The Barefoot Girl (Final)

Amos resurfaced from his trance and found himself back in the cemetery. The brush in front of them swayed to and fro as a gust of wind blew upward and through the taller trees, shaking and rattling their poplar leaves. The cool breeze caressing his cheeks felt nice and refreshing after the agonizing pain he'd been through just moments before. He then lowered his gaze, eyes fixed on the one he called his sister. As expected, the werepyre girl was still feeding. In fact, she had been feeding for so long that his neck had grown numb. Even though the moonlight was now farther away, Frida's jet-black mane still glistened and sparkled under the luminescent beam, a lot like their target's hair had done forty minutes prior. Amos found himself momentarily enraptured by the rare sight, before quickly shaking his head in self-admonition.

While his sister continued her late-night bloody buffet, he reached up and flicked a familiar switch on his headset. “Wolf to The Garden…Come in Grand Fisher.”

Kaname answered the transmission almost immediately. “Wolf!!” she cried. There was a great deal of relief in her voice. “Thank the gods you’re alright! The feed got cut when you were engaging the target. We'd already thought the worst..."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Frida's with me now, so it's all good." He immediately thought of Christy when he asked his next question. "How much did you guys see?"

"We saw just about everything up until you got knocked away by that Matsuga…" There was a slight tremble in her voice. Their Eve comrades were like family to Kaname, Amos, especially so. And for a brief moment, she honestly thought that she had lost a little brother. "...and the camera died right when the target was going in for the kill.”

“Oh… and Twin Drills…?”

Kaname hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, she, um…” Amos could hear what sounded like a door being slammed in the background. “She just stepped out. I think it's safe to say that she may need a bit of time to herself.”

“I... I see...” Guilt washed over Amos. He knew all too well that he had a brutal tongue-lashing to look forward to when he got back home. Of course, she's angry. I broke my promise, why wouldn't she be? Sighing heavily at his looming troubles, he pulled out a handheld tablet. “The target managed to portal out of here. I'd placed a tracking device on her dress beforehand. I'm sending the map your way, now."

“Alright… Got it!” Kaname beamed before something immediately made her groan. “Ugh, wait, it needs to buffer first… This will take a sec.”

Kusanagi...

This may not have been the best time, but Amos couldn’t shake this nagging feeling, so he needed to ask. “Hey, so that girl… She said her name was Nanaya Kusanagi. You don't think…?”

“Hard to say for sure, but her appearance and DNA profile checks out. We can't really ignore her use of the Matsuga, either. It's a Kusanagi bloodline technique, after all.” She paused for a moment, perhaps to gather her thoughts. “Either we're dealing with a perfect clone created by those sickos… er, sorry, I mean our clients. Or we’ve all been lied to.”

“I see.”

Amos had detected an unusual note of bitterness in Kaname's voice as she spoke. That alone told him that none of this was sitting well with her, either. Thinking back to the headmaster’s urgency when he issued this mission, Amos didn’t need her to say it outright. All signs pointed to the latter. Nanaya Kusanagi's existence would only serve to reopen a case that the world was already trying to forget.

“If your life… and everyone in it was suddenly taken away from you in a single day...what would you do… if it meant that you could see them again?”

The blonde girl's question still lingered in his mind. Numerous questions of his own began to pile up, as Kaname's voice snapped him back to reality.

“I know what you’re thinking, Wolf. And trust me, I feel the same way, but we can't afford to dwell on that right now. We still have a job to do, don't we?”

“Yes, Senpai. We certainly do.”

He found the sincerity of his upperclassman's words comforting. After a few passing seconds, Kaname spoke again.

“Ah! It’s finally done… Ooh, it looks like she wound up in Marlia City."

"Enemy territory?” Frida queried as she finished her drink, licking the leftover blood from her lips. “Not ideal, but nowhere near a problem."

Well, it's about time she came up for air!

"Um, they have Project Galanga and Stardom as their protectors," said Amos matter-of-factly.

"Your point?"

“My point is if either of those factions were to catch wind of us, we’d have no other choice but to deal with them. Need I remind you that Project Galanga has Black Fang as their leader?”

"Hmm." Frida thought about it some more as she pulled a large band-aid from her pocket, peeled it from its wrapping, and stuck it over the boy's fresh bite mark. She then crossed her arms and frowned. “Black Fang… now there is a name. With a man like that at the helm, they do make quite the formidable faction… I suppose that may prove a bit of a problem.”

Amos tilted his head quizzically. "You suppose? The guy wrestles drop bears for fun and has even killed 20-foot-tall nightwalkers, and you’re telling me that you suppose?" He shook his head in disbelief. "I'm all for a good challenge, you know this, but for the sake of the mission, I don't think we're properly equipped to handle them."

Frida looked disappointed. “To think… that an incredibly craven response would come from one of my students. And from my own brother no less… Surely you did not learn such things from me.”

“Wha…?” Amos gaped at his older sister. “Cr-Craven?!” He was appalled, yet unsurprised at the habitual callousness of her remarks. “That isn’t craven, sister, it's just common sense!”

“Excuses.”

“Why do I even try?”

