...
The train engine burst out of the tunnel in the wall above the vast belt of the Lower Ring. The first thing they noticed was the smell of smoke. Mizumi's initial thought was that something had gone wrong in the train and she was in the process of inspecting the dials but then Ayika's hand plucked at her shoulder. She straightened up and looked outside the cabin. In every direction across the fifteen kilometer wide belt of roofs and streets there were multiple spots of flickering orange light and billowing smoke. The ring was on fire.
Then Xinfei lunged past her for the break leaver because he had no idea how long it took for a hulking machine like this train to stop once it had been told to consider it. As it turned out he had given the invention too little credit and after accidentally venting most of the steam pressure the machine rumbled and screeched to a near complete halt. When they were finally rolled to a rest Mizumi had no choice but to tell the rest of their passengers that they were walking along the last fifty meters of track to the first Lower Ring tram station.
They were a strange group which arrived in the station without a vehicle, Xinfei and Xiaobao hopping up onto the platform to extend a hand down for pulling up Lili and Ayika after them. Mua saw to her own labored ascension but as she clambered up to her feet she gestured her head to the other side of the open station floor.
"Got company."
A small gaggle of truncheon-armed government station guards were hesitantly advancing out of their little administrative kiosk. They made slow progress forward as they moved by a circulating convection of each man trying to push the other three in front of him, none of them wanting to be leading a confrontation on this chaotic night.
The guard who lost the battle to avoid the focal location called out. "Hey! You can't be up here on...What even is that?" He pointed off at the stalled, smoking, black and red hulk of the steam train now come to rest on the elevated track like a fat bird on a wash-line.
The two benders Mua and Ma'er sighed and raised their hands in the form of their art. Mizumi saw Xiaobao wince at what he knew was about to come. Then a crisp, aristocratic voice called out to her side.
"Honored public servants, this is not a party you want to hinder."
Lili stepped forward, wielding every stretched centimeter of her already quite noticeable height. "I know that you are doing your jobs but I have here with me two skilled spirit priests and a Dai Li officer who are all hurrying to resolve the crisis which has enveloped this corner of our city. I am sure you must have noticed that this ring has gone mad?" Something about Lili's inflection managed to project wealth and power in a way which made even Mizumi feel the rips and soot stains on her dress.
However, still the guards hesitated. As grateful as they were for any mention of a forthcoming supernatural resolution they might have noticed that Lili's explanation did not extend to Mizumi or the Bao brothers, or indeed to to Lili herself. Mizumi found her back tensing as she feared that these men might actually attack. Then Xinfei sighed. He walked forward and grabbed Lili's arm, holding out his palm. Lili stared at him for a moment in confusion before starting with sudden realization. She reached into some hidden pocket in her dress and pulled out some well folded sheets of paper money. Xinfei whipped off two and moved over to the station guards.
"Sorry government boys, just remembered we forgot to pay tax this year. We'll just be heading down then?"
It was not the smoothest delivery ever given, but the nearest guard grabbed the bills and nodded, now all relieved smiles. This was a situation they knew how to deal with. "Right. Civilians aren't allowed to loiter around up here tonight. Get along on your way."
"Much obliged."
Mizumi and her friends made their way down the broad stone stairs from the tram station to street level. Lili was looking at Xinfei with appreciation and Xinfei was looking as if he regretted all his involvement in this mounting fiasco. Ayika and Mama Mua were staring at something else, something invisible in the city around them. Mizumi had been relieved to recognize that the open square at the foot of the tram station was empty, though the sound and screams of conflict drifted over from neighboring streets. If Kuang Harbor was a predictive indicator then the city guards had pushed outwards from here in their attempt to restore order thus explaining the eerie emptiness. Yet that theory did not match well with the looks of astonishment and fear that both the tribal women wore.
Ayika moved in close beside Mizumi. She murmured as she stared out at the deserted space walled with tall stacks of shops, restaurants and apartments. "There are so many."
