"And with that... my job here is done for now." Yukari slumped to the floor after closing a portal that she used to check up on the girls down below.
"Yukari-sama!" cried Ran and Chen in unison. They rushed over to her and carried her up to a chair. Ran examined her master's flushed face and irregular breathing.
"Chen, hurry and give her something to drink! Hurry!"
Without a word, Chen scampered out of the control room. Ran waited until she could no longer hear Chen's footsteps before tending to her master.
Ran called out to her master to know of the extent of her fatigue. "Yukari-sama, how are you feeling?"
She heard only her master's soft slow breathing in response. She cleared her throat and paced cautiously towards her.
"Yukari-sama? Are you alright?"
Ran was beginning to worry. Her master was not responding. Her breathing appears to have ceased too.
What her master did earlier surprised her as she never thought that she would ever attempt such a feat. She gulped out of instinct. As she reached her hand out to her master's chair, she prepared herself for the worst.
Her grip was firm on the chair but her arm felt like jelly. What if her master's feat had consumed to much of her energy that she fainted? Or worse still...
In one swift move, she turned the chair around. There she saw the limp body of her master, Yakumo Yukari, with her arms dangling from the armrests and her hair a mess. The tragic look of... goofy grins etched on her face and drool dribbling from her mouth as she snored softly.
"Master, master!", cried Chen as she scurried into the room with a tray carrying a jug of water and a tall glass. "I've brought the water!"
Ran gave her a warm smile and patted her head as she set the tray on a nearby table.
"Good work, Chen. Now, fetch some dry towels for me please."
"Huh? Why?"
"She'll be needing it very soon."
Chen tilted her head, confused. She then shrugged and walked out. "Okay then."
The hall echoed the soft clacking of Chen's shoes. Turning left into the changing room, she brought out a stack of white towels from her locker.
"Geez, why does she need these towels anyway?", she sighed. "I understand that she needs to rehydrate Yukari-sama but it's not like she's going to be drenched in it."
A loud splash followed an equally shrill scream burst from the Control Room. A sigh escaped from Chen's lips, her head shaking slowly.
"I figured Yukari-sama was just sleeping..."
Closing her locker and turning off the lights, she hurried back to the Control Room armed with her signature ' Ran-sama~!' smile to defuse any anger her master has.
…
"Can't a girl get some sleep here?", whined Yukari as she dried her golden long hair. She then turned to Ran and gave her a pout.
"I need my beauty sleep, you know? Need it to keep looking young and healthy."
Ran only sighed and poured her master a glass of water with what little remained.
"Here you go, Yukari-sama."
Yukari backed up for a bit at the sight of water before taking the glass. Chen could not help but stifle a giggle seeing her behave like a cat brought near a bath. After calming herself down, she went up to Yukari and put the now empty glass on the tray it came in with.
"Feeling better now?"
"Thank you for asking, Ran, how polite of you," replied Yukari as she put on her hat and gave Ran a thin smile. "Yes, I do feel refreshed and no, I do not appreciate the rude interruption of my nap."
"I see," said Ran, taking a seat facing her master. She never looked at her as she sat, instead looking down at her own feet. "At least you are now in good health."
Without warning, she slammed her fists onto the table, her body trembling. The resulting slam made Yukari jump in her seat. Then, she noticed the glimmer of tears appearing on the floor from where her shikigami sat.
She watched with wistful eyes the sadness that her beloved shikigami was showing. Ran's fists remained on the table and her face downcast. No sound came from her but the silent sniffles and cries. Yukari then stood up and went over to sit by Ran's armrest and rubbed her shoulder softly.
"You were worried about me, weren't you?", she asked.
Ran then stopped shaking and turned towards her master. She wiped off her tears and hugged Yukari as hard as she could.
"You idiot!", she cried, hitting Yukari's back. "I thought you were on the brink of death! Did you know how painful it was to see that the person whom you have sworn to serve die before you? A person with whom you have spent most of your life with?"
"Well, I..."
"I'm not done!", Ran yelled, teary eyes glaring up into her master's own, her hands scrunched up into balls digging into Yukari's robe. "How can you be so reckless?! So selfish in your goals that you forget to realise the value others have for you? You...you...!"
