner chuckled to herself more than anyone, resting her leather-bound hands behind her head as she paced.
"Right, anyway…look, this mage, I need to free her, but in order to do that I require the key of some warden. According to her, said warden is guarded by a powerful demon, and I'll need all the help I can get in taking it down, I think you can see where I'm going with this." The warrior pointed out, eyeing her elder carefully as her face scruffily scrunched at the offer.
"A demon, eh? Hmm, well I may be interested, but perhaps not. What's in it for me?" Kuroi asked expectantly, practically rubbing her hands in anticipation for some vast wealth or treasure that the warrior was likely preparing in compensation for her services.
"Your freedom, is that not good enough?" Kagami asked with a cocked head, earning a disappointing groan from the prisoner, she really did seem the type who liked rewards they could touch and spend, instead of immaterial ones.
"You've got me there, and who knows? Getting some fresh air might do these creaky limbs some good, eh? The issue remains though, how do you intend to free me?" The prisoner asked as down-putting as possible, her wily grin ripped from her face in an instant when she saw the twin-tailed warrior place a messily scrawled talisman upon the thick door of her cell.
"The mage gave me this, she said it wouldn't work on her cell, but it might on yours." Kagami noted as she watched the little magical device do its job, suddenly bursting into a small tuft of flame before it vanished, leaving a neatly-cut square hole in its place. "Voila, that seems to have done the trick." The warrior cheerily noted, perhaps that little blue-blooded mage wasn't as useless as she let on.
Looking between the door and the young girl before her, the prisoner seemed almost apprehensive about leaving the confines of her cell, her safe little box, she had been trapped within the claustrophobic environment for so long that leaving it seemed almost taboo.
Gently pressing open the slab of dark metal, the blonde prisoner took her first few creaky steps into freedom, and it felt good, her body instantly buzzed warm with fresh adrenaline, her nostrils frosted over with the scent of fresh air, she felt alive once more.
"Well, well, well, not bad little girl." Kuroi noted with a stretch, popping her bones and joints back into place with a victorious jungle cat yawn. "I half expected you to-"
The slicing of air suddenly cut the lax prisoner off as quickly as she started, and cold steel was now present and pointed directly to her gut, softly probing into her flesh. She could do nothing but let off a little chuckle, what gall the twin-tailed girl had to even wretch a blade in her direction she mused, just who was this girl?
"Now, now, there's no need for that." Kuroi hummed, poking the blade with her pointer and casually pressing it downward. "You can trust me, honest! You gave me my freedom, and I'm a woman of my word, I'll help you slay this guardian." The prisoner probed once more, earning a sigh from the warrior as she removed her blade from her person, placing it back into her sheathe wearily.
"Sorry, old habits, it's hard for me to trust people." Kagami bashfully noted, scowling at her inner self for developing this poor habit just because of one rather iffy past experience with trust. "Well, hey, take this." The warrior said as she tossed a short and dusty blade over to the prisoner, who caught it expertly and examined it with fervor, she was picky about her weapon of choice apparently.
"It will have to do. Alright, come on now, let's not waste any time, I'm long overdue for an appointment as it is." Kuroi moaned as she clasped the blade to one of the many strapped belts around her waist and torso, marching ahead of her freer and beginning to trek aimlessly down the only direction available.
Hesitantly at first, Kagami cautiously began to follow her, keeping an eye out for any sudden movements the apparently dangerous prisoner might attempt, just in case. Kagami was very serious in her trust, she considered it sacred, and offered it only to the few people she truly believed it would be well-placed with, and such a list numbered in the single digits.
She hadn't always been this way; she would often tell secrets to Konata, or her sister, when she was young and naïve, before she personally experienced the dangers of such seemingly simple acts. When and if her trust was ever betrayed in her short life, she found it very hard to let such things go, even if they were seemingly unimportant or easily forgettable to the other parties involved. In those she placed her guarded trust, she prayed it would never be betrayed, god help the person who tried, or forbid, succeeded in betraying the twin-tailed girls trust.