Xiaobao managed to catch ear of what Ayika had said as he came up behind. "So many what? Spirits?" He looked around anxiously. Xiaobao might have fought men and even the possessed masks but to him true spirits were still in a category which booked no challenge.
Now Mua broke in while shaking her head. "If it was spirits, by now even you'd see them. No, the ghosts are rising thickly here."
"The Masks must be here as well. That is the only thing which could explain this breakdown of order." Ma'er had his own reminders to add. "All the guard stations that were visible during our entry to the ring had their warning lights lit. I suspect Inspector Yang has been very busy here."
"Well, we should hope so, else your Public Safety friend let Tailang get killed and the Harbor be torn apart for absolutely no reason." Xinfei had never been a great fan of governmental authority and it showed in his tone.
Mizumi verbally pushed past him. "That is in the past. Now we must hurry to locate Tian the assistant gardener and complete the ritual to quiet the ghost mask of Ambassador Naruhama. Ayika, Mama Mua, which direction is the correct way to go?" She knew that if they stopped and gave time to consider the insane magnitude of what they were attempting here most of them would balk and cower. She knew that she would.
Fortunately, after a short argued conversation, Ayika and Mama Mua agreed on a direction towards the middle of the ring, south of the radial tram line and over a wide canal which cut its way down to the city wall. Apparently, the twisted shadows of the hungry ghosts showed some evidence of directionality in their concentration that way. Unfortunately, in that direction lay a war-zone of fire, government forces, panicked civilians, and rampaging masks, all their minds twisted towards madness by the encroachment of the spirit world. Mizumi looked to her side and met Ayika's eyes. They stood together under the roof of dark cloud-cover that glowed orange with the reflected light of scattered flames across the district. No one had given them this task. No one would ever trust them with this task. They could leave and be safe.
But they would not.
Together, that group of unlooked-for people strode forward into the burning city.
...
Xiaobao supposed that Ayika and Mama Mua had to know where they were going. As their strange, mismatched group of would-be saviors hurried through the dark and smoky streets those two women would stop from time to time to perform whatever dousing or divining allowed them to notice an increasing spiritual disruption. Under the best of conditions the streets of the Lower Ring were a confusing tangle amid canyons of multistory buildings, yet if Xiaobao could judge correctly from the few glimpses he caught of the ring walls high above they were at least moving in a consistent direction. The strategy to find the center of the crisis was a good plan in theory. In practice it meant rushing towards the epicenter of fire and chaos.
Nearly everyone in the Lower Ring was inside on this night, their doors locked and barred against what was going on outside, so the streets were mostly empty. However, disorder had swept though many quarters and the people that lived there had no place to stay that still possessed even the illusion of safety. As the group advanced they met more of these fearful refugees.
They were moving along a narrow street when Xiaobao suddenly stopped in his rush after Ayika and Mama Mua. Responding to a sound, the tall dockworker planted his feet as a crowd of panicked runners suddenly barreled down the lane, pushing through Xiaobao's party. Behind him, Lili Gaoli was still buffeted by one of the fleeing people pushing into her but she maintained her feet. Xinfei reached out to check on her and when she shook her had to wave him off he yelled back at the runners, cursing their carelessness. Xiaobao could not blame those who ran because up ahead he could hear the sounds of fighting.
Turning a corner in the brick-paved street, Xiaobao and the others came face to face with a conflict ready to explode. Ahead, at a wide five way intersection where the buildings dripping with hanging banners in large block characters for shops and services, there was a standoff between a large detachment of city guards and a much larger number of the public. The guards in their green uniforms were afraid, and as it often did their fear had transformed into anger. Many of them held their short-swords in their hands, bare blades shining dully in the reflected lantern light. On the other side of the intersection were the local residents, caught in the middle of piling up bulky wooden objects to build barricades across the streets. From the shouting that resounded back and forth across that space it seemed the guards did not appreciate that activity. The two crowds had the look of having just pulled back from a brief clash.
