(A/N): I'm back! Haha. Welcome.
Before you skip ahead, I have an important announcement:
I made a shiny new Discord server (for all my content) following the last update of His Body is Made of Swords. It's probably a much better platform than fanfiction dot net's forum, but that's not hard to do. You can get the direct link to the discord on my (equally-new) Pa treon page, which you can find on my profile. Don't worry though, the link is a public post lol. No need to cough up any money.
To assuage any concerns though, neither my Ko-Fi nor my Pa treon will have any actual impact on my writing. It's free, and it will continue to be free. I'm using them mostly as commission platforms for one-shots and illustrations.
Now with this said, my discord server probably will have an impact on my stories. I'll be having direct 1:1 convos with all of you there, so I'll definitely have a better grasp on the followings for each of my fics. It's also a fun place to be! We have fun there, I think. Feel free to mess around with the Astolfo holy grail bot and robot!Xolef once you get there.
I have nothing to say about the chapter itself (or actually, I refuse to say anything), other than, "It's probably a better read on Spacebattles" since we've got original illustrations there. Better yet, go find it on Questionable Questing! QQ gets unedited and bonus illustrations since it's less finicky about what I can post.
Big thanks to ajpa for beta reading this chapter and for staying up late to crank it out!
X
Her Ashikabi had been avoiding her gaze ever since the blade had disintegrated between her fingertips; he was doing a fairly poor job of pretending that he wasn't.
Karasuba didn't say anything, but she made sure to let him know that she wasn't about to drop the issue. The gleeful smile hadn't left her.
He got the message.
"That woman you just killed was a magus," he said but held his tongue afterward. He was obviously hesitant to say more.
Her squinted eyes peeled open.
"A magus?" she repeated. "And what is a 'magus', exactly?"
The man sighed. Just like before, a seemingly ornamental weapon spawned in his hand as if from thin air.
So she wasn't imagining things.
"You've heard of magic before, haven't you?"
Her brain stalled.
"…"
"…"
"Do you want me to give you a moment to come up with a better excuse?"
"I'm serious," he insisted. "You're an alien, of all things. Is something like this really so hard to believe?"
Karasuba squinted again and hummed. "Well, this and that are two different things, right?"
Both were silent. This far out in the middle of nowhere, the only sounds that could be heard were the whistles of the wind.
Right before her Ashikabi could turn away and make his way back to the miraculously-undamaged vehicle, she spoke again.
"What business did that magus have with you?"
She couldn't see his face, but the dip in his shoulders was quite noticeable.
"…Some magi work independently, but a good number of them are a part of an organization called the 'Mage's Association'. In order to moderate thaumaturgical matters, they station overseers in select regions all over the world." The man turned his back away from her and re-established eye contact. "She was one such overseer."
Karasuba didn't miss a beat.
"You didn't answer my question."
"I don't know why she attacked us."
"You do know."
"I don't– well…" His tone softened as he started over. "As Fuyuki's overseer, she wouldn't have had any reason to kill me. I haven't had any ties to this place in a long time, and it's not the Sec– the overseer's job to worry about things outside of their jurisdiction. At most, she could've been worried about me causing a commotion while I was here, but she intercepted us on our way out."
The Sekirei nodded. "So it's not about her, then. It's about you."
Her Ashikabi seemed to have remembered that he was holding some sort of magic weapon. He allowed it to disappear.
"It's… I…"
He was struggling to find his words –or maybe he just didn't want to say– but Karasuba was patient enough to allow him the time to figure out what he was going to say.
Tell me.
She wore a gentle expression. Her brow was unstrained.
Tell me.
With how they were threatening to pucker every time he seemed to want to broach the topic, Karasuba couldn't help but notice that they were looking a little dry.
His lips, his tongue, his throat. All dried up.
Tell me.
"My relationship with the Mage's Association is complicated," he eventually settled with. "It happens at times that their own interests do not align with those of the many. I've worked for them about as much as I've worked against them."
