A/N1 In my defense, I had originally intended to post this last night. The plans of family and my girlfriend, however, tend to override my own.
Previously on Ivory Tower:
"I can't exactly let the two of you roam the city undoing my plans, now can I?" The man snapped his fingers and left the alley, leaving behind his two minions.
Delilah glanced between herself and the obviously fatigued wizard to her left, then at the slowly advancing ghouls. Looking back revealed the alley to be a dead end with a massive brick wall.
The bombshell let out a very un-ladylike word as the two giant ghouls charged.
Ivory Tower
Chapter 5: "The Time Has Come", the Walrus Said
Delilah grabbed a nearby chunk of wood and prepared to defend herself from the charging ghouls. At the last minute, she danced to the side, avoiding the first ghoul as it rammed the pile of detritus behind her. It roared and floundered about it the vast, squalid pile before grabbing the brick wall beyond and pulling itself to its feet.
The second ghoul went for Flynn, who slammed his cane into the ground and summoned up a shield of earth to intercept the monster's massive claws. When the ghoul's attack opened up a shallow cut on his chest, he cursed in unison with the wailing of the creature, whose claw was now stuck. Flynn allowed a grim smile to cross his exhausted visage.
Taking advantage of the second ghoul's predicament, Delilah swung her piece of wood with a wild war-cry. She missed. Horribly. Her blow bounced off of the earthen shield and onto…
"Sorry, Flynn!" she stuttered to the prone wizard before turning back to the ghouls. With the wizard's concentration broken, the wall of earth he had raised crumbled back to the alley's floor, freeing the ghoul. So now she was alone and surrounded, with Flynn was on the ground recovering from her terrible aim, and Kenta…
'Wait, where did Kenta's body go?' she thought, eyes darting between her foes. The ghouls took no notice of the disappearing act, instead slowly marching down the alley at their one upright target.
An echoing roar from overhead shook her to the core as something very large and covered in gray fur pounced onto the first ghoul. The monster had just enough time to scream in terror before the newcomer chomped down on the ghoul's neck and shook it like a ragdoll. There was a resounding 'crack' and the ghoul dropped back onto the trash pile, dead.
The ghoul closest to the entrance decided that it wanted out, and turned to run. On its third step a cobblestone raised itself up and tripped the monster, which flew through the air right into a newly-raised stone wall. Though its head proved tougher than the stone and plowed right through, it lacked the momentum for the rest of its body to follow. As the ghoul set its hands to pull its head back, it felt a sharp pain through its torso, and looked down to see a thin blade of steel protruding through the wall.
Flynn dusted his hands off and stepped back. The creature was well and truly trapped, its companion was dead, and Delilah was currently conversing with the fluffy creature on the far side of the alley.
"I can understand why you do not let people know just what you are, Kenta," she chuckled, petting the massive gray cat that had saved her life. "If anyone knew, you would be dodging furriers for the rest of your life. I can imagine you stretched out in front of the Ivory Tower's fireplace. Strange, though; I had thought that most tigers lived in India, not Japan." A rough, growling noise began to fill the alley, and it took her a moment to realize that the creature was purring.
Flynn blinked. To him, the big cat looked familiar. "Um, Delilah? I don't think that's Kenta."
Delilah turned, wide-eyed. "Why would you say that, Mr. O'Connell?"
"Because I recognize my office's resident pest." He stepped forward and scratched under the creature's chin at just the right angle and speed. The gray cat rolled onto its back in ecstasy and began pawing at the air. Soon, it began to shrink, ending up the size of a small kitten. It mewed as Flynn finally stopped lavishing it with attention.
"Jinxie, why didn't you tell us you were magical?"
"Mew!"
Flynn chuckled as he set the tiny kitten on his shoulder.
The sound of cracking stone drew their attention back to the trapped ghoul. It was pushing against the stone, throwing itself back and forth in its attempt to wriggle free. It ignored the sword through its chest, despite the horrific damage its movement caused. Moments later, all motion stopped, and the creature slumped.
Cautiously, Flynn stepped up to stone wall he had raised and grasped his cane-sword by the hilt. When moving it had no effect on the creature, he jerked the blade free of the stone and wiped it clean on a handkerchief. As he finished, the monster's body slid bonelessly to the ground, minus one head.
