Chapter 16: Countdown
The Abyss, Pacific Ocean, 20XX
"You are an utter imbecile!"
"At least I still know what it means to be an Abyssal!"
"At least I know what it means to be a strategist!"
"Ragh! This is pointless, just give me your Wa-Class transports and let's be done with this!"
"I'm not giving you a single 5 inch shell, let alone my entire detachment of transports!"
Pacifica let out a tired sigh as she approached her two friends. It had always been this way, no matter what she did these two never got along. Shikishima, the Battleship Princess, a horned titan in a black dress with blood red eyes. Wake Island, The Supply Depot Princess, much more diminutive but her cold blue eyes could deliver a stare that was the stuff of legend. On their own they were sweet girls, Shikishima was neutral but she had great pride for her fleet. She never shied away from giving praise to those who deserved it, and even severe infractions would only draw mercy alongside penitence. Wake Island treated her fleet like a family, to her knowledge there wasn't a single ship within a thousand nautical miles that was unknown to her. Even being a Princess, she would lay down her life for the lowest of her subordinates. Together these two would be the most powerful Abyssal Duo in the world. Alas…
Shikishima took a steadying breath, doing very little to calm herself. "Why must you be so incessantly stubborn?"
"Because your plan is asinine!" Wake Island spat. "As are all of your plans! You brute force your way like a rampaging bull shark; completely uncaring of the consequences. The last time you "borrowed" members of my fleet none of them came back! I won't make the same mistake twice."
Shikishima scoffed, "that was their own fault for breaking formation."
Wake Island's glare turned cold enough to match the ninth circle, "what did you just say? You absolute cu—"
"Peace, I implore you," Pacifica cut in, heart aching. This was enough… The reaction to her presence was immediate, both Princesses straightened up, ignoring their squabble for a moment.
""Pacifica/My Lady,"" both of them said at once.
The Pacific Ocean Princess smiled sadly. "Must you two always fight?" Walking up close she put a gentle hand to both of their shoulders, "all of us are sisters in this struggle. Petty squabbles and grievances are unbecoming on Princesses of your caliber."
Wake Island bit her lip, heavily contemplating her response before she sighed. "You are not the only fleet in need of logistical support, so if you desperately need support then please just ask rather than demanding I hand you supplies…" Pacifica smiled and her eyes moved to her red-eyed friend.
With the peace offering and her own imploring look the battleship's defenses were whittled down to nothing. She sighed as well, "perhaps we should start this conversation from the beginning." Pacifica took a step back as she observed the much more civil discussion. A soft smile lit up her features before she moved around the two Princesses, there was much to do after all. As she sailed the halls of the Abyss her mind formed up plans and doctrines, and as she moved from fleet to fleet she exchanged greetings and pleasantries. Weapons of war, souls of the damned, vengeful spirits, but above all else the Abyssal Force was one extended family. American, British, Australian, and Japanese vessels all mingled and fought together under one banner against those that would damn this world. However even with their mission, even with their constant warring, Pacifica only wished for peace. The Abyssals had been sent to preserve and protect the Earth from destruction, and even though the Humans were the biggest threat, weren't they themselves also a part of this world? Could they not be shepherded or advised? Every life lost was a devastating piece of art that could never be recovered. When an Abyssal was sunk, they could come back with great effort. Where then did humans go? Limited as their information network was, a reincarnation would absolutely grace their ears. A human death was truly irreplaceable. Sad truths, all of it. Though with that said she was not a naivete, the war was necessary. Perhaps it was simply her nature that made her feel this way.