That meant nothing to her. That was of no value to her. That wasn't what she wanted to know at all.
She didn't care about the dead woman's motives. She didn't care about the people she used to work for either.
She cared about him.
"A personal vendetta, then," she concluded hastily on his behalf, be it a false conclusion or not. "And who is my Ashikabi according to the 'Mage's Association'?"
He closed his eyes.
"A mercenary. 'Magus Killer'. That's what they call me."
What a peculiar title. How direct.
"Oh?" The edges of Karasuba's lips slithered apart from each other. "You don't seem to be a fan."
"…"
He was biting his tongue again. How annoying.
She opened her mouth to ask another leading question, but he asked a question of his own before she could.
"If you had to kill a thousand people to save a million, would you do it?"
And what a stupid question it was.
"Why on earth would I feel the need to save a million people?" she droned. "Whether a thousand people die or a million, it makes no difference to me."
Her Ashikabi took a moment to process her answer, then dragged his palm down his face.
"Right. I suppose an alien would think about things differently. My point is, 'Magus Killer' might be who I am to them, but it's not who I'm trying to be. I just want to limit casualties as much as possible, and sometimes that means that I have to step on the Association's feet. Does that make sense to you?"
She stifled a laugh. How funny.
"Is that what you're doing now?" she asked. "'Limiting casualties'. I'm sure there are many in Shinto Teito who would disagree."
He looked sad.
The look was disappointment or any other such expression of mild inconvenience. It was genuine sorrow.
…No. It wasn't sadness. Something else. Pity, maybe? It was difficult to say for certain.
"Everyone involved in the Sekirei Plan has to die."
"And why is that?"
It was the most obvious question, her curiosity born not from concern for her brethren, but rather, it was curiosity for curiosity's sake.
She couldn't hide the glint in her eye when she continued, "If you walked away from it all now, I'm sure nothing too bad would happen. Sekirei are creatures of 'love', not violence; cute little worker bees that only fight because they're told to do so. In every way that matters, they're innocent creatures whose deaths bring neither gain nor loss."
"...Even if I believed you, it's not that simple."
Of all the reactions that she expected from him, that wasn't one of them.
"You don't believe me?" She tried to sound offended.
"That's not it," he denied."It's not like I've properly met any of them. Who am I to say otherwise?"
Karasuba grabbed her tattered kimono as it threatened to slip off her shoulders. She tilted her head as an indication that she wanted him to elaborate.
"More than anything else, the exposure of the supernatural to the mundane world is something that the Mage's Association has a tight leash on. In their eyes, the Sekirei Plan is definitely a risk to that."
"And?"
She wasn't following.
"And," he spoke slowly, "if they find out about an unsanctioned alien battle royale taking place in broad daylight, in the middle of a large city that is constantly monitored, like Shinto Teito, they'll assume that everything and everyone living there is compromised. They'll wipe all of Shinto Teito off the map. Not just the competitors, but the millions of innocent people living here too."
Oh.
That made more sense.
Only…
"You seem quite confident in this organization's ability to do so. Companies and governments–"
"–The Mage's Association isn't just a company or a government!" he interjected. "If they make their move, there's nothing that I –or anyone at MBI– can do to stop them. They have freaks of nature at their beck and call who could overwhelm me, you, or anything on the level of a Sekirei in an instant."
There was only one part of that warning that Karasuba cared about.
X
"Overwhelm me?"
This was hopeless. Shirou was sure of it.
He didn't expect her to understand the gravity of the situation – how could she? She hadn't met a magus before today, and even as caught off guard as they were, they made quick work of her.
But still. If he was forced to say as much as he already had, then it was imperative that he gets through to her.
"Yes! I–"
"Fight me."
He almost didn't catch that.
"…I'm sorry?" he asked more than said. Maybe he misheard?
She didn't repeat herself.