The leader of the guards yelled out at the growing mass of angry citizens. "Return to your homes at once! You are interfering with government forces! Nothing will be solved if the authorities can not get to the source of the trouble!"
"Solve it?! Like you solved Butcher's Quarter an hour back? You Greenies raised the blocks and locked those people inside! Now the whole place is on fire; none of the fire crews could get through to help them!"
"There was arson that..."
"Of course there was arson, because you guard bastards have been pushing people to it! Crashing down like a hammer while the Middle Ring rich folks come down here to tear the place up because they're angry about the Islanders! Well, we've had enough!"
In their side street off the intersection, Ma'er gathered the others closer to him. "We will go around. There are other paths in the direction Nia Mua has been indicating. Getting involved in this will burn through time we may not have. Particularly if the hungry ghosts are influencing people's temperaments as she says."
The others nodded at the sense in this. Xiaobao nodded too though he frowned back at the two groups in the intersection whose situation was closer to violence. It was possible that cooler heads would prevail here, but inside he doubted it, even discounting the effect of the ghosts that only the shamans could detect. He tilted his head back in frustration and then saw something that confirmed his doubt. Little colored shadows flitting across the tiles three stories above them, heading towards the intersection. They looked like glowing animals.
"Mama Mua, didn't you say that heated emotion can draw disruptive spirits?"
Mua did not bother answering, she just followed his gaze up to the rooftops and cursed. They were small spirits, looking a little like elongated green rabbits made entirely of chopsticks, and they were advancing eagerly towards the two crowds.
Ayika looked equally pained by internal conflict but she reached a decision. She turned away from the intersection. "We don't have time. If we can find Naruhama's mask then this all might be over. We have to go now." As always, Mizumi nodded in agreement.
Xiaobao reluctantly agreed as well. He turned to follow Ma'er's suggested path but then up ahead one of the little spirits leaped off the rooftops down into the crowd of city guards. Screams rose up from the intersection, people must have see the thing. Xiaobao whipped around to see a guard scrabbling at his back where the spirit had landed and now gripped on, but either the spirit dodged every attempt or the panicked man's hands passed right through it. Then the guard suddenly stopped his flailing and drew his sword, seemingly terrified and not recognizing his fellow guards around him.
The man's commander yelled out, "Zhang! Drop your weapon! We'll get that thing off you!" He did not sound confidant, but Zhang was swinging his sword wildly at the other guards and something had to be done. He was seeing something other than his friends around him.
The man Zhang just screamed in reply as he dashed to the middle of his intersection. His trembling sword-point was alternately pointed at the civilians and the guards while on his back the bundle of green glowing sticks poked etherial limbs through his body. The spirit was interfering with his mind somehow, twisting his thoughts so he could only feel fear. Members of both crowds were screaming and many of those shouts referred to killing the guard before he could kill them. Accusations and superstitions were flying. It was nearly the last thing one wanted in the middle of an incipient riot.
Of course, the absolute last thing one wanted was to be in the middle of that situation, but without thought Xiaobao was suddenly there, running up from behind to grapple the spirit influenced man. He honestly did not know when he had started running, he had foreseen the bloodshed that was about to come and then he was tackling the man. Fortunately, the little spirit seemed to be just as startled and after retreating to the man's forehead as he fought against Xiaobao's grasp it leaped off to skitter down into the street's drainage channel. That left Xiaobao wrestling with a very confused but no longer violent city guard in the space between two large and fearsome groups of people.
Someone called out from the citizen barricades, "Hey! That guy is wearing the black headband! I've seen them out in Kuang Harbor!"
Another man joined in. "Yeah! He's standing up to the guards and their spirit magic!"
