Third Spell: I Think I Left the Plot Lying Around Here Somewhere
Seconds after the explosion had finished echoing the school sprung into action. The first piece of action was an announcement from the principal. This was followed by a very orderly and in no way at all panicked rush for the doors. Shiiko realised quite quickly that Nagisa was dawdling behind the rest of the class. She called out to him, but there were too many people between them for either of them to be heard properly.
At least, Nagisa's lips were moving like he was saying something.
'I'm working on an illusion to take our places while we fight that thing. Stay with the class and don't run off until I say so.' Nagisa caught the eye of both Shiiko and Rei as the class streamed out the door, joining the greater flow of students. Shiiko felt a weight on her shoulder, then a small voice in her ear. "Ikari-kun, we have to go now! That thing's after you three and it can probably track you. I don't know how attached you are to your classmates, but the entire system of magic would be exposed if you let it get too close."
There was no point in debating the topic with herself, and there would be no time to consider the options with Rei and Nagisa. Her mind resolute, her face exuding determination, Shiiko took the first opportunity she could to exit the frothing mass of students and make her way to the school's gymnasium (and attached equipment storage room). Katsuragi, being much wiser than his current vehicle, sent a message to his former pupil as to the likely plan of attack. He then concentrated on extending the illusion he kept about himself to Shiiko's running form.
...
Nagisa slammed a fist against the wall as he passed, letting half of his spell drop away into the ether he had pulled it from. 'You at least need to stay close by me.' He said to Rei. 'I need to formulate a spell that conceals your form but also makes it seem like you've never left. No easy task, as you may think.' Rei made no indication that she had fully understood, but she slowed down slightly so that she drew level with him at the top of the stairwell. As did Toji and Keiichi.
"Don't want to cause a stink," Toji began, "But either of you seen Ikari?"
Kei chimed in as well. "Haven't seen her since we got out of the class. You?"
"I have not. We should not worry though, she is likely nearby." Rei said. Toji levelled a gaze at her, with Kei poking her head around Toji's shoulder to do the same. When Rei did not meet his eyes, he pulled her away from the other students and continued.
"She went to go see what happened by the gym, didn't she?"
Nagisa spoke up, meeting Toji's eyes with his own piercing red gaze. "You shouldn't follow her Suzuhara, this isn't a battle you want to fight." He said, earning Toji's ire.
"Not the time to be starting something, transfer student." Toji said, pulling away from Rei and walking away. "I'm going to go get Ikari and then I'll deal with you." He continued, keeping his eyes locked on Nagisa as he walked against the flow. Kei went to follow but a hand reached out from behind a corner and tapped her neck.
"Go on and follow the rest of your class, get in line and have your name ticked off. There's a good girl." The voice attached to the hand said. Grabbing her by the shoulder, the hand turned her around and pushed her off into the crowd. The unknown person stepped around the corner and gave both remaining children a very calculating look.
"I'll leave the boring questions for later. I assume one of you was going to get an illusion going then run off to fight the monster, right?" She said.
"Yes." Nagisa replied, his fingers twitching occasionally. "I've almost completed preparations for two Everpresents and will begin work on a form of invisibility soon."
The woman sized the two of them up. "I can work on the invisibility, just stay on the wall here with me. Once you're done with the Everpresents I'll take them with me and drop them into your class." Rei went to stand by her side at the wall, but Nagisa took a moment longer to make his decision.
"I do not think I should be handing over my spells like that, mine are slightly different from what you might expect."
"You mean how your magic stinks like the thing that just broke in? I can handle that. Now get over here young man."
...
It was an interesting point to note that upon reaching the gym, Shiiko wasn't tired or out of breath. In fact, she wasn't any more adversely affected by her actions than she had been the previous day, defeating the first of Adam's monsters without remembering she'd done it. Katsuragi warned her off bursting through the doors and being ambushed, but there weren't many ways to enter the cavernous room covertly.
The large hole in the side wall may have been an option, but the creature was probably watching it intently with some magical sense.
"Do I get a weapon or something? Nagisa-kun had that sword thing, but Rei and I don't have anything." Shiiko asked, trembling slightly as she walked the rest of the way to the gym.
"I suppose I should tell you before I send you to what may well be your death." Katsuragi began. "That orb I gave you is meant to act as a superfluous anatomical system to store your magic. When you aren't casting spells, you'll be stronger and faster than a normal human." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "But you reacted in a way I had no knowledge of, so I don't know if you'll be able to use anything beyond an Aegis."
"Aegis?" Shiiko asked. Sensing that Katsuragi would begin another convoluted explanation, she stopped walking and leaned against the wall.
