[Himushi Redemption] Cold Embers

Just as Lucrezia warned, Himushi's violent pursuit for the truth did the opposite of bring her peace. It made her sick to her stomach. Her entire world was flipped upside-down and immolated from the inside out. Lucrezia couldn't blame her.

She knew it was a cruel trick to play upon the world, to take the identity of such a prolific, accomplished, young girl, whose life was cut short by a natural disaster at the tender age of fifteen. To her, it was a trick that necessary, a lie that needed to be told and believed.

The ceiling above Himushi's head suddenly bursted open with an explosion, raining debris upon the operating room. Cyanide and Shinju crashed down on the floor, the former cutting Lucrezia free from the chair while the latter shaped her hand into a finger gun and blasted Himushi through the side wall, knocking her three rooms over.

"Lucrezia, you okay?" Cyanide asked.

"Cyanide...my clothes." Lucrezia panted.

"Right!"

Cyanide quickly helped Lucrezia get dressed again, noticing her violent shivers and bleeding hair dye. Shinju kept watch of Himushi through the holes in the three walls she crashed through, but also kept her ear out for any sounds from Magatori. They knew he was in the hospital, but they hadn't seen him yet.

"What did she do to you?" Shinju asked.

"Cold water. Threatened to give me hypothermia." Lucrezia answered. "Turns out, she didn't even need it. She used her blood magic on me. She knows the real Lucrezia died in 1995."

Shinju bit her lip in vexation. "Shit. So, the cat's out of the bag, huh?"

Cyanide helped Lucrezia stand on her own two feet, her soaked body slowly warming up inside of her dry clothes.

"Yeah." Lucrezia said. "Cat's out of the bag. Now she'll have to take the knowledge to the grave with her."

"Damn you all..." Himushi groaned, standing herself up as she bled from the mouth. "Shinju, Cyanide, you both knew? You knew Lucrezia was dead all along?"

"Yeah, we knew." Cyanide answered.

The heartbreak in Himushi's eyes was too much to bear. Neither Shinju nor Cyanide could look at her. They cast their gazes away as tears fell from Himushi's eyes, her lips quivering in sorrow.

"...You all knew she died. You allowed some stranger to masquerade as our former comrade. Not only that...you knew those bones belonged to Lucrezia...and you didn't even honor her with a proper burial?" Himushi cried. "How could you? She was our leader! Does that mean nothing to you?! I loved her with all my heart, and you knowingly disgraced her all this time?!"

"All of this was for a good cause, Himushi." Lucrezia said. "I needed to do this in order to save this world and put everyone on the best path possible."

"Who are you? Why is your life more important than Lucrezia's?"

"You're misunderstanding. Lucrezia had just died by the time I got here." Lucrezia said.

"I think we've said enough. Shinju interjected. "We have no reason to explain everything to you, Himushi. You chose to betray us, regardless of what happened. Now that you know part of the truth, we cannot let you live."

"I agree." Cyanide grunted. "Lucrezia, I know you're in bad shape, but do you think you can fight?"

Lucrezia nodded, summoning her black feather into her right hand. "I'll try."

Magatori came crashing down the ceiling on Himushi's end, landing in front of her. He looked to his left and his right, then noticed Himushi behind him.

"You're wounded." Magatori said.

"Nothing hurts more than my heart right now." Himushi cried. "You won't believe me, but those bones we found are Lucrezia's. The girl standing before us is an imposter, and those two were in on it the whole time."

Even Magatori needed a double take to make sure. He noticed Lucrezia's brown hair dye dripping away, revealing her mane of raven hair beneath.

"The truth was far more twisted than either of us imagined..." Magatori said.

"Shit, now he shows up. How do you want to handle this, Boss?" Cyanide asked.

"Can I ask you two to handle Magatori? Leave Himushi to me.” Lucrezia said.

"Of course we get the short stick..." Shinju complained. "Fuck it. Let's do it."

Himushi leaped through the hole in the ceiling, landing on the floor above. Pursuing her, Lucrezia jumped through the hole on her side, leaving Cyanide and Shinju to deal with Magatori.

