Bound Together (21 page)

“Oh?”

“Renne and I are trained as snipers,” Malcolm clarified. “Our Spell Engines have been programmed with the scans made of the wardstone you obtained from Saitou Tsukimura. We will set up some distance away and remain hidden to provide fire support.”

I didn't even
want
to know how they managed to get high-powered military sniper rifles into Japan.

“Good. We can work with that. You'll be using MQ rounds?”

“Yes, though we will prioritize secondary targets over assisting with the battle against Lord Isao directly. Star believes that you and Miss Misaki will have a considerably higher chance of success if we eliminate any specters he attempts to summon during the fight.”

“Understood.” I reached into my pocket and took out a cigarette. “Don't open fire until we've actually engaged Isao or unless the shit hits the fan. I'm sure we can trust your judgment on this.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Malcolm said.

The front door opened and Misaki returned with Kaede. I glanced over through the foyer and noticed Star was walking in behind them. Misaki took my mother's dog off the leash and hung it back up before we gathered together.

Star reached into her pocket and took out the wardstone, handing it to Misaki. Her face twisted in disgust, but she knew what she had to do. With her right hand she traced a runic sigil in the air and the wardstone dissolved into a cloud of miasma that was drawn into the glowing rune. The drained pebble disintegrated into a pile of fine grayish-white dust that Misaki quickly brushed away.

“You're looking a little pale,” I observed, my voice holding a touch of worry.

Misaki's disgusted expression intensified. “It's like drinking spoiled milk. Ugh, I never want to do that again.” Her face regained its lost color after a moment, though, and she grabbed the cigarette from my hand and lit it with a tiny spell-flame. She took a deep draw off it and sighed in relief.

“I was going to smoke that.”

“You've got more,” she reminded me.

Star cleared her throat. “Excuse me, but let's stay focused on the task at hand. Can you feel the location of the Tsukimura ancestral shrine?”

Misaki nodded and let out a puff of smoke. “Yes. It's in Kyoto, but also... not.”

“What does that even mean?” I demanded. Misaki gave me a dirty look and closed her eyes, focusing on the spell that was contained within.

“It means the shrine is there, but it's hidden with magic, shifted slightly out of phase with our physical reality. The place is protected by a very old and very powerful warding field. Without the spell contained inside the wardstone, anyone who entered would suffer a permanent and debilitating mental shock.”

“So once we're in, we're on our own,” I muttered.

“Yes. Lord Isao is waiting for us there. I doubt he expects us to oppose him in such a direct manner, but know this: he is
powerful
. With the specter's essence fused to his soul, he can draw mana from its miasmic core. His capacity is almost limitless.”

I took the cigarette back from Misaki. “I still think my plan's got a pretty good chance of working. We know he's become unstable and the loss of the Relic has made him even
more
unstable. If we can unhinge him even further, we'll have the advantage of sound and rational tactics and I'll take
those
over raw, unfocused power any day of the week.”

Star nodded, though she still looked a little nervous. That was okay, really—I mean, I might have
looked
confident right now but I was scared shitless. This would easily be the most difficult thing I've ever done in my entire life.

“We each know our tasks,” Star said. “I'm calling for a start to the mission. My teams are already in place; I will coordinate the raids on the allied locations as soon as you enter the shrine grounds.”

“Misaki and I are heading out now,” I told her.

“We'll signal you when we arrive at the shrine,” Misaki added.

Star took a steadying breath.

“Good luck.”

encounter

“This is it. The shrine is here.”

I gave Misaki a dubious look. All I could see was an empty field of well-maintained local grasses. Whatever she saw, I couldn't see, but I knew the shrine's defensive wards meant that I would not. That the ancestral shrine was on the expansive grounds of the Tsukimura manor, hidden in plain sight, was not a surprise to either of us. I was a little surprised that it would be hidden in an empty field so far from the manor house, though I suppose that was just another security measure.

The manor appeared abandoned; no servants walked about outside the palatial home, no groundskeepers tended the ornate gardens and decorative landscape features. Our arrival was expected and our “host” more than likely sent everyone away so that there would be no interference.

Misaki closed her eyes and sank into an invocation, her hands spreading wide as motes of light and power began to materialize around her. It was a powerful seeking spell that would reveal things hidden through magical means, bolstered by the key contained within the wardstone she'd absorbed.

My vision began to blur and waver. The wide-open field seemed to fade in and out of existence. A moment later, I began to catch split-second glimpses of a small but well-maintained shrine. The power of Misaki's invocation swept through us both and I was plunged into a world of black emptiness. The emptiness was so complete, so all-consuming that I knew I'd start to hallucinate, my mind trying to fill in the gaps in the fabric of reality, but the disorienting moment passed as the space around us was brought back into phase with the physical world.

The shrine I'd seen moments before was no longer a ghostly afterimage. It was small but ornate, decorated with precious jewels and gold-leaf inlay. It didn't resemble any Shinto or Buddhist shrine I'd ever seen before. In fact, the characters etched across much of the shrine's exterior were very obviously not Chinese characters, but bold and unfamiliar runic markings that seemed to exude sharp menace.

