Chapter 13: In Hora Mortis Nostrae
"TETO!" "TETO-CHAN!" "TETO!"
The wild and rowdy cries filled the concert hall as the fans anxiously awaited the appearance of their lovely twin-drilled idol. Many of them held aloft soft pink glowsticks and loaves of French bread.
"TE-TOOOOOO!" "TETO-SAMA!"
Finally, the idol's voice emerged as Teto arose from a platform in a trap door below the stage.
"I love you always! I received a kiss from you! I cannot forget this precious memory of mine!"
Teto had her hands on her hips, swinging them back and forth as she bobbed her head from side to side. Behind her, her backing band supported the song. A lovely androgynous individual wearing a black mid-riff bearing dress glibly performed on his rainbow keyboard. A girl with long white hair in a black sailor uniform with a red skirt played guitar, her partner a girl in a blue long-tailed waist coat and black pants with black pigtails and blue streaks in her hair jamming on the bass guitar.
"If dorayaki cannot become my main diet, I'll just have to overwrite it my way!"
Suddenly every light in the auditorium switched off, along with the soundtrack. While the star's voice carried for a few confused moments even that ceased. Murmurs of confusion filled the crowd…
The spotlight reappeared, focusing on the center of the stage on a woman clad in a simple, formfitting black floor-length evening gown, black gloves, and black heels. Her long black hair was pinned into a tight bun. "Um… hello? Miss?"
The woman's eyes were closed, her hands folded delicately in front of her. She finally turned her head up and a powerful operatic soprano projected through the air.
"Ave Maria, gratia plena..."
"Miss? We're… trying to have a concert here…"
A ghostly choir arose to accompany the woman's voice as she continued her performance.
"Ora pro nobis peccatoribus…"
The normally happy Teto suddenly found her smile fading… nothing mattered to her… her emotions felt dead…
"Ora, ora pro nobis peccatoribus…"
The crowd's concern turned to silence as every person felt their will drain. Their hearts bore nothing but apathy.
"Nunc et in hora mortis… In hora mortis nostrae…"
The soprano opened her aqua eyes and unfurled a pair of black wings…
The lights flickered and shut off. When they rose again, the entire auditorium stood silent and empty.
"GAKU-NIICHAAAAAAAAAAN!"
In mere seconds, Rin had sent the towering Seruva flying back to the forest floor from the strength of her hug. "I was so scaaaaaaared! I thought I was never gonna see you again!"
Kaito watched the happy scene play out in front of him as he sang to awaken the slumbering Gumi. "AH! Rifts, tengu, crazy woman… AHHHH! Did I miss it?!"
She looked over to Gakupo, still pinned to the ground by Rin. "Ah! Nasu-san, you're back! Thank goodness!"
Apparently Gakupo hadn't noticed his new nickname. Rin finally climbed off of Gakupo, who rose to his feet and dusted himself off. His costume had small tears and holes all through it. He began to slip off what remained of his boots. "Ah… and after all that time and effort you spent on these…"
The warrior surveyed the area around him with a stern face. "Where is Meiko?"
Kaito was surprised to hear a few notes of fear hanging in his otherwise normal voice. Then again, given what Meiko had done to him…
"She flew off when the portal closed!" Miku stomped her feet, "Probably knew she couldn't take all of us when she couldn't control you anymore!"
Kaito actually doubted that particular reason… if she had the kind of power she was boasting, she could have flattened them. Perhaps they weren't worth her time anymore.
"Gakupo… I'm glad you're safe."
The warrior turned to acknowledge him. As his smile faded, Kaito immediately felt guilty even questioning his loyalty, but… after what Meiko had revealed to them…
"Meiko… said you tried to kill me. You broke into the chamber and…"
Seeing his face filling with shame stabbed at Kaito's heart – that meant at least some of the story was true. "What really happened the day I was captured by humans?"
Gakupo hesitated, the melody that emerged from his answer confused and shaky. Kaito had never seen his friend speak so unguarded before. "I… I did not make an attempt on your life, though I suspect she assumed I was. But I did interrupt your ritual."
Gakupo couldn't even look Kaito in the eye. "I… I used the aid of a resistance group to pull away the guards so I could get inside and… kidnap you."
"You were going to turn me over to them?!"
Gakupo had always been so loyal to him… why would he betray him?! That didn't make sense…
He examined his hands, wriggling his fingers as if he was getting used to no longer possessing talons. "You may recall I spent a week out of your service while you were unconscious. They approached me during that gap and we concocted a plan. They determined the easiest way to break the power of the Elders was to remove the Spirit Caller…"
He hesitated a moment, the words clearly causing him great pain. "I agreed… because the easiest way to protect you was to remove you from the Elders…"
"Why were you so obsessed with that?!" Miku blurted out, "What was that crazy woman trying to do to Kaito?!"
Miku's melody sounded so frightened. Kaito found himself glad she was speaking, because he still couldn't quite wrap his head around what he'd just been told. Gakupo knew he'd been attacked as a child! He'd lost his memories during an assassination attempt! Now he was confessing to joining with some outside group with the same intentions?!
"I know nothing of what Meiko sought… I only know that… Kaito would not have survived his Spirit Caller vigils if I did not intervene."
Gakupo's voice felt so uncharacteristically weak. "When I broke into your chamber on the day of your capture… I disabled the Elders within minutes. I simply expected you would come with me… but… I found you in some sort of trance. You attacked me… and you wielded Noise against me."