Entirely weaponless, Karasuba moved so quickly that the space between them seemed to fold in half.
A spar now of all times? Did they really have time for this? She should've at least waited until–
His pupils contracted.
Considering the physical differences between them, it was only experience that allowed him to dodge the swipe that would have taken his head off.
This wasn't a spar. She was going for the kill.
"What the hell are you doing!" he yelled, slapping another hand away with the back of his reinforced arm. He felt his bones creak under the impact and winced.
She wasn't going to answer him. The woman came after him again and again with blows more violent than the last.
He wouldn't last at this rate.
Shirou gritted his teeth. How frustrating. If he had to kill her now, he'd be set back by… who could really say how long? As difficult as she was at times, the Sekirei had become an integral part of his future plans.
"Trace… on!"
Seven nameless swords spawned in the air behind Karasuba where she couldn't see them. They threaded themselves through her kimono with enough momentum to drop her to the ground and pin her there.
…For little longer than an instant. The woman was back on her feet as though nothing was pinning her at all, and her clothes were ripped even further as a result.
That was fine, though. It bought him enough time to trace a nameless nail-like dagger and silver ring held together by a simple-looking chain. The dagger and ring flanked the alien on each side and blitzed past her, clotheslining her with the chain.
She was dragged against the ground for a good twenty feet. The dagger dug into the dirt, and another nameless sword was filed through the ring in order to accomplish the same thing on the other side of her. She was held down so securely by the chain that it was a wonder that she had enough room to struggle around as she did.
"How?" Shirou's eyes widened.
With a mighty tug, Karasuba had unearthed the dagger and snapped the chain off the circle at the other end. The weapon was thrown his way, and in his shock, it took him a moment to remember that he could dismiss it before it closed in on him.
Twenty nameless swords were summoned.
They all came crashing down on her bunches at a time. She grabbed a random weapon out of the air and used it to bat away the others as they came down despite his own ability to manipulate their position in space.
He frowned.
The sword was dismissed, but she just did the same with a different one. It was impossible to predict which one she would take, so he couldn't release them until she already had them in hand.
Ranged attacks wouldn't work.
More swords were made after the first twenty had expired, but they were no longer the primary focus of his assault. Kanshou and Bakuya found themselves wrapped within his fingers and he moved to engage her personally.
The advantage should've been in his favour, but Karasuba continued to find ways to surprise him. Showing inhuman dexterity, she weaved around the strikes that she could avoid and used one-off airborne swords to block those that she couldn't. Infuriatingly, he couldn't stop the rain of blades –thus stopping her means of defending herself– because he could feel it in his gut that she would overtake him if the multidirectional barrage was abandoned.
What was the difference between now and the first time they crossed blades? What made her a more difficult opponent at this moment than she was before?
"I am the bone of my sword."
He no longer had the luxury to decide whether she lived or died.
That was the turning point. The fight was done in an instant.
Dozens of swords became hundreds. The married blades were dismissed because they were no longer needed.
Shirou could see the shock overtake his Sekirei right before a sea of metal completely enveloped her.
With so much steel shooting into the ground, it was impossible to get a clear view of anything. The projections were released the very instant that the offensive push came to an end.
He heard laughter.
She was laughing.
She was alive, and she was laughing.
Karasuba was lying flat on her back in the middle of a torn-up field. She didn't seem to be moving, yet none of the wounds looked deeper than a gash.
Shirou didn't take any chances. Black Keys were traced and set into her shadow to keep her immobilized. It didn't seem to affect her mood all too much, however.
"Care to explain what that was about?"
The laughing came to a halt.
Slowly –unthreateningly– Karasuba's hand came up to his face, her fingers caressing his cheek.
His heart felt like it stopped. When did he get this close? How could she move? The Black Keys–
"That's right Shirou, just like that. Use me. Hold me. Throw me away. Fight me. Fight with me. Show me this beautiful world that I have yet to see with my own two eyes."