“It is a shrine to a god-spirit that crossed the boundary between worlds thousands of years ago,” Misaki whispered, answering my unspoken question. “The runic inscriptions are written in an ancient language of spirits, poetic verses that tell of the glory and power of the god-spirit.”

The two of us stood near the shrine, waiting. Several minutes passed, the air still, without any movement. I strongly suspected that Isao Tsukimura was toying with us, fucking with our minds and amplifying our anxieties. I glanced at Misaki. Her tail was still and her ears laid flat and back against her head, signifying her agitation.

“Let's provoke a response. Destroy the shrine.”

Misaki nodded and spell-flame flowed, engulfing her hands with brilliant orange-red light. She gathered raw elemental power and shaped it into an explosive mote of destruction, preparing to launch the deadly projectile at the shrine. The lacquered wood and paper construction guaranteed Misaki's supernaturally-hot flames would reduce it to ashes within minutes.

A withered old man appeared, materializing in the still air from somewhere else. He motioned with his palsied fingertips and held out his hands. Misaki's mote of flame slammed into those hands as if it had struck an impenetrable wall. The glowing ball of magical fire, suspended in midair before the old man, pulsed and vibrated, shrinking steadily until it fizzled out.

“There is no need for such vandalism,” the old man snapped in a surprisingly rich and powerful voice. This man—Lord Isao Tsukimura—was crooked and bent, appearing to be in his late nineties, but I already knew his true age was well over two hundred. His decrepit appearance was oddly matched to a voice that held the strength and vitality of youth.

No, not the vitality of youth, but the dark power of miasma. The voice seemed to echo and resonate within itself, lending it an inhuman quality that set my skin crawling. I glanced at Misaki and our eyes met. We were both committed—there was no turning back now.

“Lord Isao Tsukimura, I presume,” I said by way of greeting.

“Karin Ashley. The mongrel whore who stole the treasure of the Tsukimura.” Isao snorted and gestured to the ancestral shrine. “I am not surprised someone as uncivilized and of poor breeding as you would attempt to destroy something of such antiquity.”

Isao stepped up onto the shrine's steps and looked down on us, imperiously, despite the fact that both Misaki and I were taller. I ignored his verbal jabs, instead consoling myself with the thought that soon I would be returning those jabs with interest.

The lord of House Tsukimura turned his gaze on Misaki. Isao's dead black eyes bored into Misaki's, but she did not back down, nor did she bow before him. Her ears did not droop and her tail did not curl between her legs. She stood firm and strong and straight-backed, returning the summoner's glare with equal force. The Tsukimura head's sneer was filled with contempt and disgust.

“You have taught this dog some very bad habits, mongrel.” Isao stared at me, ignoring Misaki completely. “It is only the most minor of your transgressions against my clan. But that is of little consequence; we are to make a deal today.”

My expression was filled with contempt of my own. “So I've heard.”

“My son delivered to you my demands: for your life and the Relic, I will release your mother from her inevitable torment and House Tsukimura will forever forswear vengeance against your family and allies.”

“That's what I was told,” I agreed.

“Then make your offering, woman. Kneel, and take your own life. Return our rightful property to House Tsukimura.”

“Actually, I had a counteroffer.”

Isao's yellowed eyes narrowed suspiciously. “My terms are not negotiable.”

“Oh, I'm sure you'll like this idea,” I retorted, somehow managing to keep a small and amused smile on my face. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer. I felt hopelessly transparent, but the old summoner didn't seem to notice. I pushed on through.

“You see, I don't think I want to kill myself. In fact, I want very much to keep on living. So does Misaki. We both want to keep on living, together, for as many days, weeks, months and years as our fates will allow.”

Isao's glower intensified. “There are no other options. Submit, relinquish the blade, or I will destroy everything you have ever held dear in your brief and meaningless existence.”

“No,” I repeated, firmly. “I don't think I will.”

“You are trying my patience,” Isao snapped. “If you refuse me, I
will
kill them while you and the dog are forced to watch. You will witness every agonizing moment of their suffering.”

“Actually,” Misaki chimed in, “we were thinking of just killing you instead. We apologize, but our terms are not negotiable, either.”

I took a step back; Misaki shot off to the right. We had absolutely no intention of giving him a fair fight—we were going to start this off by stacking the deck in our favor as much as possible. I reached under my jacket, drawing the huge pistol that Star had loaned to me before we left Osaka. It was a big, heavy weapon, a bull-barreled revolver loaded with huge 14mm high-concentration MQ slugs.

“You expect to harm
me
with that?” Isao cackled.

I settled into a sharpshooter's stance and brought up the pistol, lining up the sights and squeezing off a shot. The old man didn't even try to dodge or deflect the slug, fully trusting in his defenses to plainly illustrate just how hopeless my situation was.

My wrists ached from the single shot, but I ignored the pain. The custom revolver had one hell of a kick. AEGIS had hot-loaded the cartridges to achieve rifle-like muzzle energy, cramming as much firepower into a hand-held weapon as was possible, even with their current limited equipment and facilities.

