Chapter 74:
Use Every Tool at Your Disposal
I have another amazing announcement for you all! Sparo di Fiamma shall be translating this fic into Spanish for us. So I hope any of you Spanish speakers take a look and support them. The first chapter is up already for you all to read. (Wow the first chapter… that was sooo long ago.)
"There are many different ways to utilise illusions in battle. In general Illusionists are not built for the front lines, although with Mukuro's new powers, he could do both. However, in most cases, Illusionists provide diversions and distractions so that the other team members can come in and finish the job." Mammon explains to her two pupils.
She was currently sat on a chair in their cell room, the four children laying or sitting at her feet, listening intently. Ken and Chikusa had nothing better to do than sit and listen, plus they wanted to know more about how their brother and sister fought. It sounded like Chrome would need a lot of protection if she was ever sent into battle. Not that it would matter, they'd always be with her of course.
"That's not to say that Illusionists can't kill by themselves, they are just as capable. But Illusionists usually go about it in a less direct manner. Depending on the strength of the illusionist, it is possible to either force a different person to kill the target by accident or cause the target to kill themselves."
A member of the Estraneo, who had been leaning against the wall behind her, nods in agreement. He himself wasn't an Illusionist, these two children were the only Illusionists in the whole Family, but it was still good to get an understanding of how their new tools worked. Plus Mammon was a Varia professional, it would be a good chance to study her and look and listen for weaknesses. And from the talk, physical weaknesses seemed to be on top of that list.
Mammon turned the illusionary whiteboard back to face her before writing on it again with a floating pen.
"Once you are inside a target's head using your Mist Flames, it is possible to turn one enemy against another, causing either one or both to be killed."
This is a good way to defend yourselves since this can be done from a distance. It is also a good way to protect someone else if you are too far away to reach or shout at them.
"It is not suggested that you make the target kill themselves since this often doesn't work."
It does. But it requires a larger amount of Flames. I still wouldn't try it until you are a lot better than you are now.
"Illusions can only affect humans. Any human can be affected by it."
Some better than others. Be careful of people who have discipline, like masters of Martial arts who have trained their body to answer their every command. Martial artists often use other senses than sight which may throw an illusion off. Scientists too can be hard to handle because of their strong grasp of reality.
The children give her a weird look. Scientists and a strong grasp of reality? Really? Had she taken a look at her own scientist recently? The man across the room notices the look but assumed that they are offended by Mammon's over simplified and rather obvious statement.
Scientists deal in facts. The laws of Physics are set and unchangeable. They are more likely to spot flaws in illusions. A scientist who knows about Illusionists will immediately jump to the conclusion that it is an Illusionist messing with them. Some scientists are easier to take control of because they aren't entirely sane, but not all scientists are as the media depicts them.
"Animals cannot be controlled by an illusionist, unless they are ones the Illusionist has created themselves."
False. Animals can be controlled. She looks at Mukuro here. Those animals you summon are controllable. It will be hard because their minds are not like human ones. You need different thoughts to control them. Getting them to do what you want them to is best done by pulling at their instincts- food, or the fight and flight instinct. Because animals are so unreliable due to their small brain size and intelligence, most Illusionists don't bother targeting them, seeing it as a waste of Flames.
"OI byon, why did you look at me then? I'm smart!" Ken shouts, looking at the smirk Mukuro had given him and the funny look that was equivalent to a smirk from Chikusa. Chrome gives him a few pats on the head and Ken purrs, foot beating against the floor like a dog. This makes the other three giggle. Ken pouts before crossing his arms and moodily looking in the other direction. He couldn't help it!
"Illusions are most commonly applied externally, or within everyone's sight." Mammon flicks her wrist before a set of tarot cards sits in her palm. She clicks and they disappear. "But as you already know they can be applied internally too. It is possible for the illusion to tell the person how to feel."
Controlling a person's emotions is very hard to do because there are so many factors. If the feeling is based on reality then it is easier to do. Making someone love you is harder if that person hates you. But if they love or like you, then it's easier and requires less Flames. More Flames are required to force a person to kill or steal if they are very against the idea, finding it morally wrong. Fear is generally the easiest emotion to cause in others. It's a very useful one too. People attack out blindly in fear, which can be used as a form of attack on your target. Or else people run.