The hand snaked its way behind his head and started dragging it towards her. His resistance quickly proved to be futile.
"Don't worry… I won't die no matter what you do, no matter how much you want me to drop dead."
The closer his face was brought to hers, the clearer the sparkle in her eyes became to him. Time felt like it was slowing down. He could hear every breath, both hers and his own.
"I want you to suffer; I want you to despair, but know that I won't let you make me the cause of your pain."
It was all nonsense to him. He didn't understand a single lick of it. Nonetheless, he was unable to react. He couldn't turn away. He couldn't tune her out. Somehow, for whatever reason, he was completely enthralled by her words.
His lips were but a pinch away from hers.
"That is my pledge to you, Shirou-kun."
X
With their kimonos as wrecked as they were, they were lucky that their normal clothes were still in the trunk of the car. Having to be half-naked during the whole trip back would've made the silence more awkward than it already was.
Or at least, he thought so. Karasuba seemed awfully happy for someone who tried to kill him then avoided death by a hair's breadth over the span of a few minutes.
Shirou pulled his eyes back to the road.
Shinto Teito wasn't far now. He could already see the skyscrapers in the distance, their lights in the high windows giving away their position despite the darkness of the late-night sky.
"Ashikabi-kun."
He didn't turn his head towards her because of highway traffic, but he hummed to let her know that he was listening.
"I know someone who might be able to hack MBI's servers."
If it weren't for the knowledge that slamming on the breaks would cause a huge accident behind him, Shirou definitely would have done so at that moment.
None of his inner turbulence was manifested externally.
"I see," was all that he could come up with at first. "…Is there any particular reason why you waited until now to tell me?"
"Of course!" she chirped. "I wanted to drag things out earlier. Now I don't."
The twitch of his fingers around the steering wheel was easily missed.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" he asked.
Maybe it would have been better if she had not replied at all.
"Because of you, silly."
It was somehow both uninformative and chilling at the same time.
A ringtone sounded from the backseat.
…That was his ringtone, wasn't it?
"…"
"…"
Karasuba reached over her and grabbed it since his own hands were currently compromised.
"Hold on. Don't just answer–"
She picked up the line and put it on speaker.
"Hello?"
"Karasuba. Is that you?"
It was Sahashi Takami.
"It is," confirmed the Sekirei.
"Good. We've been trying to get in touch with you."
Shirou narrowed his eyes.
"You called my phone."
"Because we couldn't reach her's."
"Ah. I left it at home."
"You left it at– listen. A pair of Ashikabi and their Sekirei are causing a commotion at the northern railway bridge. Haihane and Benitsubasa intercepted them, but they're grossly outnumbered. You skipped out on us all day, so feel free to make up for it now!"
Shirou's heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
"You think they're trying to leave the city?" asked the Sekirei.
"Of course they are! What kind of question is that!?"
"Okay. We'll be there shortly."
"Wait, seriously? I expected a little more–"
Karasuba hung up on the other woman mid-sentence. She pointed at a rapidly approaching highway exit sign.
"Turn here. The bridge is at the opposite end of the city, so you might have to go a little fast. Don't worry about getting pulled over."
Since he already had a rough idea of how to get there, he didn't need to be told twice. Shirou hit the gas and took the off-ramp.
"You're being awfully proactive," he couldn't help but remark.
"Of course. There will definitely be more than two Sekirei waiting for us. Why would we pass on such a golden opportunity?"
Shirou didn't comment. He really didn't know what to make of the fire that seemed to have been lit under her.
"And you?" she added.
"Me?"
The woman rolled up her sleeve to reveal her recent injuries. Despite the time that had passed, some were still bleeding. "Neither of us is in tip-top shape, and yet here we are rushing into danger for a freebie. I had thought you were a cautious sort of guy."
Despite being the one in control of the wheel, he turned his whole head to look her in the eye.