Katsuragi muttered something under his breath, then spoke again, for Shiiko's benefit. "The Aegis is a magical technique that all humans carrying Lilith's Blessing know, much like the third eye. It's potentially the strongest defensive magic possible, but only in the hands of a great wizard such as myself. Any other time, and it's over-powered by anything even slightly stronger. I designed those orbs to lend you power beyond that of a normal wizard, thus your Shield is incredibly powerful. You probably didn't notice it, but in that last battle you threw the monster back without even trying." Katsuragi tried to be encouraging, but Shiiko slumped against the wall.
"I don't want to fight like that!" She said, crying into her hands. "It hurt to fight like that! I don't want to hurt my friends, and I think I will if I keep doing this."
"Your friends will be killed if you don't fight. Or I can take my orb back and wait for the other two."
Shiiko rose from the wall, still uncertain, but determined. "I suppose I have to keep doing this, don't I? I'm a magical girl, and that makes it my duty to fight monsters." She began the rest of the walk to the gym doors on shaking legs. When she reached the doors, she tried to summon up the feeling she'd had when fighting the other monster. The idea of rejection, rooted in fear. I do not want you to come near me, I am afraid.
There was a flicker of orange by her hand as she grasped the handle, then two great lights broke down the door and grabbed her. Pulling her through the now open archway, Shiiko was brought face to maw with the latest servant of Adam. One of the lights wrapped around her pulled away and dulled, taking the form of a chitinous blade attached to this creature's 'shoulder'. It clung to the wall above the door with four similar legs, flat pinkish armour over grotesque insectoid legs. It's final arm still glowed with a great power, a tendril wrapped about her midsection with enough force to shorten her breath. It burned, but gave off no heat.
I am Shamshel, Herald of Father's Dawn. You are an abomination, and you shall die.
Shiiko stopped struggling when the creature spoke. "You can talk? If you're this smart, why are you killing people?"
The creature's mouth opened a closed silently, grinding serrated teeth together as it did so. Without a further word it threw her away, bouncing her off the far wall. From afar, Shiiko could get a much better look at this so called Herald of the Dawn. Not that it looked any better. The head that the mouth was set in was broad and flat, much like a pink leaf. A pink leaf with eyes and a sideways mouth with too many teeth to actually fit all of them in. The legs were surrounding a large fleshy sack that was too suspiciously round for it to be natural. There were too many legs in the way for her to try destroying the growth and hoping that was it's heart, though, so her main focus was on the arm-like things it possessed, two blade-like claws that could change into burning whips of light.
With a hissing roar, the Herald crawled away from the wall and bent low to the ground on its many-jointed legs. It was still much taller than Shiiko, but not so tall that it would have trouble killing her.
To impose your morality on we Heralds is an act of great foolishness, abomination. For your further mockery of my purpose, I shall erase this human structure you call 'school'.
"No!" she cried. "I don't want to fight you, I just want you to go away. Why do you have to attack us to get what you want?"
...
It didn't take much longer for both sets of spells to be complete, the woman tapping both of them on the head then brushing a finger across Nagisa's lips. "Run along now." She said. "You two seem to stand a much better chance than I would against that thing."
Nagisa ran off immediately, his legs moving faster than a child of his age should move. Rei paused for a moment to regard the woman, taking in her smile, her eyes and the way she held herself; perfectly poised in the manner a well-trained mage should be.
"Thank you Nurse." She said eventually, a small bow accompanying her actions.
"You know, I do have a doctorate as well, I just became a school nurse for other reasons."
"Thank you Doctor Akagi."
...
Shiiko didn't move as the Herald bore down on her, but she didn't want to die, so it's attacks just bounced away from her. Seeing it so close drove the fear into her, and she fled.
She fled into the corner, so it wasn't the best idea, but I don't really blame her. Shit's scary, yo.
Driven into the corner, she had nowhere to run as the Herald pinned her in place with her own Shield. It hunkered down low, resting two legs on the orange flicker Shiiko was producing. It lashed out at her with its whips, but to no avail. With one arm a blade and the other glowing hot, the Herald ripped a hole in the Shield. With almost lazy disdain, it placed a blade against her head and drew back slightly.
Die, knowing your sins. Die, knowing no others came to your aid. Die, knowing you failed.
Which was when Toji came barreling through and grabbed the Herald's arm with his whole body. Without even a second thought, he was tossed aside by the giant insect monster. Dazed and slightly battered, he didn't get back up. The Herald seemed to look at Toji's prone form for a moment, then back at the person it was actually fighting.
Pitiful. Not even a Lilin and it showed more courage than you.
Without breaking 'eye contact', the Herald stalked over to Toji and hoisted him up by the ankle.
Behold, a human that lived a life without fear. And you, abomination. You slaughtered my brother with power it seems you do not understand, you fear me and my kin for crimes you have not seen me commit, and you wish that I had not come here? You have lived your life as an abomination in fear of forces that would not harm you and brought this war upon yourself.
