"I know you can handle it," you say simply. You spread your hands. "Some things will make a lot more sense for you, I suspect. But I also think that it'll make the world feel much darker. I..." You trail off, working your jaw thoughtfully. "I'll say it again - it's not a
nice secret. And it'll be just us three. Three is more than most people have, but you might feel like it... separates you from everyone else."
Sayaka nods, expression sober and intent. "I gotcha. But you think I can handle it?"
"Yeah," you say, and smile. "You're strong."
"Thanks, Sabrina," she says, returning the smile. "I... shall we?" She motions at the Barrier.
"Yep. After you, my cute little
kohai," you say.
Both Sayakas shudder. "
Never say that again."
You laugh, and shove her towards the Barrier. "Get
going, you," you say cheerfully.
"Going, going!" Sayaka says, and both of her step through the tear in reality, one after another.
You take a deep, bracing breath and follow. There's a jolt, and reality
shifts.
Corruption hangs heavy in the air, the skin on the back of your neck crawling at the sensation. Salt. The smell of salt, of the sea, of rotting seaweed, slaps you in the face. It's warm, too, and you crane your head to see the sun beating down on you from above, sea and sand almost sparkling.
Perfect white sand under your feet, and the crash of surf against the shore. Behind you are trees, a boundary. A nothing that leads back into the real world.
"Whoo! Beach trip!" Sayaka crows, bouncing on her toes and sending sand flying into the air. The other Sayaka grins, crouching to inspect something on the ground - a seashell.
"Apparently," you say, propping your hands on your hips and looking around. Your Grief came with you into the Barrier, all of it held tight under the control of your
will, and so too did the rock you'd stuffed into hammerspace. It feels... the same, really. Your enchanted Grief's starting to run down, but that's simply time.
But
now is time to be a good role model. As much as you can, anyway.
Heh.
You, a role model.
"Well?" you ask, grinning at Sayaka.
"Well what?" she says.
"Where're we going?" you ask.
"Oh! Uh..." Sayaka looks around, both of her spinning in a circle and looking around. Sayaka-two points at the forest. "That way?"
"Nope, that's the way out," you say, grinning.
That much you're sure of, but what you're not sure of is where you
are going. You
think you know, but you're not absolutely sure.
"Then..." Sayaka slowly pans towards the sea. "We're going for a... swim?"
"Try it," you say, clasping your hands behind your back. "Keep your guard up."
Sayaka gives you a twinned, suspicious look, and one of her edges towards the sea. "So..."
She prods the crashing surf with a foot, her eyes going wide - and then she takes a step. And then another, and another, out onto the rolling waves.
You snicker, clapping the less adventurous Sayaka on the shoulder. "C'mon, then."
"I'm glad I don't get seasick," Sayaka says as she follows you out onto the open waves. "... eh, I think I'll fly. I'm supposed to watch, anyway."
"It'd be a better vantage point, but make sure you don't go so far you miss the action," you say. Standing
on the sea is weird, with the way it bobs under your feet. It's almost like being on a boat out in choppy waters, but
worse. "I suspect we'll be seeing things come from under the water."
"Gotcha," Sayaka says as she takes off to the skies. The other Sayaka blinks at you. "Under the water?"
"Yeah," you say with a shrug. "Just a feeling. Now, which way?"
"Uhhh," Sayaka says, looking around. "... where's the island?"
"Gone," you say cheerfully. And indeed, it
is gone, even if you'd barely taken a few steps from the shore. There's nothing around you but empty, open water.
"... uhhh," Sayaka says. "Down? Underwater?"
"I don't
think so," you say, shaking your head. "But keep close. Witch Barriers are imprecise things, and after a few, you get this feel for them. They're more like... dream logic than anything, you know? If we're on the surface of the water, and we are-" you stomp your foot for emphasis, watching the waves ripple out "-then we're probably here to stay unless something drags us under."
"I guess," Sayaka says, giving the deep blue sea a doubtful, suspicious look. "I mean I don't think I've had a dream about walking on water before. Diving, sure, swimming without needing to breathe..."
"Also a possibility," you say with a shrug. "Still, pick a direction."
"Right," Sayaka says, squinting up at the clone of herself, drifting lazily through the air above. "Uh... there's a big fogbank this way."
She starts off over the sea at an easy jog, bounding over the waves. You can't see anything in that direction, but you stick close, Grief fog drawn protectively all around you. Just to be sure, you dip part of it into a net sweeping through the water beneath you.
Sayaka pulls a sword from beneath her cloak as she runs, letting it drag through the water behind her. The salt water sprays, leaving a wake that trails out behind you in a wide V.
Incoming.
Below.
You bound straight to the side, Grief lending you distance and height. You wrap enough around Sayaka to shield her if she doesn't notice in time, but she's already moving as something breaches the water.