Magatori immediately started the fight by torching the hallway with flames emitted from his hand. Cyanide and Shinju immediately bolted from the hallway, avoiding the scorching, all-consuming flames by a few burnt hairs.

Cyanide pressed the golden button on the Shoku Stopwatch, effectively stopping time and bringing everything but himself to a standstill. He ran up to Magatori and flipped a small, silver coin above his head. The coin remained suspended in time once it left Cyanide's hands. He ran back to the wall with Shinju, managing to do all of it in just a minute. He pressed the button on the stopwatch once more, resuming time.

The coin above Magatori's head exploded with enough force the floor of the third story to collapse, bringing everyone down to the second story hallway. The smoke and embers choking the floor above rained down upon them like a hellish storm.

"What just happened?!" Shinju shouted.

"God bless the Shoku Twins!" Cyanide said. "I used the stopwatch. I figured we may as well get the drop on him immediately, but I doubt it was that easy."

Shinju peered over the wall from her side and saw Magatori staggering up on his feet with the aid of his sword, half of his face bleeding, and one of his arms missing. As bad as his condition was, Magatori was able to teleport into the room Cyanide was hiding near and stabbed him through the wall, the silver blade protruding from Cyanide's gut.

At first, Cyanide couldn't feel the pain of the blade ripping through his skin and flesh. He laughed it off as Shinju shot Magatori through the wall with a blast of air, knocking him several hallways over.

"Oi, Cyanide! Are you all right?!"

"Shit, he got me good! Right through the wall, too!"

Cyanide ripped off a piece of his white dress shirt and tied it around his abdomen. "I wouldn't expect any less from Bishamon's descendant. He truly is a monster."

The rapid footsteps of Lucrezia and Himushi hammered on the floor above them. Lucrezia chased the wounded Himushi through the hallway. Himushi disintegrated her black blade, turning it into a swarm of embers. The embers showered the peeling paint hanging off of the walls, setting fire to the hallway. Lucrezia stopped and took cover behind an opened, operating room door.

"There's no limit to how low you'll all sink, is there?" Himushi cried. "Just who the hell are you?!"

"I'm nobody. It doesn't matter who I am!" Lucrezia answered.

"You fooled the world into believing you were Lucrezia! You used her identity for your own gain! You're not just nobody! Even if you aren’t her, you’d have to be just as capable as she was in order to pull that off!”

"Himushi, the more you search for answers, the more you're going to end up hurting yourself!"

"What about her mother? Where's her mother's body?! What did you do with it?!"

"Even if I told you exactly where it was, you still wouldn't be able to find it. No one can." Lucrezia said. "It's like I said, I came here to save the world from annihilation! There was no way I was going to be able to do it alone. I needed help to do it, and an organization like the Exorcist Program was the perfect place to go. Lucrezia had already been killed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake, but the Exorcist Program registered her as missing because they never recovered her body. It was the best opportunity. We had similar physical frames, she'd be around my age if she survived, and she carried immense authority within the program. I took her identity so I could work from within the Exorcist Program and stop them from killing my friends!"

"Even down to her hair color..." Himushi wept. "You looked just like her."

"I'm sorry, Himushi. I really am, but this had to happen. I've just about achieved everything I needed to. The only person I need to save now is Inari. Himushi, if you know anything, you need to tell me! This is bigger than you or me! The fate of the world depends on who finds her first!"

"Just shut up! You steal Lucrezia's identity, now you want me to work with you? You and the others can all burn in hell!"

The embers showering the hall rushed back into the palm of Himushi's hand and reformed into her black katana. "I'll never forgive you! Never!"

Himushi's rapid footsteps thundered closer to Lucrezia as she sprinted down the hall. Lucrezia kept herself hidden around the corner until the last minute, waving her black feather just as Himushi made a right down the hall. As soon as she came into view, Himushi was struck by the feather's curse.