Kaito tried to piece together the events of his last day amongst the Seruva… he remembered the start of the vigil, he remembered propelling his spirit through the veil and entering the abyss of souls… he remembered the safe anchoring melodies of the Elders and Meiko… but… he began to lose track of what happened to his spirit after that…
… he'd attacked Gakupo!? He'd wielded Noise? Why wasn't he like Gakupo was, corrupted and insane?!
"Gakupo, I swear… I remember nothing of what happened in the temple after the start of my vigil," Kaito explained.
"I suspected as much given your reaction when we met on Earth," Gakupo reflected, "It is curious how neither you nor I possess the memories of what happened after that… even though Meiko claimed responsibility for my corruption, I can't even recall my capture…"
"It has to be the Noise…" Miku murmured.
All eyes fell to her. "Why do you think that?" Kaito asked.
Miku pressed her fingers together. "I've been thinking a lot about all these memory things, you know? Like… when Miriam tossed me into the Noise, I lost a lot of my memories of that day."
Kaito noticed Len fidgeting as Miku continued her story. "When I was in the computer, it was like it just tore me apart… and then when I left, it put me back together again but it wasn't perfect… maybe it's like that for you guys too. So you don't remember what happened because of Noise…"
Kaito held his hands to his head as he struggled to work backwards through his day. "I remember crossing the veil… I remember my anchors… I… I remember wandering the abyss and… I…. I…"
"Hey… guys?"
Len interrupted the story. "I… I don't think any of us know what you're talking about. Like… Kaito's talking about a veil? And going past it? And anchors and stuff?"
"Kaito-niisan, what kind of 'rituals' did they make you do?" Rin added, "What does a Spirit Caller do?"
Technically he wasn't supposed to tell them. But given his potentially short remaining time alive… they might need as much knowledge as he could provide. Besides, it would relieve him of some of the burden of carrying the secrets of people he no longer trusted.
"The 'veil' is the barrier between life and death. All souls move past it on their journey to their final resting place."
His fists tightened. "As a Spirit Caller, I can move behind it safely and draw a spirit out from the space beyond. I… I basically channel them."
If Gakupo had broken into the chamber with no knowledge of the ritual… then no wonder events escalated so quickly. A sick feeling formed in the pit of his stomach as Kaito started to piece together what happened that day. "When my soul moves beyond, my body is completely defenseless. The further I go, the more I rely on others to act as anchors for it. The Elders and Meiko would sing for me while I was there so I could still find my way back to my body when I was done. It was…"
Briefly, he recalled the time he'd almost snapped and lost his soul after a particularly grueling vigil. "… sometimes life-threatening."
Gakupo's face broke into anguish as he seemed to understand how critical his mistake was. "I… I almost killed you…" he murmured.
"… you didn't know." Kaito took a breath. "You were never meant to know."
Kaito realized he should be angrier with Gakupo's recklessness, but he only saw the intent of his actions. He'd so worried the warrior that he'd given up everything to save him. Another person hurt because of him. It seemed as though everyone around him saw him as too weak to defend himself.
Luka clutched her warrior's hand as if to try and reassure him. "Kaito…I'd no idea the Spirit Caller risked themselves so… even we priests were never told."
"…the rituals were intended to stay secret. I… I kept their silence. Even… even when…"
Kaito hated seeing Gakupo feeling so ashamed of trying to help him when he'd committed a grave sin of his own. "…If… If I attacked you with Noise… it was because of how deep I'd flown to find the ancestors…"
Kaito clenched his fists. "…because the ancestors disappeared over six months ago."
Gakupo's face quickly shifted from shame to anger. "Kaito, the Elders made proclamations in your name! You made several of them yourself! Do you mean to say the Seruva were taking orders from imposters?!"
Kaito felt shame of his own for having kept such a secret, but he had little words. "… For the good of the Seruva?" Gakupo asked. He heard the anger fading from his melody.
A silent nod was all Kaito felt comfortable granting. To learn that so much of his life and purpose was a lie… to see what he'd truly been complicit in… Gakupo believed himself wicked for trying to kidnap him, but Kaito had been aiding in deceiving him as well. And for all of that, the both of them saw themselves turned into tools…
"The Elders kept sending me deeper and deeper beyond the veil. So far I thought I'd lose my spirit… and the truth is, that deep beyond the veil, I used to fend off Dark Notes."
He looked to Gakupo apologetically. "If I attacked you with Noise… then… maybe the Noise tried to inhabit my body while my spirit was lost… and that's why I attacked you and can't remember it."
It was the only explanation that made any sense given what they knew about Noise so far. Kaito didn't want to voice his fear, but he wondered if Gakupo's condition grew so severe because he himself imbued the surprised warrior with the corrupting dissonance in the first place. To think that even he could be twisted so easily… and that he had so deeply wounded his best friend…
"…why take those risks, Kaito?" Gakupo asked quietly, "You knew there was Noise but you dove into it… what did the Elders need so desperately to risk you like that when it was simpler to perpetuate a lie and not risk your life?"
"…I did it because we needed the power of Sujata Hama. I had to try and find the ancestors because only they knew the hymn."
"Soo-jahta… what?" Miku asked, trying to sound out the odd words.
Kaito realized that once more his dialog was going over the heads of his human friends. Rin and Len looked completely confused. Gumi had yet to look up from her computer, still typing like mad.
"Kaito… it's probably best if I handle this…" Luka offered, "It's a history lesson for the rest of them, after all."
She stepped forward and her voice took on the serious tones of a priest delivering a sermon…
The Seruva once lived in isolation on Earth. When they made contact with humanity for the first time, only peace followed and the two species prospered at each other's side.