However, as you know, it is also possible to control how a person's body reacts to itself. Mukuro is telling Chrome's body that the missing pieces are still there and working, fooling her body into thinking that it is fine. It is also possible for a strong illusionist to remove the feeling of pain totally. HOWEVER, this is not recommended. The body will still be collecting damage, bones will still get broken and blood will still be lost. It is still possible for a person to collapse or die even if they don't feel any pain. I only ever do this with Skull because he knows when to stop. However there are times when not feeling pain is beneficial to the mission. Or to each other.
"Illusions work best when you are familiar with the thing you are trying to create. It is easier to imaging something you are familiar with. In addition, the smaller the object then the easier it is. Creating an apple will be very easy because it is so small and most people have eaten one. You can pull from both your experience and the experience of the target to make it almost perfect. Creating illusions from imagination alone is harder and is more likely to go wrong."
Creating an 'experience' is harder. Creating an illusion of the floor cracking and falling from under you means that you have to know what falling feels like, including the sensation of your stomach dropping, the wind through your hair and the innate fear of falling itself. Personally, Mukuro will be good at creating illusions involving pain because of the experiments the Estraneo did. Chrome will be good at creating the illusion of a heart attack, a stroke, nausea and other such bodily pains because of her own experiences. Of course if your target hasn't experienced it either, then quite often just imagination alone will suffice. Reading books and watching as much television as possible is recommended since people are more likely to believe clichés.
"Using illusions can make you invisible by erasing yourself from the target's sight. You can also make groups of people disappear too. It is important to remember that these people are still there. Unless you make it so, they will still be heard or smelt. They can still be run into, attacked, or trip into a table and cause it to fall over. People will still be seen on cameras and other surveillance systems."
Become strong enough and you can even fool machinery. I'll tell you what you need to think about when you become a little older.
Viper looks over at Chrome, wondering how much of this the little girl really understands. Mukuro would get most of it since he was that much older than her. Chrome was currently sat on Mukuro's lap, directly infront of Viper. This was so that the observer behind her couldn't see Mukuro and Chrome. Chrome wasn't able to read just yet, being only 4, so Mukuro had been whispering what Viper had written, making it simpler for her to understand.
She makes clear eye contact with Mukuro before looking down at Chrome and back up at him. He nods his head in understanding. What she was about to write was specifically for her.
In summary, illusions work in one of two ways; Making yourself believe something or making someone else believe something. It's easier to make someone believe something if they want to believe it, or if it is possible in the current situation. Illusions of things you know or have experienced are better and easier to create than illusions you are making up. You shouldn't use illusions on yourself unless necessary, hence why Mukuro controls your organs. Using an illusion on yourself can make you go crazy.
Next time I'll teach you how to defend yourselves from other people and from other illusionists. That includes you two. She looks at Ken and Chikusa, making sure they realise they were being taught next time too.
"That is all for today." She says, making the whiteboard disappear. She stands up and walks towards the door. "My next lesson won't be for a while since I'm going on a mission with the Varia today."
"Alright then, alright then, back into your cells." Orders the observer. He growls when the children don't get up quick enough. "C'mon, I ain't got all day." He strides over to where Mukuro and Chrome were, Chrome still finding her feet since they had gone numb from sitting down for so long.
The man raises his leg to kick the small girl with. But suddenly he turns a rather strange shade of green and puts his foot on back on the ground.
"Urgh, something must have been off with lunch." He mumbles, a hand against his mouth.
The four children look towards Mammon, who is standing in the doorway, her arm extended towards the man, her hand spread out in his direction. She didn't need to make these dramatic hand gestures, but it worked for her current purpose. Slowly she closes her fist. The man makes a weird gurgling sound before running out of the room, looking greener than before.
"Haha! Serves him right!" Cheers Ken, sticking his tongue out at the man's retreating back.
"Thank you Mammon." Says Chikusa.
Mammon doesn't say anything back. She just turns and walks away.
"Mammon would get into a lot of trouble if anyone ever found out what she's doing." Mukuro comments, handing over Chrome's owl plushie before returning back to his own cell. "The people that run the Family wouldn't like the fact she is teaching us how to use illusions to protect each other. And they would be mad that she is telling the observers wrong information. She's the only Illusionist on the island so they don't have anyone to ask to see if she is correct or not."