The Pacific Ocean Princess…
Every Abyssal was the spirit of a naval vessel or installation in some capacity. Her though? She was the soul of the Pacific Ocean itself. Every vessel under her command had remembered and loved their crews, but she had none. No, perhaps the reason why she saw life as sacred was because she herself could recollect the deaths of every single human that had died in The Second World War, as long as they found their end in her embrace. The suffering, hatred, fear, despair, and resignation of those souls were the reason for her rebirth. She truly knew what it meant for a human to die at sea, so perhaps that was why she was so adverse to it. But the word 'Abyssal' was itself an antonym to peace and fairness. As regrettable as it was, if peace simply wasn't an option then the Abyssals would save the world through the total annihilation of humanity…
The sight before me was completely innocuous, but if I were a few steps backwards it would be anxiety inducing. It was a normal apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo; drab concrete, a few stories tall, some decorations here and there. Nothing at all out of the ordinary. A few steps behind me police cruisers had blocked off the entire street with two SWAT vans on standby. Like moths to a flame the media had arrived and the police were fighting hard to keep them back. Camera flashes lit up the evening like anti-air fire as questions drowned out everything besides the police sirens. In an age of heroes and villains this usually wouldn't be too uncommon of an occurrence, but someone had requested me specifically to come here. Not wasting another moment I walked through the entrance and was met with a small army of investigators and more police. Evidence was being carted off, pictures were being taken, and conversations filled the room. It wasn't hard to see why either; the place looked like an absolute warzone. The entrance was completely torn apart with claw marks, furniture was tossed around, bullet holes covered every square inch of the room, but it was the blood that caught my attention. It was everywhere, like someone had used a person like a firehose. To anyone normal the smell would be overwhelming but… Well I was used to it…
"Mariana," a familiar voice brought me out of my thoughts. When I looked to the left my eyes widened slightly from surprise.
"Detective Tsukauchi, it's been awhile." I returned the smile he gave me and shook his hand. When I saw his companion however I was confused. A woman regarded me neutrally. She had golden-brown eyes and brown hair that was tied in a side ponytail. An armored archery breastplate; a muneate, was placed over a white and blue shirt. She was wearing a low-thigh length blue skirt with part of a flight deck on the front. Though her main flight deck and legendary bow and arrows were missing I knew who this was instantly. Of course I would, we'd met before on the battlefield. "Kaga," I said neutrally.
"Wake Island… Or should I call you Mariana?" She responded equally neutral. Her face betrayed nothing I could use, and for a moment I had to remind myself that we were allies by technicality.
"Mariana if you want to be professional. If you don't mind me asking why are you here?"
"I was sent by request, the Admiral received a message that this involved the Navy. You?"
"Heroes are common in scenes like this, but I'm also here by request. Detective?" We both turned to Tsukauchi and only the bead of sweat running down his head was an indication of his discomfort. He had an excellent poker face.
"Come with me," he said before turning around. He led us through a hallway and up the staircase—a body bag was being carried out of the elevator, which had been severed—to the second story. It was even worse up here, both Kaga and I were taking everything in with veteran eyes and we both came to a similar conclusion.
"This is familiar," Kaga echoed my thoughts. Golden-brown met my electric blue.
"It is… Do you think?"
"Manila…" Kaga confirmed.
"Care to share?" the detective asked as we paused outside of a room.
"The second battle of Manila," I clarified. "It was still in the War's infancy. The first time the Abyssals were driven off, but we came back with a vengeance. I wasn't present, but it saw the single greatest use of demons in the entire Pacific Theater."
"The civilian casualties were staggering," Kaga continued. "As the Abyssal's war was one of extermination the demons ignored the military installations and instead went after the populace." She betrayed nothing, but it certainly felt like she was making a dig at me.
"Demons became uncommon sights, as their brutality was seen as a hindrance… But the bottom line is that this," I waved an arm around, "fits the bill of what Manilla looked like when everything was said and done… I'm praying I'm wrong, But I think I know the reason why you called me here…" Tsukauchi nodded grimly before leading us through the door. I had seen a lot in my time… But this? Blood absolutely caked the room to the point I thought there was red wallpaper at first. It used to be a simple one room apartment, now it was a horror scene. On the far wall between the windows was who I assumed used to live here.