Inevitably, a rift opened between them that grew into a devastating war. At first it appeared the Seruva would be victorious due to their magic, but humanity proved far more resourceful and eventually drove them back, wiping out many and enslaving others. Finally we were driven back to a small cluster of islands, where we tried to make our stand.
In our most desperate hour, every Seruva prayed as one, a ballad to the heavens themselves begging for our salvation. And in this hour, the first Spirit Caller was born – and she summoned the great white guardian, Sujata Hama. Using its powerful wings and eternal song, it lifted the last of our lands far into the sky, hiding them from humanity and forever separating the two races between Earth and Sky.
In Sujata Hama's wake, the devilish black guardian, Sujata Raka, swept across the Earth and destroyed every human who ever wronged the Seruva before it was struck from the sky by the sacrifice of the Spirit Caller.
We remember the Spirit Caller's miracle, but also the evil that tried to destroy it. The glory of Sujata Hama lies in our eternal safety, and the sorrow of Sujata Raka in the endless dark melody of Noise.
"Wow… Luka… I felt like I was back in services all over again…"
Kaito saw pride spread over Luka's face. "I was in training to start handling sermons before my Severing…"
"Wait, wait, wait…" Len interrupted, "There's no historical record of a bunch of humans getting blown up by a giant bird. Or even of a bunch of birdmen!"
"Well… when you think about it…"
Rin was looking up in deep thought. "We don't know about Seruva but… every single culture has a legend about people with wings. Angels, tengu, harpies… and some of them even have legends about really STRONG winged gods like Garuda or Horus…"
She giggled as if she'd solved a particularly difficult puzzle. "Maybe all these stories and legends are really about Seruva and stuff!"
"… I think the Hearts believe in it."
All eyes fell to Gumi, who'd not stopped fiddling with her laptop until this moment. "A lot of stuff never quite added up to me about those clowns. But come on, even the city… 'Tsubasa' City? And they're so obsessed with snatching up more Seruva? They always came off as kind of desperate… they knew they were searching for something powerful, they just didn't know how to sort through a whole bunch of stories and figure out what they really needed!"
She looked to Kaito with a grave expression. Seeing even Gumi so serious drove her point home. "Look, my pal Finch ain't spilled the beans on whether he knows about you. And I haven't asked either because I don't want him thinking I know where you are. But I just know the Hearts are behind what happened to you. Somehow, Mirror Corp. snatched you and tortured you trying to rip every secret out of your head…"
She looked to the now empty field, but her eyes rested where Kaito had closed the rift. "Because they're the kind of people that get scared knowing there's something big out there they don't control."
"… I knew it…" Len whispered. He seemed to fill with rage as he repeated it. "I KNEW it! I knew somehow, we were going to find them at the center of all this!"
"Len…" Rin wanted him to calm down.
"Don't you get it, Rin!? All those crazy tests and recording sessions and being such control freaks… maybe… maybe they did something to us too!"
Kaito no longer heard only anger in Len's voice – but also a familiar fear. He had a great power, a miraculous ability, yet he feared others using him. "What if they hurt Oliver?! What if they… what if they killed him!? How long before they grab us and tear us apart too and-"
A crack filled the air as Rin slapped her brother. Len stopped speaking, holding his face where her hand imprinted. From the tears in her eyes, Kaito knew she was just as scared as Len was.
"Rin, Len…" Miku said calmly, "Don't worry. That'll never happen because none of us would ever let them hurt you."
Len nodded, still rubbing his cheek. "…sorry Rin…" he mumbled.
"Miku's right…" Gakupo said softly, "You have… two big brothers… who would never let them lay a finger on you, Rin-chan."
'Two big brothers… for how long?'
Something about the conversation made Kaito's nausea rise. He began to break away from the circle. "Kaito? Kaito, where are you going!?"
As his emotions swirled, he found he couldn't answer Miku. He only wanted to run…
Miku watched Kaito disappear into the trees. She surveyed her friends. Gakupo was uncharacteristically depressed, Luka drawing him into an embrace as she tried to soothe him. And no doubt she wanted some reassurance of her own that he wouldn't disappear on her again.
Len was trying to comfort his sister Rin as she cried, mumbling some words between breaths that Miku couldn't quite make out. Gumi was back fumbling with her laptop… not unexpected.
"I'll make sure he's okay!" Miku volunteered, turning to pursue Kaito through the woods. What if that horrible Meiko woman grabbed him when he was alone?! Did he care so little for his own life?!
It wasn't long before she found Kaito. She thought she heard him talking… to himself? As she drew closer, he continued speaking. "What do you mean you don't know!? I… can't I at least know how long I have left?!"
"Kaito, is someone there?"
Kaito turned to Miku in surprise. Clearly he hadn't intended for her to hear it. "M…Miku… I…"
His health seemed so poor… was he really just sick from worry and the exertion of trying to save Gakupo? As she approached him, she watched him try to strike the fear from his face of some threat she'd yet to uncover.
"Kaito, what's happening to you? It's not just the Seruva or Mirror anymore, is it?"
Kaito's eyes turned downward. Before Miku could ask another question, he reached out and drew her close to him. She could feel the desperation in his embrace, the way he possessively clutched her body and the back of her head.
"Kaito…why… why does this feel like the last time I'm going to hold you?"
He refused to answer. "Miku… right now… I just wish I'd been born a normal human boy."
He pulled her closer, slumping as he pressed Miku's head into his shoulder. "We could have a peaceful life… we could sing together all we wanted… and we'd never be torn apart… nobody would ever get hurt because of me again…"
Miku pushed Kaito back, her face growing stern. "What is really happening to you!?"