Delilah continued around the stone wall. There, she saw Kenta stabbing himself in the gut with a long, curved sword. Rather than scream in pain, he merely grunted and pushed the hilt after the rest. Delilah's eyes narrowed as she noticed the lack of metal sticking through the Asian mercenary. At most, there was a hole in his wide coat, with no blood to be seen. Looking to her left, she saw the ghoul's head lying on the ground. She turned it to face her and tried to read its expression. It appeared… terrified?
As if noticing her for the first time, Kenta nodded in her direction. "We clean up the bodies, then leave. I have found us a lead." He stepped up to the stone wall and sketched something onto its surface. It fell backward and rearranged itself back to the form it had had before Flynn's earth magic, burying the ghoul's body beneath the alley's cobbling. Flynn, who had just barely dodged out of range of the slab, raised an eyebrow before doing the same to the other body. He frowned when he tried to get the cobblestones to fit together before finally fixing the puzzle they made. Turning to Kenta's work, he marveled at the ease with which the old man had fitted the cobblestones.
Reading his expression, Kenta grunted. "I may not be as powerful as you anymore, Man of the Council, but experience trumps power." He tilted his head to the side. "Sometimes."
Back at the Ivory Tower, Delilah pushed the two men out of her office so she could change into something less grimy and blood-covered. Flynn turned to the old mercenary and said, "We should probably sit down. I've got a number of questions for you."
Kenta nodded, and took a seat at one of the empty tables. The Tower did not open for another three hours, so the three of them where the building's only occupants.
Flynn sat down across the table from the other male member of their company. He eyed Kenta's pale features before he began questioning. "Where did you learn to do magic? Obviously you are not a member of the White Council, so who taught you?"
Kenta leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing in thought. "Most of what I know, I taught myself. When I was…found…there was no White Council presence in Japan." Flynn's eyes widened at that. Japan, along with much of the East, had been represented by Ancient Mai for well over two centuries! How old was Kenta?
"The few teachers I had were priests and monks, not sorcerers or wizards," Kenta continued, reaching into his coat to pull out a set of strange symbols on a leather string.
"My first teachers lived in Takachiho-gawara." His fingers moved to the third symbol, a piece of amber in the shape of the sun. Despite looking as carefully as he could, Flynn could discern no chisel-marks its surface.
"Later in life, I learned at the feet of the priests at Izumo-taisha." Here, he tapped a small piece of wood. It appeared to have been carved into the shape of a small, oddly-shaped house, but Flynn could not pick out any tool-marks.
"My final teachers were monks in Hōryū-ji, when it was finally constructed. They taught me little of magic, but a great deal about control." Kenta's hand grasped the middle and largest symbol, an eight-spoked wheel seemingly formed of volcanic glass.
Flynn searched his memory for any reference to those names. Had he heard them before during a Council meeting? He was shaken from his reverie by Kenta's gravelly voice.
"I will answer two more questions for you, Mr. O'Connell. Ask what you will."
Slipping back into his job as an investigator, Flynn began to compile a mental list of questions, rating them by importance. Finally, he asked, "How did you survive being shot so many times? A shotgun to the back of the head is almost universally fatal in my experience."
Kenta nodded and winced lightly, touching the back of his shaved head in thought. "After a… bad experience in my homeland, my skin took on the strength of folded steel. It is fortunate that it did, for not long after that your people came to our shores. Swords were, and are, no more effective than guns against me," here, Kenta reached down and traced a line from armpit to navel, "unless the wielder is either very strong or very, very skilled." He looked back up. "One more question, Mr. O'Connell."
Flynn concentrated. So, Kenta was well trained, experienced, had nearly invulnerable skin. He was old, over two centuries at least, and he had shown some care for the value of human life. What to ask him?
"I'll hold my last question for later, if that's alright with you." Kenta's face twisted, multiplying the wrinkles that covered it, but he nodded.
"I have answered your questions, Mr. O'Connell. Will you answer one for me?" Flynn nodded absently. "Why would a Wizard of the White Council work where you do?"
"The BI?" Flynn asked, eyes widening in surprise. "We've had a couple of cases in the past two years that would never have been solved if Bob Erie and I hadn't been there. Fae killings, sacrifices and rituals: we've stopped some terrible things." His wide eyes took on a faraway look before narrowing on Kenta's face.
"I'm putting my training to good use and protecting those who cannae protect themselves." He finished, tone hardening, accent shifting.
Kenta nodded, but remained silent. The two of them lingered in the silence, waiting for Delilah to emerge.
