SLISICH!
Staring at the estate Amaiaruheitō sighs.
“That’s the last one. Tch, I didn’t expect it to get out of hand like this.”
“Kobayashi! How are you holding up?”
Removing one of the sleeves from the damage he took, he gets up from a container.
“Not bad.”
“But we better hurry to our target, right now I think the overall security of this place knows about our presence.”
Amaiaruheitō backs herself into a wall.
“Fortunately we are not the first squad to be alerted by the security.”
“From what I am hearing from my earpiece, it seems like Si’s squad got alerted when entering through the shafts near the roof.”
“I suppose you can say that. But we gotta stay low, even if one person alerts the whole place. It will get dangerous.”
Kobayashi checks his comms.
“We ought to get out of this Cargo area Kobayashi! I don’t know where Masashi went. But I am sure that kid got something figured out.” Amaiaruheitō lifts herself from sitting down.
“Amaiaruheitō. Good news and bad news, I’ve received word from Kino’s group. They’ve secured the first floor, it’s mostly guards and a few office workers.”
Amaiaruheitō peeks at the cargo entrance for any people that would come.
“That’s the good news?”
“No it’s just a basic report, the good news is that they managed to take out a radar jammer that was up. So expect clear communication from now on.”
“And the bad?”
“They have discovered people that use Tamaryoku, actually it’s hired assassins they are up against.”
Amaiaruheitō’s eyes widened.
She didn’t think this place would be heavily guarded, even having hired guns to secure this estate.
Things are getting out of hand.
“Kobayashi, we should hurry up right now, the others might be in trouble.”
“Got you, let’s go.”
Amaiaruheitō and Kobayashi sprint through the trucks lined up on the parking lot, they move into one of the buildings to cover more ground safely.
“Alright just in here, we almost th-” Amaiaruheitō stops in her tracks as she puts up her guard.
“I don’t know why you think you’re sneaky, but you come out from that corner you’re around!”
A man swings out the corner with intense speed.
Landing behind both of them.
“So you’re fast?”
“Oh?” The mysterious man turns his head to them.
“How perceptive, and here I thought the people raiding this place were nothing but ordinary. It appears you’re not of the ordinary.”
SWISH!
The man swings his hand at both of them.
Kobayashi swiftly ducks under the swing.
“Amaiaruheitō, this person uses Tamaryoku, be vigilant!”
Appearing behind the man, Amaiaruheitō puts her katana to his throat readying to slice at it.
“Looks like this one is going to be a challenge.”
The man grins.
“You think it’s that easy?”
Suddenly he sinks into the ground, catching Amaiaruheitō off guard, causing her to lose her balance.
“Shit” Amaiaruheitō rolls away from the sinking grounds.
TWISH!
Giant Arms start to burst from the ground around them, as if being summoned.
Kobayashi dodges the hand that has burst from beneath him.
“So this must be his technique? Very well then. I’ll get rid of it so we can move on.”
Tapping his glasses.
Needle-like things start to split from it, eight to be exact all floating around his head and body.
He points to one arm in front of him.
“Seishōshin!”
The Needle-like objects swarm one of the giant arms with quick precision, as they shred and reduce the arm to nothing but bones.
Amaiaruheitō dodges the arms that swiftly tries to grab her.
They phase through each other, clawing at the same target– But miss.
“Tch. Hey Kobayashi, help me out a little bit.”
She draws her sword as blood leaves the tip of her finger covering the blade.
SWISH
She swings her sword and sends waves of hardened blood at hands, cutting one of them down.
Moving to the next slicing with wild precision.
CRUMBLE!
All of the arms converge in a motion akin to quicksand.
“He’s trying to swallow us, be careful Amaiaruheitō!” Kobayashi lands on a surface formed by his needle-like ability.
Amaiaruheitō sticks her sword into the wall to plant herself away from the ground.
She motions her finger at the heart of the quicksand and fires a beam of blood at it.
A singular hand pops up from the heart of it.
The hand opens revealing the man merged with the hand.
“It seems you two are quite skilled, you haven’t been crushed by my ability yet.”
He man claps his hands together.
“I will thoroughly crush both of you!”
“SHOKU!” the man shouts.
The hands merge into the middle and burst out of the walls rushing towards the both of them.