He was so sad, but from how strange he was behaving, she knew he was keeping a secret from her. Did it have anything to do with what he was asking Meiko about? Before she could force it out of him, she heard Gumi's voice. "Blue, Pigtails! Doubles's looking for you, says it's like super important!"
Kaito started to pull away, but Miku gripped his shoulders. "No, you are going to tell me right now. You… you don't even care what happens to you if you think you're giving yourself up for someone else, do you!?"
Why was she so angry with him all of a sudden!? He was clearly hurting but… didn't her feelings matter too!? "Don't I have the right to know what's happening!? Kaito… I…"
Gumi burst out of the trees. "Oh good, there you are… uhhh… wait, this looks important."
She observed Miku and Kaito slipping apart. "It's… it's fine, Gumi…" Kaito said.
As Kaito returned to the clearing where his friends awaited him, he tried to ignore the presence of the Heralds walking with him. The frightened look on Luka's face stopped him cold. "Kaito… it's another Herald…" she said, her voice shaking, "It's… it's…"
Gumi slipped a phone into his hand and Kaito felt his heart stop. Even with the terrible quality of the photograph… he knew who this woman was.
"The Noise is a cruel murderer," Miriam whispered.
It was baiting him. It already knew he wouldn't allow a Herald to fly free and hurt others… but… to fight her… to fight…
"…my mother."
Nobody seemed to know what to say as Kaito tried to process everything. He handed the phone back to Gumi. "How long ago was this?"
"Probably about… four hours? So what's the deal? Why is your mother a Herald?"
Luka looked at Kaito with suspicion. Did she know? Was she about to figure it out? Everyone stared at him so strangely... "Kaito, you kept demanding answers from Meiko about the Seal. She said you faced 'oblivion.'"
He turned to Len, who he'd never seen so serious. "You're acting weird again. We… we were going to ask you about it before everything went all crazy…"
Rin held her brother's hand tightly. "Kaito-niisan… are you sick? Are you gonna be okay?"
For a moment, he thought of trying to tell them the truth. That maybe somehow they'd divine a solution to his seemingly inevitable fate. But… that was why the Noise chose his mother. To force him to fight. To force him to die.
Of course Gakupo would zero in on what he hoped nobody would say. "Your every action suggests a man who believes he's going to his death."
He saw no way out for himself… 'What am I supposed to do!?' he thought to himself, 'If my mother is a Herald then… is that what's going to happen to me?!'
But the thought of leaving his mother to her fate… if he couldn't save himself, he could die for her.
"Kaito… I promised to protect you."
He turned to Miku and saw the dampness in her eyes. "I can't protect you if you won't protect yourself."
They were behind Miku, four invisible figures that determined Kaito's oncoming fate. He forced a smile for his beloved.
"… I promise. When we rescue my mother, I'll tell you all the truth. Right now, I just want to focus on her."
He controlled every note in his voice to mask his deception. He turned to Luka and Gakupo and they seemed to nod their consent. He'd managed to even fool them.
"Gakupo… please… come with us and help me lay my mother's spirit to rest."
Gakupo looked at him with surprise. "You forgive me already?"
"There's nothing to forgive. I trust you."
Finally Gakupo's demeanor seemed to improve as he rested his hand upon his sword. No doubt he was already strategizing the next fight.
'I know you'll take care of everything when I'm gone…'
Getting into the Yatagarasu Auditorium turned out to be surprisingly easier than Luka thought. Given the high profile disappearance the Herald had conjured up, naturally the police secured the entire area for several blocks.
Thank goodness they had Gumi.
She'd already retreated to her current base of operations, hacking into police radios and playing old voice recordings to lead the poor Tsubasa City police force on a wild goose chase. Though Gumi's ability to cause chaos should have worried her far more, Luka knew this operation would require delicate timing to make sure they defeated the Herald quickly. The human police were frankly safer running laps around the block than they were fighting the Herald.
She looked to Kaito, who had become distressingly calm after his proclamation in the forest. Being forced to fight his mother… Luka's mind had already begun to question if somehow the other Heralds she fought had died as the former Spirit Caller had. But what was the common link? Yuma appeared to be a warrior, but she knew nothing about the other four. Was the Noise simply reanimating the most dangerous people it had devoured?
'But that would mean Lady Prima was devoured by the Noise…'
The six crossed into the theater and immediately Luka felt the waves of Dark Notes. Strangely, instead of trying to amplify an emotion, these felt as though they wished to draw it away from her. She quickly looked to Gakupo, searching for any signs of him reacting to it. "I feel… nothing…" he spoke, sounding surprised, "The only melody I hear is this melody of stillness…"
She heard Kaito's voice and felt the healing waves of the ballad of purification, restoring the feelings in her heart. "The box is on the stage somewhere… maybe underneath it?"
"We got it, Kaito-niisan!" Rin chirped, taking off with Len in hot pursuit.
Luka continued to scan the auditorium, concerned she hadn't seen any sign of Prima yet. She already loathed what the Noise had twisted her beloved into, now to see even the former Spirit Caller, the woman she'd treated as her second mother, turned to such evil as well?
Miku perked up, spinning around the seats as though she heard something. "Sempai… listen… it's like… a choir?"
Luka's eyes turned through the theater. "I… I don't hear anything…" she said.
"It's… it's so… pretty…"
The lights flickered off… and upon rising Miku had vanished.
"MIKU!"
"Come out you big mean Herald! Stop singing like that!" Rin shouted.
