Author's Note: New term has started up. Yay.
The Story So Far: Hiruma's rescued, in possession of his own personal artifact, and on his way to get some information on this evil Blake guy that kidnapped his mother. The others are following. Zeke (a third party person) is currently working his ass off trying to make a familiar.
Hidden
By: Bar-Ohki
Chapter 33: Shin Sejiuro, Aura Seer
After the group boarded the train, Hiruma sat down and quietly listened to explanations as to what everyone's abilities were. Or the abilities of the objects they carried were in the case of the non-magical linemen. During these explanations, Hiruma had decided to let Shin look at Akumetsu closely.
The aura seeing Sensitive looked the gun up and down carefully. It didn't appear to have an aura at all, which was a very strange thing. All objects had auras, even the littlest stones did. The fact the gun had no aura to speak of was remarkable feat. Though Shin's instincts were telling him that he was holding a very powerful thing even if the object appeared ordinary.
When the explanations were finally over, Shin handed the gun back to Hiruma with a shake of his head.
"You didn't fucking See anything?" Hiruma asked as he examined the gun. It looked like he could take it apart for cleaning, but Hiruma was hesitant to do so.
"That's the problem." Shin explained. "I didn't See anything. There is no aura."
"That's odd." Kurita muttered. "All objects have auras, don't they?"
"That gun is an exception." Shin stated flatly.
"Fatty can you Sense anything?" Hiruma handed the gun to Kurita. Kurita simply shook his head and handed it back.
"…Artifacts are complicated objects of untold powers." Doburoku explained. "Even if you are able to discover an attribute about the artifact, it might decide to change itself later."
"Malhavoc's dagger was pretty straight forward." Shin remarked. "It had an anti-magic aura that was sharp enough to cut magic."
"Well on the surface that is what Escarlaje does, cut magic." Doburoku pointed out. "I have heard stories about the weapon changing its shape to suit its master, and I have also heard stories about it being indestructible."
"An indestructible weapon?" Sena blinked. "But there can't be such a thing!"
"Artifacts, from what I know, are pretty hardy things. They are generally considered indestructible, but most of the time they are actually really hard to break." Mamori explained. "I've heard the only way to destroy an artifact is to use another artifact."
"That's more powerful." Zork added. "Artifacts do have ranges of power."
"S-shield?" Komusubi asked.
"He's asking how powerful his artifact is." Kurita quickly translated.
"Hmm." Zork paused a moment. "Magically, it's considered one of the most powerful ones but physically it's not all that sturdy."
"Physically?" Shin blinked.
"Well in theory it can't withstand having say, a large dragon smash into it." Zork explained. "But no one has been particularly inclined to test the idea, so it's only a theory."
"So this fucking gun is pretty much indestructible?" Hiruma waved it to emphasis his point.
"Pretty much." Zork assured his brother.
"…But what is the significance of it not having an aura?" Shin asked.
"…What if it channels auras?" Doburoku asked. "You can't have much of an aura yourself if you want to go about doing that."
"It might." Shin admitted after a while. "I'd have to see it fired again."
"We'll wait until we get back to the Upground then." Hiruma said simply. Everyone understood why, shooting that gun on the magical train was probably a bad idea.
"…I wonder how bad the situation is in the Upground since we've left." Mamori muttered, concerned.
"Mamo-nee?" Sena was confused and concerned.
"In the worst case, Blake has completely broken free of his Seals and is now running around gathering up power and slaves." Zork explained.
"How does that fucker do that?" Hiruma asked.
"…Necromancy is the magic of souls," Zork explained, "typically you can't use it on someone currently living because the souls of the living are fundamentally different than the souls of the dead in a way that makes it really hard to use magic on them."
"…I've heard that Blake has the ability to control the souls of the living." Doburoku commented.
"Yeah, which allows him to make slaves out of anyone." Zork explained. "I don't know what exactly he does to gain power, but I think it involves sucking the souls out of the living and stealing the powers of that person."
"Wouldn't that distort and destroy your own soul?" Shin couldn't help but to ask.
"It would." Zork nodded. "But Necromancers have ways to keep their souls relatively intact, but not untainted from such magics."
"So the more powerful this guy gets, the more crazy and evil he gets?" Musashi asked for confirmation.
"Yeah." Zork nodded.
"…I don't think it's the worst case." Shin remarked. "We would have felt the consequences of an amount of magic that large being unleashed."