"But it's good that she's teaching you this stuff. Our Keepers only told her to teach us how to kill using illusions but she's doing more than that." Chikusa adds in, nodding his head.
"All they want us for is killing people." Grumbles Ken. "I wish we were out of here already, then we wouldn't be told what to do."
"No more ouches." Adds in Chrome. Ken nods; yes they wouldn't be beaten up anymore if they were free.
"Maybe I should just use my claws on them instead. See how they like the ouches." Ken thinks, looking at his hands. They were currently claw-less, but that was easily fixed with one bite.
"Kufufufu, there is no need to trouble yourself Ken." Mukuro assures in a confident voice, "We shall be free of here sooner than you think. It is nearly time for me to put my plan into action. The 'key' to our salvation shall be here soon. And then we can watch as the Estraneo is destroyed. We'll never have to worry about them ever again."
"Hey hey! Vip-ah-Mammon, Mammon! You should see the huge cake Luce made today. It's 7 cakes stacked on top of each other and they're all different colours. It's amaz- ohhh, Mammon isn't here." Tsunayoshi pouts. He had been opening the door to the room where the four Estraneo experiments were kept, hoping to tell her about this jaw dropping cake. But when Verde finally pushed open the door fully for him, she wasn't in there.
"Hey, Tsunayoshi's back!" sings Ken, walking up to the bars.
"You just missed Mammon. She left a few minutes ago." Chikusa explains.
"Ohh, I was hoping she could pull the picture out of my head so I could show you guys." Tsunayoshi says, walking further in the room.
"Tsunayoshi, I'll be back shortly. Make sure to stay here until I come back." Verde interrupts. Tsunayoshi nods- he got that sentence every single time he came here. Verde nods himself before closing the door.
"What do you mean 'take the picture out of your head'?" Asks Mukuro, intrigued. He had never heard her mention that before.
"Didn't you know that Mammon can read minds? She puts a finger on your head and she can tell what you're thinking." The four then nod. Mammon had done that to communicate with Chrome when the girl was still learning how to talk. She still did it sometimes; pictures and feelings were easier to understand than words when it came to illusions. "She does it whenever I can't explain something properly because I don't know what it's called." It took all the fun out of charades, but sometimes the Arcobaleno didn't want to play that game. "Or when I'm crying so much I can't talk. But anyway, she could take the picture of the cake and then make it so you all could see it. Verde says there are rules or something that means I can't bring you any cake."
"I wish I could eat that cake. 7 layers sounds soo yummy." Ken practically drools thinking about that cake.
"It's a shame that we can't be free of here and eat Luce's delicious cooking." Mukuro says, leaning against the bars and looking forlorn.
"Cute mouse clothes." Chrome whispers, looking at Tsunayoshi excitedly. "I want some. You get really pretty clothes." Chrome looked down at her own clothes. They didn't look bad at the moment, but that was only because they had gotten a new set when their training began. Her old set had lots of rips and holes in them.
Tsunayoshi looks down at his brand new clothes and realises what the others mean. He'd never seen them in anything but those cream-gone-grey clothes all the time. He felt kind of bad about it.
"Hey, why are your clothes wet?" Ken asks, leaning as far forwards as he could.
"Hmm? Because it's raining outside and I forgot the umbrella. Verde didn't think to bring one either. I kind of ran out of the house without him in my excitement." Tsunayoshi blushes as he looks down. He had wanted to tell Viper about the cake so badly he'd ran out of the house without thinking. She was going on a mission soon and he wanted to see her one more time before she left. He'd have to stop by the Varia house and see if she was there.
"Rain? I wonder what that's like?" Ken hums, sitting down on all fours to think.
"You wouldn't like it since it's like a shower. Which you hate." Chikusa remarks, giving Ken a look. The other boy hated it when they got showers- the Estraneo didn't waste time on baths for them all.
"But I wouldn't mind getting wet if it meant I could be outside. Someone said that it smells a lot better after it rains. And there's grass! I've always wanted to roll in the grass!" Ken claims dramatically, laying back on the hard concrete of the cell floor. "I wanna go outside." He whines.