All you hear is a yell as white spray explodes into the air, a massive plume obscuring your vision for long enough for your heart to lurch, but you can still feel Sayaka there on the other side, dashing a straight line across the ocean and that thing between you is
huge and white and gigantic and it stinks of rubber and it's all glistening rainbow and sharp-edged shell it's aiming for
you-
Backwards. Backwards, backwards, and
up. Grief becomes wings that drag you out of the way just as the thing slams back into the water with another titanic crash that sends water splashing all the way up to where you are, a clean twenty meters up in the air.
"What the hell was that?" Sayaka shrieks at you.
"Familiar," you say. "I think. Didn't feel like the Witch."
"No I got that I mean
what was that?" Sayaka yells.
"... giant clam? I think?" you hazard as you drift back closer to Sayaka.
"It had
teeth!" Sayaka says.
"Familiar," you repeat, shrugging. "Witch Barriers."
Sayaka shudders, reaching under her cloak and thumbing through powers. "OK. Can you stay in the air?"
"Sure," you say. "Got an idea?"
She withdraws her hand and holds it up. Fat, lazy sparks crackle over her fingers, bright enough to cast her sharp grin into shadow.
"Fair enough," you say. "Don't forget your Soul Gem capacity. I don't know whether I can cleanse you from here."
"I've got my Clear Seed ready in class," Sayaka says, nodding. "But you wanna check that later, right? So I'll use it after the fight, or in emergencies or something."
"Good thinking," you say. Sayaka beams at the praise, and without prompting, takes off jogging over the water again.
"You sure you don't wanna fly?" you call after her.
"Nah, gotta get better, right?" she says. "'sides, I've got you as a safety net, and I took the flight power up there already, anyway." She points at the other clone, flying high above you.
"Does that mean you can't share a power between clones?" you ask curiously.
"No, I can," Sayaka says. "I just gotta have the power at the time I make the clone. Original-me's got the clone power, and I made her, see? Original me has Miss Usagi's animal power, so do I, so does she. But I put away the flight power before making her, so only she has the flight power right now."
"You can fly without the power too," you feel beholden to say, even as you file that tidbit away.
"Eh, it takes more work to do that," Sayaka says with a shrug. "I-"
Another explosion of water, the
thing breaching the ocean from below. Sayaka's already midleap, soaring over the gaping, chomping maw. Grief fog wraps around her, just in case it proves necessary. Electricity crackles in her wake, a blazing arc that follows the sweep of her blade.
Thunder.
It's not so much a bolt as much as a
slash of lightning that meets the Familiar, slashing right into the space between the shells. It all but bursts, burning, oily muck splattering across the sea. Sayaka sails clear, and you can hear her laughing in exhilaration.
"How was that?" she calls up to you.
"Well done!" you call right back, flying closer to Sayaka. You wrinkle your nose as the
smell hits you, the acrid stink of burnt rubber intermingling with crisp ozone. And now that the Familiar's dead -half blown apart- you can see that it
is some kind of giant shellfish. Iridescent mother-of-pearl gleams in the sunlight, blue-streaked flesh slowly sinking beneath the waves.
"Is there just one?" Sayaka asks, frowning and looking around.
"Probably not," you say, drifting within arm's reach of Sayaka. "Never is. Keep your guard up, but well done."
"Thanks," Sayaka says, flashing you a grin - and she yelps when the sea starts to churn around the sinking corpse. She
leaps, and you soar, getting distance from-
-from hundreds,
thousands of swarming, scuttling
things with waving feelers and transparent, blobby bodies, each one dog-sized with tentacles that flash in the sun and reach entire bodylengths. The water froths with the sheer number of them, surfacing from
below and skittering across the sinking shellfish corpse. They tear and devour, tendrils freezing to flesh and shell alike as they pull it apart.
"Kill?" Sayaka calls, half-frantic, half-disgusted.
"Kill!" you call back, and sweep forward with a storm of blades. Your wings angle into something sharp and predatory as your blades drive home, each one slicing into the body of a Familiar and tearing it to pieces. You juke to the side, trusting Sayaka to see and understand and-
-and she
does. Lighting roars through the air, arcing from Familiar to Familiar and popping them one after another in a beautiful, deadly display, bright enough to leave afterimages. Your blades slice into the stragglers, and you dive to the side to give Sayaka a clear shot at another host, twisting your head away. A few surface near Sayaka, and she meets them with a blur of steel and staccato thunderclaps.
It's over in seconds, leaving you cruising through the hissing, steaming wreckage of popped Familiars floating on the ocean surface.
"That was... more like it?" Sayaka says, blade still hefted.
"Yep," you say, and grin at her. "Well done. I think we got 'em all."
"Yeah, that's important," Sayaka agrees with a serious nod. "Can't let any Familiars escape, or else they eat people and grow into the Witch again, right?"
"Exactly," you say, wrinkling your nose as the
smell hits you. "Which, of course, leads us to ask... where
is the Witch?"
