章 294: 3
Chapter 3: Back and Forth
When Tsubaki finally regained consciousness, the first thing she became aware of was the smell. A mixture of oil, sawdust and disinfectant, the smell punched right through her feeble attempts to hold onto sleep, and forced her to awaken. Which she did, yawning and reaching up to rub the sleep out of her eyes.
But when she tried to move, she found her arms restrained.
Snapping to full awareness, Tsubaki opened her eyes and looked around, seeing herself in an office of some sort. The walls were made of metal and covered by note boards, which in turn had various schematics pinned to them. There was a large wooden desk in front of her that was also covered with papers, and an empty chair.
Trying to move again, she looked down and saw that her arms and legs had been bound with some kind of strange liquid metal, which was wrapped around her limbs and the arms and legs of the chair that she was sitting in, keeping her pinned. Not only that, but when she tried to call on her magic to break free, she couldn't feel any of her energy rise up within her. As if her ability to cast magic was simply gone.
Tsubaki took a deep breath. Now was not the time to panic. If she remained calm, kept her cool and thought things through, she knew she could get out of here. First on the list of things to think about was one thing: How had she gotten here?"
Trying to think back, she recalled sneaking into Keijutsu's apartment to search for clues about his personality. She hadn't found anything truly out of the ordinary, until she had been about to leave and-
She gasped. The dolls. A pair of dolls on Keijutsu's workbench had, through some means, been able to come to life and attack her with a knife and scissors. For being so small, they had been unexpectedly strong opponents, and she had only managed to beat them by redirecting their own attacks back at them with her Sacred Gear.
Then, after she had beaten the strange monsters, Keijutsu himself had appeared and then… blank. Tsubaki grimaced. If was likely Keijutsu who had knocked her out, and it was in his office that she was now imprisoned. Not good.
As if in response to her thoughts, the door behind her swung open. She tried to look behind her for who it was, but she learned who when she heard Keijutsu's voice. "Well, it seems you've finally awakened. Good; I have several questions I wish for you to answer," he said, walking from behind her and taking a seat at the desk.
The two of them stared at each for several moments, neither one breaking the silence that had formed. Tsubaki glared at Keijutsu with all the anger she could muster, while Keijutsu looked to be nothing short of amused. Eventually, the glasses-wearing girl chose to speak first, asking "What is the stuff that I've been bound with?"
Keijutsu raised an eyebrow, not expecting that to be her first question. All the same, he decided to humor her. "What you're being bound with, my dear, is iron. In my experiments with different types of metals, I found that iron was the best at resisting the effects of magic and that, when attached to a person, it will cause said person to lose the ability to cast any type of magic until the iron is removed. Or course, the limit to how powerful the magic it can negate is unknown, as I've had anyone other than myself to test it on. Until now, that is," he explained.
Tsubaki was silent as she processed that. So not only was Keijutsu aware of the existence of magic—a fact she should have guessed from the dolls—but he also knew how defend against it. And that kind of knowledge was not something a regular human could find. So what was he? "Does that mean you're a devil? A fallen angel? Or something other being?" she asked.
Keijutsu frowned. "Seriously? A devil? Fallen angels? Don't try to insult my intelligence by pretending that such things are real," Keijutsu said, incredulous.
That response left her stunned. So, he could use magic, but was unaware of devils, or other aspects of the supernatural? How was such a thing possible? "Then what are you? Some sort of magician?" she questioned.
Keijutsu sighed. "Exactly which one of us is supposed to be asking the questions here? But to answer yours, yes, I am a magic-user, though I don't usually go by the title of 'magician'. Now, it's your turn to answer one of my questions. Who was it that sent you here?" he asked.
Tsubaki didn't reply, making Keijutsu frown fruther. "Really? I let you ask the first question, and you instead ask me three, all of which I've answered. Yet you refuse to return the favor," he said. When the Queen still didn't speak, he sighed and stood from his chair. "Very well. If you're not going to respond just from being asked, I'll have to be a little more… creative."
Not liking the sound of that at all, Tsubaki said "If anything happens to me, my Master will make sure that your life becomes a living hell."