"Stop for a minute." The prisoner noted, crouching downward followed by her tailing rescuer. "Dreglings, lots of them." Kuroi pointed out, and correctly, a rather hefty amount of the shambling warriors were stalking around the area, oblivious to anything and everything.
"Should we sneak by?" Kagami asked, but earned only a laugh from the prisoner as she stood and wretched her blade out expertly, laying it over her shoulder with a cocky grin, she definitely didn't seem to be the stealthy type.
"You kiddin'? Just who do you think I am, kid?" The prisoner laughed, suddenly bursting away from their meager hiding place and running like a maniac into the crowd, Kagami didn't even have time to stop her before the woman's blade sliced a Dregling clean in half at the waist, snapping its brittle frame in two like a thin slice of wood.
Kagami could do nothing but watch her sensei work, with the skill and raw might of the deadliest warriors of the land, just who was this woman? Her blade cut down husk after husk, leaving none alive as she moved from one to the next, chopping them down with one swift strike each.
Her grace with a blade left nothing to the imagination, this woman was skilled at her trade, which irked Kagami a little, were that so, that would mean she was pretty respectable when it came to killing. This woman was no ordinary prisoner, there had to be a reason she was in the maximum security wing of the ivory prison, there had to be a reason she was so heavily guarded and confined to her black box, just who was she?
Slicing down the last of them, her sensei could do nothing but burst out with a few chuckles, wiping the looming sweat on her brow as she scanned the area for a progress report. Single-handedly, she had pretty much cut down an entire battalion of the husks, the corpses piled upon one another, and the hacked limbs were tossed in every direction, this woman was visceral, and ruthless in the way she took down opponents, she seemed to know key weak spots on a human frame, gunning for places like the throat, the spine, the chest.
Kagami's worry was well placed, and before she could comment on the woman's slaughter-fest, a dagger was flung dead on in her direction, or so it seemed. The flying weapon passed her in a flash, slightly grazing her cheek and lobbing into the skull of an approaching Dregling which the twin-tailed warrior had been unaware of.
"There. I noticed you were a little suspicious, now you know what I'm capable of. Like I said, trust me, this guardian of yours is no match for my skills." Kuroi chirped as bubbly as possible as she tore her blade from a nearby corpse, wiping the clinging entrails and blood onto her pants. "You don't spend as many years in my profession as I do unless you're properly trained, in both mind and body." She knowledgably explained, leaving the corpse-littered area to return to her stunned companion.
"And what is your profession exactly?" Kagami asked as she eyed the prisoner, to which Kuroi curled her arms together in thought, as if she didn't know exactly how to classify what she was.
"Well, let's just say that I remove certain parts from machines, broken ones, which do nothing but slow down the whole." Kuroi illustratively explained as she flung her hands to and fro to make her point all the more poetic, but the warrior wasn't amused, or naïve.
"You're an assassin." Kagami sounded, to which her companion only shrugged with a smirk, apparently she cared little if people knew her true profession, or perhaps she was just smug, and knew that as skilled as she was, nobody could end her if they had an issue with it.
"Ugly word, that one. Think what you like, but the fact still remains that you need my help, if you have a problem with what I do, we can end this partnership now, your choice." Kuroi casually noted, laxly picking bits of flesh off her blade with a smile, the whole scene was rather demented.
Kagami couldn't exactly disagree, she'd need this woman's help to defeat this guardian, she had gotten lucky on the few encounters with demons before, but her luck would run out eventually if she didn't have a wild card, this assassin would have to be hers for now, until something better came along.
Cocking her head for the assassin to follow, the pony-tailed killer let out a rumbling laugh, she was enjoying herself around the fiery little warrior, she was a handful, but she was fun to pick and prod at in a way.
Making their way out of the cell block, the two found themselves in an area that looked nothing like the ivory-stricken walls of the prison, it seemed to be a straight path leading to a broken and battered staircase, which by extension, led to a magnificent church. The stain glass windows of the church melted in ruby and emerald colors upon the area, mixing in with its natural dirty and dull colors, giving the entire room an odd multi-color hue.
