As the students continued through the next cities, they were pursued by the electrical tendrils of the previous chapter. It was a remote Revenant, one that did not require the host to be present or even see its targets; it sprouted from any electrical source connected to a grid, and moved with enough swiftness to eventually find them. Aimee continued to update the federal government with her route, and took a few backroads that delayed discovery for a time, but eventually decided that they would need to kill this host before reaching Lanara.
In the gambling city of Mako, Mia watched the roulette wheel spin. The ball slowed slightly faster than normal as Marisa's fingers tensed, landing on 17. The dealer congratulated her yet again, ignorant to the thread of Boudoir manipulating the ball's motion.
Mia looked about the casino and frowned worriedly; there were many people, but the students were not wearing their Urasaria badges. "Hopefully another rogue host doesn't think there aren't any students around. I wish we could have worn our badges for this."
"Why?" said Matoi, seated beside her. "For deterrence?"
"Er, yes? I think the possibility of having your guts flayed open the instant you try to hurt anyone is fine deterrence, no?"
Matoi shrugged. "Most rogue hosts think of Urasaria almost abstractly, if at all. They may have met one or two students, perhaps seen them on the internet, but the idea that their actions could lead to consequences seems to be as sensical to them as the idea that your breakfast will cause tomorrow's hurricane. Even if they can conceive of our existence, they think they can defeat us. They aren't aware of how experienced students are, nor our strength. But there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a rogue host who thinks he's hot shit and scattering his corpse down an avenue."
Mia nodded. She continued to observe as a woman, a casino employee by her flirtatious attire, came over to a group of gambling men. She seemed to be attempting to entice them to stay longer, touching their arms; but by the reaction of her face, it could be guessed that the men were drunkenly mocking her, even as she attempted to laugh along with them. Ingratiation only further solidified her position in their hierarchy, however, and she eventually moved to another table a little slower.
"Typical." said Matoi, observing as well. "They demand that she debase herself for their attention, then mock her for doing so. I often wonder if the human mind could devise a trap more skillful."
"She seems inured to the cruelties that come with that job." said Mia. "But I suppose that may be even sadder."
"Humiliate someone for long enough and they'll never grow to see their subjugation as anything but deserved."
"If only we could go over there and show them what actual humiliation looks like." Mia sighed as she thumbed her Urasaria badge in her pocket. "It's a shame that we can't slit the throat of everyone whose character it would improve."
"Unfortunately not. Though I wonder why she would even be drawn to work here regardless."
"Perhaps she didn't have much of a choice."
"If one wishes to look at the state of the world and completely naturalize it, as if individual will doesn't exist, then yes, I suppose."
Mia twisted her fingers. "You do seem rather bothered by her. Can I ask why?"
Matoi sighed. "I despise seeing women reduced to their appearance or sex, and this entire strip is filled with it - brothels, strip clubs, even the advertisements. I can't pretend I don't feel a bit of vicarious humiliation when I see another woman dressing up like a pornstar and prostrating herself for male attention."
Marisa looked up. "What are you guys talking about?" She looked back. "Awww, she looks so cute."
Mia noticed that Marisa had paused playing while they were speaking, indicating she knew precisely what they were talking about. She had felt a tension between Matoi and Marisa on this trip, yet suspected that if she were to ask either one, they would say they did not care and that the other was being ridiculous.
She had observed much of Matoi on this trip; she had felt given her rank that she was perhaps a template for Mia to emulate. It was difficult to see Marisa as her mentor lately, for familiarity had sank her to the level of a friend; one she cared for, but who did not possess the austerity to halt such a change; this was not so for Matoi. She had felt something greater existed in Matoi, something she could ride up upon if she but grasped it.
Again there was that odyssey against rationale and for her physical embodiment to become untethered to the conception of herself; an avatarization eluded her, and she sought to engulf herself over the shape of another woman that lingered within her thoughts until she sank again into some unreachable shore.
"Regardless, we should move around a bit." said Matoi, and the others followed her down the rows of slot machines. "Something to occupy our time while we're awaiting our guest."
"Yeah, maybe we can go find another woman to be a judgmental bitch about." said Marisa.
Matoi ignored her; she had never felt the need to defend her beliefs nor demand commentary on them.
Mia spoke quickly. "Matoi, you moved here from Japan, didn't you?"
"My mother and I immigrated when I was 13, correct."
