Into the Inferno

Scenery whizzed past Itsuki in a blur, familiar and alien trees blending together as he sprinted closer to the flames. His legs pumped easily against the ground, finally making use of the cardio he'd gotten into a couple years ago as he maneuvered around obstacles.

The path he'd taken didn't look particularly well-traveled, but it was maintained enough to not cause too much trouble, especially considering his experience patrolling the nature near the cliffs.

He batted aside a rogue tree branch that hung just a bit too far into the trail, weaving around the others.

If he were to be honest, the most difficult part of this was dealing with his second thoughts. With a fire burning that big and a scream that loud, it was extremely likely that lives were at stake. However, now that he'd had the time to think a little more, it didn't feel right to have just left Sayaka back there.

She obviously wasn't doing well, so for him to just up and leave, even if it was for a good reason…

Would she still be okay after dealing with whatever was going on? Was he making a mistake, just like he'd made with Kaede?

Leaves faintly rustled behind him before his thoughts could go further, his ears perking up at the distant noise.

"Kisaragi?!" Sayaka shouted, breathiness notable in her voice as it echoed. "What are you doing?"

"Usami?!" he yelled back surprised yet relieved at her presence. "I'm uh, going to try help whatever is going on! What about you though? Why are you here?"

"I…" She trailed off, pausing for a moment as she stumbled after him. "I just can't afford anything else on my conscience, okay?! I'm not letting you die again!"

Itsuki registered her answer with a nod. It strangely felt more aimed at herself than a reply to him, but he didn't have time to delve any deeper.

He swatted away a few more branches as he refocused ahead.

The foliage was beginning to thin now, and he could feel the heat begin to hit him as the first building came into view. Built from wood and currently ablaze, the architecture was strange, European likely being its best fitting description.

Not that it mattered much now. It was hard to appreciate beauty when it was on fire.

The trail transitioned to a side street of sorts, going from dirt to cobble as his boots sounded against stone.

His eyes started darting from side to side, scanning what looked to be a town as he reduced his pace. There was no visible movement yet besides the flames, although there were definitely people here given the now very audible cries.

Other things caught his attention too.

Blood, bodies, death. If it weren’t for the fact he'd already experienced all three intimately, his stomach might've churned.

What the hell happened here?

Something caught his attention amongst the wreckage, his heels skidding against the ground as he stopped.

A girl with fiery eyes, no older than twelve, lay pinned beneath a wooden beam.

She was barely moving.

Itsuki cursed under his breath, rushing over to help immediately. Flames licked at his arms as he reached the building, attempting to lift the debris pinning the kid.

The wood groaned in protest.

While it was undeniably heavy, he managed to move the solid piece with enough strain. The girl was thankfully coherent enough to realize her sudden freedom, weakly crawling forth to safety.

Once she was away enough, Itsuki let the wood drop, tugging her rest of the distance to the road. She immediately let loose a fit of coughs and sputters.

"T-thanks, mister," she said as she gasped for air. "I thought I was dead."

Itsuki just nodded, brain still running even if he wasn't. "No problem. Hey, was there anyone else in there? Anyone that needs help?"

"U-uh, not… anymore." Her eyes dimmed for a spell before coming back. "B-but my little sister might still be alive. If she isn't at the raid shelter yet, she's probably near the center plaza."

A shaky finger pointed down the road, gesturing at even more stacks of smoke and flame.

"I see. In that case, are you alright? If you are—"

He paused, blinking in confusion as he suddenly realized something mid-sentence.

Unlike his earlier conversation with Sayaka, the words he spoke now weren't familiar. They escaped coherently but slightly stilted, like the way he'd managed English back in university.

They weren't speaking Japanese.

The kid didn't seem to notice his confusion though, just nodding after another cough. "Yeah. I'm okay. Just give me a bit."

"A-alright then." Itsuki got up, trying to project over a growing panic. But just as he was about to say something, footsteps came to a stop beside him.

"Finally caught up. Look, Kisaragi, I saw some things. You need to get out of here before—Ah! Is she alright?!"

Whatever words she was going to say were quickly forgotten as she kneeled next to the girl, eyes darting around her.

"Does anywhere hurt? Can you breathe okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"I think I'm fine?" Her eyes lightened even further upon seeing Sayaka, already looking much better than just a few seconds ago. "And, uh, four I think."