Standing at the foot of the mighty climb to the church was a monument, tearing brilliantly into the roof, it was a disheveled man, a prophet likely of whatever deity this oddly placed church worshiped, standing arms-bared to the heavens, beseeching whatever god that ruled over him.
At the great figures feet, corpses littered the ground, dozens of barbed arrows sewn through their forms; they looked like life sized voodoo dolls, and pincushions for the steel-tipped menaces that barraged them. Kagami noted not a single corpse seemed beyond the statues heels, not a single one had gotten an inch farther.
"Trap?" Kagami sounded, earning only a weary resignation from her assassin companion.
Taking the lead, Kuroi lightly removed a gleaming knife from her torso, tossing it as far as she could manage, which amazingly was several feet from the monument's toes, she had quite the arm.
The ground shook before them suddenly, rattling their timid frames, and the exoskeleton that remained of the crusty old prison around them, causing mini-avalanches and cave-ins of debris to topple off nearly everything imaginable, and plummet into the seemingly endless columns of cells, ever downward into the bottomless black pit set around them at all times in this place.
The rumbling in question seemed to stem from the monument, which suddenly split in half and began slowly opening, it wasn't a statue, it was a machine. Giant gears slowly began to crank at its feet, sliding the monument open slowly but surely and revealing ricochets, armed with stocks of arrows, ready to fling the dozens of death bolts at any intruders who dared tread upon the apparently very sacred ground.
The slings of arrows were lobbed in a frenzy, lining the ground and puncturing the corpses into oblivion, and causing the two intruders to lash out of the way as fast as they could, just barely dodging the legion of arrows that threatened to staple them to the ground.
"Close…" Kagami whispered out, earning a 'you're telling me' face from the assassin.
"Somethin' tells me we aren't going this way." Kuroi noted, placing a finger to her chin, this would definitely be tricky she mused. She was usually pretty good at finding the weaknesses in defenses as well, not just people. Being an assassin, she would need to know the fastest and safest route to take on any situation; ones that needlessly threatened her life or compromised the safety of the mission were things she had to absolutely avoid at all costs. Mess ups would down her pay for the job in question harshly, things like the death of anybody but the target, property destruction, and being caught in the act would all be docks in her reward.
While this particular job of assisting the angry little warrior wasn't exactly official, and held no real reward, she still held her principles close to her; she upheld them on or off a job.
The statue seemed pretty resilient; at first glance it didn't seem to have any notable weaknesses. The distance required to reach it would be all the time it would need to fill her with steel, so approaching it normally wasn't an option. Climbing on the sides of the walkway was an option, but without a rail, she would have to cover the great distance relying only on her finger strength, the prophet would allow no more room to breathe then that.
"The mechanism to shut it off is likely on the inside, which I certainly can't reach from here." Kuroi noted to herself, scrunching her chin in thought at the dilemma. "I have an idea, but you'll have to follow my lead, closely, understand?" The assassin asked, earning a hesitant nod from her companion.
As if it was something completely natural, Kuroi casually lifted a pin-cushioned corpse up off the ground and held it in front of her frame, masking her presence with the dead man's.
"Alright, get behind me." Obeying her sensei's orders, Kagami positioned herself directly behind the assassin, trying to match up their frames perfectly as the idea of what she had to do slowly clicked into place, this definitely wouldn't be easy. "You must keep in tune with me, one slip up and you'll kill us both, so pay attention to my feet. Left, then right, slow steps, understood?" She asked to the now unusually timid warrior, who only responded with another shaky nod.
Taking the first few careful steps, the two moved onto the track, ready for the barrage of arrows that would be slung towards them at alarming speeds, or as best as someone could be prepared for such a thing. The monument lobbed it's barbs on cue, pelting the area with a hail storm of arrows, ripping through the armor-clad corpse entirely and lightly grazing the assassin's abdomen, this was getting a little too close for comfort.
The two were moving forward at the pace of a tortoise, slow but steady, matching the rhythm of one another as they mimed their way up the rickety and rail-less walkway.
Out of the corner of her eye, the assassin noticed an arrow that would slip through the gap of the arm of the corpse, and she could do nothing to stop it from tearing through the girl behind her unless she acted quickly.
