No way, I can’t just trust this guy. Not only is he still not willing to reveal everything to me but all the things he’s said, the slippery gestures he’s made, and even that stupid-looking, goofy grin on his face that looks so exaggerated to the point where it’s obviously fake betray him as a thoroughly untrustworthy person.
There’s also the fact that I can’t seem to sense his emotions at all, which leaves me feeling uneasy about what he really is, or even if he’s real. For all I know, he could be... some kind of an illusion I’m seeing. Although there’s a lot I don’t know about this Sylphid guy, I know enough to know that I shouldn’t just blindly believe in what he says.
That said, this could be a rare chance to really find out more about the situation, and who or what this guy is backed up by. Answers to the questions that have been plaguing my mind recently are precious resources that I could really use right about now.
“If you were ‘saving’ people from those e-mails, why didn’t you come for me, or any of the others, before?” I ask him, taking a cautious step away from the man. As an immediate afterthought, I also say, “And just so you know, I’m not going to buy that you just couldn’t find us.”
“Well, well,” he says, his smile becoming a bit more troubled as he pushes up his glasses with one hand. “First question you ask and it’s a difficult one. It would take a while to explain our little situation. Although, if you were to come with us, I’m sure the answer would be made clear immediately.”
“Why don’t you still give it a try?”
“Hm, well...” he says, pushing up his glasses again, “...Let’s just say our group had our hands tied at those times. That’s really all I’m allowed to disclose to you at this point in time, but I will say that we gave it our best effort to help you. It’s not as though we can be around all the time, right? It’s understandable if there are a few we can’t help.”
Understandable? That’s
my life you’re talking so trivially about, asshole.
“You think that would be a good enough excuse?” I say, getting a bit more daring.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s not,” he says, holding up his hands and shaking his head. “...but like I said, if you were to come with us, all would be made clear.”
“Alright, fine, let’s say I accept that,” I say, grinding my teeth. This guy... he’s really pissing me off with his constant slipping out of giving a solid answer “Why would you do this? Why save others? You can’t expect me to believe you’re doing this just out of altruism.”
“Good question!” he says with a toothy smile, showing off his bleached white teeth. “Why do this indeed? But is it really that hard to believe that we’re doing this out of concern for those being targeted? You should really have more faith in people. We really do care about those we’re trying to save, you know. Their lives are very important to us, you see. How about you, then? Why bother saving people? I’m sure it must be because you care about their lives as well, right?”
“I...!”
“Anyway,” he cuts me off, rubbing his hands together again. “Are you satisfied now? No, of course you wouldn’t be. But like I said before, you’ll understand everything if you come with me. The girl will be safe with us, and
you’ll be safe with us, and all those who’re targeted later on will be safe with us. That doesn’t sound bad, right? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Come on.”
He steps forward, and outstretches a hand toward me. I stare at his open palm, then back up at his face, and then, having made up my mind, I say...
“No.”
Sylphid frowns, and retracts his hand. He sighs dejectedly as he pockets one hand, and for a minute, he looks genuinely disappointed. The next second, however, that cheerful, goofy grin is back on his unwelcome visage, and he speaks with that same salesman-like tone of voice as before as he looks to me once again.
“So, would that be a refusal to cooperate with us?”
“That’s right. There’s too much I don’t know about you to even
consider going with you.”
“Well then, that makes this a bit easier,” he says, chuckling to himself as he brings a hand to his glasses, gripping it in his hand and slowly taking it off. He crushes it in his hand, and casually discards it, and then, with a happy smile, he says, “I kill all of your girls and then take you with me by force.”
(
http://tindeck.com/listen/hozi)
Sensing danger, I immediately turn behind me, whirling around so fast that the girls standing directly at my back, Kotohime and Ellen, are taken aback. Not thinking too straight, concerned only with the thought of safety for the girl in my arms, I shove her toward Kotohime, yelling urgently to her, “Get her away from here!”
“R-roger!”
“F-fuwah... O-okay!”
It’s not until they soar away that I realize that I probably should have told them to take me with them.
“Hoh,” Sylphid smirks, watching the girls escape. “Well, that’s fine. I only need to bring in one of you, anyway.”
“You won’t get the chance,” Elly snarls again with a scowl, staring down at the man. She’s been sitting on her anger for a while now, being surprisingly patient as I shot questions at the guy, but now that he’s displaying open hostility she’s released those restraints on herself. “You think I belong to this loser? Hah! Let’s see you try to kill me!”