“Alright, you two, enough of your squabbling,” Kaname reprimanded with a light chuckle. “I’ve already dispatched Nano-chan and Spitfire. According to their intel, both Project Galanga and Stardom are currently preoccupied with another assignment near Everwood, so direct confrontation is avoidable. They've just uploaded their rendezvous point to our database. Be sure to meet with them there.”

A green ‘X’ icon appeared on Amos’ screen. He nodded.

“Got it.”

The plan was crystal clear. Right next to Marlia City was a town called Little Hōjo. The place was chock full of Kannagi and Onmyoji, meaning the number of wayward souls in that general area was significantly smaller than that of Holden Cemetery. Their target’s spectral magic wouldn’t be as powerful without a large pool of souls in her domain, thus, overwhelming her with numbers was the ideal strategy.

“And Wolf?” Kaname continued. “One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“You'll talk to Twin Drills when you get back, won't you? After she calms down, I mean.”

“Of course, I will, Senpai.” He answered her with no hesitation. Frida didn't say anything, but he could feel her eyes boring into him.

“Good. ‘Cause I need you guys on the same page if we're going to be working together.” Kaname spoke in a very frank tone. “Sometimes she can be a bit much, but she does mean well. You should know this by now. I'm sure you guys can come to some sort of an understanding if you just talked to each other more, y'know?”

“Understood,” he affirmed, feeling a wave of newfound confidence. “That's what I'm hoping for as well. Although… This isn't the first time I've angered her like this. Are you sure she'd even hear me out?”

“Definitely! Well… I mean after she's done pumping you full of holes if we're being honest.”

Unfortunately, that confidence didn’t last very long.

“You just had to go and make it scary again, didn't you, Senpai?”

“Tee-hee!”

Amos thought it best to cross that bridge when he came to it. In the meantime, they still had a target to eliminate. He looked over to Frida and gave her a nod.

“You ready, partner?”

“I am always ready,” Frida stated coldly. “You are the one who always needs tending to.”

“Well, I’m sorry that we all can't have your absolute healing factor, sis,” Amos mocked, walking over to pick up his sword and return it to its sheath. "And besides, what do you mean that I always need tending to? Did I not just feed you??”

“That... is expected when you enter a blood pact with my kind,” she remarked. "You are merely fulfilling a legal obligation.”

“What does that have to do with…? Ugh! Whatever.” As he walked back over to her, Amos heaved a sigh, realizing there was no point in arguing with someone who could kill him, resurrect him, and then kill him again. While she had never done this to him, he'd seen her do it to others. Amos knew he was valuable to Frida, but given her mastery in necromancy and the utter ferocity of her wrath, chances were, even he wasn't safe. And he for one, didn't dare test his luck.

Ungrateful old hag… Just then, a thought he had fought hard to suppress slipped out into their shared mind. Shocked by his carelessness, Amos clamped his hand over his mouth as if he'd said the insult aloud. Frida's head snapped in his direction, her green wolf-like eyes emitting a faint glow.

(I heard that.)

(I, uh... No, you didn't.)

(I most certainly did.)

(Did not.)

(Did so.)

As their strange telepathic sibling row ended in a momentary draw, Frida spread her wings once again and walked over to the boy. “Mm. We have dawdled long enough,” she said. “I shall deal with you later. At present, let us refocus on our mission. Now, on your knees.”

Amos knelt before her, his arm stretched out to the side. The werepyre circled the boy and knelt behind him, her chin resting on his shoulder. She then wrapped her thin arms around his waist, securing him. Frida readied her wings as she extended her right knee, her foot flat on the ground. She was getting ready to take off.

The boy nodded. “Alright, let's do this!”

“Amos, do not shout when you are so close to my ears. It is quite distracting.”

“S-Sorry.”

With that, Frida's wings beat frantically a few times before she used her right foot to launch them into the cold night air. As they soared higher and higher, Amos took in his surroundings. In no time at all, the shrubs, trees, and tombstones below became indiscernible. As the two began their flight down south, Amos glanced over to his left and peered down at his amputation.

Images of Nanaya's face flashed through his mind's eye. At once, the girl was standing across from him in the endless void. Her eyes welled up and tears streamed down her cheeks. Her lips were moving. He couldn't hear her, but somehow he still made out the words: Why? Why did you do it? How could you? Her gaze was drawn deep into his soul, searching for an answer. Unable to come up with one, Amos simply stared back in silence, hating himself for it. A sudden gust of wind broke the awkward hush between them, and the gale swept at her long blonde hair. And then, she was gone.

Huh…? No, wait, come back!

In the blink of an eye, Amos was once again soaring through the night in the clutches of the werepyre girl, the moon, and The Yolk in full view. Amos cursed under his breath, he still didn't have a firm grasp on his Spectral Counter and this frustrated him. Despite his sister's words of encouragement, the barefoot girl's tears remained vivid in his head, her harsh words echoed in his ears.

“You…Because of your actions…My friends…they are forever lost! I was mistaken…you are nothing like me…”

Those words had bothered him something fierce and he still couldn't make sense of any of it. No one had ever made him feel this way before. And little did he know... a violent storm was beginning to brew inside his chest.