Without warning, she suddenly thrust their mimed threesome over as far as she could manage without losing the rhythm, but at a price, the arrow had cleanly slipped through the now barbed-ridden corpse and punctured her shoulder harshly, she quivered under her breath at the searing pain, trying her best to not numb out completely and lose her grip on the shabby body of a shield.
"Oh my god, are you alright? Hey, sensei!" Kagami worriedly sounded, earning only a gentle giggle from the injured assassin, still keeping their steady movement towards the end of the path.
"Yeah, all good, this is nothing." She cheeked out in response, gritting her teeth as the lowered her gaze to the little prickly thing. Whoever made these arrows definitely wanted to make sure they were as painful as possible, the tip was wrapped in spiky barb, poking and prodding at her insides with each dull movement of her now slowly oozing shoulder. The shaft of the arrow was slicked in a pasty substance, likely oil, which was slowly but surely sponging into her wound, singeing it with buzzing pain.
The pair reached the end of the walkway more or less intact, instantly dropping the gnarled corpse and taking a breather at the foot of the monument.
Without a word, Kuroi slipped a knife from her coat and gently pried it into her wound, slowly and gently as possible, cutting the flesh open as much as was needed, holding onto the handle of her blade and deeply pushing it into her shoulder to keep a steady grip to hold the wound open.
"Hey kid, I need you to take this end of the arrow, and pull as hard as you can, alright? Don't go slowly, if you can help it." Kuroi breathed out with a groan, feeling a little dizzy from the light trickle of blood that continued to ooze from her person at each passing second.
Eyeing the arrow, Kagami knew what she had to do, but was apprehensive about it nonetheless, this would be a job much better suited for Miyuki, she knew about things like this. Procedures one would have to make, dressing wounds, cleaning infections, her bespectacled friend had often discussed in theory that she may one day become a doctor, tending to the sick and wounded, it seemed a perfect fit for her Kagami mused.
Grasping the arrow firmly with both hands, Kagami gritted her teeth and clenched her eyes for the scene, yanking upwards with as much force as she could, slowly but surely removing the antagonizing little barb from the assassin's now bruised flesh, and dropping it to the ground.
"Oh god…you've no idea how good that feels." Kuroi chuckled with a grateful sigh, reaching down to her pant-leg and cookie-cutting a small bit of cloth out, and wrapping it tightly around her afflicted shoulder.
Watching the assassin dress her wound, the twin-tailed warrior couldn't help but feel that she was being a little ungrateful, while she didn't exactly agree with who the assassin was, or what she did, she more or less saved her life back there, and even if it wasn't exactly her forte, an expression of gratitude was in order.
"Thank you." She muttered under her breath, a red streak enveloping her cheeks as she lazily averted her eyes from the now glaring assassin, who only chuckled at the mild mannered appreciation.
"Sometimes assassins take lives, and sometimes they save 'em, all part of the job." Kuroi shrugged off, finishing her procedure and creakily rolling her flowing shoulder around to make sure it would still do the job. "Ever wonder why people need assassins? It isn't for random wanton slaughter, I assure you, the people I kill, I kill for a reason." Kuroi began as she stood up wearily. "It ain't like we go around slicing up sickly orphans and old ladies, the people I kill are usually crooked guards, power-hungry government officials, extortionists, rapists, murderers, in the end, even if inadvertently, it's for a just cause, right?." She continued to explain as the two began ascending the mighty climb to the looming church above them.
"Fair enough, but what if one of your clients asked you to kill someone innocent, just to make their lives better?" Kagami questioned, earning an unusually thoughtful look from the lax and playful assassin.
"There is no hate without reason, it isn't my place to ask why I kill my targets, but if I'm even being asked to end their lives, they're likely doing something wrong by default, aren't they?" The assassin responded knowledgably, being oddly open about such an extreme profession, as if she wasn't guilty in the slightest about the fact that she was paid money in exchange for taking lives, without questions.