The herald dangled Toji in front of her, then brought itself low and placed it's other arm-blade under her chin.
A life lived in fear is a life unlived.
"I'm not afraid of you, I just don't want you to hurt my friends." Shiiko said, reaching deep within herself for the determination needed to kill the Herald. Within herself, she found something. Base desires, shaped by intelligence and brought forth by the world. Raw instincts, a will to live and the will to fight for it.
Deeper below that, even, was a curse given unto humanity as it stepped beyond the cradle of intelligence. The blessing of Lilith, renewed every generation humanity scrabbled and fought amongst itself.
A wave of power threw the Herald back. A flash of white cut Toji free; luckily he didn't break his neck on the way down. Shiiko leaped forward, covering a distance of several metres without trying. The shard of pure white in her hands cast shadows all around her. An arm-blade missing a tip tried to gouge out her side, but it only managed a glancing scrape. A tendril wrapped around her arms and forced her to a halt. It lifted her up once more, intending to rip her in two.
She fed the fire within her heart, and watched the beast within grow stronger. It struggled against its chains and brought its own power to bear against the world. With an odd vibration, the shard in her hands grew longer. In an instant it was as long as she was tall, the strange angle it was held at sending it straight through the pulsating growth that was the Herald's heart. It began to thrash about in pain; then simply the throes of a wild animal dying.
Shiiko landed heavily, almost twisting her ankle in her carelessness. Vaguely remembering what had happened the last time a Herald had died, she grabbed him under the arm and ran.
...
Detective Ryoji Kaji of the First Response Unit was, in his own, totally warranted opinion, overqualified to be one of the hundred or so police officers allowed to fire their weapons with impunity. Of course, when he told that to the women at the bars he emphasised the words 'firing loaded weapons'. He tried not to use any of the magical suggestion suggestion techniques Ritsuko had taught him, but it was a constant struggle to stay true to his promises.
Including the ones he had made to Chief Inspector Ikari. 'Keep my daughter safe from the world of magic', he had said, slamming a hand down on the desk. 'And don't hit on her the moment she's old enough'. He'd agreed, of course, there was no reason a person with no awareness of their own magic would be the target of such dangerous attacks.
Of course, whatever semi-sentient and assuredly malevolent entity controlled luck and destiny was definitely sadistic.
"Around the outside!" he called out, directing his team of four towards the slowly collapsing structure. He followed it up with a glance at Ritsuko and an order of 'medics follow in five minutes, no exceptions'. A wave of his off hand sent Lieutenants Ibuki and Aoba through a side entrance. Kirishima and Hyuuga followed him. They entered through a rather large hole in the wall, sweeping their eyes across the newly renovated 'open-plan' sports centre. With a few muttered words, Hyuuga wiped away the dark stain that was the remains of the creature. Kirishima took the initiative with an apparently remaining piece of the monster and slipped it under her body armour. With all pieces of 'questionable' evidence recovered or removed, Kaji announced the room clear and moved on to the other large hole that lead to what remained of the storage room.
Somewhere within the school building proper came the cry of 'Medic!', which was rather worrying, given the creatures tended to leave no survivors in their suicidal attacks. Ordering Hyuuga to secure the secondary site and clear anything up, he ran off inside with Kirishima in tow. When he arrived at what he would report as 'secondary scene beta', he found Ibuki and Aoba standing over two paramedics from outside. The paramedics weren't in any way special, which meant their memories needed to be altered as soon as possible. He felt quite confident in that occurring, as he could sense Ritsuko's magic quite close by, lurking in the mesh of a standard invisibility spell. Twisting his vision to focus beyond the spell, he saw instead two students, male and female, watching carefully over the other two students-of a similar gender distribution- being treated by the paramedics. Seeing no other choice, he gestured to Ibuki that she should deal with the problem. Taking a moment to understand the wordless command, Ibuki finally understood that she was to 'suggest' things that the paramedics should do.
Like 'go to sleep for a moment'.
"Alright, I think this situation is getting a bit complicated, and I'd like to deal with this all before my bosses come here and bring up what happened in Fuyuki." Kaji began, holstering his pistol as a show of faith. "So to start us off, does anyone mind explaining why two people are covered in burns and two others are invisible? I'm willing to wait a decent amount of time for this, but I don't have all day. I am a magical police officer and I can just scan your minds." Kaji spoke to all four of the students currently in the room, but he was willing to hear something from his team.