"Does Japan not have an academy? Is that why you immigrated?"
"They do, though their laws on lethality are far stricter." Matoi figured that was the only reason they needed to know. "But they had no Los Angeles, of course, so it isn't surprising."
"Or Moscow." said Marisa.
As they passed through another line of slot machines, Mia heard the scrap of machinery, and in the next instant Marisa had held a Boudoir-shield over her to protect her from the bouquet of electrical tendrils slamming against it; instantly their three Revenants formed as Matoi slashed through the first volley, and all around, dozens upon dozens of tendrils grew from the slot machines and the lights above, shooting upon them; a few landed and scorched the three women, but most died in agony in a tornado of strikes and slashes and flames and missiles that reduced all slot machines around them to ashes.
Catching her breath quickly and the rest of the casino ahead, Matoi flashed her burnt left hand out; she had intentionally taken a hit here. "Remote Revenants have a tell for their host's location - this is a snapshot of it." It was difficult to see, but the scorch mark pointed vaguely ahead.
As they rushed through the casino, a cacophony spread among the civilians, stampeding and rushing in all directions; the air was thick with screams and tendrils, the women slashing murderously whenever there was room to swing a blade, scarabmetal sarcophagi forming over what they could not directly attack.
Women and men rushed around them as they continued forward, but Matoi's lasers flashed for a few milliseconds; imperceptible to anyone but the reaction times of a host; and a Chinese woman wearing a yellow jacket flinched, revealing the cyst upon her neck; she rushed instantly away at the full speed of a host-
"-GET BACK HERE!" shouted Marisa murderously as a Boudoirwhip caught the woman's leg; a bouquet of electrical tendrils ripped away the troublesome restraint, then hurled the woman some 100ft to the backwall, hitting her feet with a stagger, leaning her hand against the backdoor just in time to catch a scarabmetal cannonball launched by Matoi's shockwave that crushed half of her skull and left it hanging like the ore of a mined cavern; she staggered barely into the backdoor and was gone.
A few seconds later, the women came up to the door and Mia burnt it down; they swept inside to the hallway beyond and followed the trail of blood left, slicing at any electrical tendrils that dared sprout above; the woman was ahead and stumbling outside of the backdoors to the parking lot beyond, and as Marisa grabbed the other two, shot a strand that launched them all outside-
-a bat screeched and a wave of momentum hit them-
-Matoi's shockwaves nullified and kept their flight going-
-a shotgun blast flew towards them-
-a scarabmetal shield caught every pellet-
-several globe-like ornaments flew towards them-
-a Boudoir-bullet shattered them all and the women landed in the parking lot, but seeing the entire group of Chinese hosts ahead, six men and two women; Mei injected the electrical host with Fuxing's syringe and she began to regenerate, muttering to her in Mandarin: "Where the hell is Sato-"
"-she's far, it's fine-"
"-did you verify-"
There came the blare of a horn so loud that it nearly deafened Mia, wincing with her ears bleeding as the group of hosts ahead stumbled even worse; the horn continued for another second until Makoto appeared ahead & right, Samuel behind her; the hosts turned to them; one of the Chinese hosts opened his mouth to shout and in the next instant he was dead & in pieces; Rider's tendrils went taut again and another host exploded into gore as Aimee was at Marisa's side.
Rider's tendrils went taut once more, but a white man host in the group shouted in English: "-Eternity!", and the tendrils wilted as if accelerating into a wall, Aimee's hands still a motion that would have broken Mei's neck; in a singular instant, she threw her knife out and it impaled Mei's dart-holding hand to the wall as she told Marisa: "We need to leave right fucking now-"
- a strand shot out of Marisa's back and yanked her swiftly back, a series of strands tightening around her friends and pulling them back with her, although one in particular was rather heavy-
"-S-Samuel-" she winced, and breathed relieved as he unsummoned Outcast's armor and the weight alleviated; she yanked herself up out of the alley, up & up she climbed up the building. A storm of bullets followed her as she swung and swung and swung further up the building and around, her eyes searching for her exit point; electrical tendrils burst out from the windows and sought to grab her, but Rider's tendrils dipped into her spine and she felt a surge of time enter herself as the world folded in speed; she dodged and weaved through the next volley of gunfire as of a dancer in rain, and as she found a good window that was facing the street, kicked herself off it with a burst of momentum as the world resumed once more.