Glass windows of the building they are in shatter, being reduced to dust as they fall.
Amaiaruheitō is sent flying into a wall.
“Kobyashi! This is getting intense! I’ll take his head off in on–”
Kobayashi swings his hand forward as the hand closes in on him.
“Don’t try that, he’ll only direct all of them to you.”
“Brace yourself, I’m going to pull something off!” His Tamaryoku surges greatly.
The mysterious man turns around to the intense increase of energy.
“What is going on with you?!”
Kobayashi jumps from his platform.
“Prepare yourself, stay in one piece after this.”
Amaiaruheitō’s eyes widened.
“Wait a minute? What are you planning?”
“Reveal upon yourself and fall down on the heavens, Seishōshin. I require more than what I need, right now!”
The platform that was constructed by the needle’s split apart.
Multiplying into countless different little needles, they almost change their shape entirely.
Amaiaruheitō looks up in disbelief “No way?! You managed to reach that?”
Kobayashi takes off his glasses, “I hope you bring bandages.” He calmly states.
The air compresses as the amount of pressure in the room reaches its limit.
The large swarm of needles falls from the air and shreds the arms emerging from the walls to dust.
SLSHINGG!!!
Staring at the man elevated in the middle, Kobayashi points his finger at.”I’ll be aiming for your head next.”
The man looks frightened at the sight of his arms being erased.
Hands emerge from his body as they dissolve into dust quickly filling the room.
Jumping into the air Amaiaruheitō swipes her arm into the air, as blood comes out she fires the blood at the man’s head.
TICH!
A chunk of the man’s skull ruptures, blood spilling down his face.
Grabbing her sword she cuts the numerous arms flowing out.
“Got you!”
“Stay back Amaiaruheitō, I’ll handle it.” Kobayashi points his fingers at the man as thousands of needles come charging at the man.
“NO! I can’t focus! This is impossi–”
Thousands of needles swallow up the man, completely shredding him in the torrent.
“AGH?!” the man screams as his body gets shredded to pieces.
But the man continues to push his arms out despite the pain.
Kobayashi gets nervous as his ability is slowly getting overpowered.
“Tch, It seems I can’t hold him back forever.”
The floor continues to fill up with the sand reaching half way to the ceiling.
The man smiles as blood drips from his head.
“Haha, YOU two are going to be drowned with this entire building. As my final trump card I wi–”
SLICSH!
Amaiaruheitō’s sword is launched like a spear, it punches through the man’s throat.
Blood gushes out as ability begins to fade, the sand begins to dissolve.
The entire room is silent.
The remaining hands dissipate and fall to the floor, Kobayashi’s swarm turns to dust and falls onto the floor filing it with small metal shards.
He takes off his glasses to clean them from the debris that was collected.
Tip
Tap
She walks up the man’s mangled body on the floor.
“So I assume? You’re going to tell us why you were hired to guard here for the night ”
She pulls her sword out of the man’s throat in a brutal fashion, she points it directly at his head.
“Don’t try anything funny as well.”
The mangled man lies on the floor, coughing up blood.
“Ha, don’t expect me to spill anything about why I am here.”
“I was merely hired for this work.”
The man laughs weakly.
“I wouldn’t even give you my name, if it meant keeping loss up ahead.”
“So you’re really not going to talk huh?” Amaiaruheitō inquires.
“For someone who’s throat was pierced, you sure talk well…”
“And why would I spill anything to you, intruders! To be honest it took me a while to figure out who you people are.”
The man continues to cough up blood.
“You work for the government don’t you? SDEF’s I think that is what they call you.”
Kobayashi walks up.
“So you did your homework? Did you?!”
“I guess you could say I did. You people really are troublesome.”
“Well… You could say that this is all necessary.” Kobayashi turns towards Amaiaruheitō.
“We should finish him, this has wasted our time.”
She pulls out her service pistol readying to fire at the man.
“Go on, do I–”
BANG!
Amaiaruheitō unloads a single bullet into his head.
“We are already behind on the operation. I doubt he could have been useful if he did not want to speak.”
She walks back “Sigh. We lost time, I wonder what the others are facing if this is the type of people we’re fighting.”
Amaiaruheitō flicks her eyes onto Kobayashi.
“The bigger question is what you pull out just now, was it what I think it was?”