"And Zeke probably would have said something." Doburoku added. "Since his magic is bound up in that Seal, he would know if his part of it broke."
"So the real issue is how much of the Seal has failed and what parts of it." Juumonji observed.
"I don't know a lot about Blake's Seal," Doburoku admitted, "but from what I do know about Seals is that the weaker parts fail first."
"So what are the weaker parts?" Mamori asked.
"I'm not sure." Doburoku admitted.
"But Blake is moving around." Ayla pointed out suddenly. "Usually anti-movement parts of a Seal are the sturdiest."
"…It might not be Blake moving around." Mamori suggested after a moment. "It might be a projection of him or he might be possessing someone."
"That seems to make more sense." Doburoku nodded.
"Why did that fucking elf have to use my blood to make the familiar?" Hiruma asked suddenly, his distaste for the thought clear as day.
"So that it can have magic and be around you." Zork explained. "At least, that's what Zeke-Mancer said earlier."
"Tch." Hiruma looked out the train window, there was nothing but darkness.
"I can't believe I missed being in the Underground." Sena complained. Mihae, Sena's mother, had always told him stories of the Underground growing up. It had always been Sena's dream to go.
"There will be other opportunities." Doburoku assured Sena. "I don't think any of us have seen the last of the Underground."
The train windows lit up, suddenly showing them the outside world. Quickly the train came to a stop in the deserted Deimon Station. Everyone exited and the Underground Underground rushed away, leaving the lot them standing there on the platform.
"It's really different during the day." Zork commented, looking around with his wide, blue eyes.
"How are we going to fucking walk around in this?" Hiruma gestured to everyone's clothes.
Mamori smirked and cast a glamour spell which made everyone appear to be wearing more normal things. Hiruma was slightly annoyed by this, as he was tempted to eat the magic, but knew better. Shin pleasantly observed that Hiruma now had some control over what he chose to eat.
The linebacker Sensitive looked around and saw strange, puke-green spots of magic around. He frowned and told the others of this, not recognizing the aura signature.
"I can't say whether or not it's Blake's, but it might explain why the station is empty." Doburoku observed.
"Can you point me to some?" Hiruma asked. Shin found it an odd request and led Hiruma over to a nearby poll. Shin pointed at the bottom corner of the 'no running' sign on the poll. Hiruma got close to it and sniffed, recoiling immediately. Hiruma had a slight watering of the eyes that came from smelling something strongly unpleasant and was currently clasping his hands on his nose.
"…Can you smell magic?" Shin asked, rather disturbed by the thought.
"I eat the fucking stuff," Hiruma reminded Shin acidly, "of course I can fucking smell it!"
"…Well the green spots are defiantly not good magic." Shin eyed Hiruma apologetically.
"Where now?" Kuroki asked.
"Where ever Lotem was when she was attacked," Juumonji suggested, "except we don't know where that was."
"…I think we should talk to the Elders." Doburoku advised. "They are connected to Blake's Seal to this day, they might know something we don't."
"Or perhaps they can explain the taint." Ayla pointed out.
After having left the station Shin looked around. There were green spots here and there, fairly infrequent. He commented on this and the group nodded. The city was a silent place, no animal noise and no sign of people.
"Cerberus," Yukimitsu bent down to touch the dog familiar, "do you smell anything?"
With remarkable obedience, the dog sniffed around.
::The people have been gone for about half a day. The animals have been gone for at least two days…. Mention to the others the significance of animals, those idiots probably don't know it.:: Cerberus told Yukimitsu simply.
"He said the people have been gone for half a day while the animals have been gone for at least two." Yukimitsu imparted Cerberus' observations to the others. "The fact the animals have been gone for a while is really bad news though."
"How so?" Suzuna asked.
"Animals are more sensitive to certain kinds of dangers than people are," Yukimitsu explained, "What it means is that Blake's been moving around for at least two days."
"Shit." Doburoku cursed, completely upset by this.
"And isn't the Seal centered at Mount Fuji?" Ayla remarked. "I don't know where that is from here, but it doesn't seem close."
"You suspect it's going to be worse the closer we get to the mountain?" Mamori asked Ayla, who nodded in response.
"I think we should find the Elders first." Shin announced.
"I worked for them part time recently," Musashi admitted, "if we can find a car I can get us there."
"Don't we need keys for to use a car?" Taki asked.
"Ke ke ke!" Hiruma cackled. "I can fucking hijack one."
"Or I could just turn it on with magic, that's a lot simpler." Mamori pointed out.