He was crucified…
Both of his legs beneath the knees had been bitten off and his body was covered in claw marks. A howling wolf had been carved into his chest and written on the sole unblemished part of the wall were the words "TIK TOK." A computer was open with a video file. I walked over to it, ignoring the ways my boots squelched in the blood. When I played it I felt my fury grow, it was a recording of the Shark Demon torturing the man, his agonized screams echoed through the speakers with her sadistic laughter. The detective was visibly uncomfortable, and even Kaga had a thunderous aura about her. At the end though?"
The Submarine Shark Water Demon turned the camera to her face, aroused and covered in the man's blood. "Mariana~ You're taking too long~ Will you howl at the moon too?~ Will you do it with me, meine liebe?~" And that was where the video ended.
"No one took me seriously, and now look what's happened…"
"Mariana—" was all he got out before I slammed my fist into the wall, barely keeping my strength back enough to not put a hole through it. The room shook regardless.
"She's calling me out, trying to get under my skin, trying to get me to act rashly… The worst part is that I don't know if this is WerWolf or just her being her…" I ran a hand down my face and took a deep breath. "Do we know who he was?"
"Kenji Tachibana, retired JMSDF Commander." Kaga muttered. I noticed her fists clench out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't say anything.
"Family?" I asked after a moment.
"No… His wife and daughter died in the Final Battle for Tokyo. They were hiding near a warehouse when it exploded." When I heard that piece of information my mind went blank.
There!
In the distance, there was something laying on the ground. Signature came back… A Destroyer! I-Class.
I ran over to the girl laying on the ground, she was mangled beyond belief but maybe there was a chance that—
I barely had seconds to react. Whoever had put the corpse here had rigged up a pressure sensor hooked up to an entire shipload of explosives. Damn it, idiot, fool, and a thousand other curses went through my mind for being so reckless and foolish. As soon as I had my gauntlets in front of me, everything went white.
"Mariana?" Tsukauchi asked after a few moments of silence. I couldn't help it, and a low laugh escaped my lips. It wasn't happy, but rather it was a rueful sound.
"Is something funny?" Kaga asked icily.
"Mildly, actually… His family is an unfair tragedy, as that explosion was a trap set for me specifically. No matter the time or distance, the ghosts of my past won't remove their icy fingers from my neck… She probably knows everything about me at this point. If she wasn't so obsessed with drawing this out there'd be an ocean of blood in her wake." My eyes hardened as I looked at the corpse. I stared at the man for a solid minute, burning the image into my records before whispering to myself. "I'm done being the cautious tactician…" Facing away as I was, I failed to notice the way Kaga's eyes narrowed. Tsukauchi didn't hear it, but I had been away from my own kind for so long that I forgot about Kansens' enhanced senses.
Letting the tension out of my body I turned back to the detective. "Is there anything else you want to show me? Anything you need me to do?"
"No, I just thought you had a right to see this…"
"I see."
Leaving the building I gave a brief but very bland report to the press waiting for me. "What happened inside is a tragedy, but the person responsible wasn't perfect. I cannot reveal our next move or what exactly we found but I promise that they will be brought to justice." It was such a stereotypical hero line that it made me want to puke, and most of it was a lie. I gave a polite goodbye and left, ignoring the cacophony of questions being thrown my way. The person responsible left nothing for us to track, but I didn't need to worry about that for much longer. And I wasn't bringing her in for an arrest, Abyssal justice was… different in that aspect.
"Jackal," I radioed.
"Ma'am?"
"Operation Greyhound is cleared. You girls know what to do."
"Finally tired of sitting on your ass? Heh, we'll start right away!"
"Be careful about it," I chided. "You're not even supposed to be in the country. If The Shark Water Demon catches you you'll die, but if the authorities catch you we all burn."
"Come on ma'am, it's us!" I heard Jackal laugh over the radio before I heard a car swerve. Now that I focused more I could hear a consistent engine running…
"Jackal…"
"Yeah?"
"Are you driving right now?"
I almost wanted to rescind my question but… "Yeah, why?" Was her nonchalant response.
"Where… Did you get a car?"