"Iunno," Sayaka says, shrugging.
"You mentioned a fogbank?" you ask.
"That way, yeah," Sayaka says, pointing.
"That way it is, then," you say. You let Sayaka take the lead, wary for more ambushes from below.
And there
are ambushes, another two of those giant scallop things exploding from beneath the placid ocean in an attempt to
eat you. You let Sayaka deal with them, lightning proving more than viable against them.
"... hah!" you say in the relative silence after the devastation of another swarm of the blobby things, nearer to the base of the looming fogbank. This close, you can see the black streaks in the dirty off-white, oddly geometric patterns. Rectangular, really. You grin at Sayaka, kicking one of the smaller Familiars. "Sayaka used Thundershock! It was super effective!"
"You took this long to think of it?" Sayaka says, sticking her tongue out.
"Silence!" you say, waving your arms. "Anywa-"
You cut yourself off, the hairs on the back of your neck rising. Sayaka's head twitches to the side.
"Witch?" she asks.
"Witch," you confirm.
"Below- no-"
From
above. Sayaka's scream fills the air - the clone in the air, the watcher, and you're already turning, just in time to see the air saturate with slashing drops of
water. Your wings snap up, crossed in front of you to shield you, but
rain, simple
rain hits you with enough force to drive you back in the air.
"Fucking
ow," you hear Sayaka snarl - she's darting away, hunched low and dashing a zig-zag path away from water striking the ocean hard enough to send up plumes of spray.
"Incoming!" you yell, just in time for the Witch to splashdown, sending waves slopping across the surface. It towers over you, glassy-clear body a twisted cone rising into the air and filled with squirming, throbbing organs in glistening yellows and greens and deep, copper blues. Electric-blue tendrils hiss through the air, wild flailing patterns that flash toward you and leave viscous, virulent streaks of
stuff flashed across your shielding wings.
You answer with a defiant shriek and blades, razor shards condensing out of the air in a deadly storm. You meet the slashing tendrils -tentacles- with blades, chopping them into stinking pieces.
"Sabrina!" Sayaka yells from above. "Catch!"
You glance up just in time to see the clone plummet. There's a gaping, bloodless wound trailing smoke from where her
arm used to be and you can see
light through her translucent torso. She flicks something -two somethings- iridescent and angular at you. She vanishes before she hits the ocean.
You catch, Grief stretching out. Two gems. Sayaka's power gems. The other clone Sayaka- she's fine, keeping her distance from the Witch, a blur of white and fluttering cape as she dashes across the waves. You can feel the static rising, see the lightning building, and you trust she can handle herself.
The Witch. It hasn't stopped flailing, eerily silent but for the sound of its tendrils whipping at you, a relentless and unending barrage cracking through the air, and they're
fast. The
Witch is fast, scudding across the ocean after you with light refracting through its crystal-clear body. You could kill it, but-
This is
Sayaka's show.
The sea boils beneath you as you streak across the waves. You evade straight up, just in time for another of those giant shellfish Familiars to leap from the waves, snapping wildly at you. That is
entirely too much, and you seize it with Grief before it can crash back into the waves. Bands of Grief go around it, squeezing and cracking shell before a
twist of your mind hurls the shellfish bodily at the Witch.
The Familiar hits like a truck, slamming the Witch to a dead halt. A few of its organs
burst inside its body, splattering the inside with unknowable fluids, and the constant, whipping strikes still for a moment.
Sayaka takes the moment to strike.
She crashes into it from behind with a yell, twin swords whirling around her in a blinding dervish that trails streaks of lightning as she carves
into the beast, gouging a hole into the glassy, hollow body before leaping back. And at the apex of her jump, she raises both swords, upthrust to the sky, and swings them at the Witch. You turn away, and just in time.
The world goes white.
Somewhere in the middle of the thunder, you sense the Witch die. Sayaka howls again, barely audible, and you
feel more than you
hear her unleashing another bolt of lightning.
But the world's already fading, the Barrier collapsing in an inward swirl of Grief. It drains into that abyssal speck, the core of the Witch, and you find yourself everted without ceremony back into Mitakihara City. You find yourselves a ways away from the apartment building you'd entered the Barrier from.
Instead, you're under a bridge. Just by a canal that smells faintly of saltwater, a quiet
ping sounding as the Grief Seed drops beside you.
"Woo!" Sayaka crows, pumping her fists in the air. "That was
great!"
[] Cleansing
- [] Try to remote cleanse Sayaka
- [] Just tell her to use the Clear Seed
[] Fight feedback
- [] Ask about the clone
- [] Chide her for recklessness
- [] Praise her performance
- [] Specific points?
[] Afterwards
- [] Tell Sayaka to go back to focusing on school
- [X] Nadia.
-- [X] Ask about Riona, and her not informing you all of her arrival.
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
Scallops are
freaky as hell. Yes, those are eyes, though those aren't teeth.