Yukari returned her embrace with warmth and stroked her hair. "I have lived for far longer than most youkai do. I admit I was a bit reckless a while ago but my time is not up just yet."
Ran let go of her and readjusted her hat, her face flushed red with embarrassment. "I-I guess so..."
"I'm sorry, Ran, Chen."
"Besides, I'm still in my youth so that makes me a healthy young woman!", added Yukari as she struck a cute pose.
'Thanks for ruining the mood, you old hag!', both Ran and Chen cursed inwardly.
"Anyway," chimed Chen. "Why did you open up both a portal to the Underground and a portal to the Great Hakurei Barrier at the same time?"
Yukari responded with a sly chuckle. "Telling you now would spoil the fun. All I can say is that the portal to the Underground is simply for me to observe the condition of the girls and the portal to the Hakurei Barrier is only temporary so it will be gone by the time I finish this sentence thus ceasing to consume my energy."
"Why open it up in the first place?", questioned Ran. "It takes a lot of energy even trying to tamper with the barrier."
"Let's just say...that I've brought in some people who could aid us in this situation," responded Yukari. "We're going to need all the help we can get to deal with this."
Unbeknownst to both Ran and Chen, Yukari had opened more than two portals beforehand. And one of those portals lead straight into the medical facility below. Entering the abandoned facility are two figures. One wielding a scythe, the other armed with a shotgun.
"Wow, what happened here?", asked Komachi, pointing towards the mangled corpse of what might be a tall skeleton monster of sorts. It's head and arms appear to be either forcefully ripped off or pulverised into pulp because that seemed to be the only reasonable explanation to the copious amounts of blood painting the hallway.
"Step aside," ordered Shikieiki.
Komachi moved away from the corpse and watched as her boss kneel closer to it and poke with her shotgun. 'What is she doing?'
"There's no mistaking it alright," Shikieiki proclaimed, certain after her inspection. "This is his handiwork alright."
"I take it, this 'he' is the old friend you were mentioning a while ago?", asked Komachi.
"Yeah, it is," she replied, her expression softening. "We fought together alongside the previous Hakurei miko to ward off Hell's armies when they first appeared. We fought them with everything we had and left no survivors."
Komachi could not help but notice the nostalgic look on her face as she said that despite feeling a bit unnerved by that last sentence. It was like she was reminiscing of a past not too long ago but far away to ever relive. However, she also saw that her face was beginning to frown as she appeared to struggle remembering something.
"Hey, Shiki, are you alright?"
"Yeah...I'm fine."
Komachi let go of a breath she never realised she was holding. "You sure? You seemed to be having quite the internal fight there."
Shikieiki waved off her concern and beckoned her to follow. "Nothing for you to worry about. Now come. We have some exploring to do."
Komachi, knowing better than to press on, followed her down the hallway. 'She's been acting strange ever since she heard of the demons' reappearance. Normally she would keep her cool and would rarely ever resort to using force. Let alone outright kill them! What could have possibly happened during their first appearance?'
Regardless of her unceasing worry, she maintained the belief that her boss and friend is alright.
…
They moved along the silent dark hallway, their footsteps echoing with each step. They had inspected half of the rooms already but found nothing. The file room seemed to have potential but the strewn about documents only showed that someone had already retrieved the information she needed.
Komachi was determined to leave no stone unturned, no corner unchecked to find anything that could help reveal the location of the demon's lair. Shikieiki's focus, however, was elsewhere.
'That corpse...' she pondered. 'The brutal execution, the forceful dismemberment, it must be him! But, if it was indeed the Slayer himself, why were there no signs of gunfire anywhere in the vicinity?'
She thought back to her inspection of the dead skeleton demon. While the scene was proof of his handiwork, there were a few subtle inconsistencies. The first being the lack of any scattered ammunition anywhere. Usually he would resort to machine guns and shotguns against this type of demon but there were no casings nor shells to be found. She reasoned that he might have instead used his plasma rifle but that was thrown out the window with the second inconsistency: the lack of firearms damage on the corpse.