Kagami thumbed on that thought for a moment, the sarcastic prisoner brought up a rather perceptive point, how does one determine who is innocent or guilty of a crime? Who must a person be to judge whether somebody deserves to live or die based off of the set of circumstances at hand? What if they're truly sorry, does that save them from punishment? What if they're not, can they still have redemption? While Kagami was fickle about the issues of gods and destiny, and who controlled such things, she knew that she certainly did not. Perhaps, she mused, people like this Nanako Kuroi were placed upon their dreaded earth to decide such things, messengers of the gods to carry out their wills.
"Well, we're here. I remember when I was brought here, the officials of the prison would usually hang around this church, I never got to see the inside, no prisoners or guards allowed, just those squid-headed wardens." Kuroi noted as she ran a gloved hand over the cool stained-glass door before her, brilliantly exploding outwards with bright reds and greens that seeped onto the pair's petite forms.
With a gentle heave, the doors creaked open, slowly revealing the inner sanctum of the mighty religious structure to the two warriors, and any dangers that might be lurking within.
There were Dreglings, but they didn't pay any heed to the intruders. They were cow-toed to the ground, stapled into a praying stance, beseeching the gods that had long since forsaken their pitiful existences. The shattered pews of the church lay destroyed and forgotten, growing dust next to the oddly enough lit candelabras. The stain glass windows were shattered and cracked, moonlight slipping in and giving the area a green luminescent glowing quality.
Near the altar stood a shabby man that differentiated himself from his Dregling brethren, he was still somewhat human, patches of peachy flesh still present among the decayed and rotted skin that drooped off of his half-demon form. He turned to meet the intruders, a gurgling laugh escape his non-existent lips as he clasped his hands in prayer.
"Umbasa be praised, fresh souls at long last. Come in, fresh souls, and pray with me." The man spoke to them, charismatically and filled with his god's love, even since he had long relinquished such care to his disciples. "The time is close at hand, fresh souls, yes it surely is. The Old One is at long last returning to our dissolving world, to unite us, to make us whole once more!" The man suddenly yelled, his timid demeanor shifting to that of a much more demented, fanatical quality.
"I'm guessing this is the warden you spoke of?" Kuroi asked as she removed two daggers from her nettled belt, ready to lob them into the man's head at any moment. "Then let us waste no time!" The assassin commanded powerfully, hurling the two pocket blades at the half-man.
Too out of his mind and body respond, the man barely noticed as the two antagonizing blades drove themselves into each of his hands, stapling him to the altar he stood in front of, crucifying him against ironically.
He breathed out slightly, shivering at his misfortune as the two warriors approached him, ready to finish the job and gain their freedom from this damned place. The half-man looked to the shattered roof, eyes melted into the sky where his mighty gods looked down upon him, and he basked in their glory, letting out a mumble of a cackle.
"I am sorry my lord, but it is not my time to walk by your side just yet, I am not finished expending your will upon these pitiful souls!" He cried out to the heavens, salty tears running down his face as he attempted to wretch himself free from his staples. These tears were perhaps the last shred of humanity this man still contained, his final string to be snapped before he was as one of them, a mindless, soul-devouring demon.
At his call, a golden column of light suddenly burst through the gaping hole in the ceiling, slamming onto the musty ground and halting the two warriors in their advance, forcing them to duck behind one of the many tarnished pews.
When the light cleared, the two poked their heads out slightly, beholding what was likely, the guardian.
It took the form of a woman, ravishing and beautiful in her sinned existence, she floated nimbly off the ground, six arms ripping from her gentle torso, each one holding a large decayed tome. Across her snow white skin, tattoos, not wrote in ink, but carved into her flesh, taking the form of designs and patterns of gods answering their children's call, their light in the darkness.
From her throat erupted a beautiful yet haunting melody, echoing through the dead chambers of the forgotten church, breathing new life into its musty walls and long forgotten prayers. The Dreglings that lined the area moaned along with her song, unifying their existences under their common love for the gods, and their benevolent rule above them.
As she sang her prayers, around the room began to form scriptures, green and gently glowing, taking the form of seals, inking the room in her spell.