"My priority is success. The best approach is often the safest approach, least likely to take a turn for the worst, so that means success comes from caution. Bad turns lead to failure. If I have any intention of stopping the Mage's Association from wiping out Shinto Teito, however, then my only option is to discard any and all notion of safety and to deal with these runaways before they can get anywhere. Do you understand?"
He didn't get why she was giving him that owlish look, but he ignored it. He focused on driving again before he could cause an accident.
"…"
"…"
Hold on. They had somehow moved away from a very important topic of conversation.
"What was that you were saying earlier? Something about knowing someone who can get through MBI's security?"
She grinned. "One thing at a time, no? I'll tell you more about her later. We can even pay her a visit tomorrow if you want."
He nodded. For now, that was all that he needed to hear.
X
As they approached the torn-up wreck that was once a well-protected port of entry, Karasuba yawned and rolled down a window.
The car came to a rolling stop next to a conscious-but-shaken MBI officer.
"What happened here? Unsatisfied customers?" she asked jokingly.
The uniformed man huffed and puffed. Though his helmet covered much of his head, his exposed mouth widened with each agonal breath.
"Though…. Ha… ha… Through there… ha…"
"Take your time."
"Two… men. Too many Sekirei to–" he coughed "–count."
She smiled and rolled the window back up.
"That was useless," she muttered to herself.
Her Ashikabi reached over her lap, pulled out a relatively small gun from the glove compartment, and placed it on the dashboard. The car began to move again.
"Karasuba. Expect to be grossly outnumbered, and be prepared to take cover if I drop the bridge."
Drop the bridge?
She didn't quite understand what he was getting at but agreed anyway.
"Okay."
Besides, she preferred it this way.
Once they were at the front of the bridge itself, her Ashikabi put the car in "park" and got out of his seat. He went off to do something or other, but she didn't really care enough to pay attention to what that "something" might have been.
Instead, she was content to pass the time observing their targets and destination from a distance.
Half of the bridge had already collapsed, the rails had been uprooted and the support beams between each train track had all been blown to bits. Standing where the path was severed was a single Ashikabi accompanied by three Sekirei. The other two members of the Disciplinary Squad were either unconscious or dead a little bit further back.
At any other time, the first thing that she would have noticed would be the fact that Haihane and Benitsubasa had failed and that the other Ashikabi had obviously gotten away. However, that train of thought had been totally overtaken by the realization that Musubi was one of the Sekirei present.
How frustrating. And here she was thinking that she could just kill all of them here without any worry.
Yume…
Ahikabi-kun had given her some things to mull over today, but she still hadn't accepted most of those things, let alone arrived at a point where she felt as though she could confidently make this sort of decision.
The driver-side door opened again less than a minute after the man had left. The "magus" took the wheel once more.
"Sorry. I made what preparations I could. How does it look out there?"
"I see the other two Disciplinary Squad members: they're both out of commission. One Ashikabi is nowhere to be seen, but the other one's still here. Three active Sekirei in total."
"We'll deal with those four first, then we can hunt down any targets that managed to cross the bridge." He suggested. "We can ignore the Disciplinary Squad members for now."
She quirked a brow.
"Really? I mean, they're right there. I would've thought–"
"There's no point. If they're the only semblance of a policing force we have, then killing them now doesn't help me at all."
Fair enough.
"Get ready. I'm flooring it."
His warning made her sigh. Karasuba held down the button at her side and patiently waited for the automatic windows to open back up.
"Hold on," he said. "I have something for you."
She paused with a raised hand already gripping the roof.
"For me?" she repeated.
X
"As expected of Number Three."
Minato could hear the awe in Tsukiumi-san's voice. He felt the same way.
Such control over an element was a little frightening, to be honest, but he was definitely happy to have someone like Kazehana-san helping them.