Keijutsu scoffed. "If your Master were so powerful, they wouldn't have let you be weak enough to be captured," he said, before grabbing the back of Tsubaki's chair and dragging her out of the office, not even fazed by the weight of the iron on her.
Outside of the office was a huge cavernous room, which appeared to be built underground. The walls were all made of stone that looked natural but had been sculpted flat. And in two rows were over a dozen different tables, each of which had something going on at it.
At one table, a trio of what appeared to be humans made of metal were tinkering with the body of a metal dog. At another, there was an analog clock that ticked normally, except that it was glowing blue. Next to it, a modern crossbow rusted and fell apart in the span of seconds, before the hands on the clock switched direction and the crossbow put itself back together, good as new. Thirdly, at a table in the corner, a metal man was holding a doll similar to the ones that had attacked her, only not as detailed. The being held up the doll and ripped one of its arms off, but then dropped the doll as its own arm popped out of its socket.
Tsubaki was forced to refocus when she stopped moving, having been stationed in the center of the cavern. "Wait here," Keijutsu said, before leaving.
'It's not as if I'm going anywhere,' she thought bitterly, before looking around her. The metal humans—which she just now noticed had completely smooth faces without eyes, noses and mouths—seemed to look at her interest, before refocusing on their previous tasks. Hearing the sound of fluttering wings, she looked up and saw several creatures that resembled birds, except that they were just sticks of metal with canvas wings and a spike at the front.
Just what kinds of creatures were these? They all looked to be mechanical in origin, yet they moved as if they were alive. She had heard stories when she was younger of Shikigami familiars, but these didn't quite match the description. For one, there made of metal instead of paper, and seemed to be acting almost of their own will, something Shikigami didn't have.
"Admiring my ornithopters?" she heard, and saw that Keijutsu had returned. In his arms was length of chain made of shimmering green metal with a padlock. Lifting it up in front of her, he said "I call this invention of mine, for lack of a better name, the 'bindings of truth'. Once I place this around your neck, the spell woven into the chain will compel you to respond whenever I ask you a question. When you do, it will read the electrochemical signals in your brain to determine if you are lying. If you are, the chain will tighten in response. In short, you lie, and you choke."
Tsubaki's eyes widened and she struggled to break free, but it was no use. Even calling upon her Sacred Gear didn't work, likely due to the same iron restraints that were cutting her off from her magic. Taking care to avoid the chance of being bitten, Keijutsu carefully placed the chain around her neck and locked it. The chain flashed briefly before settling, and Keijutsu smirked at her.
"Now, it's time for some answers."
A few hours later…
Tsubaki hesitantly opened the door to the Student Council room. Inside was Sona, who was quietly going over the latest report on how school funds would be allocated between clubs. Also sitting there was Saji, Momo and Tomoe, who appeared to just be hanging out.
Steeling herself for what was to come, she pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked inside. The others looked up at her, and Sona smiled. "Tsubaki, it's great to see you back. We hadn't heard from you since yesterday, and I was starting to worry," Sona said, making the Queen's inside twist further. Sona stilled cared for her so much, and had faith that she would success. Faith that was in vain.
Putting aside her paperwork, Sona leaned forward. "Well, let's hear it. What is the status of your mission to survey Keijutsu Hatsume?" she asked.
Tsubaki took a deep breath, before hanging her head. "I'm sorry to say that I failed my mission, Sona-kaichou," she said.
There was silence for several seconds, as the other members of the peerage stared with surprise. Even Tsubaki had failed? Sona's expression was unreadable, however, and she simply said "Explain."
"Yes, ma'am. I was following Keijutsu-san as you ordered, and had been able to make it to his apartment without detection. Once there, I staked the apartment out so that I would be able to investigate inside once Keijutsu left for school. The following morning, I had the chance to do just that, and waited until he was already several minutes away from the apartment before going in. However, from that moment onwards, everything is just… blank," Tsubaki told her.
"Blank? What the heck does mean?" Saji thought out loud.
Sona glared at him to be quite, and the Pawn cowered under the intensity of Sona's expression. But she wanted to know the same thing, and gestured for Tsubaki to continue.