Instead, she saw that the demon's ribs were completely shattered, meaning that it was incapacitated by a well-placed powerful punch before being executed. Again, she tried to reason that he might have been in Berserk mode while fighting it but she had to cross out this possibility as well. The demon would have been a pile of mush if that were the case. So, that left her with only one logical explanation.
'Wait, that can't be right. It cannot be. But the evidence proves otherwise. The only person capable of such controlled chaos is...!'
"Hey Shiki! You might want to look at this."
"Alright, what is it?", she inquired, annoyed at having her train of thought cut off.
"Looks like a security monitoring room. There's camera views from pretty much every corner of the facility."
She went in and closed the door behind her. She glanced around the room, looking for any clues. Then, she noted that the weapons cabinet has been looted with bullets scattered across the floor. The looters must have been in a hurry.
"Komachi, can you check if the cameras recorded anything within the past 24 hours?"
"Sure thing, boss. It will take a while, though. This is my first time operating this thing and the manual that I found is pretty thick." As she said this, she showed Shikieiki the manual in question: A thick yellow book with the title, 'Security Cameras for Dummies'.
Shikieiki was at a loss for words. 'I don't know what's worse, the fact that she thinks that's the proper manual or the possibility that it is the manual these people use!'
"As long as you get the job done, it's fine by me," she sighed dejectedly.
"Okay, on it."
She then went to sit by the long table in the middle of the room to gather her thoughts. Noticing Komachi's fervour in working out how to operate it, she could not resist a chuckle.
'If only you had the same attitude towards your actual job, Komachi. Then I wouldn't have waste my time lecturing you.'
"Warning! Demonic presence detected!", announced the automated PA out of the blue as red and yellow lights flashed everywhere, illuminating the dark hallways.
'What?!'
"Shiki! Demons! They're coming in from a hole in the entrance!", Komachi warned, her eyes fixated on the screen. "A large number of them are now in the building! There's also a really tall and tough looking demon leading them!"
Shikieiki, now standing next to her, stroked her chin. "Interesting, I've never seen that one before. It seems like that one is the commander of this group."
"Eh, how can you be so sure?"
She then pointed at the screen. "Notice how the demons behind him are in formation rather than being scattered around. Also, this group might be an elite force of some sort considering the absence of imps and the small group size."
'Small?! How is this small? There are at least 50 of them on-screen!', thought Komachi in bewilderment and utter disbelief.
"So, if this is a small group, then it wouldn't be wrong to assume that they're here for clean-up, right?", she asked.
"You're right on point," answered Shikieiki. "They've only got Hell Knights in their ranks which means that they're here to exterminate survivors. I have a feeling that whoever it is they're hunting down, they severely underestimated the abilities of their prey."
She then pointed towards the camera showing the view at the end of the hallway, which revealed the blown-up pieces of Pinkies and imps in front of an elevator.
"Hey, look! The elevator's open!", exclaimed Komachi in delight. "Do you think we can make it in there before they get here?"
"No can do, Komachi," she replied as she walked towards the door. "Hell Knights are pretty fast despite their size and bulky build. If we run for it, we will be cornered in no time."
Komachi, seeing that Shikieiki was now standing by the door, felt a lump form in her gut. "You're not thinking what I think you're about to do, are you?"
"Oh, I'm thinking exactly that," she replied, cocking her Remington with a feral smirk. "They haven't moved from their positions yet and someone's going to have to fix the hole."
Before Komachi could protest, Shikieiki was already out the door. Her lingering worry had come true. She wanted to run off and assist her but she knew she mustn't. She needed to keep her late husband's final gift safe. All she could do now was watch as her boss strode along the hallways towards the horde. Just then, something clicked in her mind:
'Wait. How am I supposed to communicate with her now?'
Hey guys, Kobe here! The purpose of me writing here is because I'd like to apologise for this sudden and prolonged hiatus. There have been a lot of things going on with my life, most notably having to make the big move to university. Hopefully now after things have settled down for a bit I can afford to dedicate myself to this story. Have a good one, everyone!