Chapter 476: Arc 6, Chapter 92: Forceful Plays
Your perception warps and twists:
Dear Reader, you now hear the thoughts of Fumeko Namora.
’Taken by force. Why didn’t they do it the first go around? They can’t have everything figured out if dad got the Unknown... ... ...! Did they check the Unknown for runes on his body? Could’ve been dismissed as a tattoo.
It’s magical, but does it register as magical to a mage? ... ...! If that spirit-mage had the Unknown’s soul, why would she not use it? Why keep it? A ghost needs a vessel, a suitable one; even then it would still be under her control.
... ...! No, the Unknown is dead. He is not a factor, and even if he is it’s unrelated to their apprehension. Wolfy’s theory’s the only plausible explanation; Burnetrout has something that’s hindering the cult from going all out. A weapon? An enchantment? Some sort of pact? ... ...-"
"Knck, Knck, Knck!"
"Meko!! Meko look!"
Fumeko’s gaze still lingered out the window, however her view was replaced by a beaming elf pressing her exam sheets against the glass. "Forty-two percent?" she uttered and raised a brow.
"It’s something," Hotaru remarked and folded up her newspaper. The door opened up and everyone gave some room for the giddy Asobi to hop in.
"Yeah, barely a pass," the brunette muttered as the door shut.
"Where to miss?" the carriage driver slid open the slot to ask the passengers.
Hotaru took hold of Asobi’s exam papers and shuffled them, "Investigations Cooperated, Fleur Borough."
"Alright miss," the slot slid back.
"Seek does she for the toil of one who imprisons life and time within solitary frames. The adventuring detective requires it to be so," Tiffany pointed to the brunette.
Asobi looked over to the detective and blinked a few times.
"We’re finding out what Alicia got yesterday."
"Ohhhh, sorry. I’m not doing good in my Krian literature," the magician admitted.
"Twenty-five percent? I can confirm," Hotaru checked the papers of said subject. "I suppose it’s fine; you’re lucky it’s not a mandatory pass."
"Nay, disagreement be mine claim. It ought to be obligatory," the blonde snobbed.
"Forty on mathematics, forty-two on Krian commons, forty-five in History, fifty-six in science- Fifty-six? That’s good, but what’s this?" Hotaru turned the final page of the paper around where it had long lines to answer a single question.
Instead of a free-form written answer, what was a drawn was a very fat smiling frog’s face. It was marked with one half of a correct mark out of ten.
"Oh I didn’t have enough time so I just did the first thing that came to me; I’m instinctually intelligent you see~" she smugly tapped her wand against the side of her head.
’It says to explain the role of food chains in the basics of an ecosystem. I’m willing to bet she had no idea what it was and got bored.’
"Anyway! The teacher still said I pass and can move up to the next step, so yay! I survive another week!"
"Thunk!"
’Out.’ "Woosh!" Fumeko sat up through shadows and stood outside the carriage whilst flipping her dagger into her hand.
The carriage shook as something landed on the roof. "Oi! What the-!?" the carriage driver’s voice yelled out.
’Kira? What’s in her beak?’ Fumeko saw the pearly white feathers of a secretary bird that landed atop. The other three rushed out of the carriage and glanced up to it. ’...!’ "What happened? Where’s Mrs Aetherton?" she stowed away her dagger.
The secretary bird hopped down as onlookers outside the school all gawked at the sudden large bird with beautiful yet dirtied feathers. Kira leaned down and dropped a folded up piece of paper in the brunette’s hand.
"A message?" Tiffany said.
Kira’s feathers were somewhat ruffled and dust was peppered across its body. Kira croaked and chirped a few times at her.
Fumeko glanced at the bird and opened up the note. ’Kira’s eyes aren’t glowing green.’ Her brows furrowed as she reread bit of a scribbled mess a few times.
"Danger at company, don’t come here. Cult ambush, call hospital if you can, MA," Hotaru read aloud over her shoulder while Kira continued to chirp.
"It’s okay Kira, it’s okay," Asobi petted down the risen plumage around Kira’s head. "It’s okay, right?"
"Are you deaf?" Fumeko squinted at the elf.
"I’m trying to calm Kira down," Asobi stated as she petted the bird like a dog to actually soothe herself. "If it’s the cult ambushing it doesn’t mean they won, they’re the smartest detectives around!" the panic came out slightly louder.
"What are they gonna do? Shoot a gun at a dragon?" ’Was dad there?’ "Tiffy, can you call the hospital?"
"R-right," Tiffany started running to the closest telephone at the school; however not before turning back and shouting, "W-what’s the plan?"
"We need to get there quick," Fumeko said.