When the bridge collapsed, he really thought that their efforts to help Shigi-san and Kuno-san escape the city had been in vain. After all that planning, all that Musubi-san and Tsukiumi-san had to endure against the Disciplinary Squad, he would have been crushed if that were the case!
Luckily, Kazehana-san was able to lift those two across the gap with a gust of wind. There might have been some hiccups along the way, but this mission could be safely labelled a succes.
"You all look like you could use a good night's rest," teased the older woman good-naturedly. Why don't we–"
She paused as the sound of a car engine grew louder from behind them.
Minato's heart nearly stopped.
A black Mercedes was speeding straight for them. The driver paid no mind to the uneven surface they rode on or how it could have wrecked their tires at any moment.
On the roof of the car, crouched over with a strange metal chain billowing behind her, was the Black Sekirei.
Musubi-san's hands dropped to her sides. The girl had forgotten about the fact that her clothes were destroyed, and as such, her chest was completely exposed. Minato would have usually reminded her of this fact, but he was too caught off guard for that to occur to him at the moment.
"Karasuba-sama?" spoke the girl quietly.
"What is she doing here!?" shouted Tsukiumi-san. "I thought that Monkey said that Number Four would not be dispatched!"
Seo-san did say that. Did something change? Did they do something wrong?
Kazehana-san was quiet. She had a scary look on her face.
The car was getting too close, too fast.
"We need to run!" he yelled. Neither Musubi-san nor Tsukiumi-san was in any condition to fight.
Unfortunately, he was not able to follow through with his own order. The moment he tried to move, his legs gave out.
"Minato-san!"
Musubi-san tried to catch him before he fell, but she only succeeded in dragging herself along for the ride down.
This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
Kazehana-san blasted them with her wind and sent them flying to the side of the bridge just in time for the car to zoom past the spot that they had just occupied. The chain in Karasuba-san's hand lashed out and tore a gash out of the already-beaten mix of concrete and metal.
Whoever was driving was obviously a pro. The wheels jerked to the side, making the whole vehicle skid to a stop right before the newly-made edge.
Something was off, though. Why would they stop behind them? The bridge was a one-way exit now. If MBI wanted to trap them, wouldn't it have been better to block the entrance to the city?
Karasuba-san's face was suddenly obstructing his vision. And yet, while her face was turned towards him, he could have sworn that her eyes were on Musubi-san.
A wave of fear washed down his spine. Despite having met her before under much better circumstances, he did hear the horror stories about her from Seo-san: an uncontrollable monster who would kill anyone standing in her way, regardless of who they were. But that couldn't be right, could it? Sure, something was off about her, but he didn't get that impression from her at all when she came to visit Musubi-san. Was she really that bad? Was he going to die?
"Wha–"
"I slashed the tires," she whispered. "If you want to live, get as far away from here as possible. We won't be able to chase you."
Minato's eyes glimmered. The fear, doubt and uncertainty slowly trickled away.
"Karasuba-san!"
He was so glad. She was a nice person after all.
"Do not disregard my presence here, you wench!" screamed Tsukiumi. The blonde shot a flurry of bullet-like water pellets at their new assailant.
"Tsuki–"
Minato didn't even have enough time to scream the girl's name before Karasuba-san's chain went through the water like it wasn't there at all, wrapped itself around her neck, and slammed her head down on the edge of a bent train rail. She was knocked out instantly.
A thin blade of wind came straight for Karasuba-san's head. He saw it as it left the Wind Sekirei's fingertips, but he was too slow to do anything about it.
"Kazehana-san, wait! You can't!"
Karasuba-san didn't look bothered in the slightest. Instead of moving out of the way, she chose to swing her weapon at the hyper-compressed block of air.
Minato closed his eyes to avoid the sight of someone getting cut down right on top of him. What did she think that was going to do?
He heard a deafening clap. A few moments later, he dared to look again.
…Karasuba-san was still standing.
On either side of them were trench-like gouges that split off from each other not five paces away.