"Where's it coming from?!"
Again the theater turned dark… only for two more of the Vocaloids to disappear, leaving only herself, Gakupo, and Kaito.
"Come out, you wretched creature!" Gakupo shouted, drawing his sword.
Kaito looked panicked. "Where is she?! Why can't we see her!?"
Before she could answer, she heard it. Growing closer and stronger. A familiar voice performing a Latin prayer… "I hear the melody…"
"I… I hear it too…" Gakupo whispered.
"In hora, hora mortis nostrae…"
Her emotions deadened so she didn't even notice it coming for her…
This time when the lights rose, Kaito was entirely isolated. "This fight is ours alone, Spirit Caller."
Slowly he turned to face the stage. His mother, Prima, stood at a microphone, smiling politely at him in human clothing. "What did you do to them?!"
The soprano didn't even shift her expression. "I entrapped them within a song of omens."
Prima drew a dagger from the folds of her dress. "Since you are to die tonight… I wished to fight you and only you. I wanted to know which of us is truly the better."
His friends lives were now at stake along with his. He couldn't run or he'd doom them as well.
Kaito banished all fears from his heart. The Noise was preying on him, and now it was holding those precious to him hostage. If he slipped up, they would die together.
Strangely, knowing he had the power to save them gave him courage in his most dire hour.
Kaito heard Prima's second voice, performing a twisted, operatic melody in the old tongues. And finally… he heard the choir. He tried to focus his own internal melody to better pinpoint his real target. 'The box is under the stage somewhere… I need to break that first…'
White ghostly beings formed all around him, shrieking in unholy terror. Kaito stared them down – they were his only obstacle right now.
He'd never used so much magic in his life. He opened with a force melody and then the air filled with light arrows as he carved himself a path forward to the stage. He began to run through the theater, closing distance with the stage as he continued to fire upon as many of his foes as he could.
He felt himself yanked back by the neck when he realized one of the spectral beings held his scarf. He quickly pulled the garment free of his neck, allowing the ghost to keep it. As he neared the stage and his mother, he stopped his hail of arrows and crafted another shield, holding his arm out to wield it like a battering ram. The ghosts impacted upon it as he leapt upon the wooden stage.
Immediately, Kaito felt the stronger melody of the Noise Generator trying to stop his emotions entirely, but he had far too much conviction in his actions to allow it to claim him. Quickly Kaito turned and released several volleys of arrows, trying to disperse as many of the spirits as he could. As he jumped out of the way of the remaining ghosts, he stumbled as part of the stage seemed to give underneath him. He glanced down and saw the wood covering… a trap door, from which the Dark Notes drifted outside of.
Before Kaito could react, he felt several strong arms grabbing him and dragging him away. Kaito writhed around trying to free himself, but he couldn't free himself from so many of them at one time. Only now did Prima finally move towards her son, her dagger exposed as the spirits held Kaito fast. "And so… the cycle finally ends…"
As she approached him with her knife ready to plunge into his heart, Kaito took a chance on the generator's location and cast his force melody, trying to project a wave of sound directly at the flat boards. His spell forced the mechanism downward and he heard a crunching noise at the bottom.
The Dark Notes vanished around him and Prima dropped her knife, trembling. The spirits gripping Kaito blew apart, their source apparently vanishing with them. While Kaito knew what he was about to do and what it would do to him… he felt no more fear.
He couldn't change his fate. His death was immutable. He desired it not, but he'd accepted it. At least his death meant something – others would live.
Prima's face looked so… sad. She clearly possessed so much power but… she had as much will to fight as Kaito did. Somehow… somehow the true Prima had some control of herself even as the Noise animated her body.
Kaito performed his final ballad. As the notes swarmed around his mother… she began to cry. "Kaito… I couldn't save you… I couldn't prevent it…"
The lights flickered as his friends reappeared. "Kaito?"
"Lady Prima!?"
As her black wings brightened to a pure white, she turned to Luka. "I'm… I'm sorry… you were hurt… by my follies…"
Kaito tried to keep his emotions in check as the Herald rambled… he refused to interrupt her. "The Seal… will take you… You… will die… I'm… I'm sorry I couldn't spare my only child this horrible fate…"
She stumbled and Kaito rushed forward to catch her, still refusing to end his ballad. As she began to disappear into light, he tried to hang on to her as long as he could. "I won't give up on you… somehow… I must… find a way… Kaito…"
As the last traces of the Herald vanished, Kaito turned to his friends one last time. "Kaito... what did she mean?! Why are you going to die?!"
He tried to keep a brave face for his beloved Miku. For all of them. After all, he'd saved them… that was all he needed to know when…
He heard it.
The screeching, pounding, banging force.
Kaito looked around wildly – he saw nothing but it was in here with him. It was reaching for him. As he felt the Noise grab hold of his spirit and tear it away from his body, he finally realized what he was up against and how little chance he had…
…but he vowed to fight it…
Without a word, Miku quickly cleared the distance between herself and the stage.
She almost beat Gakupo in spite of his winged advantage.
The Seruva had Kaito clutched tight, as if in disbelief as to what they'd seen. She knelt down next to Gakupo, trying to get a good look at her lover. Kaito's eyes stared straight ahead, moving rapidly, but not appearing to see anything in the room with him. "Kaito, please, speak!" he shouted.
Kaito attempted to speak, but it was hard to call the distonal sounds and nonsense tumbling out of his mouth "words." From how disoriented he looked, he might not have been addressing anyone at all. "Kaito… you can't be… was this what you were hiding?"
