Ash and Soap

The invasion did not end with the giant’s fall. The Sephis bled into the quarter for hours, slipping out of drains and alleys like vermin that refused to die. Every time I thought the line would steady, another cluster surged from the fog, clawing at the barricades, spitting ichor across the stones.

The guild was breaking. Their fire grenades lit the streets in bursts, but they threw them blindly, wasting charges, scattering the plague instead of stopping it.

“Stop wasting charges,” I shouted, wrenching a trembling doctor by the collar. His mask was cracked, his hands fumbling with the fuse. “Aim for their joints. Shatter the frame and the fire finishes the rest.”

He blinked at me through the iron grill, too dazed to argue. He threw where I pointed. The grenade burst, tearing through knees and ankles. The Sephis collapsed in a heap, flames racing along their bodies until there was nothing left to rise again.

Others watched. For once, they copied me, clumsily, but it worked. The line held.

◇◇◇◇

A Sephis lunged from the fog, claws sweeping wide. I stepped into it instead of away, ramming a grenade between its ribs. The jaws clamped down on my shoulder, tearing through flesh and bone. Pain ripped through me, but only for a moment. By the time the grenade detonated and blew half my body into the cobbles, muscle was already knitting back together.

I staggered upright, smoke curling from the ruin where my arm had been, and flexed the fresh limb as it finished regrowing.

The other plague doctors recoiled in horror. One dropped his weapon entirely.

Karin swore under her breath. Kaguya’s quill scratched so fast the parchment tore.

“You are insane,” Karin shouted.

“No,” I said, brushing ash off my coat. “I am practical.”

◇◇◇◇

A Sephis dragged itself out of the fog, half-formed and twitching. I smashed it back with the butt of a rusted crowbar I’d scavenged from the rubble earlier. The weight was uneven, the grip worn slick with age, but it felt right in my hand.

“Fitting,” I muttered. “Another protagonist once made this work.”

Karin blinked mid-punch. “What are you even talking about?”

I didn’t answer. I just adjusted my grip and stepped back into the fog.

Kaguya scribbled the line down anyway, as if it were some vital formula.

◇◇◇◇

A fresh wave poured from the fog, limbs twisting like melted wax. The guild faltered, throwing fire wild into the haze.

“Scatter-shotting into mist is useless,” I barked, grabbing a vial from one of their belts. I hurled it straight into the cobblestones. The fire spread outward in a rolling sheet, and the Sephis recoiled with a hiss, their skin blistering where it touched the flames. “See? They retreat from spread, not sparks.”

The soldier stared at me as though I had just rewritten scripture.

I stepped forward into the burning line, letting three Sephis pile onto me at once. Their claws raked through my chest and arms, tearing deep, but I jammed a grenade between us and held them close.

The blast blew us into a heap. For a moment I was nothing but ruin scattered across the cobbles. Then my body reformed piece by piece, bone and sinew knitting, skin crawling back into place.

The Sephis writhed, their hides charred from within. The guild doctors gaped.

Karin shouted, “Idiot! You’ll get yourself killed!”

I wiped ash from my face. “That experiment proves clustering them makes the fire spread faster.”

Kaguya’s hands trembled as she scribbled furiously, muttering, “Spread pattern… cluster ignition… fascinating…”

Another Sephis slithered low along the ground. I ripped open a sack of salt from a fallen stall and scattered it across its path. The creature twitched violently as it hit the crystals, ichor bubbling against the white grains.

“So they do not tolerate salt either,” I noted. “Add that to your notes.”

Kaguya squealed. “A chemical weakness! I knew it!”

Karin scowled, punching a Sephis into paste. “Stop playing doctor-scientist in the middle of a war!”

“On the contrary,” I said, scraping the crowbar against a grenade’s casing until the metal glowed red-hot, “this is the perfect laboratory.”

The bar hissed as it seared the air. I swung, smashing it through a Sephis’s skull. Fire burst through the wound as black ichor sprayed across the cobbles, the monster convulsing before collapsing in a heap.

◇◇◇◇

Another cluster pulled itself out of the fog, their bodies half-formed, twitching with plague. I hefted the crowbar again.

“If this Sephis consumes me entirely,” I called back to the sisters, “will I regenerate still holding this?”

“What—” Karin started, but the Sephis was already on me.

It swallowed me whole, teeth and claws tearing me apart. Darkness closed in for a heartbeat.

And then I was standing again, inches from its face, crowbar clutched tight in my newly formed hand. My body snapped back into existence as if reality itself had been waiting to correct the error.

The Sephis reeled in shock, ichor dripping from its jaws.

I grinned behind my mask. “Hypothesis confirmed.”

The crowbar hissed as I scraped it against another grenade’s casing, the metal igniting red-hot. I brought it down across the Sephis’s head. The impact sent flames bursting through the wound, black ichor spraying across the cobbles.

The sisters gasped. Kaguya’s quill screeched across parchment, her face alight with manic excitement. Karin’s fists trembled at her sides, her eyes wide.

They should have been disgusted. Instead, they leaned in.

I spread my arms, ichor still dripping from my coat. “Let us carry on with the ultimate hypothesis!”

Kaguya nearly squealed. Karin muttered curses under her breath, but even she could not stop watching.

For once, they looked at me not as a subject but as one of them.

◇◇◇◇

Then a flame-lance cut through the fog.

Captain Reika charged into the mist, pink hair whipping loose from its knot, her coat already splattered with ichor. She cut through the front ranks with reckless abandon, shouting at her squad to follow. Her pride burned hotter than the grenades.

“Back to the line!” I barked.

She ignored me, pressing deeper, swinging as if her stubbornness could burn the plague away. A Sephis slipped behind her, jaws gaping.

