UPDATE FEVER HAS GRIPPED ME. I CANNOT STOP NOW. I REALLY SHOULD REVIEW THOSE STORIES IN MY QUEUE, SHOULDN'T I?
…I AM DETESTABLE.
ENJOY.
Take a look at this world,
So full of contradictions
Don't hesitate to
Pull the trigger!
Chapter 21: Broken Dreams, pt. 1
"You better Hope it doesn't kill us…" Garrett grumbled loudly while pressed against the far wall of the room. His components were highly resistant to heat, but he wasn't taking any chances with the crazy mage in front of him.
Amber was standing in the middle of the room, her eyes so focused on the wall that—in another universe, perhaps, she could have burned holes through the near-impenetrable structure.
Unconsciously mimicking the same panicked expression, Minoru stood beside Garrett, also pressed against the wall. He had tried to convince her to try again to disable the wards on the room, but there was no use talking to her, now. They had failed three times to short out the room's generalized spellwork, but the feedback of attempting such a thing was debilitating. The room would respond with a mild electric shock, enough to stun the occupants and leave them twitching on the floor.
When Minoru announced that he could sense Yuzuki nearby, Amber and Garrett gaped at him. It was at that moment that the heiress of Gala Inc. decided she was busting out of this joint.
She had never tried this spell before. That didn't mean that an amateur couldn't execute it the first time—it just meant that controlling it was going to be nearly impossible. Sure, Amber's best element was fire, but….conjuring fiendfyre was probably the most reckless and stupid thing she ever tried.
Even now, Garrett feared for his life. Minoru did as well.
Amber always feared for her life, so her view had not changed with this decision.
She recalled that once, as Yuuko, she had accomplished this before, and he result had been desirable then, so why not now?
Amber lifted the wand and stared ahead with the passion of a thousand suns.
"Az-reth…Azreth….." she began chanting. "Azreth….Azreth…."
Thankfully, magical fire gave no soot or smoke, and didn't even need to consume oxygen. But that was the least of their worries at the moment. The flame began small at first, but it gradually grew in size the more she focused. Her voice grew deeper as she continued to chant the spell.
Something, a memory, floated to the surface of her mind like a dead body.
Her magic exploded, then.
In one second, the other half of the room was engulfed in bright red flames.
…
Yuzuki willed herself not to feel any pity for this woman. Dr. Lestat was a kidnapper, plain and simple. She was part of The Game, which meant she wanted to kill Ms. Lee-Young for her heart. All of this Yuzuki knew, yet, she felt pity for the woman. Her son had been murdered, and she simply wanted to see him again.
In a way, the Persocom could understand.
However, this was not the time for pity.
The wind shifted, and Yuzuki adjusted the sniper rifle to the left by a hairbreadth. She looked through the scope and kept those mushy thoughts at bay. She probably would have fared better looking through her optics, but this was her artefact. Not only was it able to change into any firearm that Yuzuki willed it to be, but when she looked through the scope of any of the weapons—if it had one, then she was able to see through walls.
When she had first activated her artefact, Yuzuki had wondered why it had to be guns. The artefact normally manifested as an extension of the contractor's soul. However, in contrast with that, Yuzuki was incredibly nonviolent. The only connection to her and guns would be Minoru—who, in the past, often would use her to play his online FPS games. She honestly detested the First-Person-Shooter genre, but Minoru had gone through an obsessive phase with them. He had calmed down considerably since then—having switched over to fantasy RPG. Still, these days he hardly asked her to play games with him, or used her for any sort of gaming, and it made her feel slightly lonely.
Yuzuki sighed. This was getting her nowhere, being nostalgic about how close they used to be. It had taken her quite some time to realize her young master's feelings for her, but now was not the time for sentiment. The fingers in her left hand caressed the massive gun. It did not move, due to the two stubby 'legs' it had to prop itself up.
For the past minute, Yuzuki had been searching through the scope for any sign of Minoru and the others. She had noticed Dr. Lestat and her partner, but no trace of their hostages. The only suspicious thing she noticed, however, was a surprising little blank spot in the far end of the building when she scanned the entire thing.
That was where Minoru was being held—she was 98 percent certain.
Yuzuki aimed at Dr. Lestat. The nefarious mage was sitting in a reclining office chair with her feet perched lazily on her desk. Standing beside the desk was Johan, who was charging, from the looks of it.
Preparing to squeeze the trigger, Yuzuki felt a pang of guilt streak though her once again.
'No….' she thought, shutting her eyes. 'Stay icy. Let go of these emotions... I am a machine made of ice.'
It didn't have to be a head-shot, of course. It was what Amber would have suggested, most likely, due to the nature of The Game: "Kill or be killed." But that type of cruelty was simply not part of Yuzuki's core nature.
One dark cerulean iris looked through the scope once more. In that moment, everything became crisp and clear. Yuzuki held the gun and it seemed not to be a gun anymore—but had become a part of her being.
Four and a half feet long. Over 30 pounds. 50 calibers. An anti-matériel sniper rifle clothed in black.
It had power. There was no denying that. It had range. That was clear to see. It could have ended this all right now. But no, she wouldn't let this part of her do something so evil.
To steel herself, Yuzuki surrendered herself to that dark side, the one she held in her hands—but not completely. She could feel its hunger for blood gnawing on the inside of her like a malicious computer worm.
This part of Yuzuki wanted to see this woman suffer, lying in a pool of her own blood.
A patch of white cloth wrinkled in her vision.
Without thinking, she pulled the trigger.
…
The sound of a window pane breaking. It served no warning as a 12.7 mm bullet zoomed—not through the glass, but through the aluminum-alloy wall and connected with Dr. Lestat's arm. There was nothing behind the arm, thankfully for her, since she had risen from her chair to retrieve her cellphone, which she had placed on the book shelf earlier.
Bones snapped and muscles tore. Blood arced out in a beautiful crescent from the wound. If a video of the scene had been slowed down, you would easily be able to distinguish the moment before and after the shocked woman's arm exploded away from her body.
It separated from the upper arm in the midpoint between elbow and shoulder.
Shock had paralyzed her for a second, but it was only a moment after that the deranged mage screamed in both surprise and anguish. Johan was still 'asleep', and his settings for awakening were not set at sensitive levels, so he was quite literally useless in this situation.
Minako and Junji, followed by Chii and Hideki, barged into the warehouse, thanks to a few precise slices from Minako's small swords.
'They're in the far end of the building, Mrs. Takeda,' Yuzuki transmitted to the green-haired beauty. 'It's the only place I couldn't see through my scope.'
"Chii has come to save the day!" announced the little Chobit from Hideki's shoulder.
They all rushed ahead to the now-smoking room in the far off corner of the dingy and dark warehouse.
The pain ate through my sanity
And when I awoke
I had no dreams left
My dreams died the second
My legs were removed
All the references..lol. The beginning "poem" in italics is the English lyrics(translated it myself) I wrote for…er…a video I plan to upload soon. What Yuzuki told herself is a shout out to both the Uglies series, and Sword Art Online, volume 5, Phantom Bullet. "Stay Icy" is what the Specials tell each other, and the bit about being a machine made of ice is from Shion, who…is a sniper…
Um, chiao.