The Disciplinary Squad's leader chuckled. It was loud enough for Kazehana-san to hear at the opposite end of the bridge's width.
"Get away from them," Kazehana-san commanded. She didn't have any of the usual cheerfulness in her voice that he was used to hearing from her.
A soft jingling noise brought his attention to the chain in the grey-haired woman's hand. Now that he saw it up close, he noticed the strange pointed object attached to its end. At this point, he knew that Sekirei tended to have some pretty exotic armaments, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what this one was supposed to be.
"Did you know?" the Black Sekirei spoke. "The advantage of having a weapon that isn't a flimsy piece of shit…"
Minato didn't know what happened. Somehow, the entirety of the remaining overhead arches on Kazehana-san's side of the bridge had all come crumbling down.
"…is that I can swing it as hard as I want!"
Paralyzed by awe and fear as he was, he almost didn't notice that he, Musubi-san and Tsukiumi-san were all hovering above the ground. Kazehana-san, who didn't seem to be too hurt, sped away from the scene. She used her control over the wind to drag their bodies along behind her.
He gritted his teeth.
Damn it.
Damn it!
He felt so useless. All he was doing was causing more problems for the others. Musubi-san had almost died earlier because of him, and now Kazehana-san was risking her life to get them all out of here in one piece.
What a terrible feeling. If only–
BOOM!
X
Shirou watched the bridge's only remaining exit explode from the other side of the car window. He was content to wait for the pressure wave to pass before he exited the vehicle.
Karasuba pranced to his side. Rider's dagger was being dragged carelessly behind her.
"A bomb?"
"TNT. Someone had already taken care of the other end for us; the opportunity was served on a silver platter."
She snorted. "What, did you pull it out from behind your ear, mister magician?"
"It's an easy enough material to reproduce with my magecraft," he said. "It's just nitrated toluene, and I don't even have to go through the physical process of making it. The detonator was a more elaborate construct, comparatively."
They walked towards the pile of bodies groaning on the ground. Shirou made sure that the revolver that Raiga left for him was loaded.
As he approached them, he was able to assess the condition of his targets. Two Sekirei were out cold; both the Ashikabi and the Sekirei with the aerokinetic abilities were conscious, but just barely.
Karasuba tapped him on the shoulder.
"Mm. Now might be a good time to mention this: if you kill the Ashikabi, all Sekirei bonded to them will deactivate."
He took a moment to give her an exasperated look, then turned back to the group of four. She was only half right. A good time to mention that would have been back when they formed their contract.
The gun was pointed between the wide and fearful eyes of the Ashikabi. It was only then that he realized that he recognized the boy from somewhere.
"Y-you… From the grocery store…" the boy babbled.
It was a shame. He really didn't seem like too bad of a kid.
Shirou's grip on the trigger tightened. Karasuba tensed up for whatever reason, but he ignored it for now.
"Don't! Don't you dare! I refuse to let you take him from me!" screamed the Wind Sekirei as loudly as her current condition allowed. It was obvious that she took the brunt of the explosion. Slowly, the woman crawled forward in what seemed to be an attempt to put herself between her Ashikabi and the bullet.
She would not make it in time.
Before Shirou could pull the trigger and end their lives, a loud horn blared in the air above them. He looked up to the fleet of MBI choppers that were slowly descending on top of their heads. A ladder dropped from the helicopter in the lead and a recognizable figure made her way down as quickly as possible; she allowed herself to drop once she was five or so feet off the ground, likely having been spurred by some form of impatience.
"Drop the gun," Takami ordered.
Shirou didn't react immediately. He first looked to Karasuba one more time to see if she would offer any input.
That utterly useless and uninformative smile of hers was still set firmly in place.
With a sigh, he did as he was asked.
A platoon's worth of armed men and women dropped down from the other aircrafts the moment that he did. Medics were quick to follow with stretchers and tended to the four downed individuals. The last two must have passed out when he wasn't paying attention.