Both factions were moving closer together now. Despite the desperate clarifications Xiaobao yelled out, he had accidentally become a focal point here. The guards wanted to retrieve their fellow from what they saw as the clutches of a civilian agitator, while the Lower Ring residents tensed and bristled at each step the guards took forward. Many of the locals were convinced that the spirits were the work of the government forces. The rest thoughts that the night's terrors were the fault of the Fire Nation, or of the rabid nationalists, and did not seem to care about the difference between those two groups. Xiaobao was now regretting wearing the black band. Then just as quickly he was no longer the focus of the conflict, but it was no relief.
The Masks had arrived.
From the first screams it took a while for the gathered mob to notice where their more sharp eyed members were pointing. Then they too saw the four human silhouettes crouched up on the tile roof of an apartment building on one corner of this intersection. The light of the many various lamps below washed up the facades and and tiles to reveal the shadows of wing and tentacles and spikes that bristled into their vibrant existence around each of the possessed. The city guards were screaming just as much as the civilians and the Masks joined in the cacophony with a metallic chirping that may have been laughter from the other world. Then one of them seemed to grow bored and with a single careless arm ripped loose an entire cross-beam from the roof on which it stood. The Mask twirled the long thick plank for a moment before it turned and hurled the trunk down into the crowd. Five people vanished, toppled down to the ground under the impact and then the Masks dropped down, ready to find their own amusement in the fragile humans before them.
The intersection exploded into chaos. People screamed and ran in every direction, succeeding only in colliding. There were some stalwart souls from the barricades who rushed forward to muster a defense and there were uniformed guards who sprinted to flee over those barriers they had been ordered to tear down. Xiaobao planted himself to fight the buffeting human turmoil as he pushed forward. It was all he could think to do to yell out what little he knew about the Masks with a force that hurt his throat.
"Don't let them grab you! Knock them of your feet if you can, or distract them! Those things are strong but their minds are addled! Come on! Stand firm! If you run they will chase!"
Xiaobao looked to his side and saw that somehow he was standing with three green uniformed city guards holding bared short-swords as people fled around them. Then they were joined by Lower Ring men in shopkeeper's uniforms, rags, embroidered gowns in equal numbers. Xiaobao looked around to find who was in charge and a sinking pit in his stomach told him that at least in this little knot of people it was probably him. There was something wrong with people if they listened to him just because he was big, but he did not have time to think about that.
"Any benders, focus on restraining them! And as you're doing that move east to draw the Masks away from the people running north! You guys, put those swords away! They're not going to do anything to the possessed and you'll just be chopping us up! Everyone get something blunt and heavy since they don't actually weigh any more than before and...Hold on!"
He was interrupted by the bursting arrival of a thin man in a mask, wrapped in shadows of yellow leaves and a transparent crown of branches. The thing introduced its self by grabbing a guard who turned to run and lifting him carelessly into the air. The Mask tilted its head as it looked curiously at the screaming man it held, then it adjusted its other hand to grip on to his arm and prepared for experimentation. Before the snap came, Xiaobao hit the spirit-wrapped Mask with a shoulder check filled with every bit of power he could muster. That thing had been unprepared for such resistance and went flying. Behind him, Xiaobao saw people managing to climb up behind the half built barricades which at least seemed to shield them from the Mask's notice. Perhaps they looked like too much effort. Then he looked back at the furious rising Yellow Mask who was probably about to kill him. Xinfei was right, he did not always think things through.
The Mask stamped its foot and screeched like the groan of a forest tree slowly falling. It spread its hands as grasping claws and prepared to pounce. Then a jet of water smashed into its head as a another stream slammed into its feet, sending it flipping and spinning.
Xiaobao spun to see Mama Mua preparing for her next strike.
"Boy," she said. "You're the stupidest thing Ah have ever run into. But then again in second place is me so I'm stuck here too. Let's thrash these things."
She gathered up her floating whips of water for another attack against the recovering Mask but a brick went flying by over her shoulder to smack the possessed man in the head, followed by another flurry of projectiles thrown by both earthbending and simple human arms. The people were fighting back. They had not yet seen what Xiaobao knew in his stomach. It was not going to work.
...