"Oh yeah, you don't go outside much do you?" Tsunayoshi thinks, a small frown on his face. In fact the only time he had ever seen them outside was during his birthday party. It must be awful to not be able to go outside. It was hard enough staying in his room when he'd been naughty. But never leaving his room was just unthinkable.
"Well, it can't be helped. We are trapped and Tsunayoshi is free. That's just how things are." Mukuro comments, shrugging his shoulders.
"But you're not going to stay in here forever! You're my friends. I won't let you!" Tsunayoshi shouts. Surely when the others were older they'd be let out? It was really mean to never let them out. Maybe he should get Bermuda to tell the Estraneo off?
"You'd really do that Tsunayoshi? That's awesome." Smiles Ken, jumping back up to his feet in excitement. He'd never had someone say that before. And Tsunayoshi wasn't like all the horrible adults.
"Of course. You're my friends and I'd always look after you." Tsunayoshi smiles back brightly.
"You did get Verde to look after us." Chikusa says, backing Tsunayoshi up.
"I like being friends." Chrome smiles, hugging Mukurowl tightly. "Can… can we be friends for ever?" She asks, blushing slightly.
Running over to her cage, Tsunayoshi leans through the bars and strokes her hair. "Of course Chrome. For ever and ever and ever!"
"Oya Oya? Would you really? Then promise us." Mukuro demands.
"I promise." Tsunayoshi says seriously.
Mukuro clicks his tongue and looks away. "Anyone can say words. The adults promised us a lot of things but they've all been broken. If you really want to promise then you should swear on your blood. I hear that if you break a blood promise then you die. People keep promises they make if they swear it on their blood."
Tsunayoshi tilts his head. "Hm? I've never heard of that before. But okay, I'll promise that way. I really will be your friend always. So how do we do it?"
"Just let us out and I can show you." Mukuro directs, trying hard to hide the smirk on his face. So close. He was so close. He wanted to laugh at how easy this was.
Before long all five of them are sat in a circle in the middle of the room. "To make this promise you have to cut yourself so some blood wells up and then you press the cuts together, so it's like having everyone else's blood." Mukuro explains. The others don't look scared. After what they had been through a small cut was nothing. Tsunayoshi got cuts and scrapes on a daily basis.
Holding his hand out to the side, he concentrates and before long, the top half of a trident appears in his hands. It was his favourite, the best way for him to concentrate on his illusions.
"So let's promise to be friends for ever." Mukuro says, looking seriously at the others before letting out a smile. The others smile back at him and hold their hands out. Mukuro goes first, making a small cut on his finger and watching the blood come out. He very gently cuts Chrome, Ken and Chikusa's fingers too until all that's left is Tsunayoshi.
So close. Any second now…
"I promise to be friends with all of you for ever and ever." Tsunayoshi smiles, holding his hand out. Mukuro leans forwards and uses the trident to make a cut in Tsunayoshi's finger.
Yes. Kufufufufu~
Mukuro smirks widely, overjoyed. So overjoyed infact that he almost forgets what he was supposed to be doing. He blinks before putting his finger in the middle where all of the others' fingers were.
"There. Now we've made the promise." Mukuro nods. "And since you're our friend Tsunayoshi, you'd want to help us, right?" Heh, who was he kidding. Tsunayoshi was a little angel, there was no way he'd say no. He only saw the good in everything, he didn't think that anyone would use him.
"Of course I would Mukuro!" Tsunayoshi says happily.
He jumps however when suddenly there is a strange looking gun in Mukuro's hand. It was force of habit to stand and prepare to run at the sight of a gun- Reborn liked to shoot at him too much. However, Mukuro doesn't aim it at him. Instead he slowly raises it to point-
"Hey, Mukuro, what are you doin-" Tsunayoshi protests, stepping forwards to stop Mukuro. Didn't he know that was bad!
BANG.
The three others blink when both Mukuro and Tsunayoshi collapse and fall to the floor. Chikusa catches Tsunayoshi before he can slam his head into the floor.
Just what had… happened?
Oh yes, I went there. I've always liked the idea of Mukuro possessing Tsunayoshi- it's in a few other of my fics too. And this chapter fits rather nicely with it's title for once.
So don't miss the next chapter, okay?
Phantom Hitman 1412
First published 27 January 2013