"We'll need a bus again." Doburoku simply pointed at the size of the group. The lot then proceeded to walk to the bus station. No one noticed anything weirder than they had already found. There was one abandoned bus there, everyone boarded and Mamori started it. Musashi then drove them down the empty streets towards the building he had worked at. Shin Saw the magical aura around the building long before they got there.
"Looks like the wards here are intact." Shin remarked as they pulled up to the building. Shin observed that by the door there was a small barrier that Musashi drove them through. Once inside the barrier, it firmed up, trapping them inside. A man came out of the little kiosk by the gate and stared at Musashi, startled as hell.
"What!? How!?" The man sputtered, his once nice suit looked wrinkled and abused.
"I've been busy attending matters in the Underground." Musashi told the man flatly. "The authorities down there sent me up with this party to help deal with Blake, will you let me in?"
"Your hand." The man held out his hand and Musashi touched it. Shin observed there was a small bit of magic to be used.
"I am not lying." Musashi told the man. There was no change in the magic.
"No, you are not." The man nodded and walked into the booth and had the gate opened. Once through the gate, Shin saw that the back was covered in Mediums and Hiruma observed that the entire place reeked of magic.
"Are you okay?" Mamori asked Hiruma, worried.
"Lots of magic." Hiruma muttered.
"The air here is full of it." Shin added.
Musashi simply pulled the bus up to the front of the skyscraper. The others had been rather shocked by the sudden appearance of the building, but since they had witnessed from pretty strange stuff on their adventure already, no one commented. The group exited the bus and walked into the building where they were immediately confronted by Tsubasa Tama, who was wearing an unkempt looking pink business suit and her round glasses looked crooked.
"Tsubasa-sensei!" Shin gasped, recognizing the woman.
"Why are you here!?" Tsubasa demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Hiruma.
"To find my mother." Hiruma responded simply, looking at his fingernails and feigning boredom.
"You mess with my brother and I'll set your smelly hair on fire!" Zork snapped, his voice sounding particularly low and threatening.
"Brat!" Hiruma hissed, pulling Zork back by his collar. "If I wanted to fuck up the woman because she was annoying, I'd do it myself."
"Elder Tsubasa, where are all the people?" Doburoku demanded.
"…The Seals on Blake are failing." Tsubasa admitted gravely.
"Which parts?" Mamori asked.
"This is beyond-" Tsubasa protested when Doburoku walked up and grabbed her shirt to pull her down to his eye level.
"This situation is beyond you. This group was sent here under the authority of Zeke of Vent and I will have you know that they are more than capable of dealing with the problem. Right now what I need is your full cooperation, is that clear Tama-chan?" Doburoku almost growled at her.
"Zeke of Vent?" Tsubasa's eyes were wide.
"Yes, Zeke of Vent." Doburoku told her as he tossed her backwards a little. "Now, tell us what you know."
"…Of all the Elders currently in Japan, I'm the only one Blake hasn't gotten to yet." Tsubasa admitted. "He's got a handful of slaves running around doing kidnapping for him, all of them are Oujou football players."
"Why Oujou?" Sena was clearly confused by this.
"We had a scheduled practice over on Mount Fuji…!" Shin gasped seeing what happened there.
"That's when Blake possessed them." Ayla finished.
"Well needless to say all of those boys are strong and able bodied, none of them are anything less than normal except Shin." Tsubasa added. "Blake had them scouring the city earlier, looking for something over by Deimon High School, no idea if he found it."
"He was probably looking for Hiruma-kun." Doburoku observed.
"Is every fucking magical being after me?" Hiruma ranted.
"Blake probably wants to eliminate you as a threat," Tsubasa explained, "or turn you into a weapon of his choice."
Hiruma didn't say anything but he did look disgusted.
"Do you know where Mom is!?" Zork demanded.
"Your mother?" Tsubasa was a little confused.
"Lotem of the Moon Mountain Roost was here in the Upground turning two non-magical women over to the Elders here." Doburoku explained. "We know that Blake managed to capture her and we want to investigate the scene."
"…If it was Lotem, she was probably looking for Yuuya-san." Tsubasa muttered. "And Yuuya was talking to the parents of the missing Deimon students today…."
"Wait!" Sena gasped. "He was talking to my Mom!? Blake might have her too!"
"Where was he going to meet them?" Musashi demanded.
"Kurita-san's shrine."
"My house!?" Kurita gasped.
_=_=_=_=_=_
And I leave you there.