Jealous?

“What’s so funny, Agent Araki?”

Before us stood a figure only too familiar to me.

Araki immediately froze in place. “Didn’t I tell you to warn me when you feel her approaching? I was sure you could feel a disturbance like her from a few meters away,” he whispered into my ear.

“Nothing, Commander Matsumoto. Just showing off a bit.”

“Oh, the sword thing? Did you tell her how many of those blades you used yourself?” She shifted her eyes towards me. “Hm, did he?”

“I was pretty sure I didn’t cut off your tongue last time, so speak.”

“Hey, calm down Takako. Jeez. Nothing to worry about, it’s not like I’m taking her away from you or anything.”

A miniscule, short breath left Matsumoto’s mouth.

“I… I told you to stop calling me that, did I not?”

“Oh. Are we pouty because your new friend doesn’t spend enough time with you? Jealous? Sorry, but this party’s only for the two of us, you’re not invited.”

How did this entire situation just devolve into complete childishness? And both of them?

“Can you stop now? Please? It’s not like that. Sorry for asking, I’ll get back to work.”

Matsumoto took off immediately afterwards.

“Sorry for fooling you. I actually wanted you to tell me if she’s around so I could tease her a bit. She may be around your age, but in truth, she’s not much more than a grown toddler in many aspects. Except for her power. I’m not touching that with a pole the size of Mount Everest. I’ve known her since childhood, like I said. There’s no way she doesn’t cave to me, ever. She just can’t stand the teasing.”

After that brief interruption, we continued our walk toward Araki’s car. I was a bit surprised to see it being a kei truck, though.

“What, don’t like it? Sorry, we don’t all get endless discretionary funding, and the last car’s still totaled, so this little beauty has got to do.”

We got into the car, but Araki had trouble starting it. After turning the key five times, he gently tapped the steering wheel, turned towards me and said, with a straight face:

“Sorry, this usually doesn’t happen. It normally works first try, I swear.”

I begged the heavens above to grace me with an HR department right at that moment.

The sheer stupidity of the situation made me burst out in laughter.

“I know it would work. We all need that sometimes, with all that stuff constantly dragging us down.”

He turned the key a sixth time, and the motor began howling.

“Finally. Alright, let’s get to it. We just patrol our assigned area and respond to any threats transmitted over the radio.”

We left the underground parking, with a direct view on the rift in the sky.

“Can’t everyone see that?” I asked him, not entirely expecting an answer.

“No. You need to be aware of the spirit world to interact with it, and even see it in the first place. That thing so far only obstructed our detection around that area, nothing else. It’s usually a way bigger deal when something like that happens, but I guess that dragon was so powerful that all the other critters didn’t dare go near anywhere they can feel residuals of his energy.”

Sadly, his car didn’t have a functioning radio to play music with, something I had actually quite enjoyed on the brief trip with Matsumoto, ignoring her general intimidating aura.

“Alright, showtime. Report of a spike in traumatic energy just came in, and it’s in our assigned patrol area. The sudden spike indicates that someone just awakened. Why is it always me? His right shifted from the steering wheel to his chest for a moment.”

Should I… No, I don’t think he would want an apology. He feels oddly accepting of me for what I did. It’s really been less than a week, and somehow this feels already feels strangely familiar.

Maybe I can fixate on this for a short while. I won’t get what I want right now, anyway. I’m sure if I tried, she would show up to stop me, somehow. Forgive me Yuri, but I promise we won’t be apart for long.

We turned the corner, directly approaching a large wave of water coming towards us. Araki shifted to reverse, but the car couldn’t keep up with the incredible force that encroached upon us at a rapid pace.

“Damn it, and I told my wife I’d return it by the weekend. Screw whoever this is.” Araki yelled, before taking one, deep breath. Only seconds afterwards, the windows of the car burst, letting the water freely flood in.

I struggled to get out of the truck, but the seatbelt held me back, with the release being blocked. As Araki looked back on the car being carried away, barely managing to keep himself above water, he dove down and unsheathed his sword. The separate layers of the blade slowly began glowing in a purple hue, one by one, before he rammed it into the ground.

All of the water immediately vanished, leaving the car to fall to the ground from around one meter in the air. The entire left side was ruined. Thankfully I remained uninjured, in due to the broken seatbelt release.

“Oh god, she’s gonna kill me. I know it.” He dropped his sword and fell to his knees in a dramatic scene straight out of a TV production. He clasped his hands over his head, with his mouth wide open.

He quickly regained his resolve and stood back up, sheathing the sword again before bowing as an apology for dropping it. Was he actually, genuinely scared of his wife that much? It seemed like he did it because it was funny, but maybe I misjudged him.