The two students that were invisible made themselves notably less so, but contributed nothing, the male one claiming that he had no interest in 'the Lilin side of things'. The girl had no idea what had happened, she had been making her way over with the intention of fighting, but had found an empty battlefield. Kirishima's check of the other boy turned up nothing, he was too confused to provide any reasonable accounts of the events that had occurred. Seeing no other choice, Kaji knelt down in front of the remaining girl and cupped her cheek in his hand.
"You look like you've been fighting in a war, Miss. Be a shame if you scarred such a pretty face. Can you tell me what happened here? And don't worry about keeping secrets, everyone who isn't already in on 'The Secret' is unconscious."
The girl blushed slightly, then had trouble maintaining eye contact with him when she spoke. He tended to have that effect on people. "W-well, there was a monster, a-and it broke into the school." The girl spoke in a halting fashion, likely the nerves from being so close to the explosion. "I went to go fight it and ended up killing it. I remembered that the last one exploded so I picked up Toji-kun and ran. I didn't know how to contain it like Nagisa-kun, so I'm sorry if it destroyed the gym."
Kaji waved away the girl's misgivings. "You did just fine, the building's not likely to collapse and you stopped that monster from going any further. Now I assume that this is Toji-kun?" Kaji said, pointing at the boy that should probably be receiving decent levels of medical attention. When the girl nodded, he quickly began to piece together what had happened. "So you two were fighting the monster and hoping that your two friends here would make it in time, but you ended up defeating it by yourselves?"
The other girl, somehow possessing pale blue hair, shook her head. "Suzuhara is not affiliated with our activities. I am told that he is not in any way affiliated with any system of magic." She said.
Kaji clapped his hands together as he rose to his feet. "Well then, I suppose we'll work out what happened during the fight later, we just have to deal with the present. The burn patterns on the two of you don't look like something an explosion could cause, so we'll have to fix that before we let the medics wake up." He gestured to Aoba, who started working on a spell immediately.
"Now then, I'm going to do something to your skin that makes it into burnt skin, but without the pain. I do find that talking will take your mind off the transformation, so why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself?" Aoba's bedside manner was quite cheerful, but the image was somewhat ruined by the police paraphernalia loaded onto his belt.
The girl winced slightly when the spell began, but took Aoba's advice and compiled a small profile about herself. "My name's Shiiko Ikari, I'm fourteen years old and I'm 150 centimetres tall. I like baking cakes and playing the cello, but I don't like it when people think I'm stupid because I act silly."
"Back when I was younger we called that kind of person 'lively'." Aoba said. "I'd even say Mana over there is quite lively. Wouldn't you agree, Mana?" he directed this last question at his colleague, Mana Kirishima, who replied in a slightly confrontational manner. "Blow it out your arse before I shove it back in, Aoba." She said.
Aoba withdrew his hands from Shiiko's arms and quickly glanced over at Toji. "I think your friend's wounds look normal, but was there anywhere else you were wounded that doesn't seem right?" She shook her head and tried to stand, but Aoba held her down by her shoulder. "Stay there for the moment, we need to check on the actual doctors now."
...
It took some time, but the two wounded children were escorted out of the school and over to the ambulances with little trouble. Kaji's team dispersed into the grouping of police officers trying to make sense of it all while Kaji himself followed the invisible students as they rejoined their class. Right by Ritsuko. Who could see them. And him.
Shitshitshitrunrunrunrunrun.
"Kaji, how nice of you to prioritise civilians and wounded. I know how hard that can be in your line of work." She said, stepping through the crowd of students to get to his side.
Kaji coughed into his hand. "Yes well, I've done the shooting, now I just need to ask the questions. Care to direct me to the classes Ikari and Suzuhara are part of?"
Ritsuko waved a hand off to the line that the invisible students had tacked themselves onto. "That one, got them both. Have you drawn straws yet?"
"Straws?" Kaji asked. "Whatever for?"
"For Gendo. Someone has to tell him his beloved daughter almost got blown up."
Kaji's face fell. "But I did such a good job dealing with the wounded, do I get a free pass?" He held his hands out to Ritsuko in a pleading manner. "I'll even question every student personally, don't make me do this, please!"
This only earned a sigh from Ritsuko. "I'd be willing to call Yui for you, but someone needs to deal with Gendo before he finds out through someone else."
"We're really in deep this time aren't we?" Kaji said.
"You are, Yui loves me." Ritsuko left Kaji with a quick pat on the shoulder, presumably to call Yui and organise an exodus from the city. "Now go get Maya to make the call, Gendo doesn't mind her."
AN
Ok, I made a minor edit and that is all; 'Shield of Terror' is a stupid name and I replaced it with 'Aegis' since it's a mythology reference and I need more pretentiousness in this story about magical lesbians. I should get around to posting more chapters of something, sometime.
I really need to finish the one about Fate/Zero at some point, it's sort of important that I finish it before the other ones, because reasons.