“You should really train your dog not to bark,” Sylphid says, keeping that good-natured smile on his face. “It’s a public nuisance.”
That’s the boiling point.
“Don’t mess with me you son of a...!”
Incensed, Elly raises her scythe, and dashes at the man.
“Elly, wait, don’t rush in!” I call out after her.
She’s not listening. All she’s seeing right now must be the man standing there, taunting her and treating her like she’s not even a person. The man that’s grinning stupidly like he just got a salary raise even in spite of the scythe-wielding maniac that’s rushing at him. The man who calmly raises a hand to point his palm toward the woman as she gets within striking range of her scythe, aiming to take his head off with the first swing.
A blast of what looks like pale blue lightning shoots out of the man’s palm.
It strikes Elly dead-on, and there’s an instant where she completely freezes up mid-slash as the electricity runs its course throughout her body. And then, as if in slow-motion, she drops her arms, and the scythe falls out of her hands, dropping with a few metallic clanks to the ground. The momentum of her body, which seemed to have frozen over when she was struck, carries her toward the man, who catches her in his arms before she falls over, her body going completely limp.
“Elly!” Kurumi shouts out, alarmed. She grits her teeth, showing her sharp fangs, and coils up to leap at the man.
“I’d advise you not to do that,” the man calls out to her, quickly turning Elly around so that she’s facing us, wrapping an arm around her neck and holding her by the jaw to keep her head up.
Her eyes are open, but glazed over, like she’s unconscious. Her fingers are twitching oddly, but the rest of her body seems inactive. She’s helpless, and that’s what Sylphid is counting on as he holds her facing against us. The hand that had been kept in his pocket withdraws to reveal itself wrapped around a revolver, which she holds against the side of Elly’s head.
His smiling face appears to grow darker, “I’d really advise you not to do that. This one can’t survive a fatal wound to the head, can it?”
“You dirty, lying, cheating... You... you
human!” the vampire girl yells out.
“Let her go!” I yell out.
“You’re not exactly presenting a convincing argument for me to do so,” he says, and now I’m sure of it, that smile of his is just... completely sadistic and malevolent.
Damn it, Elly... why’d you have to run in like an idiot!"
“Oh, but that reminds me,” Sylphid says, still holding the unconscious Elly hostage. “I think now would be a good time to test the effects on this
thing.”
He pockets the gun, and Kurumi leans forward, ready to spring again, but seeing this, he moves the hand holding Elly’s jaw down to her throat, giving it a tight squeeze as he calls out to us, “Don’t think about doing anything. I can just as easily kill her with only my hand, too.”
Kurumi backs off, not willing to risk finding out if he’s bluffing or not, and I can’t blame her. I’ve got one hand in my pocket, clutched tightly around my own gun, too hesitant to draw it in case he goes through with his threat. Damn it, what am I supposed to do..."
He withdraws a syringe from his pocket, filled completely with some red glowing substance, bringing the needle to his mouth to uncap it with his teeth. And then, without batting an eye, he stabs the needle into the side of Elly’s neck, injecting all of the red substance into her. Her fingers twitch and struggle like crazy, and even her body starts to shake again, but there’s no change to her dazed, unconscious expression. Sylphid tosses away the needle and lets go of Elly, shoving her in the back and sending her crumpling to the ground.
“You...!” I cry out, pulling the gun out of my pocket and pointing at him. “What the fuck did you just give her!?”
A bang sounds out, and I freeze, scared half to death. There’s a hole in the concrete at my feet, and the smoke coming out of the barrel of the revolver that Sylphid has drawn from his pocket faster than my eyes could follow tells me that he came very close to shooting me in the leg, deliberately missing.
“A gift,” Sylphid says, raising his gun and pointing the barrel to the sky. “I gave it the gift of evolutionary progress. Not that I would expect much from garbage, third-rate race like hers, but I wanted to observe its effects a little. It doesn’t seem to be working, though, so maybe I’ll clean up right here and now.”
“No you won’t!” Kurumi yells out, springing forward.
Two bangs from the gun this time, and two rips appear in each of Kurumi’s large, outstretched wings. She falls to the ground, flat on her face. Not letting the injury keep her down for long, she hastens to scramble back up on her feet, rising up to her knees, but three more bangs resound throughout the silence, and spots of blood appear on her back, the back of her thigh, and on one of her shoulders, and she shrieks in pain.