Mizumi fought her way through the streets that led out past the embattled intersection, jabbing out with elbows and shoving with her shoulder to make some avenue through the press of fearful people. From slightly behind, Ayika gripped tightly onto her wrist to keep from being separated. This neighborhood ahead was the heart of the chaos in the Lower Ring. It represented the point where the people who were fleeing the advance of the furious guards met those who were fleeing from the maelstrom of fire and spirits and Masks that represented the epicenter of the disturbance between the worlds. Mizumi then turned a corner and came face to face with a stone slab filling the mouth of an intersecting street. There were screams and shouts coming from the other side.
At her side, Ayika cursed at the barrier. It was not the first they had seen tonight. She said, "The guards raised the blocks here too. But that is the right direction. The ghosts are getting more numerous the closer we get. And it sounds like there are people past this. If we could find a way..."
"Ayika!" Mizumi pulled Ayika back as a man climbed over the top of the raised slab wall where it met with one of the buildings and dropped down, landing heavily where Ayika had been standing a moment ago. More people were climbing out of the windows on each side of the raised slab, piling over each other as the structures creaked and cracked from the press of people shoving their way up and through them. One woman slipped as she lowered herself out of a crowded window and landed wrong on the street below, suddenly screaming out a shriek of pain as she broke something in her leg.
Mizumi looked around at the direction she and Ayika had come from. "Did we manage to stay with any of the other...?"
She broke off speaking as she recognized one person on the street with them who was not running. Ma'er was still with them. The earthbender in his dark green robes walked up to the wall that blocked the road, finding a place in the empty space directly in the center away from the sides where climbing people spilled over, and planted his stance. Then he thrust out his hands, transitioning between powerful, firm magical gestures. There was a muffled scraping of grinding stone from the street below their feet and then, suddenly, the slab dropped down. But with a slam the slab suddenly stopped its fall and tilted, the right side staying half way raised as the left angled down further. Ma'er muttered something about earthbending guards not operating things properly but he waved Mizumi and Ayika over to him.
There was a way over the neighborhood barrier but it was instantly filled by men and women from the other side, thugs and families, all trying to get away, fleeing to no particular destination other than away from here. Mizumi recoiled from the wide-eyed fear in these people's soot stained faces, the kind of fear that would lead a person to do anything to protect them and theirs. They were dangerous. However, any earthbenders who might have lived here had long since used their power to flee, so Ma'er was the most dangerous individual left. He called out to Ayika and Mizumi as he summoned up a shield of levitating bricks to push through the breech he had made. It was a close thing but the three of them finally got over the barrier and the neighborhood denizens resumed their trampling headlong flight.
Mizumi just had time to turn towards Ma'er to give him thanks before she was stopped by a sudden sound. The Mask fell from the cloudy, smoke filled night and landed with a thud on the half-fallen barrier. People tumbled back, screaming, while the thing wreathed in a blue aurora roared out like the grinding of glaciers. Then half of a brick building facade exploded outwards to crash into the possessed monstrosity.
Ma'er was on the attack. He wasted no time telling the girls to run; he had enough faith in their own sense for that. Indeed, they were already running as the earthbender transferred into a series of punches that tore up pieces of the street to shoot forth at the Mask. It dodged to the side, spectral blue claws sinking into building walls at it dashed along vertical slopes before grabbing onto a falling chimney which Ma'er had just ripped free to send crashing down on the Mask. It ripped the massive brick object out of his magical influence like a ball of paper but the ground had already flung Ma'er up and out the way. From behind her as she ran away Mizumi heard more sounds, of shattering tiles and crunching wood and of the laughter of angry spirits over the terrified screams of helpless people. All she could do was to keep running and keep Ayika beside her.