“Alright buddy. Wherever you are, I need you to come out right now. I can’t promise I won’t kill you, though. You better apologize, or I won’t even give you a chance for redemption.” He yelled into the road, hoping to hear a reaction.

Nothing followed. Not even another attack.

“So it’s like that, huh? Fine by me.”

He quickly unsheathed the sword again, holding it parallel to his spine, and began chanting something.

“I’m glad the area was evacuated. Collateral Damage in face of a lethal threat is permitted by the handbook.” A large smirk formed on his face.

“One last chance, or I’ll show no mercy.”

Still no reaction.

“If it’s what you want, then so be it. He readied the blade for a swing, the purplish glow growing stronger by the second.

He swung the blade with incredible ferocity, a shockwave in the pattern of the blade cleanly cutting through the facades of every building on the street. Another swing followed immediately after, followed by five more. Each new swing was more destructive than the last.

The previously well-arranged rows of houses going alongside the road all laid in shambles, the dust of the destruction only settling exactly one minute after Araki sheathed the sword again.

He fell on his left knee, propping himself up with the sheathe.

“Damn, this one’s strong.” He coughed, a small amount of blood following after his words.

Where could they possibly be? I ran through all possibilities in my head, before something finally clicked.

“What if they’re in the drain system?” I asked, awaiting Araki’s evaluation.

“You might be right, kid. Glad I took you with me.”

I looked around for some drain covers, but couldn’t find one too close by.

“Don’t worry about it. I wanna leave a lasting impression on the mutt that destroyed my car.”

He unsheathed the blade yet again, burrowing it deep into the ground. The glow intensified once more. After he whispered some words to the sword, a perfectly circular shape cut around us, enabling our rapid descent into the storm drain.

We immediately encountered a problem. The immense size of it all turned our pursuit into a trying to escape a maze.

After walking around the tunnels for at least 30 minutes, we had reached a giant, templelike structure

Giant stone pillars lined the floor, all the way up to the ceiling. I hadn’t seen them before, since neither me nor Yuri ever had an innate interest in underground anti flooding infrastructure, but the size was truly breathtaking.

While still carried away by the magnificent construction around us, the attacker finally struck again.

Araki grabbed the hilt of the Muramasa, readying to draw. It was then we realized the fatal mistake we had made. We were in a drainage system, fighting someone capable of controlling water. The perfect environment for them.

A giant wave broke between the columns of pillars, quickly descending on us.

“Do something Laura, or we’ll die. Well, I’ll die. We both know she won’t let you though. Use it!”

For the first time, I pushed myself to utilize Kälte by my own volition. My vision began blurring again, fading in and out of a snowscape, but I instinctively raised my hands, freezing the approaching wave only seconds before disaster struck.

“Yes, it worked!” Araki screamed, genuinely relieved. “I don’t think I can effectively use the sword in here, without getting myself fired. You’ll have to beat them, and quick.”

As he finished his sentence, a barrage of small, highly pressurized water jets crushed through the ice, piercing directly through my stomach. The wound immediately froze shut, but the damage was done. As soon as I lost control and returned to normal, I would probably die.

Luckily, only one jet was aimed at Araki, which he effortlessly reflected with the Muramasa.

I managed to decrease the air temperature around me to almost -200°C, my breathing drawing heavier by the minute. That was the only option I could think of to deflect the attacker’s highly-pressurized water before it could reach me.

The concrete below me slowly showed signs of cracking, but now was not the time for worrying about that. The surrounding air dropped to the floor, intensifying the cracking even further. Despite it all, my body could still move. Though there was no sensation in any of my limbs or organs.

I barely held on to my normal vision for a while, slowly pushing back the ice wall now riddled with holes. The grand pillars around me began creaking in agony, pushed to their absolute limit by the rapidly falling temperature.

Taking a quick glance behind my back to reassure that Araki won’t be hit again, confirming that he was not within the immediate line of fire, I touched the ice wall directly, with a single finger.

After letting loose an ear deafening sound that I could barely identify due to the near vacuum around me, the wall burst into what I assumed were billions of microscopic shards of ice, scattering around the entire drainage tank.

Finally, I could see the attacker’s face. It was a young girl, barely 20 years old, if at all.

At first it appeared as if my attack had pierced her skin, only to reveal an ultra-thin layer of water weaving around her body far beyond the speed of sound.

There wasn’t much air left in my lungs, who, alongside the rest of my internal organs, mysteriously kept functioning. Soon, I would simply faint. What would happen to that girl then? Would Matsumoto kill her? I couldn’t let her die.

Slowly, and without my conscious doing, I began floating in the air. This act of defiance against physics alone would have made me faint just four days ago. But while I still was conscious for the brief time there was left, I needed to somehow protect that girl.