“Kurumi!”
“It’s physical conditioning,” Sylphid says with a bright smile, turning to me as he swings out the cylinder on his revolver, the spent cartridges falling to the ground. He reaches into his pocket and withdraws a speed loader, and begins inserting it into the cylinder.
Finally, I squeeze the trigger of my gun. If I get him while he’s reloading, then...!
Bang, bang, and bang. I fire three bullets at him, hoping desperately that one of them will hit.
“Heh.”
Without even moving, a thin bubble-like field surrounds him. The bullets fired from my gun hit against the field, their velocity completely drained from them the moment they make contact with the barrier, remaining completely and utterly still in the air. The field disappears from sight shortly afterwards, and the bullets that had been suspended fall to the ground.
“You should just come with me,” Sylphid says, swinging the cylinder of the revolver back into place. “You don’t have a hope of surviving if you continue to resist me, you know. If you keep being so uncooperative, I might decide to just kill you and bring that little girl back with me instead.”
“What... what the hell are you?” I say, breathless.
“The same as you,” he says.
Kurumi, still in pain, reaches toward Sylphid with her good shoulder, clutching at his pant leg as she tries in vain to stand up. Noticing this, the man looks down at her, and points his freshly reloaded revolver at her, aiming the barrel directly at her head. “This one is a bit tenacious, isn’t it?”
He begins to pull back on the trigger, and the hammer of the gun draws back, ready to strike.
A figure blurs behind him, only barely visible in my eyes. That figure swings something—I think it’s a sword?—at Sylphid just as his gun is about to fire. His eyes widen as he turns around, holding up an arm in defense. There’s a loud clank! as the blade of the sword strikes against the man’s arm, and... wait, what? A clank..."
“Uh...!?”
The assailant—the samurai woman who had been shadowing us since we had to fight off that swarm of monsters—gasps, just as surprised as I am to see her sword being repelled by a man’s bare arm. Not losing her composure, however, she follows through with the swing, moving quickly as her feet touch the ground.
Sylphid begins leveling the gun in his hand toward his attacker, smoothly, almost casually, but she acts faster than he does, and before he can point the barrel at her, she ducks, reaches into one of her wide sleeves, and withdraws a multitude of colorful beads, held between the sides of her fingers as she flings them forward. The beads give off an eerie glow as they sail through the air, looking like little dots of red, blue, yellow, and green, flying at the man’s face.
They explode.
Like small little bombs, the beads shatter in midair, engulfing themselves in small and noiseless but nonetheless powerful explosions, giving off an intense, colorful light. Struggling to keep my eyes open amidst the blinding shine, I make out Meira’s figure moving quickly against the source of the light. She lifts Kurumi, who was lying near Sylphid’s feet, and slings her over one shoulder, before quickly leaping back to a safe distance away from the man, all in the space of the few seconds that the explosion lasts.
But...
“That was a nice trick,” Sylphid says with an unperturbed smile, lowering his arm. His clothes look singed, but they’re the only part of him that seems at all worse for the wear. “A samurai, are you? I’m afraid this would be the first time I’ve seen one personally. Nice to meet you!”
Meira keeps silently, cautiously watching the man as she continues to backpedal toward me. Not taking her eyes off her opponent, she drops Kurumi on the asphalt without any sort of gentleness, and quickly moves that hand to the hilt of her sword once more.
“You...” she begins in a low tone, narrowing her eyes at the man. “You are no human. What are you? A youkai?”
“I’m a human,” he responds, holding out his arms. “A human who’s evolved.”
Evolved..."Wasn’t he saying something about evolution earlier, too?
“Anyway, I’m assuming those were the only things up your sleeve,” he says, beginning to walk forward without fear. “...So, unless you have anything else to show me, I think you had best start trying not to die.”
“Tsk,” Meira bites her lip, gripping her sword a little tighter as she raises the blade in the man’s direction, her eyes completely focused on the gun in his hand.
His grin turning into a smirk again, he calmly raises his revolver toward us as he continues to advance. I know from watching her fight with Yuuka that this samurai woman is fast—almost blindingly so, to me. But is she fast enough to dodge a bullet? That seems to be the question on her mind as well. She feels apprehensiveness and maybe even a little fear. She had been relying on that first strike to be the last, but it didn’t take. The man’s finger begins tightening around the trigger of his gun; it’s do or die!