The Kagamines leapt onto the stage to join them, Rin grabbing Kaito's discarded scarf along the way. "Kaito-niisan!" Rin pleaded, "What's happening to him?!"
"… he's dying."
Luka, the only one that had yet to climb the stage. Her arms were to her side, her head lowered, but her tears were obvious. "I… I failed him… the Seal, I was supposed to stop them… this must be why…"
Her voice wavered. "Lady Prima died… exactly like this. It was painful… and it was incurable."
She finally dared to look to Kaito. "I'm so sorry… we… we can't save him…"
As Kaito's body began to convulse, Miku and Gakupo tried to keep him steady. Whatever had happened… wherever he was… he was beyond their reach.
Incurable. Beyond saving. 'No… I was supposed to protect you, Kaito! You were supposed to trust me!'
Rin knelt down, crying into Kaito's discarded scarf. Len bent down and hugged her, trying to whisper comfort to her.
Miku grasped Kaito's hand. 'You lied to us… you knew this was going to happen and…'
As the lights flickered one last time, the auditorium suddenly filled with hundreds of missing people. The stage now had other people on it. At any other time, Miku would have been beyond herself with glee to be approached by none other than the famous Diva Kasane Teto. "Where'd that lady go?" she asked, "And how'd you guys get here?"
She let out a gasp as she took one look at Gakupo, who hadn't even made a token attempt to conceal his wings as he held Kaito. In his shining samurai costume, he practically glowed like a divine being, yet he seemed barely aware of anything else happening around him. "Are… are you an angel? Did you save us?"
He didn't even look away from Kaito to address the twin-drilled pop star. "This man saved all of you…"
Gumi nibbled on a carrot as she conversed with her "mole." She'd been out of contact with her allies for hours, but she figured that was normal. They knew what they were doing, and while they did their "superhero stuff", she would dig deeper into her sources. Her TV blared in the background as she kept an ear on the news.
Mirror had been her pet cause for at least a year, and for good reason. Nobody that size, with that much power, was gathering it for innocent reasons. And her hunches about bird people had been dead on so far – hunting down the "mystery squad" had gotten her paydirt so far. She yearned to spread the truth online, but she'd already seen how quickly Mirror could obliterate them when they were prepared. Even as much as she trusted Finch, she kept their identities a secret.
[JimmyFinch: Anomaly site C was a Mirror research hub. They're scrambling with it gone. Cameras went down about an hour before it disappeared.]
[16BitCaRR0T: no way!11! was it mystery squad again?]
[JimmyFinch: it had to be. Hearts are losing it. Might already be compromised. I set up a deadman's drop if they cross me. Watch for it. Probably within 48 hours.]
[16BitCaRR0T: aww, you sure know how to make a girl feel special ~_^]
[JimmyFinch: Mirror is not the only danger. You need to see this.]
As she downloaded the files, she glanced up at her TV and nearly dropped her carrots as she spied Gakupo, Kaito, and Miku on the stage with Teto on shaky cell camera video. "AHHH! Nasu-san, you're famous!" she shouted.
She watched the footage with her mouth open, trying to make out what was happening. The Seruva spread his white wings and dove from the stage, clutching Kaito in his arms and making a huge production of his exit. "Ah… so the rest of them can get out…" she murmured, as the camera turned back to the stage to reveal Miku, Luka, and the twins were gone.
"Hee hee… hell of an exit for Blue… can't wait to hear the story behind that!"
As if in answer to her observation, the door to her super ultra secret base opened. She swiveled around her chair, a broad smile on her face. "Have fun storming the concert hall? You got me Teto's autograph, right?"
"Mystery Squad" had all the cheer of a funeral… Gakupo laid Kaito down gently on one of the many air mattresses. "Ah, Nasu-san! What's wrong with Blue?!"
His eyes were glassy like a doll's, his breathing erratic. Every few moments he would mumble, but all that emerged reminded Gumi of white noise and static… "You're gonna fix him, right?!"
She looked from person to person, waiting for one of them to answer. Rin sobbed quietly, carefully laying Kaito's scarf next to him. Miku knelt at Kaito's side, gripping his hand as if this moment were the last. "Well!?"
Gumi leaned over Kaito, trying to scrutinize him for any signs of life. "So what do you guys need to do this time? Like, what's the song? Or you gotta go beat someone up this time? If you need some Mirror tech…"
"Gumi! Don't you understand?! He's DYING! I… we can't…"
Miku couldn't even finish before collapsing over Kaito's body, burying her head in his chest. So she was going to be useless. She turned to Luka. "Doubles, you gonna fill me in or what?"
Gakupo looked about ready to snap when Luka grasped his shoulder and the anger vanished from his face. "Gumi… we don't entirely know what is happening to Kaito… or why. All we know is…"
She stared at Kaito. "His condition won't improve. He has… days at most… days of seizures, hallucinations, and if his mother's cries were any indication… unbearable pain…"
For a few moments, only the sounds of Miku and Rin crying could be heard, accompanied by Kaito's occasional bizarre mumblings.
"So?"
If she hadn't already seen what Gakupo looked like when he wanted to kill someone, his explosion of rage might have been scarier. "Do you care nothing for the suffering of other people as long as you gain something out of it?!"
Gumi let out a derisive snort. 'Nasu-san' could sure be thick. "I'm just trying to figure out what the crap happened to you guys out there."
She held up her hands in a shrug, shaking her head from side to side. "First time I met Blue, I really thought he was gonna die, right on the bike, and I've have to pump Pigtails for the deets on how it happened."