“You mean that level? No, honestly I think I’m close to reach the synchronization between myself. What I did just now is cheating the system.”
“Besides.” He smiles.
“That chant really did a number on me, honestly I think it might have been that.” Kobayashi checks his comms for anything.
The air changes as the dust finally falls onto the floor.
Amaiaruheitō smirks.
“Don’t belittle yourself, even if it wasn’t that. You managed to save our asses, right?”
She stretches one more, “But we should get going now.”
“Yeah. I just got back from Kino. His group managed to secure the non threatening office workers alike, even some staff.”
“The second and third floor are secured. They’re moving up, but the increase of powerful people is apparent.”
Kobayashi brushes his suit off.
“Though with all that said… We are doing really well so far.”
Amaiaruheitō taps his back.
“Certainly, let’s hope we don’t encounter more of these guys.”
“I’ll get in contact with Masashi while we are on the move.”
Both of them navigate out of the building and rush across the grass fields approaching the main massive company estate.
“Ryu! What is the situation looking like on the second floor?”
The man checks his earpiece as he secures staff outside the building.
“Si-sama, We managed to get our share of staff outside, We already cleared the third floor as is.
We encountered a few people who can use Tamaryoku, but they weren’t much of a problem.
Si’s face looks sharply at the exiting staff members.
“These hired guns they’ve got, apparently Amaiaruheitō’s squad managed to deal with one.”
“Kino’s group seems to be having trouble securing the upper floors.”
“Seems like we’ve explored most of the ten floors. The first three floors are secured, I heard Shirogane’s group managed the Fifth and sixth floor.”
“Though those hired guns are managing to cause us trouble.
Si picks up one of his twin blades from the floor.
“Alright then after I am done fully closing off this floor, I’ll meet back with the rest of you.”
“Ryu out!” The earpiece cuts off.
Si finishes getting the last Staff member off the floor, he looks around the third floor for anyone hiding.
From what he is sensing there is no movement on this floor.
Si cracks his neck.
“It’s all clear for once. Tsk, that guy with stretchy ability really ticked me off.”
Walking in the main office a body of a hired gun lies there, completely shredded in half.
Looking up at the ceiling his expression changes to one of uncertainty.
“What the hell is going on up there, the amount of Tamaryoku clashes is almost nauseating.”
He hurries down the first floor to meet up with his group, the only thing on his mind is if this operation doesn’t get way out of hand.
WHOOSH!
“Woah! These vents are long.”
Masashi ventures up the ventilation system.
He is going about this in a way without conflict, only one thing is on his mind.
He still can’t believe that this ability allows him to phase through walls, he basically is a phantom.
Even with his little time using this ability, he feels like this would be convenient when sneaking back into his house when all this is said and done.
BZZT!
“Masashi?! Where are you?”
He taps his ear piece.”Amaiaruheitō?
Currently in the vents right now.”
Navigating through the walls he feels the current flow of the energies clashing.
“I think I’ll try for the seventh floor, where are you guys now?”
“Me and Kobayashi are approaching the building first. We see people coming out of the building, so we assume Si’s squad is good on the lower floors.”
Masashi smiles.
“So it’s going good so far.”
“So far it is good. But the upper floors with Kino’s and Shirogane’s squad are having trouble, see if you can help them out. And be careful Masashi.”
“Heard you, I’m out.”
Finally finding his way out of the vents.
He arrives at the stairwell leading up to the seventh floor.
Deactivating his ability, he walks up the stairs.
There is somewhat a sense of dread as he is going into this alone.
Approaching the door, he opens it.
The room is still, it’s empty.
Looking around he can’t see or hear anyone on this floor, he wonders if it’s been cleared out already.
“Nobody is here? I can’t even feel anyone’s presence on this floor.”
Masashi even checking some of the bathrooms and extra storage rooms, can’t seem to find a singular living soul.
Exiting the extra room Masashi makes his way to the stairwell deciding to ascend to the next floor.
SKKRrrrrrrrrrr
A loud scraping sound is made echoing throughout the floor.
“I need help! Someone help me! PLEASE!” A voice pleads for help.
Turning around, Masashi senses someone inside the office room.
Feeling only one singular presence he is unsure to proceed, as this might be an elaborate trap.
He looks at the door handle deciding whether to open it.