Itsuki paused for a spell to witness the unexpected interaction.

Did she have a soft spot for kids?

An idea popped into his head to keep them both safe.

"Usami, you mind taking her to safety? She mentioned a raid shelter earlier, and her sister could be there."

"Sure…? Hold up though, why are you asking me? It almost sounds like you're—"

He dashed off once again before she could finish.

"K-Kisaragi!?"

"Sorry! There's something I gotta check!"

His feet pounded against the ground, taking him closer toward the town's center saturated in flames. The wind kicked up as he moved, and he scrambled to piece together what little he currently knew.

The way things were shaping up, this world was beginning to feel a lot more dangerous than Japan. He hadn't spotted anything like firefighters yet, and there were some very concerning things popping up amongst the rubble as he continued forward.

Bloodied steel in the streets, tattered clothing and armor, curved and twisted blades sticking from rubble or kicked off to the gutter. It reminded him of the scenes Kaede used to write, the ones where fantasy and expectations clashed on paper.

He had a sinking feeling this was more than just a fire.

Ash and cinders grew thicker as he ran. It took a while to maneuver around all the debris, and he got turned around a few too many times, but after enough determination, he found himself close toward the town's center, spotting movement in the haze.

The sound of metal on metal rang throughout the plaza, accompanied by yells, grunts, and—

The air sizzled as a blazing crystal hurled past him, slamming into a building.

Was that magic just now?!

"You! Stranger!" A stern, feminine voice called out above the thrum before he could gawk. "Friend or foe?!"

His head spun to glimpse the figure that said that. She was clad in a uniform of some kind alongside a few others in similar garb: a chest plate, pauldrons, and armor running along her limbs. Short blonde hair bobbed in a dodge, gems of sort sprouted along her form like additional armor, and a silver poleaxe that hummed with resonance swung as she fought off an attacker.

"I-I'm just trying to help. I'm looking for a girl's sister—"

The blunt end of her weapon found purchase, felling a black-robed opponent to the ground with a sickening thud.

Itsuki stared as red pooled between the cracks, gulping as his sinking feeling solidified into reality.

He might've been in over his head here.

His hands immediately shot upward, making his intent clear if it already wasn't.

"I'm a friend, friend!"

The woman gave the quickest of nods in his direction before sidestepping another figure's attack.

"Then help, fight, or run." She parried a curved blade, followed by a wet thrust. "These cultists are Diluvian."

"Diluvian? What does that even—"

Before he had the chance to finish, the hairs on the back of his neck tensed.

And without thinking, he jerked to the side, a twisted blade stabbing the air where his stomach used to be.

His heart thundered in his chest as his eyes took in the glinting metal, then the man wielding it.

Just like the other blurs, he too wore black robes and a glowing pendant of some sort over it. A strange symbol was emblazoned on the front of the fabric, and an uncanny smile peaked from beneath his hood as he spoke.

"Hehe, foreigner blood. I wonder how light your soul is~"

Itsuki involuntarily jumped to put space between them, shuddering at the comment.

What kind of place did they end up in?!

Raising both of his hands forward, he motioned to calm him, hoping that the guy wasn't completely crazy.

"Hey, come on. You don't look like a bad guy. Let's just take a breath—"

His body twisted to the side, managing to keep his guts from being spilled to the ground but not enough to avoid a line of red from blooming on his shirt.

Coldness creeped in where the blade had cut.

A laugh escaped from the man, licking his lips.

"Appealing to morality? Absolutely beautiful!"

Shards of ice rose from his weapon, weaving around him in glee.

"Bleeding hearts like yours are exactly what we need."

Itsuki's eyes widened as dread and coldness coursed through him, his body stalling until completely frozen.

Why couldn't he move?

Why couldn't he move?

The man's blade lunched forward to end him, frosted steel yearning for more blood.

But before it could land, the sound of a weapon snapped him back. A bloodied poleaxe rose from the man's corpse, shards of gem splintering from where it'd impacted as a boot crushed his amulet against the pavement.

Its light escaped before fading.

"I already told you. They're Diluvian," the armored woman grunted, thrusting a mace's hilt into his right hand. "Stalling won't work. Use my backup if you've lost your weapon."