Ah. And the two Disciplinary Squad members too. They were easy to miss.
"I didn't expect MBI to interfere like this," Shirou remarked.
"Shut the fuck up, Emiya. I don't want to see you or that crazy bitch until I've cooled off. Do you understand?"
Takami didn't wait for a confirmation from either of them. She grabbed onto the ladder and was lifted back into the air.
MBI worked quickly. He'd give them that much, at least.
Less than a minute later, they were the only ones left on a wrecked bridge that was not connected to any body of land.
Shirou's shoulders slumped. With so many great opportunities, it was a shame that he wasn't able to cash in on a single one of them. The only redeeming takeaway of that whole encounter was that it wouldn't be too difficult to track them down after running into them the first time.
What was even more maddening was that Karasuba seemed to be in a better mood than she was before. Were they on the same page or not? It was always one step forward, two steps back with this woman.
He buried his face into his palms.
"Hah…all that's left to do now is to hunt down the Ashikabi that got away. You said that any Sekirei that he would have with him will die too, right?"
"More or less," she answered. "Why, is there anything that you hope to be able to do from here?"
He traced a large black bow, and she immediately laughed.
"A bow?"
He ignored her.
"I am the bone of my sword."
After hearing the same words that he used earlier that day, the laughter ceased.
The point at which the bridge had collapsed pointed upwards, which helped. He climbed to the top of the impromptu vantage point.
He reinforced his eyes.
Ah. So they really had made it across.
He could see them on the landmass across the remaining body of water: a man and a woman. They hadn't made it very far at all: they were still near the shore.
Four point three two kilometres total.
As he thought: a normal firearm wouldn't cut it right now. He would need a weapon powerful enough to both go the distance and have a blast radius big enough to take out both of them at once.
"Trace on."
A red spear appeared in his free hand before its shape was altered to match something more closely resembling an arrow.
In an instant, it was nocked and fired.
"Gáe Bolg."
From so far away, he could barely hear a thing, but the impact was definitely a large one. He waited until the smoke cleared and he could confirm the status of his targets.
"…"
He stepped down from the elevated platform.
Shirou ignored Karasuba's blank expression and made his way back to the car to grab his cellphone.
"We can't leave the bodies there, but we're pretty much stranded here for now. I'll call the coastguard to pick us up, then we can make a detour once we're back on land. We'll need– did a rail nick my tire?"
X
"Minato almost died, you son of a bitch."
Minaka gave Takami an easygoing smile.
"Now, now, no need to catastrophize. He's just fine, isn't he?"
She slammed her hands onto his desk as loudly as possible.
"I swear, if you don't start taking this seriously, I'll rip your throat out with my bare hands. Karasuba and her Ashikabi aren't a wildcard: they're a liability! They're monsters! You can kiss your hopes of any of this going to plan goodbye as long as they're still mucking about. I got another report before I came here saying that the runaway Ashikabi and his Sekirei were killed by an unidentified projectile minutes after we left the scene. Covering a Sekirei's death is one thing, but an Ashikabi? Things suddenly become a lot harder to cover up when you have to deal with someone who legally exists. This is not the first Ashikabi that they've killed, just in case you were wondering."
To her dismay, her rant didn't seem to phase him in the slightest.
"A question for you, Takami-kun: have you ever heard of the term 'Stage Hazard'?"
"…I swear, if this is another one of your fucking–"
"In two-player fighting games, sometimes fights don't progress as the developers intend due to passive playstyles," he started his unwanted explanation, effectively cutting her off. "Stage hazards are non-player entities that accelerate the pace of play by creating conflict. You understand why something like this is useful, yes?"
She stared at him open-mouthed for a moment before she collected herself. The surprised expression was replaced with a scowl as she turned around and left without another word.
As the door slammed behind her, Minaka's playful grin hadn't left him.
"A pretty effective hazard, I would say."