"I found it! There was this big building full of them, all different kinds!"
I facepalmed, "a parking garage? The cars there aren't for commercial use…"
There was a significant period of time before I heard a simple "Oh…" from Jackal. I shook my head, already fearing the report I'd have to write if this got out.
"I'm sending you girls an information packet, I should've done it from the start but here we are… Just try not to get caught? Let me know if anything comes up."
"Roger that. Hey! Nice turn signal you—" I cut the link with a sigh. I was relieved and nervous in equal measure. The Wild Dogs were a dependable group that had… unclear origins. Some believed that they were experimental destroyers that never saw use. Some believed that they had a bit too much Marine inside of them. In my personal opinion I believed that they were the souls of Patrol Boats given new ships. Because of this they didn't fall in line with one set fleet and would often flutter about the Pacific Islands, offering their help for suitable compensation. In a way they were mercenaries, though they never gave their services to humanity. I had interacted with them on multiple occasions so I had a genuine rapport with them, at one point I even saved their lives. Despite their general neutrality they were a part of my fleet in everything but name. The cause of my nervousness… Well, as shown by the call they had absolutely no idea how to acclimate to human society. I wasn't too worried, they were smart… Enough…
As I proceeded further down the street I failed to notice the way Kaga's eyes narrowed at me.
"You're already in a bad spot, why don't you save yourselves from any more charges?" The gang member's response to my question was to throw a bomb at me. About twenty minutes ago a startup gang decided that they were tough enough to make a name for themselves and decided to rob a local… comic store. Unfortunately for them I had a conference here not even an hour ago and I happened to be on the same block. There were originally ten of them, and six of them were knocked out behind me. A few local heroes also showed up but they were decidedly unsuited to deal with this. Nothing against them, from what I looked up briefly from my records they had great records, but rather it was one of the gang members. His quirk allowed him to form and throw bombs from his hands. No one could get too close, the dumbass was throwing them out like it was going out of style. Thankfully I happened to be completely immune to small-arms fire, and my version of "small-arms" was destroyer caliber cannons.
"Screw you!" The bombardier yelled with an idiotic grin. I sighed and put one hand in my jacket's pocket, casually strolling forwards.
"You know," I sighed, casually forming a smaller version of my gauntlet and catching the bomb mid-air. The heroes around me looked terrified, some backing away, some telling me to throw it. Clenching my fist I heard a muffled boom! as black smoke escaped the gaps from my fingers. "You should really do some research on who you're fighting before throwing bombs around." Opening my hand I let the dust and ash fall before shaking away the soot. "Any way I can convince you to turn yourselves in?" More insults were my answer. With a flick of my finger I loaded an airburst-concussion round into a 5-inch cannon. Without any warning I raised my fist and fired, watching the tracer travel the distance and explode in a flash of light and pressure, throwing the gang to the ground. They rolled around and clutched their ears and eyes, completely disoriented.
The rest was simple, when the police arrived I gave my report as the most experienced hero—because wasn't that something to consider?—and went along with my day. I didn't really have anything planned, hell; that entire fight wasn't a part of my plan, so I made my way to the train station. This wasn't my district, nor was it my responsibility. That may seem callus, but it wasn't. There were heroes that oversaw this district, people with their own livelihoods. If something happened right in front of me I'd help, but I wasn't going to patrol. I trusted that the local heroes had things well in hand, that they knew how to do their jobs without my intervention. So I headed on home… Or at least I would've.
"Excuse me, Mariana?" A stern voice called out from my left. Stopping in my tracks I turned to face the voice. Looking back at me was a tall man wearing a white office suit and a red tie with white dots. He had green hair with yellow streaks and his golden-yellow eyes regarded me with sternness and something I couldn't identify. If I had two descriptors for him it would be cold and professional. Having caught my attention he strode towards me, face never changing from that calculating look. "May I have a moment of your time?"