"Vice-Captain!" A gruff voice called out anxiously. "More of them from the marketplace!"

"Crap." In the blink of an eye, he was forgotten. She rushed back in the fray, mowing down another figure alongside her comrades as slag and crystalline fragments revolved around her in a barrier.

Pulse still hammering, Itsuki's sight flickered between the new weapon in his hands and the combat around him.

*BA-DUMP*

All at once, everything felt like it was catching up.

Pins and needles crawled up his limbs like static, everything becoming muted as cold consumed him and the world slowed to a snail's crawl. The only part of him going fast now was his heart, the muscle pounding in his chest like taiko.

*BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP* *BA-DUMP*

His free hand moved over his chest reflexively, gripping in on itself.

Fire, cultists, magic, powers?

What the hell could he even do against all this—?

Warmth cut the thought off, rapidly spreading through him from his chest. Any shock was dispelled as it surged, reaching every fiber of his being.

It wasn't heat from the surrounding inferno though; it was something else, like his heart had just been cupped in his own hands and empowered somehow.

He opened his fist, and the warmth rapidly faded, though it felt like something had changed. The coldness from before was gone as well as his pain.

That was strange. Was this the 'power' the tribunal of voices had mentioned?

"Kisaragi! Look out!"

"Huh?" He turned to the voice, only to see Sayaka sprinting toward him in the distance, dress flittering behind her in the fiery air.

Wait, why was she here? Shouldn't she have been with the kid—

A solid liquid abruptly slammed him from behind before the thought finished, cracking bone and sending him skidding to the ground.

Pain blossomed everywhere.

His body skipped across the heated ground like a stone on a lake, each impact adding hurt and sending cobble into the air until finally—

*SLAM*

—he came to a stop against a wall. Hard.

Rubble settled as his head spun, and a robed figure with violet hair, pointed ears, and golden trim upon her garments came into his view. Power radiated from her like a cold heat, and light faded around her in a dark halo, absorbed into a void that centered around her neck.

"I thought I sensed something," she said. Water and fire formed around her hands like serpents as she stepped over him.

"There's something peculiar about you, human. What is it?"

He initially tried responding. However, his lungs refused, air escaping him in a gurgle. His hand tried reaching for his chest like before to see if maybe that might help too, though it didn't move for some reason, instead remaining limp at his side.

The robed figure frowned at his struggle.

"Ah, unfortunate. I didn't presume you'd be this fragile. I'd sworn I'd been gentle enough."

Liquid surged into a blunt form above him, like an anvil ready to be dropped.

"Not enough time to check, so it's best if it's ended quickly."

Itsuki's entire body tensed, fear gripping him as death loomed in front of him.

Or at least he thought so.

The water began to ripple uncontrollably, surging and spiking in different directions. Then, it unceremoniously fell, drenching him, but otherwise leaving him untouched.

"Get away from him!"

They both looked at Sayaka—now much closer than before—as she scooped up a stone from the rubble mid-stride. The most surprising thing though was that her right hand was thrust open in their direction, some sort of aura emanating from it.

"What matter of technique is this?" the robed woman muttered, looking down at her hands as if they'd been lopped off. She briefly tried weaving fire together, but it simply flickered out before it could form.

"Tsk." She looked like she would say something but flinched as Sayaka tackled through her afterimage with the stone, disappearing in a plume of embers.

"ACK!" Sayaka skidded into the ground, dust and ash kicking up as momentum shifted. As soon as she recovered though, she scrambled to Itsuki's side.

"Kisaragi, are you—Oh no. Nononono."

"Usami?" He just barely managed to eke out a response this time, but it came out wet, like he was drowning. "What's wrong?"

She kneeled over his body, eyes wide. She said something that he couldn't quite make out as she made weird gestures with her hands.

He tried asking her to repeat herself, but he wasn't sure if he got the words out. His mind felt deafened now, and his vision started to blur, blackness crawling in from the corners.

That was strange.

Sayaka looked panicked, rapidly looking around before waving in a direction he couldn't quite see from the way his head was angled.

Was she motioning at someone? Trying to flag down help?

It was impossible to tell at this point. All he knew was that everything was growing colder despite the flames.

As the last of his consciousness faded away, he felt a warmth wrap around his hand.

He grasped back before blacking out.