She looked to Kaito and watched him trembling, unaware of anything around him. "I've seen him way worse than that."
Looking to Luka, she chuckled. "Doubles, I was really flipping out over you, I saw Nasu-san put a sword right through you!"
As expected, the reminder of his actions had deflated some of Gakupo's rage. "And speaking of Nasu-san? Well, I mean, you ripped open a hole in reality while screaming about being a death god or whatever. I was pretty sure that was the end of you."
Gumi rubbed a finger under her nose. "'Cept it's kinda weird, but you all made it through that crap. Pigtails, you've been sticking to Blue like glue since you met him, haven't ya? And he was fine in like, a day?"
Miku raised her head enough and looked to Gumi, her eyes red and puffy. She slowly nodded her head to Gumi. "And hell, it was your idea to pull that stunt with Shortstuff over here! Like a gaping chest wound was gonna stop you?! But Doubles pulled through!"
Gumi glanced to Luka, who was holding her chest right where her seemingly fatal wound no longer existed. Gumi flipped her hair as she returned her gaze to Miku. "And gee, who was it that wanted to search every Noise Generator in Tsubasa City, not giving two craps if a crazy tengu could pop up and rip you limb from limb!?"
Adjusting her goggles on top of her head, Gumi sewed together her patchwork argument. "Every time something awful happens, you guys just run in without a plan and go 'Eh, it'll work out!' And the crazy thing is every time it works!"
She looked from person to person, wondering when they were finally going to come to her way of thinking. What was WRONG with them anyway!? "But… sempai said… it's incurable…" Miku said.
"ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Gumi thought she was going to lose her mind – how could they be so impossibly stupid!? So blind!? Did they only charge into action when they had absolutely no idea what was going on!? Thank goodness they had her genius to lead them back to the correct course.
"Hey, Doubles! WHY do you think Blue's totally 100% gonna die?!"
In anger, Gumi stomped her foot. "WHO told you that!?"
She'd really had more faith in Luka to not need things spelled out for her…
Luka's mind flashed back to the day she'd been told. The kind older men took her, Kaito, and Meiko aside, leaving Prima to herself during a rare quiet spell. Once they were isolated… the three of them were delivered the news.
"Lady Prima will die in days. Our healers cannot save her. She may have received her affliction from an evil spirit…"
Kaito shrank back. "The spirits can… kill?!"
A solemn response. "All Spirit Callers must take this risk… for the good of the Seruva."
"I refuse to believe that!" Meiko shouted, to Luka's surprise.
Meiko and Luka turned to the horrified Kaito, trying to grapple with both the awful news of his mother's demise and the sudden burden of taking on her duties. "We'll find another way, Kaito, okay?!" Meiko said, giving him a cheerful smile.
"There is no other way."
The man's voice was stern, with notes of anger. Luka felt fearful – Meiko had just yelled at an Elder. "Meiko, you may not understand, but the Spirit Callers are the center of our tribe. To ask them to cease their role in being a part of us… is to ask every man, woman, and child to wander in darkness!"
"M…mother…" Kaito whispered.
Meiko tried to maintain a smile on her face. "Don't worry Kaito… Luka and I will always be at your side. We'll protect you from all the evil spirits, okay?"
'For the good of the Seruva.'
She had taken the proclamation at face value, as though she had some serious affliction or disease but… what if… 'for the good of the Seruva' referred to not the risk itself…
… but the affliction?
"It's another lie. They did this to Kaito… and they know how to bring him back."
Just another way to hurt Kaito… another way to use him… "Do the Seruva value innocent lives so little!?" Miku shouted.
"… I somehow doubt the Seruva as a whole would stand for this," Gakupo intoned, "Just another layer of control. To the Elders… the war never ended. For most of the Seruva, in fact. We've grown so cold but…"
He ran a hand along the hilt of his sword. "The Seruva would not stand for their most holy figure being treated like this."
"Maybe Meiko knows something?!" Miku suggested.
Anything… anything to save Kaito.
"Hmph… just what I was thinking…" Gakupo said, a small chuckle escaping as his confidence returned, "Meiko called me the 'vanguard', did she not? It's doubtful she would have chased me this far if she didn't intend to have me join a larger force."
Gumi began to laugh maniacally. "So… you FINALLY get it!"
She turned on a television sized monitor… upon which she'd loaded multiple photos of black-winged Seruva, all with the same types of markings and bird-like features Gakupo possessed. Behind them… Meiko. "These were taken in the last few hours, guys."
Miku saw Gakupo grip the hilt of his sword. "So… it would appear Meiko is still here… then it becomes merely a game of locating her and forcing her to talk."
Luka's face had grown more serious. "Indeed… if we speak to her correctly, she may divulge the truth… we could appeal to her emotions…"
"Pffft, like that crazy woman has emotions?!" Len huffed.
"…regardless, we'll come up with a way to get some answers. Even a clue on how to save Kaito."
Rin bolted to her feet. "Gumi, you know a lot about Mirror, right?!"
Gumi let out a proud laugh. "Pffft, I ain't even scratched the surface of em!"
"Then… Len and I will do everything we can to help you find out anything about them! Maybe our parents learned something that can help Kaito!"
Miku had never seen Rin so fired up. "Yea, maybe we can help you break into our old house!" Len suggested, "Our parents might have some stuff you can use!"
"Sheesh, where was that spirit when I FIRST met you!" Gumi grumbled, waving her hands, "Well, fine, I have no choice but to accept your SUDDEN generosity!"
As Miku looked to her friends, all energized with plans to try and save Kaito... "So… so what's my part?"