"Of course." I knew this man from somewhere… I hadn't met him, but I had definitely seen him before. I looked back through all of my logs of the past year until I found something. Five months ago there was a small and overtly useless conference about updates regarding Werwolf. I had seen him in the lobby talking with other heroes I didn't know. If I was correct… "It's Sir Nighteye, right?" There was more to it than that though. He was a Hero, but I was missing something.
"That's correct, as you probably know I'm All Might's sidekick," he said with a noticeable amount of pride. He was wrong though, I didn't really keep up with heroes all that much, but I knew now. "There's an… operation that I would like to discuss with you."
"An operation?"
"Yes, we've received information regarding the whereabouts of a very dangerous villain. All Might and I are planning an operation to put a stop to his schemes once and for all. There's more to be discussed, but it would be better if that was done behind closed doors." I knew what he meant, whoever this villain was probably had eyes everywhere. My radar had twelve contacts on it and I had no idea if they were civilians or spies.
"Of course. Is there somewhere you would like to meet?"
"Yes, My office at Might Tower would be more than sufficient, and I can guarantee that it will be beyond any malicious ears. You can expect to hear from me soon, have a pleasant day Mariana." And with that the sharply dressed man pivoted and walked away. I called out a polite farewell before resuming my own course. An operation against a dangerous villain? This is just what I needed… More distractions from WerWolf… But at the same time if All Might himself was branching out then I couldn't in good conscious turn away from this.
Dark… It was… So utterly dark…
She knew… No, she didn't know…
This place she knew… But She knew that she didn't know… Anything else…
The gate was supposed to be open… But it was so dark…
She was… Needed… So why couldn't she…
It was supposed to be time, but… The gate wasn't opened…
She closed her "eyes…" If it wasn't open…
Then she'd simply rest until it was…
This entire chapter changed four times. No one version was the same, but I feel like this one is good enough even if it's a bit shorter than what I hoped. Writer's Block is a bitch, and college started up again. I'll do better as I have an idea of what I'm doing for the next one but this one was a slog to get through.
Unfortunately no Aizawa, though we have met a familiar face to some of you. This chapter was also pretty graphic but it does have the 'M' rating for a reason. It's going to get so much worse before it gets better, unfortunately. I also haven't forgotten about the Wild Dogs; they might seem out of place but they're going to play a pretty important role in the coming chapters. We'll get more Aizawa soon as well, but good endings require a lot of suffering.
Now with Nighteye. If you've been keeping track, we're about 5 years away from that start of canon…
Onto the few reviews I have.
NightmareKnight1: Obviously the site's back up, but my twitter is there in case it goes down again. You can also find me on AO3 in case the site dies as a whole.
Amerdism: Honestly this may sound strange since I'm the author but I agree with you. It seemed good at the time but looking back on it I wrote myself into a corner. I detest retconning. I know I can go back and change the story but I've decided to go forward, there will be consequences involving a lot of what you brought up and I already have plans regarding it. To defend myself a bit though
1, If I failed to mention it I'll rectify it in the relevant chapter at some point, but as of that attack the 'gateway' to the Abyss is gone. At least in the Pacific. There are no new Abyssals, and there won't be for a substantial period of time. Not never, but the attack was devastating.
2, Shock leads to desperation. Mariana/Wake Island is an excellent tactician and a logistics wizard, but with the shock of everything going on as well as the perceived "counterattack" that she thought was coming she rushed things along. If fighting broke out again peace would become a fleeting dream. And regarding the treaty she has no political acumen. Her desperation for peace made her accept things she shouldn't have, and that will come up later. All in all I may touch up some things here and there but I won't be changing things, I have ideas for consequences for ways things can change.
All of my 'glass house' defenses aside, I'm glad you're enjoying it! I don't like bragging but I am very good at mixing things that shouldn't work together, and this is one of my favorite stories to write. If you enjoy the way I write and you enjoy MHA then please check out Absolute Radiance if you haven't already!
Even if it's not many, thank you all for the reviews.
Next story in the Rotation: Absolute Radiance
Thanks again and I'll see you all soon!~