When the two of them were around several corners and out of the immediate conflict they took a moment to catch their breath, leaning against a heavily boarded up storefront. On the dirt below their feet, here and there lay scattered debris of personal effects that had slipped through the hands of those who had evacuated from here. Down the narrow street a tall apartment building, hopefully empty, had transformed into a towering inferno, turning the black night orange. The flames were spreading to neighboring structures and there was no chance of help arriving to stop it. Even in a best case scenario, tonight an area larger than Mizumi's home town in the Nation would burn to the ground. And that was if Ayika actually succeeded in her mission.
Mizumi looked over to meet Ayika's eyes. They were all that remained together of the group that had set out from Kuang Harbor. The others had been lost in the chaos of the clash with the Masks. They had no idea if Ma'er would be able to lose that Mask and if he would be able to find them again. They could not afford to stay in place to help him. Things were getting worse by the moment. The free spirits and the Masks were both growing still stronger and by now even Mizumi was starting to see dim grey shadows flitting slowly across the streets. She flinched away as one drew closer and she felt a shiver of anger, fear, and hunger for everything she had never had. Ayika's grimace confirmed it. The ghosts were all around them, and even Ayika's shaman abilities could not keep them away for more than a moment. This world was coming apart at the seams and on Mizumi's cheeks the cold of night mixed with the harsh radiating heat of the fires.
There was a sound of pounding footsteps behind them. Four people, three men and a woman came barreling around a shadowed corner and stopped, supporting themselves bent over with hands on their knees as they regained their breath. Mizumi saw Ayika look up at them and briefly her eyes showed a desire to help them before becoming wearily sorrowful. Mizumi understood why. She could see the faint suggestions of grey shadows that were now inching towards those newcomers who were not protected by the authority of even an untrained shaman.
The woman in the fleeing group straightened up and saw the two girls on the other side of the abandoned, half-burnt street. She called out, "Hey, are you all right? That blue thing attacked back there at the quarter border, we'll need to head another way."
Ayika silently shook her head. They did not need to find a way out. They were heading deeper in and that path would lead these people only closer to danger. Mizumi took her lead and began to walk away from the small group, angling towards a small street mouth that seemed to be going in the direction they had been heading.
One of the men stepped forward. "Hold on a minute! It's ok, you can stay with us! We live over on Paniu road; We know other ways out of here."
His friend now put an arm up as he moved in the same direction. "Wait, Wenpu, look at that girl. She's one of those foreigners!"
Mizumi tensed up, ready for what was coming next but he continued, "She's a Tribal! That's why she's refusing to talk to us!"
For a moment Mizumi felt flat footed. Then she realized that in the dark night and in a local styles of dress, a woman from the Fire Nation might pass for a native of the city. However, Ayika's naturally tanned skin marked her out. Ayika called back, letting her thick local accent out to prove her residency. "You get out now! We've got to run back and grab an heirloom before everything burns up!"
"What the hell kind of heirlooms would a Tribal have here? And with a friend dressed like a freaking courtesan." Those previously concerned faces were now clouded with suspicion. The four of them continued moving towards the girls. "Those Tribals are always involved with spirits aren't they?"
The woman lowered her brow. "Yeah, they are. Their witch doctors unleashed a bunch of spirits back during the war. Killed a whole Fire Nation fleet, I heard. So what's one of them doing here?"
"I saw that thing which attacked back there, it was glowing blue and had transparent tentacles. Fought that earthbender. That sounds like spirit magic to me. And I heard that foreigners killed a minister up in the Inner Ring."
Mizumi wanted to scream at them that they had gotten absolutely everything wrong, but one hint of her accent could only make things worse. Not that she immediately saw how that could be managed, the nearly invisible apparitions that signaled the hungry ghosts were clutching at these people. The ghosts were unseen by their victims but Mizumi noticed a feverish expression of fear cross cross the people's eyes as the touch of the departed began to cloud their thoughts. Ayika was still trying to convince them to go their own way, but their addled minds had reached their own conclusion. The four locals advanced, spreading out into a semi circle.