The two warriors drew their blades, and prepared for whatever awaited them, but they would have no time to respond with a hasty dodge or retreat. Without warning, one of many seals materialized at their feet, and before either could protest, suddenly fried them with a jolting spurge of electricity that rattled them to the core, slowly numbing the two and causing the lesser twin-tailed warrior to collapse from the intense pain the shock had brought.
Kuroi could do nothing but stumble as her vision erratically blurred, and her limbs twitched like insect legs. She reprimanded herself for letting her guard down, but she could do nothing but make up for it, she unlatched another dagger from her small cache of weapons present on her person and lobbed it at the demon, piercing her directly in the stomach, but seemingly doing nothing.
As the demon charged up a strange volt of magic, Kuroi eyed her grumbling companion at her feet, and roughly, she kicked the girl in the stomach as hard as she could, sending her fumbling out of the path of bolt and causing her to crash through a nearby pew.
The bolt shot directly at the assassin, but she was ready for it this time, angling herself so it would sail right past her, and right into a nearby Dregling, messily blowing him to pieces and causing the subsequent gore to shower the area in entrails and ooze.
The demon slowly readied another, and Kuroi noticed it took quite a large portion of time to harness the energy required for the attack, that was her window. She charged recklessly at the monster, using the same tactics she had against the monument, grabbing a nearby Dregling roughly and using his savagely rotten corpse to shield her.
She had closed the gap, and tearing two more knives from her straps, she cleanly pierced the demon's clean skin, one dagger stapling her neck and the other goring her leg.
It was all she had time for, the bolt of energy suddenly exploded from the Shiva-esque arms of the demon, slamming into the meat shield and popping it like a bubble, sending the assassin flying backwards and painting her a dull red.
Finally regaining her wits, Kagami pushed her still sizzling form off of the blood-splattered ground and stood to face the demon. She wasted no time in bull rushing it and attempting to drive her blade through its heart, but found that it melted into thin air at the attempt.
Turning stance, she found that she had been fooled. Placed around the room, now violently roaring with their prayer songs, were several copies of the demon, each one staring her down. They looked identical in appearance, but that was the trick, only one of them was the real one, she just had to decipher which one that was.
"Sensei, we have to find the real one!" Kagami called out as the assassin regained her composure, stumbling upwards and tearing out a short blade, determinedly pointing it from one demon to the next.
"Right!" The prisoner responded, charging the nearest cackling and smooth-voiced idol that the Dreglings were so readily worshipping.
She swung her blade in an attempt to lob an arm off, but nothing, it only dissipated into a cloud of smoke that puffed around her, blinding her to the world. That brief moment of sight failure was all that was needed for a seal to suddenly appear at Kuroi's feet, locking her into place and cooking her overwhelmingly until she dropped to her knees in pain.
The twin-tailed warrior dodged the lightning blasts the idols flung her in direction, ducking behind a pew and covering her now ringing ears as several Dreglings were carelessly blown in every direction, arms and legs splattering at her sides as she attempted to focus on the idols, even in all the chaos.
The idols revved another charge, she had to be quick, instead of using her blade, she'd try an assault from a distance. Carefully lifting a nearby candelabra, she positioned it as if she were about to lob a spear, and mightily, she flung the makeshift weapon at one of the many idols, which by sheer dumb luck, was the correct one.
The sharp-tipped prongs of the candle thrust through the demon's nubile frame, slowly cooking her insides with the harsh flames and setting her ablaze.
The demon would have none of it, still singing madly with the same haunting force, its many arms spawned blades in their grasps, and seemingly without a thought, the demon carved itself in two, completely dismantling its lower body and causing the bloody burning pulp of former appendages to crackle and dissolve into crispy dust on its god's grounds.
"No way…" Kagami breathed out, being one second too late to dodge the seal that had been forming at her feet, that slowly but surely sent bolts sizzling through her, but that would be the end of it, her nerves shorted out at the intense rumblings she felt sprawling at her insides, her mind blacked as she toppled to the ground in a heap.