Luka gave her a reassuring smile. "Miku, you need to stay with Kaito," she explained, "I had to help care for his mother… he's not always going to be this peaceful."
Miku looked down at his face, and it broke her heart to see him in so much pain. She remembered him thrashing around at the theater not long after he collapsed… would that only get worse?
"It will help him immensely to have someone with him that will protect him."
"Yea Miku!" Len said, "Come on, you're the one that took care of Kaito since the start! You can see him through this!"
Rin put her hands on her cheeks. "It's so romantic! The love-struck human girl always defending her fallen angel!"
Gakupo coughed. "Rin-chan… we're not angels…"
Hearing everyone so hopeful… in spite of the long odds… Miku tried to let their courage feed hers as well. "Right… I'll be here, no matter what he needs!"
She tried to force a smile. "And you guys will just up and tell me whatever I need to save him, right?!"
This time when Miku looked at Kaito's face… she felt determination burning in her heart.
'Kaito… wherever you really are… whatever happened to you… we're going to fix it. No matter what we have to do… it's not going to end like this…'
Oliver's face remained an emotional blank as he video conferenced across his laptop. Of course they'd never let him out of his little prison to speak to them – that would require acknowledging him as a person.
Naturally, Leon and Lola appeared as blank squares – they'd never allow their faces to be seen if they could help it.
Dr. Flower didn't have that concern, her bored face apparent under her frazzled white and black hair loosely cobbled together into a ponytail. And Oliver suspected Mayu just liked being the center of attention, her gold eyes gleaming as she twirled her blonde hair.
Leon's commanding voice rang out. "Total casualties of Anomaly Site C?"
"Two 22-man Anti-Seruva squads," Oliver repeated, "I told you not to deploy until we knew more about him. We didn't even find the bodies."
Mayu began to laugh. "That isn't surprising," Flower responded, "Anomaly Site C took out our first team of researchers when it first opened a year ago. With a fully powered Seruva manipulating it, they didn't stand a chance."
"But now we don't have access to that rift any longer," Lola scolded, "That compromises our Noise research."
Flowers emotionless expression didn't even shift. "We've more than made up with it thanks to Subject H1."
"…it almost killed Al and Ann. Be grateful for it," Oliver said sharply.
Another wretched giggle from Mayu. "Oh, the little birdy's been such an eye opener! The installation of Flower's Mesmeratic Override system was a complete success!"
She let out a dreamy sigh. "As long as she has a Noise generator in range, she can do anything we need her to do."
Oliver tried not to think about what they wanted the Herald to do. He tried to hold every one of his emotions back. "Good. Once Big Al and Sweet Ann are repaired, we should deploy the three of them," he said coldly, "We know they can handle her if she gets out of hand. And they'll be ready to support if what's left of 'Mystery Squad' moves in."
He was about to say one more thing when he felt the lack of blood flow. He grasped at his chest as it tightened, trying not to give anything away until the coughing fit did it for him. The conversation fell silent until he felt his blood flow return to normal.
"Schedule Oliver for the day after tomorrow. We'll have the resources by then."
His father's voice carried all the emotion of a man talking about taking a car for a tune up. "Thank you," the boy choked out.
As the chat conference went dark, he knew what his parents really wanted him to do. Kill or capture every person working against them. By now he knew that meant his siblings. Somehow… Rin and Len were going to be found out.
If the Seruva didn't kill them first.
[16bitCaRR0T: going dark for 12 hours, top secret mission.]
[16bitCaRR0T: watching for drop. Stay safe.]
He took a deep breath as he typed out his simple response.
[JimmyFinch: Earth is at war.]
A/N:
Hope you enjoyed the emotional roller coaster. If it's not obvious, we're plowing into the final big story arc for the series, and I'm both nervous and excited because pretty much since Chapter 11 on it's nothing but paying off all those mysteries.
Since I knew this would be my last chapter with any "light" elements, I went all out on the Kasane Teto concert. I've actually been to a Vocaloid show, so I tried to mirror how one of those concerts goes – sans holograms obviously! I couldn't resist both depicting Teto rising from the floor as Miku always does… and using that as a plot point. Some of the Vipperloids are in her backing band, specifically Namine Ritsu, Sukone Tei, and Yokune Ruko.
I won't lie… depicting Prima as Kaito's mother was a total mothy reference. Except unlike in the mothy-verse, Prima was a good mom to Kaito. Still, picking a design for her wasn't easy since there's quite a few for her. I chose to create one based on her box art, since I figured that was the closest to depicting a woman who could have given birth to a child who was 13 upon her death. As for the knife… apparently knives are her character item.
Oliver's username was always meant to be a hint at his identity to more careful readers, but I knew if I called him by his full username everyone would get it at once ;) So yes, technically his goldfinch James has appeared in the story!
Speaking of birds, the auditorium Teto performs at is named for the three-legged crow god "Yatagarasu." Yatagarasu is associated with divine intervention, and shows up in a lot of Japanese media. I also picked it because it is a crow… a carrion bird.
Song Credits: Teto and the Vipperloids have no respect for the fourth wall and thus she performed "Fukkireta" (Mysterious Function) and mimicked the dance from the video by Lamaze-P. I wanted a peppy Teto song so Prima's super serious rendition of "Ave Maria" served as a stark contrast. I rearranged the lyrics of "Ave Maria" to move away from the "Hail Marys" and into the prayers for dead souls because of course ;) Crusher-P did in fact release a Prima cover of "Ave Maria", but only the first verse, which I did not use.