"What I mean by that is that I know something happened when I tried to investigate the apartment. But whenever I tried to remember exactly what happened, the memories just don't surface. As if they were a file that's been deleted from my mind, leaving an empty space behind," Tsubaki said, hanging her head in shame.
There was another round of silence, before Sona finally sighed. "So it would seem that Kei-san is able to elude even you, my strongest Piece. If that's the case, then trying to gather any more information on him is an exercise in futility. We'll have to make do with what we have," she said.
Saji groaned. "Man, this sucks. We put all that effort into trying to keep an eye on that asshole, and then this! What are we going to do now?" he said.
Sona considered the question. She could possibly see about asking Rias for assistance, but decided not to. This conflict was between her and Kei; she wasn't about to bring her childhood rival and friend into the mix. Especially if Rias considered him exceptional enough to try and add Kei to her own peerage.
'Not on my watch. If anyone is going to find make Kei their servant, it'll be me,' she thought, before blinking. Was she really thinking of adding Kei to her peerage? Granted, she still had two Pawns, a Knight, a Rook and a Bishop to use, so she wasn't short on Evil Pieces. And having an intellect that rivaled her own would be a definite boon during future Rating Games. Two minds were always better than one.
But before she even arrived at that point, she needed to decide how to proceed in the here and now. Perhaps the best strategy would be to wait until Kei made a move on his own, and then she would be able to form a new plan based off of that. Not something she liked the idea of, but no other option present existed that would provide the level of subtlety this "game" of theirs required.
"Very well. From this point on, all surveillance of Kei-san is to be suspended. Continue with your duties and schoolwork as you normally would, and pass the message on to the others," Sona ordered. The rest of them nodded, and began to leave.
Tsubaki didn't move immediately though, and instead bowed. "Kaichou, I'm sorry that I failed. I-" she began, before Sona cut her off.
"There's no need to apologize. I should have foreseen that an opponent like this wasn't someone who would let himself be found out so easily. You should not feel at fault," Sona said.
Tsubaki looked like the wanted to argue, but eventually accepted her King's words and moved her normal place directly next to and behind Sona. Right where she should be.
Keijutsu sat back in his chair during Physics class, contemplating everything he had learned the previous day. That girl, Tsubaki, had provided a well of information once influenced by his chain, and now he had learned several interesting facts.
The first was that it was Sona who had sent her and the others to spy on him, and she ordered it in the hopes that learning more about him would give her an edge the next time they faced off in a game of chess. To think that the serious and stern young woman he had met would go so far as to actually spy on him to get an advantage. Though, after having extracted more information, he could see why that was so, and why the game meant so much to her.
Along with the fact that she wasn't actually Sona Shitori at all, but Sona Sitri, heiress to a powerful family of devils known as the House of Sitri. And that devils existed.
He was still having trouble with that part. He could accept the idea that magic was real—it was the reason he had been able to create his inventions in the first place—but for there to be such things as real-life devils, angels and all other supernatural beings? The entire idea sounded ridiculous to him.
However, he had never been one to dispute an idea just because of how it sounded. So, when he had asked Tsubaki for proof, she had unveiled her devil wings before him.
Nothing like visual proof to satisfy a skeptic.
This had also proved that Tsubaki herself was a devil. And so was, according to her, the rest of the entire Student Council. Together, they formed Sona's 'peerage', a group of devil servants at Sona's command and each bearing the title of one of the pieces of chess. When asked if Sona had any intention of making him one of her servants, Tsubaki had said that, if she did, she had not given any indication of it. It would seem that, for now at least, Sona was truly interested in simply settling the score.
Keijutsu smirked. Well, if settling the score was what she wanted, far be it from him to say 'no'. That didn't mean he was going to make it easy for her, however. After having gotten all the information he had wanted from Tsubaki, he had knocked her out again before using another of his devices to remove her memory of anything that happened to her within the previous several hours. Including the fact that she had successfully snuck into his apartment in the first place. Then he had one his constructs drop her off close to her home, and the rest was history.