'Well that was informative,' Delilah thought as she tip-toed back to her office door. She opened it, then closed it loudly before stepping out of the back hallway into the main room.
"I'm ready to get going, gentlemen. Kenta, you said you had a lead for us?" She gauged her voice to be chipper, but still professional. After the heavy topics these two had gone over, the room was filled with the taste of anger, despair, and pain, flavors she had never grown to enjoy.
The older man nodded. "The ghoul I interrogated told me of a job he had taken part in before coming after us. It was a week ago, but perhaps we can use it to trail that fat blob of a sorcerer." Delilah and Flynn both smiled at Kenta's description, though Flynn's was somewhat more strained. He knew of something that had happened just over a week ago, and he hoped to whomever was listening that this was completely unrelated.
"Two of those giant ghouls, along with several of the smaller variety, were sent to the docks to abduct a young woman." Flynn tensed, and he gripped the table in front of him until it groaned.
"The ghouls did not know why they were taking her, but apparently she fought back with magic and sword. They overcame her through sheer numbers and knocked her unconscious, taking her to a truck." The table groaned louder, seeming to plead with Flynn. "No one told the ghouls where they were taking her, but the one we trapped overheard the fat one say 'Kansas.'"
Delilah nodded, taking everything in. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment before asking, "Are you sure he was telling the truth? That ghoul lied to us last night, so why should this one be any different?
All of a sudden, the flavor of the room shifted. Where Delilah once only tasted the fear and anger boiling off of Flynn, she now felt a sharp pang of sorrow. Though no part of his face showed any change, the feeling was obviously coming from Kenta. "I am sure," he said firmly. "He would not have dared lie."
Filing that little comment away for further examination later, Delilah nodded again. "Well, Kansas is a big area, and nowhere close-by. I will mention it to Mr. Rothstein, and maybe he will have some of his other men look into-" she was cut off as a heavy 'boom' filled the room.
Flynn raised his cane from where he'd slammed the ground and pointed it at her. "No, we will look into this ourselves. I have a friend who can get us there in a few hours. We fly to Kansas and find Elizabeth, and the bastard who's been leading all of these attacks." His voice was even and unwavering, but both Delilah and Kenta could feel the raw anger roiling beneath the words.
Delilah stood. "I'll have to okay it with Mr. Rothstein. I'll be right back." She walked back to her office.
Kenta turned back to Flynn. "Elizabeth?" he queried.
"Not…not right now," Flynn gritted out. "We'll talk when we get aboard the plane."
Kenta nodded as Flynn stood and began pacing the room.
"Mr. Rothstein, Kenta assures me that the ghoul was not lying this time."
A pause. "Well of course I believe him, Mr. Rothstein. You said yourself that you trust the man."
Another pause. "Flynn says he has a way of getting us there within a few hours, so we will only be gone for less than a day. Hopefully, we can find the culprit behind the attacks and clear your name."
Delilah sighed, eyes shadowed as she stared at a photograph on her desk. "Yes, Mr. Rothstein. I know. If things get out of hand, I assure you that I can control the two of them. Completely."
A black Model-T pulled up to the remote farmhouse. A short, fat man in a bowler hat and suit clambered out before walking up to the front door. Two men in pinstriped suits answered the door and let him in. When they turned around to return to their posts, they suddenly froze, pulled pistols, and pointed them at each others' heads. The fat man walked between them, angling toward the stairs down, before making a short hand motion. The sound of two revolvers firing muffled his descent.
Arriving downstairs, he made a swift motion with his hand. A wave of fire swept out at chest height, instantly killing the only other man in the room. He fell to the floor, hand still grasping for his Thompson.
Stepping up to the chair in the middle of the room, the fat man looked down at the blonde young woman tied and blindfolded there. The tattered remnants of a gray cloak formed her bindings, and she was covered in long-dried blood.
A slow grin crawled across the fat man's face. "Time to go, poppet."
A/N2
Okay, there it is, folks. Again, not as long as I may have liked, but the story ends where it will end. Next chapter is going to be quite a bit longer, with a lot more action.
Oh, and of course the villains are going to be thinking ahead of the party. It annoyed me when we were playing the game, too. Anyway, read and review to tell me what you did/didn't like.
That last question is a freebie for you guys. Pm/review me a question to ask Kenta, and he'll answer it. I'll warn you, though. A simple "what are you" isn't going to get a plain answer: that'd be too easy.
A/N3
Sorry about the multiple updates, guys. FanFic really hates me right now.