Shaking off the last few twitches, the assassin Kuroi had finally worked up the strength to stand once more, now faced with a bifurcated demon at her front, and the fake idols revving bolts of electricity at her back. She grew tired of the games this demon played with her mind; she would have no more of it.
Tearing two blades from her sizzling armor, without even sparing a glance to the fake idols, she twirled with the grace of a dancer, hurling them towards the mimics and exploding them into fulminations of dust and magic workings.
The assassin leapt with the ferocity of a lion, flying clear into the air and directly at her opponent, grabbing a hold of the floating idol as if it were a tree trunk, and driving the blade she held deep into its throat, cracking through the spine and splitting outwards, grittily covering the assassin in its black tar-like juices.
With a mighty roar of her own, she drown out the now dampening aria that bellowed from the idols throat, angrily tearing through the demons form and cleanly lobbing off her snow white head, now caked darkly in her own fluids.
As the head flew mid-air, horrifyingly, it did not stop its ear-wrenching ballad, continuing the soothing melody until the decapitated corpse fumbled downward and crashed hard onto the ground, squishing grotesquely and twitching violently before submitting to the cold death that threatened to take it.
Tired of the endless song, Kuroi swung her blade downward with the power of a mighty ax man, cleanly slicing the head of the demon in two and ending its permeating psalm once and for all.
"Where's your god now?" The assassin mumbled to the beast pityingly, giving it one final kick before turning her attention to the still stapled to the altar warden.
"You…wait, please, you must understand!" The warden worriedly called out as the assassin approached him with a blank face, bloody blade in hand and death on the mind. "It was Umbasa's will, he commanded I carry out his work, my mind and actions were not my own! Please, forgive me!" The man cried out, his lowly begging practically dripping with false sincerity.
"Then you must understand why I have to kill you." Kuroi uttered as she positioned herself in front of the cowering man, tipping the blade to his heart and preparing to give him a quick and painless death.
His world crumbling around him, the man suddenly felt warm, invigorated by his god's very being, he felt it within him, his worry was washed away with the storm of emotions that took hold of him, he would have the last laugh.
"You…" He breathed out with a giggle, which slowly but surely erupted into a maniacal laughter, echoing throughout the otherwise deathly silent church. "Umbasa has big things in store for you, assassin. What you seek, is forever beyond your grasp." He continued, his eyes shakily and erratically rolling into the back of his head, slick lines of tears and saliva leaking from his facial orifices. "You will never attain the inner freedom you so long for, assassin. You will die a haunting death, clouded in your final moments with regret and sorrow, cold and alone, abandoned! Forsaken! What awaits you is worse than the endless torment of your past you vile woman, and you shall beg for the death that has long hounded you-"
Hearing enough of the incessant babble, Kuroi cleanly pressed her blade through the decrepit shell of a man, tearing aside his flesh and piercing his heart directly, ending his mortifying life in a flash, but leaving her with questions unanswered, not that she particularly sought a revelation of death and pain.
Latched to the now dead warden's belt, was an odd-looking key, etched with patterns and designs. It was like a skeleton key near the bottom, ridged teeth, but at the top, it was reminiscent of spider appendages. Ripping the jingling object from his person, the assassin stuffed it into her pocket and turned tail, eyeing the barely conscious twin-tailed warrior meekly crawling to her feet.
"You okay, kid?" Kuroi questioned, earning a groan and a wave of the hand from her companion, she was uninjured enough to stand apparently, so it obviously wasn't too dire.
Approaching her comrade, Kagami looked down with a sigh at the terrible fate that had befallen the poor warden, so out of touch with reality and consumed by his god's love, no longer aware of the world around him, he saw only the jobs that needed to be carried out in Umbasa's will, carved into his mind like constant reminders, never letting him forget that his mind and body were but tools to his lord.
"So, did he have any keys on him? That mage didn't exactly tell me what to look for, just a key." Kagami asked as she rummaged through the deceased worshiper's pockets, feeling nothing but lint and empty space.
"…No. He didn't have anything on him, he must not have been this warden you sought, your sources must have been mistaken." Kuroi smoothly said as she rubbed her now tender and throbbing shoulder, eyeing the warrior out of the corner of her vision as she moaned at her misfortune.
