Kill them all for me

I descended the stairs to floor 124 alone. I had a single goal in mind: buy Tokiko as much time as I possibly could. Even at the cost of my very life.

The lower floor was not quite falling apart the same way floor 125 was, but there were still regions of empty infinite blackness that permeated the walls of the long corridor. The doors and windows were all wrong, some seemingly leading to nothing and others being twisted sideways or diagonally.

My final battlefield, and it hadn’t the decency to even be completed. How fitting.

I absent-mindedly reached my right hand towards my back. My bow, which had served me so faithfully thus far, would be with me for my final stand. As would the dagger in my inside pocket that I had relied on so much.

The instruments that had kept me alive and fighting all these years. The very same that I had complete faith in, until she shook that foundation in a single fight.

Now the faith I had once had in my own tools and skills, I instead gave to her. But just this one last time, I would take some of that faith back for myself. I would trust myself to do what I had to do to see this mission complete.

So, there I waited, in the middle of that ridiculous hallway, awaiting a foe more fearsome than I had ever pictured myself facing before I met her. She truly was a bad influence on me, wasn’t she?

Though, as I waited, it was not a single pair of slow and graceful footsteps that first began to approach. The footsteps that were approaching were anything but graceful, and there was far more than one pair.

Ms Denka was actually correct about them sending more than just Graviton after me. Proof that even a broken clock may be right twice a day.

Still, I would hardly begrudge a chance to test the limits of my newly enhanced power. A pity that I would lose it so soon after obtaining it, but fortune had presented me an opportunity to use it, so that particular cloud had a silver lining, I suppose.

Planning my first move for their arrival, I sank to my knees and slouched, imitating as best I could the visage of a damsel in distress. They were almost certainly armed, and likely to fire upon anything perceived as a threat. For my idea to work, they would have to lower their guard, if only for a moment.

The steps grew closer. I saw nothing, gaze affixed to the ground, but I could tell the distance by footsteps alone. It wasn’t long before they reached my floor, and I heard the door to the stairwell burst open.

“Wait!”

The man at the front of the group called out, and the footsteps stopped. I didn’t look up from the ground. I could not yet break the facade.

I heard a single set of footsteps approach. Heavy, but tentative. As if he wanted me to know he was a threat, but was yet unsure if I was one myself.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” the man asked, his approach slowing down as he got closer and closer.

“Those… Ronin…” I choked out theatrically, “they took me hostage… so they wouldn’t be attacked…”

“They used you as a human shield?” the man asked. His tone seemed to imply he bought the lie, and his pace quickened slightly. “How terrible. Why did they leave you here?”

“I suppose they just… didn’t need me anymore…”

The man finally reached me and crouched down at my side. Perfect.

I raised my head, not enough for the other soldiers to grow suspicious, but enough to make direct eye contact with the apparent commander. Instantaneously, his expression lost all traces of doubt, replaced by pity and trust. I was lucky that I caught his eyes before he spotted the bow on my back.

“Come with me, we’ll see that you’re safe.”

He extended his hand to me, which I took as I got to my feet. I kept my head down as he led me back to his men.

“Sir? Are you certain this woman is who she says she is?” asked a voice near the front of the rank and file. “This seems awfully suspicious.”

“Nonsense. A damsel is in distress, you will treat her with respect and dignity.”

Oh yes. This man was perfect for my purposes. I was able to get directly in front of the company of soldiers, who had fanned out from their formation to look at me.

“I’m just a frightened young lady in a scary and unusual place,” I said, looking up from the ground and locking eyes with the closest soldier to me. “Please, treat me well?”

I scanned over each of them, making eye contact with as many as I could. I found that I could only control roughly half, but with the element of surprise, that would be more than enough.

“Of course, madame,” said the soldier, who had previously regarded me skeptically. “What can we do for you?”

“Well, if you do insist,” I said quietly, “half of your men seem not to trust me. It would make me feel much safer were they not around. Kill them all for me, my dearest.”

There was a confused muttering among some of the soldiers, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Bodies began to drop almost immediately.

The crossfire was brutal, with little distinction between friend or foe among their ranks. I leaped backwards away from the fray and drew my bow from my back. Those smart enough to catch on to what was happening turned their weapons on me, but they lacked the speed and dexterity of a magical girl. Every straggler and attempted hero fell to an arrow in the heart.

The numbers thinned quickly, halving in less than half a minute. The deafening gunfire began to quieten as the number of the charmed began to dominate the number of the free, the blood of their comrades clouding their vision in fog of war as they killed just as many of each other as those under my control.

By the time a full minute passed, just a quarter of the original company remained. All of whom were under my control.

The walls were stained with blood, and the air reeked of gunpowder. It was a truly senseless slaughter. In truth, it was one I had hoped to avoid, but few other options presented themselves to me.

“Ahhh, what a mess we’ve made,” I sighed, as I approached my bewitched soldiers. “I was expecting the woman in green to show her face. I presume you all were the welcoming party before she makes her arrival?”

“No, ma’am,” replied the commanding officer, seemingly not caring about the bullet wound in his shoulder. “Graviton is indeed on her way, but she will be here first.”

“She? To whom do you refer?”

“Oh, you don’t know? It’s the one who killed the magical girl on the lower floors. The butche-”

The commanding officer was cut off when something long and sharp pierced his throat from behind. A spear or polearm?

No. A skewer.

“Cannon fodder are so tasteless and bland. There’s nothing to savour here.”

The skewer piercing the man’s throat disappeared, before reappearing in the hand of the horrifying woman in a chef’s hat and apron.

The magical butcher. W had arrived.