Her stomach burned like a wildfire and her eyes suddenly turned black. Her belly exploded beneath her clothes, spraying embers and sparks everywhere. Flaming crows screamed in agony as they flew from Himushi's gaping stomach, slamming into the walls and ceiling, then falling dead all around.

Himushi's entire body exploded into a shower of sparks. The 'Himushi' Lucrezia thought she hit was just a fake. The real Himushi came crashing through the wall behind Lucrezia, tackling her onto the creaking, marble floor.

"I guess there's no need to hold back now, since you know I'm not Lucrezia!"

Himushi was suddenly hit from her side and sent flying into the operating room door, smashing through it entirely. It felt as though she was smacked by a sledgehammer, but she didn't see anyone or anything actually hit her.

"What...was that?" Himushi growled, struggling to stand up.

Lucrezia jumped back onto her feet and brought her hands together, performing three kuji-in hand seals. First, she formed the 'Sha' seal, then 'Rin', and finally, 'Zai'.

"Forgive me, Izanami." Lucrezia sighed.

A sudden jolt of agony brought Izanami down to her knees, one arm hanging onto the kitchen island. Yoko and Amatsuki rushed to her side as soon as she dropped. Izanami's stomach tied itself into knots four times over. It felt as though the fetus within her was trying to claw its way out of her very stomach.

"Izanami, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Amatsuki aksed.

"It...burns!" Izanami cried, her eyes shut tightly.

Lucrezia released the 'Zai' hand seal. Himushi suddenly felt the air in the burning hospital shift and churn around her. Something changed, and not knowing what it was terrified her to her core. Her ears caught a strange sound lingering in the distance, seemingly echoing from every direction. The dissonant cries of an infant pierced through the crackle of flames around her. She looked to the left and to the right, seeing no sign of a baby in the building.

"What did you do?" Himushi questioned.

"You've already lost this fight." Lucrezia declared. "Once the dream is casted, there is no escape."

Lucrezia put away her black feather, leaving herself unarmed and wide open. If she wanted to, Himushi could've easily pounced on her and killed her. It was more than foolish to drop your guard right in front of your enemy. However, Himushi knew all too well that this imposter was more formidable than even the real Lucrezia. Nothing was as it seemed when it came to the 'Lucrezia' before her.

"Damn it..." Himushi hissed. She clasped her hands together and disintegrated her entire body into a shower of sparks and embers, flowing right past Lucrezia and escaping onto the lower floor through the hole Magatori originally crashed through.

Having recovered from the previous blow against him, Magatori dashed down the hallway to try and flank Shinju and Cyanide. He sheathed his blade and sucked in the air through his mouth in one, long inhalation. He then spit the air out in the form of flames, prompting Shinju and Cyanide to run and split up. Shinju threw holy water canisters behind her to quell the flames and stop them from damaging the building any further, resulting in stinging steam rushing through the halls.

"The psychopath is trying to set the whole place on fire?!" Cyanide shouted.

Shinju was about to turn the corner, but was stopped when a bolt of lightning struck the wall next to her, blowing it apart. "Is that the best you've got, Magatori?!"

Shinju fired back with a blast of concussive air, but Magatori swiftly slashed the gust in half. Shinju continued running down the flaming halls, keeping her mouth covered as not to inhale any of the smoke. Magatori teleported in front of her, stopping her dead in her tracks.

The quick-minded Shinju shot the ceiling with her air blast, bringing a pile of flaming debris crashing upon Magatori. The weight of all the rubble made Magatori crash through the floor, ending up on the second story. Shinju continued to run away until she rejoined Cyanide in the morgue.

"Cyanide!"

Cyanide slouched against the wall, holding his gut wound. "Haha, damn...I think all that running tore open the wound a bit. It's all right now, but I was sure I was a sitting duck for a moment there."

"I think I managed to slow him down, but it's only a matter of time before he comes back. Cyanide, give me the Shoku Stopwatch. I have a plan. The stopwatch's internal gear is like a gyroscope, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Shinju took the stopwatch and opened the back of it. Sure enough, the internal mechanism used to control the direction of time was much like a gyroscope. "Just in case I fail, he'll most likely take the stopwatch. If and after I fail, he'll come to you, and he might take the war fan as well. We have to prevent him from being able to use them. Do you have any purification coins on you?"