A barrage of pink crosses flies over my head from behind, and Sylphid’s face shows shock for a moment as he hastily takes a few steps back, moving just enough distance to avoid the projectiles as half a dozen of those sharp crosses stab into the ground he was standing on, one after another. Wait, I recognize those things...!
“Wha...?” I say aloud in surprise as the air beside me begins rippling. “Is that...?”
(
http://tindeck.com/listen/vjhh)
Sure enough, a silver haired child steps out of the rippling air, black cape swishing ominously about her, her empty gray eyes staring down directly at the man standing across from us without blinking.
“Muse?”
She holds out a hand to me without turning her body around. On the top of her palm, I can see a single coin resting there. I stare at it in a daze until I realize that she’s repaying me for the 500 yen I lent her before. With a shaking hand, I reach out and take it from her, and she lowers her arm, beginning her stride toward the man.
“You,” she says, pointing a finger at the man. “You are coming with me.”
“And... who might you be?” Sylphid says with a frown, looking a little genuinely dismayed for the first time.
“That detail does not matter,” Muse says coolly, and raises one hand toward the sky. A black, solid cross adorned with a single red jewel in its center appears in her grip. “What matters is that you will be coming with me, whether you wish for it or not.”
“You’re threatening me?” he replies, smirking.
“Is that not what you were also doing?” the girl replies, drawing back her hand and limply tossing the cross in front of her, where it hangs in midair, unassisted. “If you believe that such a conduct is acceptable for yourself, then you have no right to complain when others treat you with the same behavior, is that not correct?”
“You
are an interesting little girl,” he laughs.
“And now you have offended me,” Muse says, snapping her fingers.
The cross floating in front of her vanishes.
A much larger cross—of the same design as the first cross—appears behind Sylphid. Before he can even do anything, the man’s arms snap back, and his legs bind themselves together. The cross at his back lifts itself up into the air, and Sylphid flies up along with it, as if he’s really crucified on it. His face shows alarm as he struggles to move his limbs, but all of them seem tightly bound and unable to move as the “little girl” continues to advance toward him.
“You need not fear death, I will not hit your vitals,” she says, drawing an arm back. Whitish-pink energy gathers in her hand, forming into the shape of a spear as she holds it like a readied javelin. “My aim is impeccable. Although I estimate that there would be a 5% chance of instant death from the pain. But most likely you will not die.”
“Well, this doesn’t appear good,” Sylphid says in a dry tone of voice, his expression completely blank.
Muse hurls the spear in her hand, and it goes straight through one side of the crucified Sylphid and comes out of the other. He doesn’t scream in pain, but his body seems to react to the hit, twisting and jerking soundlessly, struggling against the cross’s bindings. Finally released from it, he falls to the ground, unmoving, and the cross that held him fades from view, reappearing in its miniature form in front of its owner, who takes it into her hand.
She walks toward the fallen, still figure of the man, but suddenly, she stops, and then takes a few retreating steps as the man begins to stand up.
“That hurt quite a bit,” he says, one hand holding the section of his body the spear went through, blood seeping into his dress shirt. Smiling cheerfully again, he looks at me and says, “Well, you seem to be quite a lucky guy. For today, I think I’ll fall back.”
And then, taking a step backward, he vanishes into thin air. Muse stares at the place where he was standing with a sulking look on her otherwise unreadable face, and lowers her chin, whispering to herself, “...You will not escape me.”
She walks forward, distorting the space in front of her, and disappears from this place.
“....who was that fellow?” Meira says, finally lowering her guard.
I stare down at the coin in my palm. Whether it was her intention to or not, without her, everything might have been lost today. Shaking my head, I let out a sigh, pocketing the single coin. Beside me, Kurumi finally seems to be in good enough shape to stand up again, letting out a groan.
“...Is it over?”
“I hope so,” I say.
“What about Elly?”
Oh! I almost forgot about her in the middle of all this. I turn my head toward where she was lying unconscious, and to my relief, I see her, just beginning to stand up again. Weakly, she gets up on her feet, her back turned toward the rest of us. Her movements seem a bit sluggish and slow, but it must be because she’s still recover...ing?
“Elly?” I call out toward her.
She doesn’t respond.
And I can’t feel her. I can’t read her emotions anymore. It’s almost like she’s... she’s the same as that guy earlier.
[ ] Try to snap her out of it.
[ ] Stay away from her.