Diplomacy had failed. Now it was time for another approach. Mizumi reached in her jacket sleeve to under the studded band on her forearm and drew forth her knife. Those people were paying attention to her now. Abandoning concerns about her accent, Mizumi said, "Just go on your way away from the danger. We are heading the opposite direction so there is no need for this meeting to be prolonged." She had to do something, even if she heard Ayika hiss faintly in regret as she saw the knife be drawn.
The local residents flinched back from the bared blade, but they frowned more and they did not leave. "What's with that voice? Is she a foreigner too?"
"Yeah, she looks a bit funny now that I see. Foreigners sneaking around behind the evacuation? I bet they're part of this! They probably set the fires themselves! Them and their spirit magic allies!" That man leaned down and grabbed a metal candlestick off the street that someone had carried all this way only to loose a grip on. Sweat beaded on his brow and his eyes were wide, darting back and forth as dim grey shadows flitted through his brain.
Ayika tried to bring some sense back. "No! We're just trying to...!"
The woman and the man with the candlestick moved towards Mizumi. Mizumi brandished her knife, making swiping gestures to keep them back, but they still managed to force her a few steps backwards. It was too late before she realized that they had managed to almost separate her from Ayika. That was when one of the other men lunged at Ayika, violent intent writ on his clenched fists. Mizumi yelled out, Ayika moved, and the man grunted in pain as he crumpled into himself clutching between his legs where Ayika had struck. The next man grabbed out at her but somehow she managed to spin him around past her. However, he came back again, bowling into her with his entire weight. No matter how many tricks Ayika knew, she could not do anything about the fact that he was a foot taller and almost twenty kilograms heavier than her. She fell back onto the street.
In that instant all Mizumi's innate reservations about using a weapon against another human vanished. The constant, frightened monologue of her thoughts blinked out of existence and in two deep breaths she was at Ayika's side as if she had skipped the intervening space. Then the proof that she had not done so made its self known. A man and a woman both screamed out, clutching towards the bleeding slashes that had been laid open in an arm and a hand. Mizumi turned back, eyes narrowed as her heart continued to thud in her ears. She was ready to move again, knife prepared to stab instead of cut this time.
Luckily, in their assailants fear had been pushed over the edge from aggression to terror. They stumbled back. Mizumi glanced over to check on Ayika and after receiving a nod of mercifully unhurt confirmation they both watchfully sidled across the rest of the street for another path out of there. The four ghost addled citizens slowly vanished from view as they both slid around the corner. Then Mizumi and Ayika turned to run.
At the next street intersection it was clear they were not being pursued. Mizumi panted as she turned around, trying to regain her bearings. "All right, I believe that this is the direction we were heading in. I think..." She raised her arm to point and winced as a new rising bruise made itself known. The edge of that metal candlestick had struck her shoulder fairly hard. Luckily it was not the same shoulder that Naruhama's fire had burned. Even with Mama Mua's short session of healing those still hurt too well.
Ayika noticed that flinch. She grabbed Mizumi to hold her still and ease the jacket half off as she looked closely at the new injury, seemingly grateful that the golden qipao underneath was sleeveless for ease of inspection. As she came in close, Mizumi hurried to awkwardly move her knife out of the way. The vicious desires she had felt a moment ago were now surfacing in her memory. She did not want Ayika to think of her that way. Ayika noticed that too.
Ayika reached out to put her hand on Mizumi's wrist right above where her clutched hand held the knife. Ayika looked up to meet Mizumi's eyes. "Thank you. That blade saved me, I know it. I'm not afraid of it, in fact, I bless it."
Despite her weariness and the thudding pain which now seemed to come from every part of her body Mizumi felt the corners of her mouth twitch up into a smile. Ayika was covered in soot and dirt, her hair growing wilder as it slowly escaped from its braids. And yet she was so beautiful. Mizumi knew that she was just as filthy, with the addition of a few spots of blood, but when Ayika looked back at her like that she felt beautiful too. They did not say anything else to each other but they turned and walked off, deeper into the heat and the flickering dark of the endless burning streets.
...
(Author's note: Just three chapters to go!)