"What? Are you joking me? Oh, that stupid little mage! What a moron! She made me come all this way, do all this, for nothing…she probably didn't even have a cure…" Kagami moped, dropping her blade to the ground and herself with it, vigorously pressing into her orbs to relieve the burning fatigue that was now beginning to wash over her.
"A cure? For what?" The assassin asked as she turned her attention back to her companion, but without hearing her answer, she had somewhat of an idea when she saw the infected and darkly bruised ankle that accidentally revealed itself from her position. "Oh, unlucky. A mage couldn't cure that anyway, you need the power of a miracle to heal such afflictions." Kuroi explained as she observed the oozing and pulsating wound, which Kagami angrily covered with a yank of her pant leg.
"I don't much feel like relying on miracles, I'm running out of time." The tsundere mumbled to herself, averting her gaze from the leering and nosey eyes of the assassin.
"No, not that type of miracle. A magic miracle, practitioners of the clerical arts usually know them, they're a sub-sect of mages, instead of focusing on the destructive aspects of magic, they focus on rejuvenation of the mind and body, healing." The prisoner knowledgably explained, noticing that the guarded demeanor of the twin-tailed girl melted away slightly, she looked so much more revealing and gentle in this state.
"And where might I find someone who knows of such things?" Kagami questioned hopefully, not really expecting the prisoner who had been locked away here for god knows how long to know the location of such a person, but she figured she'd give it a shot anyway.
"Well, a few years back I was on a job at the shadow worshiper's lands, dark place, riddled with demons and the like; it's in the high mountains on the edge of Boletaria. There was a sage who tended to the ill and depraved there…I forget her name, sweet girl, had bright orange hair, she was pretty easy to spot in a crowd." Kuroi explained as she assisted her comrade in standing to her feet once more, the latter still slightly drained from the battle beforehand.
"The edge of the kingdom? I don't have time to travel by foot that far, it'd take weeks!" Kagami lashed out at the assisting prisoner, tearing her arm from the woman and steadying herself against the nearby altar.
"Who said anything about traveling on foot?" The assassin said rather mischievously, reaching into her coat pocket and removing a small talisman, carved in stone and painted with markings of an ancient language, but before her very eyes, Kagami watched as the letters scrawled upon it suddenly re-wrote themselves into something she could understand, and at the culmination, she cocked her head curiously.
"What's the Nexus?"
Author's Note: Ups and downs writing this chapter, massive writers block disabled me from completing it as fast as I wished. I had a blast starting it, and ending it, but everything in the middle was handled poorly as ever, as I was in an emotional slump. Also, longest chapter yet, couldn't help myself, I do so love Kuroi, and I wanted her introductory chapter to be a doozey. I think you're probably beginning to see a pattern here, each girl gets a chapter during their mini-journeys, and each one will lead them back to the Nexus, where hopefully, they'll be able to find one another. After this chapter, a Tsukasa chapter, followed by a Konata/Miyuki chapter, then hopefully some sort of regrouping. I want to try to get the girls back together as soon as possible, but to remedy being alone, I'm slowly introducing the other girls/characters into the story for the main four to have interactions with. Frighteningly, I've written out a rough timeline of where this story is going, and it isn't even close to being finished. I'm closing in on 60k+ words and we're still in the introductory stage of this tale, and that frightens me a whole god damn lot. Are long stories off-putting to people? Apparently not, the most highly reviewed stories in the Lucky Star section are all well beyond 100k+ words, so I should rule out being long as a downside.
P.S. : Writing this chapter really spooked me, because of some iffy content that would have to be unloaded into the tale, religion. Yeesh, everybody loves to love it and loves to hate it, and it's the most debated thing in the universe, hopefully my interpretation of this strange religion didn't offend anyone. While I don't practice religion myself, I certainly respect those who choose to do so, and I in no way tried to offend anyone that did by making this particular religion a little whacky, it is a demon-filled hell of a land after all, the religions have to be a little crazy to match the crazy people. So please, don't take it too hard guys, I meant nothing by it, just having some fun.