Hunt

The next morning, Takako already stood in my doorframe, waiting for me to wake up.

Behind her, a familiar person clad in a black coat and sunglasses was staring at me with murder in his eyes.

“Don’t mind him, you’ve met before. He’ll behave. Isn’t that right, Ōhara?”

“Yes ma’am. I wont blow her to bits unless you say so,” Ōhara responded, saluting as he spoke.

“See? Completely harmless. Innocent as a puppy.”

He almost killed me the first time we met, but I guess she has him on a tight leash.

“And why is he here, exactly?”

“I can’t get a complete grasp on my Traumata right now, so I won’t be as effective in combat as usual. That’s why I requested him as backup with Araki still away. He’s usually busy with blowing up entities, which is why he wasn’t really around before.”

With that said, we quickly made our way to her car. She gestured for me to open the glovebox, and I knew what was coming. Another endless loop of Tsugaru Kaikyō Fuyugeshiki was fast approaching. I couldn’t refuse her only comfort ritual, so I put one of the many CD’s from the glovebox into her media setup.

Ōhara was sitting in the backseat, seemingly also quite enjoying the song. He looked younger than both me and Takako, so as we were driving, I dove a little deeper into him.

“Say, Ōhara. How old are you?”

“I’m eighteen. Why?”

“And you already have your Traumata entirely figured out? That’s impressive. How do you deal with the episodes then?”

“Episodes? I don’t remember any beyond the first one. I just balance the bad feelings out with all the explosions and violence. That worked for me so far. Always quite the sight, seeing some weird folkloric creature get blown to bits by my hands.”

I suppose that’s one way to suppress one’s horrific experiences. But still, his Traumata seems more dangerous to him than anything around him, if those sparks can misfire.

“But isn’t it dangerous, hurling explosions around?”

“Should you be asking that question, lady? Last I saw, you were practically a block of ice, with frozen corpses laying all around you. I just have to watch out for the sparks in my fingers to not burn up too quickly. That’s pretty easy, with practice.”

I’m surprised he still has his fingers, then. Maybe I shouldn’t expand on it any further. I also don’t think prying into what happened to give him that power is advisable, I’m not a therapist, however much Takako probably currently views me as one.

To change the topic, I just began singing the lyrics of the song blaring through the speakers.

Takako briefly glared over to me in confusion, barely tolerating my untrained singing voice besmirching her holy ritual. I could see her grip on the steering wheel tensing up a little, before she broke out in song a little too.

Ōhara reflexively joined in , and just like that, our drive toward the water Traumata actually turned into something enjoyable for once.

We arrived at the given location about half an hour later, with uprooted trees blocking further access to the road ahead. She definitely had been here. The road was still soaked, even.

The car of the scouting team sent ahead was completely crushed further down the road, multiple trees penetrating the entire thing. Searching for survivors seemed pointless.

We quickly got out of the car, Takako choosing to erect a wall around it to protect her valuable merchandise from water damage.

And water soon came.

A giant wave quickly approached from uphill, flushing the roots of the remaining trees, tearing them with it.

Ōhara quickly accumulated multiple sparks and sent them flying toward the tumbling trees caught in the wave that had quickly turned into a mudslide.

I channeled all the hatred I felt towards Satoru and felt my skin slowly cooling. At last, I had a clear grasp on my abilities. I just needed an outlet for my emotions while using them.

Before the wave of dirt reached Takako’s clean white dress, and before I managed to freeze it properly, she had already erected a long ramp to decelerate it. A deep trench lined up before it, to catch the descending debris.

As she focused on stopping the wave, I felt multiple bursts of water whizzing by. Above us, a massive sphere of water drawn from the river below slowly started forming, the girl standing on top of it with unimaginable grace.

Our views shifted toward the sphere, as an unrelenting, endless barrage of pressurized water began descending on us. Ōhara managed to disperse many of them with small concentrated explosions, but there still were too many approaching.

Small, incredibly dense spheres of earth began rotating around Takako, quickly blurring into separate rings deflecting the water beams.

The ground below me started cracking, as I once again decreased the temperature around me to far below -100 degrees. My breathing drew heavy, but my body didn’t turn numb this time. An incredible warmth filled my body on the inside, as my skin practically froze on the outside.

I felt my feet leaving the ground, and Takako actually seemed impressed by my power for once.

The air around me drooped down, gradually liquifying for the most part. I was practically unbeatable by her water jets once again.

Just then, I saw the liquified droops below me beginning to float, and I remembered what happened last time we fought. She still managed to almost kill me back then, and that was probably how.

The singular droplets began accelerating around me uncontrollably, passing far beyond the receptive speed of my eyes. There wasn’t even sound, due to the inherent lack of air around me. The droplets spun up further, and finally I felt them penetrating my skin.

So she isn’t only able to control water, but any liquid within her reach? Does that apply to blood, too? Probably not within the body, otherwise we would have all burst apart by now. At least for now, she doesn’t seem capable of that.

Luckily for me, the ice sheet forming around my skin protected me from any non-superficial damage that couldn’t be healed by Wärme over time.

I needed to tell the other two, if they didn’t already know.