Isao took the bullet directly in the center of mass. His superior smirk seemed to falter as he realized that he'd been hit with something quite different than he anticipated. Miasma currents roiled around his body as the malformed quintessence doped into the lead of the bullet started to tangle the miasmic flows.

Misaki concentrated a mote of spell-flame and launched the fireball directly at him. It was small, but the MQ bullet weakened his defenses enough that the mystic projectile struck him and exploded.

“Such outbursts are extremely ill-advised,” Isao growled as he parted the flames, leaving him mostly intact save for a slight scorch mark on his yukata. “You are delusional if you believe you can defeat me in combat. I hereby retract my offer of mercy. I will enjoy this, Karin Ashley, and when I am finished killing you slowly, I will visit the same fate upon those you love.”

“No, you won't.” I smiled smugly and kept the weapon trained on him. “If you cast a spell, I will shoot again. These bullets contain malformed quintessence at extremely high concentrations.”

Isao actually laughed out loud. “You have allowed yourself to be bought by AEGIS? You understand
nothing
, mongrel whore!”

Misaki threw up a golden-shimmering barrier of force a split-second after Isao began to cast his own offensive magic. His fingers flashed, too quickly for the eye to follow, and the air was filled with glowing blades that spun and whirled as they flew unerringly at their target—me.

The glowing blades slammed into Misaki's shield and rebounded, some careening end-over-end and striking Isao's miasmic barrier. I hissed in frustration and fired again, but Isao laughed as the MQ bullet destroyed his barrier. His fingers twitched and again he was shrouded in whirling plumes of miasma.

The revolver's bullets were so large it could only hold six shots—well, four now—but I had two more reloads in speed loaders kept in my jacket's inside pocket.

“Misaki, suppression fire!”

Misaki's spell-flame instantly modified itself, responding to the force of her will. It reformed into countless tiny marbles of explosive force, streaking through the still air of the shrine clearing to slam into Isao one right after the other. The little spheres weren't doing enough damage to actually
hurt
him, but they were keeping him off balance long enough for me to line up another shot.

This time I fired twice, one right after the other, as quick as the revolver's tremendous recoil would let me. The first shot impacted on his miasmic barrier and ripped it asunder, allowing the second one to plow through his shoulder. A great gush of dark blood, mingled with bits of pulverized flesh and bone, burst from his ruined shoulder and I instantly knew the hit had been a
very
good one.

Isao roared in agony and hatred. A black flash heralded the miasma blast that he'd just hurled at me, but Misaki's shield intercepted it. Corruption made physical expanded into a cloud of choking miasma, overwhelming and destroying the shimmering shield.

I allowed myself a smile. I'd hit him directly with an MQ bullet. The more magic he used now, the more it would feed back into his own body and eat away at it. I didn't think for a minute that this would in any way end the battle, but it would hinder him, slow him down a bit and maybe give us a bit of an advantage.

Isao apparently realized this as well. He stepped back, expending precious energy to swat down the spell-flame Misaki continued to throw, and started to invoke a summoning and raise the odds in his favor.

“He's summoning backup!” I warned. Misaki nodded silently and began her own spell. I recognized the runic tracings she made in the air and knew what was coming next. My body began to feel lighter than usual as the enchantment of flight stole over me.

Misaki shot up into the air with dizzying speed. I used my new-found powers of flight to retreat, shooting backward as if yanked by an invisible cord. Flames erupted from the ground as Misaki launched a withering barrage of explosive projectiles.

Lord Isao cackled, unharmed, as the fires parted before him. “You will have to do much better than that to defeat me!”

His fist closed around a black-purple crawling sphere of miasma as he completed the summoning. The malformed quintessence in his body short-circuited the channeling and some of the mana was lost in the form of heat. Smoldering black blood leaked from his ruined shoulder, but he ignored the pain. The miasma began to coalesce, gathering into two distinct forms as the specters were anchored to the physical world.

The specters emerged and began to attack immediately. In the bright light of day I could see the thousand-eyes clearly, their bodies covered in blinking, slime-covered eyes of all shapes and sizes. A storm of dark bolts shot from the glowing eyes studding their outstretched palms.

I shot upward, attempting to use Misaki's flight spell to dodge the attack, but Isao's lips split in a demonic grin as he quickly dispelled the magic that enshrouded me. I was more than three meters off the ground when gravity reasserted its hold on my body.

“Karin!” Misaki cried, dropping into a swooping dive, but there was no way she could get to me in time. I fell and landed hard, my left foot hitting the ground at a bad angle. There was a sickening
crack
of the bone above my ankle giving way. Waves of agonizing pain shot up my leg as I tried to keep standing.

Black arcs of sinister lightning shot from Isao's outstretched hand and struck me directly in the chest. The pain in my broken leg was a whisper compared to the blinding, mind-shattering torment that pulsed through my body. I felt my muscles seize up and contract uncontrollably.