Furthermore, it would seem that Sona had actually stopped having him followed. Now that he knew what to look for, he had discovered no people with devil energy following him when he left the apartment this morning. Though, when he tried to use the same method upon arriving at school, he had learned something else that was new to him.
Apparently, it wasn't just Sona and the Student Council that were attending the school and were devils. The other two most popular girls in school, Rias Gremory and Akeno Himejima, exhibited the same type of energy as Tsubaki, along with a couple of others. The 'Prince Charming' Yuuto Kiba, the new girl Asia Argento, the school's 'mascot' Koneko Toujou, and even the mega-pervert Issei Hyoudou.
So many devils, all in one location, and all concealing their true nature beneath everyone else's noses. How utterly fascinating.
Now that he had this knowledge, what should he do with it? Threatening to expose them was not an option. Not only was that sort of ham-handedness not his style, but no one would believe him even if he did. Nor did he feel the desire to confront Sona directly, not at this current stage in the game. So, he would have to confront her indirectly, create some sort of challenge that would occupy her attention and enable him to learn of her weaknesses, as she had tried to do with him.
Keijutsu grinned. He really was enjoying this.
Five days later…
"Are you sure this is where it is?" Saji asked, looked decidedly spooked.
He and the rest of the peerage were standing in front of an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town. There had been reports of people, mostly the homeless, who had been wandering into the building and never coming out. Normally not something that they handled, instead leaving it for the local human police, but then the latest reports had included sighting of a strange monster.
Both events together indicated that a stray devil had taken up residence in the warehouse, and was devouring anyone who ventured inside. So, the Sona had called the Student Council together, and now they were going to take a look.
"Yes, this is where the reports indicate. If a stray devil is responsible for these disappearances, it's our job to get rid of it," Sona said.
The male Pawn groaned but didn't complain further, knowing that doing so when result in Sona 'disciplining' him. Momo and Ruruko grabbed either one of his arms and leaned closer. "Don't worry about it, Gen-chan. I'm sure that you can beat whatever's in there," Momo said, while Ruruko told him "And even if you have any trouble, I'm also here for you."
Both girls blinked before glaring at each other, sparks flying. Saji was trying to keep himself from blushing at the feeling of his arms being squished between their breasts, Momo's in particular. "Uh, yeah! No stray devil's going to be able to keep me down! Thanks, girls," he said nervously, causing both of them to stop glaring at smile up at him.
Sona chuckled at the spectacle before focusing on the task at hand. "Let's get this over with," she said, walking forward with the rest of her peerage following behind.
The entrance to the warehouse was boarded shut, but a quick application of water magic destroyed the boards and the door, allowing them to walk inside. The interior of the warehouse appeared to be empty, save for a set of catwalks near the ceiling. But there was no stray devil, something that put Sona on guard.
Slowly, they approached the center of the warehouse, and looked around. "We know that you're here, so come out," Sona ordered, hoping to draw the enemy out.
Nothing responded for a moment, before they heard a set of metallic groans and creaks as something jumped down from the catwalks above and landed in front of them. In the dim lighting, they could only make it that it had a shape that was roughly humanoid, except that it's head was smaller than a human's and it had a set of extra arms.
The unknown figure simply stood there, unmoving. This prompted Sona to step forward, asking "My name is Sona Sitri, heiress to House Sitri and younger sister of one of the Four Satans, Serafall Leviathan. Are you the one responsible for the disappearances taking place here?"
The figure said nothing and merely tilted its head, looking at her.
Sona frowned. "I'll ask again. Are you responsible for the disappearances?" she asked. When they still didn't speak, she raised on hand and conjured an orb of water. "If you refuse to answer, I will assume that you are responsible, and respond accordingly," she said.
Seeing the act of magic was apparently enough for the figure, and they raised one arm before letting out a screech that sounded like a buzzsaw cutting through steel. Suddenly, the power in the warehouse switched on, bathing everything in bright light. Their opponent was revealed to be some sort of metal golem, with a steel chest plate and a single "eye" occupying its otherwise smooth face, while each of its arms ended in either a hammer, a drill, a set of pincers or a metal hand.