"No, not right now. What exactly are you thinking, Shinju?"

"You might not have one on you now, but you used to keep purification coins hidden in relics to keep the enemy from using them. Have you ever done that to the war fan?"

"Yeah, I did, like eight years ago. How's that going to help us?"

"I've got it all figured out, Cyanide. All we need for this is a teleportation coin."

Without even explaining herself properly, Shinju took a teleportation coin, held it up to her forehead, and then stuck the coin inside of the gyroscope's rotor.

"Whatever you're doing, it better work!" Cyanide said.

"I'll be right back!"

Shinju exited the morgue and searched the flaming halls for her fearsome opponent. She kept her mouth and nose covered with her poncho sleeve as she walked, avoiding any falling, flaming rubble along the way.

Shinju spotted Magatori at the end of one of the hallways, one of his arms black and bloodied from the burns he received. The two stared the other down as the flames continued to eat at the weak structure of the halls. Magatori unsheathed his blade as Shinju slowly reached for the stopwatch.

"You two have gotten powerful. I commend you." Magatori chuckled.

"Another arm?" Shinju questioned, recalling he had his arm blown off earlier. "...It doesn't matter."

Shinju pressed the button on the stopwatch and made a full sprint towards Magatori. Everything around her stopped as she reached for her last few holy water canisters, counting the seconds in her head as she ran. The canisters stopped in mid air, just shy of Magatori's face. With the canisters in place, Shinju resumed time and shot the canisters with her air blast, soaking Magatori down to the bone.

Magatori's body twisted and convulsed as the Holy Water ate away at his flesh, stinging like acid. He held his hands against his ears and screamed, as if a high pitch noise was irritating him. Seizing the opportunity to end everything then and there, Shinju ran towards his sword, planning to pick it up from the ground and put Magatori out of his misery.

The sword disappeared before Shinju could even grab it. In her confusion, she also felt a sudden presence behind her. Himushi's embers gathered and reformed her body. Shinju spun around quickly, only to have Himushi's gloved hand wrapped around her throat. Shinju kicked her legs and clawed at Himushi's arm as the life was slowly choked out of her.

"We need to leave, Magatori! You felt it too, didn't you? That imposter is up to something!" Himushi warned.

"I'm sorry. I failed..." Magatori lamented. "Shinju...we'll settle this soon."

Magatori's body exploded into a flurry of flames, vanishing before Shinju's very eyes. Himushi slammed Shinju onto the ground with so much force that the marble cracked and cratered around her upper back. Shinju's entire backside pulsated in agonizing, her screams muffled by Himushi's vice grip around her neck.

"I hope you don't mind. I'll be taking the Shoku Stopwatch." Himushi said.

The stranger ripped the stopwatch from Shinju's hand.

Himushi dragged Shinju to the morgue by her hair. As she was dragged, she left a trail of blood on the floor, and was unable to free herself of Himushi's grasp. As soon as Himushi entered the morgue, she was confronted by Cyanide. Before he could do anything, Himushi aimed her palm at him, and with her finger, made a horizontal strike in the air, slitting Cyanide's throat. He fell to the floor, unable to scream as blood gushed from the gaping slit in his neck.

"Bishamon's war fan. I'll be taking that as well."

Himushi pilfered the war fan out of Cyanide's pocket, taking it for herself. She then loaded Cyanide into one of the empty crypts, locking him inside. Himushi slammed the butt of her sword into the side of Shinju's head, knocking her unconscious.

She loaded the unresponsive Shinju into the crypt next to Cyanide and engaged the lock. Looking around, Himushi noticed the abandoned hospital was already engulfed in a massive fireball. It wouldn't be long before Cyanide and Shinju were cooked inside of their crypts.

The distant cries of an infant continued to reverberate around her, and yet the source of those harrowing cries remained unseen, like a phantom. Ignoring it entirely, Himushi rushed out of the morgue and made her escape from the burning hospital.