“Tch, if this doesn’t look like something out of a horror movie. I’ll go back to watching those bad rom cons.”
He twists the knob, pushing the door open.
Looking at the man laying near the wall, he can tell it’s actually a person.
“Excuse me sir! Are you alright?!”
Masashi rushes to attend to the man.
The man opens his eyes and turns to Masashi, A scowl forms in his face.
“It’s tipping, It’s tipping, It’s tipping. It doesn’t stop, IT DOESN’T STOP!”
“What are you saying? Have you been attacked by someone?”
Before Masashi could get another word out of the man.
His eyes roll back into his head, as blood pours out from every hole on his face.
“What the fuck!”
Masashi backs away, almost leaping to get outside the room.
The man’s body begins to contort, it begins to expand and then.
SPLQIUSH!
The entire room gets painted in blood, guts and different body parts paint the wall.
Masashi eyes dart around as he hears the same scraping sound on the floor.
“I can finally sense something… It’s creepy as heck.”
The unsettling presence causes Masashi to focus on, aiming in on where it could be, finding who emits such disgusting energy.
Turning his head his eyes sharpen.
“So you were there all this time? Creeping around like some clown?”
Fully turning his body around Masashi sees the tall and lanky figure.
“What fun would that be? I was expecting a group of people, but it’s just one boy. How frustrating.” The man smiles.
“How did you know that I was here If you couldn’t detect me?”
The lanky man shifts across his trench coat, His head moves with the flowing pants that he is wearing.
“When I came back to this main room, I noticed a few things. The position of the stairwell door had shifted. Actually a few desks were missing, a good chunk of them.”
“The fact that the signs were upside down, tells me I wasn’t the only one on this floor.”
Masashi manifests his Wakizashi.
“And why did you kill that man over there? From his outfit, he just worked here.”
Grinning the man’s eyes opens up more.
“I felt thirsty, I had to quench my thirst. It was getting lonely without anyone up here. So you coming here definitely made me joyous!”
“Tch.” Masashi’s Tamaryoku surges out, flowing around his body like ribbons.
Softly flowing around out of his body.
“More reason to fight to the top.”
Masashi charges at the clashing as the man draws out a large claw-like blade.
“Hehe, since you’re going to be my new joy, I will let you know what I am called. I am known as Henkōten!”
SLISSHING!
“Woah!”
Henkōten slices with aggressive speed, almost chopping Masashi’s head clean off.
“Crap!” Masashi flips away as he tries to get ground.
He flicks his hand out as transparent chains swirl out from his wrist.
Wrapping the chains starting from his arm and extending towards his hand, he tosses his blade into his hand wrapped with the chains.
“Oh what an interesting ability boy!”
He charges at the man.
“You’re getting ahead of yourself, my joy!”
Blades burst out of the man’s trench coat, multiple at a time.
They are flung at Masashi at high speeds.
SLISSHING!
With rapid speeds Masashi’s arm swings around and destroys the multiple blades that were flung at him, with such precision that most of them were turned into metal shavings.
Henkōten looks on with a somewhat nervous face.
“How did you manage to do that?”
Masashi smirks as he looks confidently at the man.
“Since my normal reactions couldn’t keep up with what was going on, I decided to test something…”
“Wrapping my chains around my body and blade, they react to Tamaryoku causing it to override my motor functions, allowing them to move at speeds which I can’t perceive.”
It’s actually something new I decided to try out, I’ve been curious about what I can do.”
The simple application of Yūrei Kusari is to swing and attack with ghost-like chains, they restrict effect and restrict the soul of anyone caught up in them.
When combining them with his body, they seemingly improve his speed and react instantly to anything sent to him.
“You seem to be getting overconfident? Explaining your ability like that, is a fools wish!” The man’s energy shifts as he reveals his claw-like blade he has been hiding.
“And who says I would reveal everything?”
Masashi can’t help but feel a little nervous, ever since engaging Henkōten.
The creepiness to his aura constantly increased, to the point where Masashi can feel his aura even touching him.
He doesn’t know what the abilities of this man is, so his guard is high up.
All that is on his mind right now is to get over this obstacle and reach Hyuganatsu.
Henkōten puts his finger on his mouth.
“What do you fear the most, boy! I will grasp and bring them to life.”