"Quick? Are you gonna teleport!?" Asobi was now pushing Kira’s head down more so than petting it. Kira stepped to the side and continued her chirps, one after another, giving pauses in between.
"Teleport? Are you mad? That’s riskier than actually going there, but if dad’s there, I’m not gonna wait here!" Fumeko looked back to see the progress of the pale blonde. ’If they attacked the company... Shit, UGH. Jotou and that little brat are at home—sick.’
Hotaru’s tail was raised as she had gradually pried the note away from the brunette. Her ears flickered to the bird’s constant noise, "Kira, please quiet- ...Where have I heard that before?"
"Heard what?" Asobi gripped her wand in both hands and was insistently tapping her heels.
The redhead furrowed her brows in thought, "Kira’s croaks. It’s, wait. I think that’s the code for help; it’s an emergency signal."
Only then did Kira stop chirping and looked at the wolf-girl dead in the eyes. Before the bird went to groom its feathers with its beak.
’Thanks you oversized chicken I didn’t already know everything’s gone tits up.’ "Tiffy!?"
Asobi jumped back into the carriage, "Let’s go quick!"
"To the company? Are you sure, this note’s very clear," Hotaru flapped.
Kira took a few running steps and took flight slightly westwards, away from Dolpool Academy.
"Screw the damn note, we need to get there." ’How fast can we get there, even the cult’s ambush at the courthouse wasn’t for more than ten minutes give or take. AGH!’
By the time Tiffany ran back, the others were already in the carriage about to set off. She got on and the door slammed. She was forced to sit from the inertia of the carriage jerking forward.
"Ngh." The eccentric blonde panted out, "They said they already sent an ambulance to Fleur. I asked what time, but they didn’t answer." She wiped sweat away from her eyepatch with a checkered handkerchief.
"Well they don’t just let random public know their information," Hotaru stated.
’If an ambulance was already sent... It’s too late. We’re too late. No, I can’t be late. I can’t be late.’ Wordlessly glaring out the window, Fumeko felt knots tighten in her stomach with each passing building.
"Woosh! WOoSH! Woosh!"
"Meko!" Hotaru shouted.
And just like that, like a bullet aimed with one single objective, glimpses of purplish-black shadows blinked across the streets of Orchid Borough to Fleur...
_
"Tng-Tong, Cling-clang!" "Please move away from the area, do not approach close, the area is hazardous. Please move away from the area," large bells were rung again and again with a message from a firefighter.
He stood atop a large metallic tank yelling into a trumpet-like megaphone. An ambulance was nearby with horses wearing red plus signs on their saddles.
The entire street corner had been cordoned off by bright red tape, although some reporters and curious citizens attempted to bypass nonetheless, only to be shoved back by a paramedic or a firefighter at the scene.
"Woosh!"
Her eyes bubbled... ’No.’ She stood crouched on top of a roof of an opposite building. Wind blew past her hair, the same wind that blew bits of debris and concrete dust from the scene.
The side of the building had been demolished from the roof to the ground. Documents, folders and cases from inner rooms were on the floor if they were not already falling off the new balcony they had.
Her father’s office was mere rubble; the offices above were gone, joined in the debris below. The fire brigade were shifting through slates and slabs, trying to get through the mountain piled up.
Hunger and fatigue hit her now that she had stopped, however a moment to breathe she could not hold. "Woosh!" She blinked down onto the rubble, slightly deeper in where the firefighters had not yet approached.
Doing her best to tune out the noises behind her, she scanned around. ’If the entrance was there, this was the.’ She looked up the atrium where half the roof was split off. Peach tiles below were a rare sight, much less the furniture that was here.
She looked back. ’Something busted inwards from there, otherwise the foyer wouldn’t be covered.’ Red strings drew themselves through her gaze, pinpointing from the edge of the building.
Where the rubble was more ’clearer’ or at the very least crumbled further in, was where Kazuo’s office would be. ’Point of impact? Maybe the first at least.’ The thread of imaginary string attached itself.
"Hey kid! Are you hurt? How did you get up there!?" a firefighter on a crawl upwards shouted out.
"I work here," she lied and slid down the other side of the rubble.
"Hey! Oi! Do not go further in!"
Ignoring the fireman’s directions, she examined the other side of the building; a side she or her party rarely perused. "Chu!" the thick chalky air, elicited a sneeze.
Her vision was clouded by a haze that forced her to squint, lest her eyes water. She pulled the ends of her scarf, unfurling it to its wider form which she used to wrap around her nose and mouth before stepping in further.
’They wouldn’t attack the company my ass. You better be alive Mrs Aetherton.’