The addition of the light also revealed almost a dozen other golems of the same type standing on the catwalks above, looking down at them. Sona's eyes widened, and she only had a chance to yell "Scatter!" before the golems attacked.
The one of front of her leaped forward and tried to pierce her with its drill-arm, only for her to fire her water orb at it and send it flying back from the impact. The other golems jumped down from the catwalks and cracked the cement floor on landing, totaling ten in number, before charging at the Student Council.
Rather than run, Saji held out his arm and called "Absorption Line!" In a flash of purple light, a gauntlet that took of the shape of a black deformed lizard appeared on his arm, which then shot out its tongue to wrap around the nearest golem. Once it did, the line glowed and began siphoning energy from it back to Saji, weakening it as he grew stronger.
The golem struggled and tried to break the line, but to no avail. However, another of them grabbed the line with its hand before slicing it with its pincers, freeing its comrade. Both of them charged at the Pawn, who swore and dove to side. Another swung its hammer at Tomoe, and she blocked it by conjuring her katana.
Tsubasa simply charged and ducked underneath a right hook from one of the golems. Once it missed, she responded with an uppercut enhanced by her Rook-level strength, denting its chest armor and sending it up into the air. A fifth one tried to swing at her with its hammer, but she held her arms up in an X to block it. The two of them pushed against each other and, to her surprise, the golem was able to keep up.
Momo frowned as she was forced to dodge over and over again. Since the golem was using purely physical attacks with no kind of magical energy, her Reverse magic was useless against it. Luckily, she still was able to use regular Devil magic, and so she conjured a wave of fire before unleashing it at the golem. It was enveloped by the flames, and she increased the heat to the point that the metal composing it began melting. But the golem kept going, and she was forced to continue moving back.
Reya faced similar difficulties, and tried to freeze one in a block of ice. She was successful for all of a few seconds, and then the golem broke free of the ice and chased after her. Before she could counterattack, it grabbed her by the arm and then slammed its hammer onto the same arm, breaking it at the elbow. Reya screamed in pain and tried to move away, but the golem refused to let go.
"Reya! Hold on!" Tsubaki called, running towards the golem from behind. She held up her repaired naginata and, coating the blade in a defensive barrier, swung downwards. The barrier kept the blade from shattering against the golem's armor and enabled her to slice off two of its arms, including the one holding Reya.
As for the tenth and final golem, Ruruko had engaged it in hand-to-hand combat, able to keep up despite her enemies having a twice as many arms as her to swing with. She batted aside a drill that tried to pierce her stomach and jumped up, wrapping her legs around the golem's head. Then, using her momentum, she swung around and forced it to lose it balanced, falling over while she landed on her feet.
The golem Sona attacked had managed to get back to its feet, but no sooner had it done so then she created an orb of water around it, trapping it inside. The golem struggled and tried to escape, but she condensed the sphere further and further. The metal composing the golem began to buckle under the pressure from the water, and Sona kept going.
However, while she was doing so, she did not see another of them approaching her from behind, rearing back its drill to pierce her in the spine. Saji saw it though, and yelled "Sona!" She stopped her spell and turned around, but by then the golem was already in front of her. It stabbed forward and aimed for her heart… when Saji was suddenly behind the golem, yanking it back with the tongue from his Sacred Gear.
As it came sailing towards him, Saji called "Since we're fighting, this would be considered enemy territory. So, Promotion: Queen!" A transparent image of a Queen piece surrounded him before fading away, and Saji spun around. The golem was pulled along for the ride, going around in circles until he finally released it, slamming the golem into the wall hard enough to create a spider web of cracks in the stone.
Saji looked back at Sona and grinned, holding a thumbs-up! "I've got your back, Sona-kaichou!" he said, before being distracted as the other golem he was fighting engaged him again.
Sona looked at him in surprise, before smiling. "Thank you, Saji-san," she said, before refocusing on the golem she had been crushing. Its legs were now twisted up and unable to support its weight, leaving it flop around on the ground. Sona created four water whips to wrap around each of its arms, keeping it from attacking her as she approached. She used a fifth whip to rip off its chest armor, exposing the golem's insides.