I cursed, surged forward, and shoved a grenade into its chest before it could strike. The blast tore it apart in a rain of black tar. I seized Reika by the arm and dragged her back through the smoke as she kicked against me.

“Unhand me!” she snarled. “I had them!”

“You had death breathing down your neck,” I snapped. “And you were too stubborn to notice.”

Her cheeks flushed red, fury and shame mixing on her face. She tore her arm free, glaring at me before turning back toward the fight, teeth gritted.

◇◇◇◇

Then came the roar.

The largest Sephis forced its way through the fog, its limbs swollen and knotted, its chest beating with two hearts that pulsed through translucent skin. The roar rattled the street. Masks wavered, and one doctor bolted.

Karin did not.

She charged with a roar of her own, her gauntlets lighting the air as she smashed into its chest. The cobbles cracked under her strike, ichor spraying in sheets. I almost believed she could topple it, but the giant only swayed.

It staggered, but refused to fall.

The kick that followed landed with the weight of a collapsing tower. Karin was launched across the street, crashing through a wooden billboard painted with a grinning pepper, its red flames splintering as the whole frame collapsed around her.

“Karin!” Kaguya screamed, stumbling toward the wreckage.

I caught her wrist before she could drop the satchel in her hands. “Stay with me. She is alive. Focus.”

The giant pressed forward, its hide swelling with blisters that pulsed black ichor. Each step hissed as drops ate through stone.

I steadied my voice. “Listen. Do not waste fire on the body. Aim for the sacs. Burn the infection, not the host.”

No one moved. Their eyes darted between me and the monster as if they could not decide who was madder.

So I moved first.

The crowbar glowed as I scraped it against a grenade’s casing, the heat building until it hummed in my grip. I sprinted straight into its reach, priming a grenade in my free hand.

I slammed the heated bar into the nearest sac. The skin split with a wet hiss, ichor spilling across the cobbles, instantly igniting on contact with the metal. The creature roared, staggering as fire climbed its torso.

Before it could swing, I shoved the grenade into the wound, leapt back, and let the explosion rip through the swelling. Half its chest collapsed inward, ichor raining across the street.

“Do you see?” I roared, crowbar still glowing in my grip. “They move because the plague moves. Burn the infection and the body collapses.”

The guild shifted aim, finally understanding. Vials cracked against blisters, fire racing down corrupted veins. I carved through swollen sacs with the crowbar, each strike followed by the hiss of ignition, each grenade bursting deeper fire inside the beast.

The monster thrashed, staggered, and finally collapsed in a storm of ash and smoke.

When the monster finally fell, the street sank into silence, broken only by the hiss of burning rubble.

At last, they stopped gawking and listened.

◇◇◇◇

When it was over, the quarter reeked of smoke and rotting ichor. Corpses hissed as they burned. The dome above flickered faintly, its wards strained but intact.

Doctors moved among the wounded, wrapping cuts with dirty cloth, splinting bones with unwashed hands. I watched them work and felt bile rise in my throat. They threw fire like heroes, then wrapped wounds with filthy rags. It was suicide by ignorance.

“For all your advancements,” I said, voice sharp, “you have not even learned basic germ theory, have you?”

The words froze them more than the smoke.

Kaguya’s cheeks flushed as she nearly dropped her quill. “G-germ… theory?” Her hands trembled as she scribbled, eyes wide.

Reika snapped. “Absurd! Nonsense! Nothing of the sort exists. I will not have my soldiers distracted by… phantom pests.” Her voice cracked, but her blush betrayed her.

I ignored her sputtering. “Boil everything. Knives, cloth, water. If it touches blood, it goes into boiling water before it touches another patient. Or you will keep killing your own.”

Kaguya bit her lip, eyes darting between me and her parchment. Her face was still red, but she leaned forward eagerly, absorbing every word.

Reika folded her arms, glaring, pink hair whipping loose. “D-do not misunderstand. I am only enforcing discipline. Not because I believe in your ridiculous theory.”

Then she jabbed a finger at her men. “You heard him. Boil everything. Instruments, bandages, even your gloves. If I find one of you ignoring it, I will drown you in the pot myself!”

The soldiers scrambled. Kaguya scribbled furiously. Karin’s jaw tightened, her glare fixed on me as if she could not decide whether to punch me or agree.

◇◇◇◇

I rolled my shoulders as if none of it mattered. “Now then… dinner. Grilled fish with vinegar glaze. Acidity slows bacterial growth and aids digestion. Steamed greens with garlic on the side. Good for immunity. Both of you work too hard to keep skipping nutrition.”

Kaguya’s quill nearly snapped. “Acidity… immunity… incredible…”

Karin folded her arms, scowling. “Stop making dinner sound like a medical prescription.”

I ignored her. “Broth too. Salt and collagen for recovery. You’ll thank me when your hands stop shaking.”

Karin’s face reddened, but then she reached over and grabbed Reika by the sleeve, yanking her closer. “And you. Tell him the truth. You’re worse than us. As her roommate I practically starved. We lived on stale bread and takeout because this captain can’t cook to save her life.”

Reika went crimson. “S-stop spouting nonsense, you muscle-brained—!”

I tilted my head, watching her sputter, then asked softly, “Do you have any allergies or dislikes I should know about?”

Her ears burned red as she looked away. “No allergies,” she muttered, “but I absolutely hate bell peppers. So don’t you dare try.”

“Alright,” I said with a laugh. “Just don’t expect to get away without greens on your plate.”

Reika spun on me, practically shouting, “I am NOT a child, of course!”

Her soldiers pretended not to hear. Karin smirked. Kaguya was already drafting up a new type of medicine in the margins of her notes.

◇◇◇◇