The one thing she could perceive clearly was the busted down door that had been propped up against the frame by a cabinet from the inside. It had a fist-sized hole.
Her boots crunched along the floor before she peered through the gap in the doorframe. ’Breathing?’ Upon hearing that, she blinked into the room and atop the cabinet, dagger drawn.
Two bodies were present. Black stubble, a black suit missing a shirt and an antler broken off—a cigarette butt was left in between his lips with a trail of smoke long gone.
Detective Quinn Nunley was slumped up against a filing cabinet. Dark red, blues and purples were all around his stomach and his chest had caved inwards to some extent. The sound was not coming from him however.
Pacing each breath, laying against the cabinet right next to him was Peter Werner. The missing shirt from Quinn was found wrapped in separate pieces across his body.
His eyes remained closed; blood had turned into a coagulated mess around his shoes and that was certainly not how human ankles are shaped... One could surmise that he could not even take the shoes off without causing further injury.
"Mr Werner!" Fumeko shouted past the scarf and hopped down.
Peter’s eyes opened and he beheld the brunette. He coughed and sputtered, "Kid... Ah... Ain’t ya a sight," he smiled wearily—his moustache covered in dust.
She crouched down, "Are you dying? Help’s just a few more minutes." Fumeko saw his crushed legs better now; the shirt was wrapped around his legs and one section of it around his right arm.
"D’ya mind gettin’... ...a medic kit?" he pointed to his desk at the edge of the room. "Bottom drawer; left. Whiskey’s, top left... ...if ya wanna drink."
Fumeko blinked over and quickly pulled open the drawer; so fast in fact that the inner wheels got stuck and hung off of the desk. She took the brown case with a red plus and blinked back to Peter.
She set it next to him and opened it up, "I’m not exactly sure what to do with this," she took out bandages and gauzes.
"I’ll manage... thanks kid," he took a bottle of rubbing alcohol and began just pouring it onto the cloth around his legs. "GH...!" he gritted his teeth and hissed.
’Don’t know if that’s a good idea...’ Fumeko hovered a finger near Quinn’s nose.
Peter saw her in the corner of his wincing eyes, "He got his last smoke in. Least he patched me up first before quittin’. He ain’t gettin’ his cut this month that’s fa sure," he chuckled painfully.
"I know the cult attacked, but what exactly happened? Where’s my dad? Where’s Mrs Aetherton? Who else was here?"
Peter closed his eyes. He sighed, "Just... like ya old man... Uff," he sat up more. "Guess he woulda carried me outta here."
’Do I look like I can carry anyone? You can’t even walk.’ "If you have a few last breaths, I’d like to make them count," she narrowed her eyes.
"I ain’t ’bout to die yet missy," he said a tad louder. He took a breath, "One. Just one fine-lookin’ lady—four arms that hit Quinn like a train. F... Forallei was it? From the files?"
"A new god came here; alone?" ’...Now they show their force? Or were they forced to? What changed? Beauregard dying?’ "That sums up all the damage. Did you try to shoot her?"
"Shoot?" he let out a dry laugh. "Gettin’ the hell outta the way was a mission enough. Your dad... Agh... Kaz was in he, his office. Morgana was somewhere, downstairs... Ya didn’t find em’?"
"Woosh!"
Fumeko reappeared on top of the mountain of rubble and looked around. Firefighters were at the top now, alerted by her sudden presence.
"W-what-"
"One person’s in there, heavily injured, go get him. There’s two others missing; Kazuo Namora and Morgana Aetherton," Fumeko stated bluntly.
"Are you hurt?" one of the firefighters grabbed the brunette by the shoulders and checked.
Fumeko wrestled herself away, "I’m fine, I just got here. Go do your job, I’ll do mine," she furrowed her brows. Groaning and muttering things under their breath, the few firefighters started to clamber down the other side.
’Where are they?’ "DAD!? MRS AETHERTON!!!" she shrieked out.
Meanwhile, with a spot of light beaming through various plates of rubble, a detective in blue had her eyes shut. She felt minor pains, but ultimately she was trapped more than injured. All sound was muffled and the echoes of aid were barely making it through.
Attempting to twist or move threatened to cause metal bars and concrete to fall in and crush her; or remove the once source of open air and light she had.
She laid there, chest pressed against the broken peach tiles and her arms stretched out. Calmly breathing through the claustrophobic space, she heard the shrill, nasally voice she had become more familiar with.
Morgana aimed the pistol clutched in her hand towards the gap between the fallen rubble. Having heard enough of her own heartbeat drumming in her ears, she pulled the trigger. "Blast!"