There was a mass of wires, gears and other components, but that was not what caught her attention. What caught her attention was the center of its chest, wearing there appeared to be a ring of pure gold. Hovering in the center of that ring was a sphere of pure light, pulsing in a manner similar to that of a heartbeat.
'This must be its energy source,' she thought, before using her fifth water whip to rip the ring out of the golem's chest. The orb of light faded away the moment she did, and the golem went still, proving her theory correct. Looking back at the others, she yelled "Everyone, their power source is in the center of their chest, underneath the armor. Destroy the source and they'll go down!"
"Got it!" Tomoe called, shooting forward at high speed and swinging at one of the golems' chest. Her katana was unable to cut through the steel plating, but it did knock the golem off-balance enough that she was able to reach forward and try to remove the armor. It didn't work, and the golem kicked her in the stomach hard enough to send her to her knees.
Tsubasa did have the necessary strength to rip the armor off, however, which she quickly proceeded to do before grabbing the ring inside and yanking it out. The golem fell forward and landed heavily on the floor, creating a small cloud of dust. Two down, eight to go.
Saji used his Absorption Line again, but this time he directed the tongue to actually slide underneath the armor plating and wrap around the ring, where he proceeded to directly absorb the energy powering the golem. However, even after several seconds of continuously absorbing energy from the ring, the golem had still not run out of power, and sliced the line with its pincers again.
Ruruko covered her fists in demonic energy and unleashed a hailstorm of punches against her golem, aiming for the center of its armor over and over. Each punch weakened it until, with a shout, she punched right through it and broke the ring inside, destroying the power source. Now there were only seven golems, which turned to six when Tsubaki used the same barrier-coating technique as before to slice one of them in half vertically.
Now knowing that there was an energy source to target, Momo gathered her energy into an orb before firing at one of the golems. It hit the armor and some of the energy passed through it to hit the light in the middle of the ring. From there, the Reverse magic turned the light into darkness and, without light to empower it, the golem could no longer function. Five.
Reya switched tactics and hit the golem she was targeting with a wave of electricity. Although the golem wasn't initially fazed by it, after several seconds it began twitching as its circuits began to be overload. The shaking grew worse, and it ran towards her to stop it. But then its legs stopped responding normally and would move in random directions, while the light inside its ring began to fluctuate.
Eventually, with a high-pitched keen, the golem exploded in a blast that sent its pieces in all directions. One such piece was its drill, which flew end of end until it pierced the golem Tomoe was fighting through the side of its head, destroying its visual systems. With it now blinded, the golem was unable to react when she came close enough to carefully slice off the bindings holding its armor to its chest, and then she pulled the ring out. Three.
Saji wrapped his Absorption Line around his golem but, instead of trying to absorb all its power again, he tightened the line hard enough to crush the armor and the ring inside. Two. Tsubasa ripped arms off another golem and then punched right through its front, the ring and out its back, all in a single move. One.
And Sona created a pack of water-wolves that tore apart the last golem, sending wires and screws everywhere as it was literally mauled to shreds. Zero.
With the last golem gone, the fight was over. Sona glared at the remains of the last one, before looking towards her servants. "Is everyone alright?" she asked.
Tsubaki looked back at them. "A few cuts and bruises, and there's Reya's broken arm. But beyond that, we're fine," she reported.
Sona nodded. "Well, at least now we know the cause of the disappearances. These creatures must have attacked whoever came inside here, just as they did with us," she thought aloud.
Dismissing his Sacred Gear, Saji said "Yeah, but that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Like how these things even got here, who built them, or what they were intended for."
"Very true. But perhaps this," Sona said, holding up the golden ring she had extracted from the first golem, "Might be able to provide us with some answers. Either way, our work here is done. Let's go home." The rest of them had no problem with that, and Tsubaki transported them away with a large magic circle.
Unaware that, throughout the entire fight, a lone owl had been sitting up in rafters and watching the fight. Once the Student Council was gone, the owl spread its wings—revealing that its body was made of copper and aluminum. The owl cawed before flying out of the warehouse and into the night sky, ready to return to Keijutsu.
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット