FALL SEVEN TIMES
by Ulquiorra9000
Chapter 4
Lord Calzotto's body had barely hit the floor when the newcomer looked up at Mizuki and Azrael.
"Are you with him?" she demanded.
"Call it a convenient partnership," Azrael said carefully. "Not all his enemies are mine. That in mind, who are you?"
The woman tossed her dark hair. "Never mind my name. Lord Calzotto here..." She nudged his body with a booted foot. "... went too far this time. When you push too hard, others push back. That old fool."
She was probably in her mid-twenties, with jaw-length dark hair and an angular face. She wore a leather vest and blue undershirt whose sleeves ran to her knuckles, the perfect place to hide weapons. More weapons and items were clasped to her utility belt, and at the moment, she had a gold knife in her left hand, partly hidden under her long sleeve.
"You were interrupting," Azrael said, taking a step closer.
"I don't have to do this on Lord Calzotto's schedule, or yours," the woman bit back. She twirled the gold knife in her hand as a warning.
"The guards... they would have warned him of your intrusion," Azrael said sharply. "His earpiece picks up everything they - wait. You actually snuck past everyone, didn't you?"
The woman smiled coyly. "That I did. But now my friends are going to take care of the guards anyway, now that Lord Calzotto's going cold."
"I approached him for assistance on my friend's quest," Azrael said doggedly, gesturing to Mizuki with an open hand. "And you'd deny that to her? Do us a courtesy and step aside. I have need of Lord Calzotto's -"
"Forget it!" The woman tensed as though to spring. "My allies are already all over this mansion to secure it, like I told you earlier. Get out of here while you still can."
Mizuki wished that she could draw her wakizashi faster. Something in that woman's tone didn't sit well with her...
"Then watch me," Azrael said, taking another step closer. "I need to get into Lord Calzotto's armory for a few items. I'll claim them for my own, if that makes you happier. They won't be used in any fashion that could upset you."
The woman held her knife at the ready. "No deal. His ill-gotten gains are all forfeit! This mansion is gonna get picked clean. Get out now."
Mizuki tugged on Azrael's arm. "Maybe someone else can help us, Azrael. C'mon..."
Azrael shook his head. "I don't have enough pull with the other aristocrats," he muttered to Mizuki. "And besides, Lord Calzotto was something of a friend. I'll buy you a few seconds. Get ready..."
Mizuki felt a thrill of adrenaline.
Azrael manifested his intense blue-black mana aura and sprang.
Shattered tile shards blasted into the air as Azrael threw a heavy punch that the assassin woman dodged, his knuckles instead slamming into the polished floor. Almost as fast, Azrael crouched and swung out a roundhouse kick that whistled through the air.
The assassin vaulted over the kick and delivered a counter-kick that connected with Azrael's head. The red-head was sent crumpling, and the assassin prepared to bring her knife down on him.
"No!" Mizuki had her wakizashi out and ready by the time the assassin brought her knife down. The blade intercepted the assassin's knife and knocked it aside, and with a flourish, Mizuki swung for the assassin's neck.
Pain blasted in Mizuki's throat as the assassin wove her way around Mizuki's attack and punched her neck. Mizuki fell to her knees, gasping for breath, dropping her sword to clutch her throat. Her head swam.
A second later, Mizuki dimly felt the assassin's booted toes crash into the side of her head, and she felt herself sprawl just like Azrael. Through her pain-dimmed vision, Mizuki saw the assassin run deeper into Lord Calzotto's sunlit entrance hall and around a corner.
At the same time, more assassins emerged from various doors.
Are... all the guards already dead? So fast? Mizuki groaned and got to her feet, picking up her sword. She bared her teeth. "Azrael!"
The red-head was already on his feet, blue-black mana thrumming around him. "Help me take out the minions. We can't let anyone steal Lord Calzotto's possessions!"
At least a dozen assassins, all dressed like their leader, closed in on Azrael and Mizuki, knives and short swords drawn. But none seemed to have mana auras.
Good.
The assassins silently converged on the two planeswalkers and unleashed their combined fury.
While Azrael held off a few assassins nearby, Mizuki ducked and weaved her way through furious blades and kicked one assassin's knee with all her strength. Though small, Mizuki knew where the human body was vulnerable, and sure enough, the assassin cried out and fell to his knees, dropping his blade. Mizuki's wakizashi drew a deep cut across his chest, and the assassin was thrown onto his back. Blood seeped into his uniform.
Two more assassins moved in. They threw lightning-fast jabs in a well-disciplined pattern, and Mizuki grunted in pain as a few blows landed. Her head and neck ached horribly, her legs wobbling under her. Focus!
An assassin returned the favor and swept his leg out, blasting Mizuki's right leg out from under her. But instead of crumpling, Mizuki rolled into her fall's momentum and sprang back up on the assassin's exposed flank. She jabbed a fist to stun the man's knife arm, then raised her wakizashi to slice him apart.
Too slow; the assassin whirled around and swung his fist in a hasty blow that knocked Mizuki's head to the side. Then the other assassin delivered a kick that finally sent Mizuki sprawling.
Damn it! Mizuki felt her wakizashi fly out of her hand and saw it clatter to the tiled floor out of reach. Meanwhile, the two assassins loomed over her, leering at her.
Just before they could strike, Azrael came crashing in. Mizuki watched in glee as he blasted an assassin aside with a mana-infused punch, and then the man sank a terrific blow in an assassin's stomach and shoved him right into his ally. Both assassins stumbled back, all tangled up.
Despite her aching body, Mizuki sprang to her feet again and scooped up her wakizashi. She gouged open one assassin's chest, then impaled the other in the gut with a furious shout. Both men collapsed in a spreading red pool.
Azrael whirled like a dervish in a twisting display of blue-black mana, and he sent three more assassins sprawling, their faces bruised or arms broken, all crying out in agony. The few remaining assassins broke ranks and fled, expertly vaulting up the walls and retreating through open doors on the second level.
Mizuki wiped her brow. "Nice one."
Azrael nodded tightly. "Come on!"
He sprinted through Lord Calzotto's mansion with Mizuki taking up the rear, and he didn't stop until he passed through a side hall and into a square, stone-walled room. All kinds of weapons, armor, and other items hung on the wall in display racks or sat behind enchanted glass cases.
The assassin leader was already there.
"Why can't you jokers just get out of my way?" she snarled. "What did Lord Calzotto ever do to earn this loyalty?"
"Believe me, I'm doing this out of necessity," Azrael told her grimly.
"And I have a contract to fulfill," the woman retorted. "Guess what that means?"
She sprang.
But this time, on a cushion of white mana.
The assassin crashed right into Azrael like a cougar and pinned him to the stone floor, her enchanted left hand holding him down by the throat, the other preparing to bring that gold knife down on his face.
Mizuki shouted and swung her wakizashi at the assassin's exposed back.
The mundane blade bounced off a white mana barrier. Kind of like the sort Morrel could conjure.
No! Mizuki watched as the gold knife blade came down -
Blue-black mana sizzled on the woman's left hand and dissolved her enchantment. The mana seared the woman's bare hand and she cried out, drawing back for just one precious second.
Her knife attack went wide and gouged into Azrael's right shoulder instead.
"You should know better than to touch someone with mana like mine," Azrael growled, getting to his feet, his left hand clapped over his wound. "A hard lesson, isn't it?"
The woman examined her mana-burned palm. "Nice try, bastard."
She leaped again, but this time, right at Mizuki.
Mizuki brought her wakizashi to bear, but too late; the assassin knocked Mizuki's blade aside and swung out with her gold blade. Mizuki gasped as the blade drew a shallow cut across her chest, and her shirt felt warm and wet from blood.
Already, the assassin was swinging again, and Mizuki ducked just in time to avoid the deadly blow. But the assassin's knee came out, and it made hard contact with Mizuki's forehead. Mizuki felt herself get thrown onto her back again, her ears ringing, her body suddenly limp.
That bitch!
Azrael reached out and seized the assassin's knife wrist, wrenching it at a harsh angle until the woman yelped in pain and dropped her weapon.
Then she jabbed her other elbow right into Azrael's face.
Azrael stumbled back, his nose bleeding horribly, his eyes blinking in shock. He could do little as the assassin drew a longer, thinner, silver knife from her other sleeve and jabbed it at Azrael's neck.
Blue-black mana gathered at the point of contact and melted the weapon.
"What... you son of a bitch!" the assassin snarled. She dropped the knife's handle before it could dissolve in her hand. She retaliated with a knee kick that stunned Azrael for a precious second, and a hard jab sent him stumbling back into a wall.
Azrael! Mizuki dropped her useless wakizashi and reached out for anything she could reach. Her hand suddenly gripped a short sword's handle.
All she could do was swing the sword and pray.
Red-white mana flared to life along the short sword's blade, and the sparking mana tore through the assassin woman's mana shields and carved right into her back.
The smell of burnt flesh choked Mizuki's nostrils as the woman's body was seared on the spot.
Without another word, the assassin collapsed, her white mana gone, her body limp.
Azrael carefully approached Mizuki, the short sword's enchantments reflecting in his awestruck eyes. "That's a hell of an enchantment," he commented.
Mizuki panted for breath, gently lowering the sword. It was totally ordinary, aside from its enchantment: polished black wood handle, silver pommel, steel cross guard and blade... light and elegant in her hands. "Lord Calzotto has some good stuff in here, huh?"
"Very." Azrael looked around. "Quick: power off that enchantment and prepare to planeswalk away with me. Those other assassins might come back, and we have no further business here, anyway."
Mizuki squeezed the handle and mentally commanded the sword to power off. To her delight, it instantly obeyed her thoughts.
Neat!
Azrael picked up a pair of brass bracers with inset rubies and put them on. "Do you have any first-aid supplies in your pack?"
"Yeah. 'Course I do." Mizuki unslung her pack and drew out a roll of mildly enchanted gauze, and neatly wrapped up Azrael's and her own wounds. "Give it a few hours, and the cuts will totally close and heal," Mizuki explained with a weary grin.
"Impressive." Azrael conjured his blue-black mana gate."Lead the way back to Kamigawa," he said grimly, his red hair tossed around by the gate's energies. "Time's bound to be running out."
Mizuki felt a horrible chill as she activated her own gate. Azrael was no doubt right. How far had the Gitaxian Phyrexians already gotten on her home?
Deciding to leave her mundane wakizashi behind, Mizuki deposited her new sword into her pack and stepped into her gate, making fast strides across the Blind Eternities, leaving green-black footprints of raw mana as she went. Azrael easily kept up beside her on his long legs as other planes passed them by, some familiar, some not.
Mizuki stood at the edge of Kamigawa's atmosphere, right over where Juka-no-Nadachi was. She took a deep breath and thought one word.
Please...