Mid-fall, Aimee spoke to her: "Can't give you much more than-"
"Boudoir!" A swift sack formed over her five-person cargo to protect them and she slung them over her back like a lesbian Santa Claus; an avenue of streetlights and cars was below, flanked by rows of buildings of various heights; as she fell to the street she shot a strand at a streetlight that yanked her past like a taut rubberband, more bullets flying past her as she swung and strung and swung.
(Guns normally do not hurt hosts, yet every student learns to treat them as if they do because people have learned to only fire guns at hosts when they will hurt.)
Electrical tendrils burst out of the lights and tried to slow her advance, and as she shot a strand at the next one, a knot of electrical tendrils burst out and tangled them up; she shot a second strand that launched her clear right and through a convenience storefront, landing with a crash and a rush; she heard her friends shouting their Revenants behind and a series of lasers & missiles & ghastly hands & scarabs & trumpets blasted out the shop's electricity, Marisa running through the backdoor as her mobile artillery platform worked behind.
She was in an alley now and closed in; again she yanked and yanked and yanked herself further up until she landed on the terrace, hitting the ground running as she heard a screech and another line of bullets chasing her slower than her run. She saw across the street a skyscraper of a hotel and ducked into a slide, angling her heels in such a way that when she hit the edge of the terrace she sprung off and across the street, a minor reset with Boudoir's strand sufficing to send her crashing through the glass and landing in the hallway beyond.
Another exit of glass was ahead, and she ran until there was a hallway at her left; a lattice of electrical tendrils blocked her exit ahead and rushed at her like a hallway of lasers, but she slung her hand out and threw a bladed Boudoirwhip that slashed clear through them, sending another few strands ahead to make them think that she was heading that way, when instead she veered left, her path clear ahead with an elevator at the end.
The elevator doors opened as she was running, and she saw within a Chinese woman & man, both with a cyst nearly fit to pop, another lattice of tendrils bursting up behind Marisa as they pointed and shouted; Rider's tendrils dipped into Marisa's veins and the next scene was instant.
The world slowed as if a disturbed pond, and she shot a barrage of hyperdense Boudoir bullets into the elevator that sent it plunging down; a strand grabbed the male host and yanked him out before the elevator disappeared, and the momentum launched him back into the lattice of electrical tendrils that ripped through his body like a cloud of piranhas given meat; Marisa turned right and crashed through the window ahead, springing once more to soar over another avenue below.
She heard someone puking and Aimee groaning out as she accelerated the vomit decayed. "This is about to get even shittier, sorry-" As she fell, she saw a gap in the two rows of buildings ahead and shot a strand left that shot its own strand right, a rubber-band hung midair as she swung right into it, breathed deep as it went taut, then was launched back out with double the speed and heard everyone begin vomiting behind her-
"-f-FUCK ME-"
"-is this what it's like-"
"-a-and she's MY mentor-"
-midair, she turned and swung through another avenue. "Going down in 3, 2, 1!" she shouted; another strand slung her far and she let herself sail through the air freely; as she neared the ground, a slight adjustment upon a streetlight below, and she landed on the sidewalk by a particular car. She rushed over and ripped the doors off, threw the softening sack in the backseat, swept inside and shoved her glove to the ignition, strands burrowing & wiring. The car hummed to life and she almost blew out the engine as she slammed the gas down and exited out to the avenue ahead.
One, two, three second passed; no electrical tendrils came as she veered into the next right, weaving and passing every car in her way. Makoto's Hymn restored the car's doors as the sack dissolved and spilled out its contents in the backseats.
Marisa dipped her left glove out the window, aiming for anything that might appear ahead. "Stay hydrated..." she said to the groaning mass in the back. The female students were squished in the back and Samuel even moreso on the floor. Worldwide's water began soaking their mouths and foreheads.
Marisa did not see any foe behind, but they were still in the city; she took a left as she attached her phone to the console. "Uh, Aimee, once you recover, kinda need you to give me directions on-"
A straw hat landed a few hundred feet ahead of the car and out of it burst a mountain of a white man with a cyst growing from his neck; he made to leap onto the vehicle, but the next scene was instant; Marisa shot a Boudoir-bullet left and a strand burst out of it that wrapped around his neck on the way past, yanking him a thousand feet away in a second; she saw two shops flanking the road ahead and shot a strand at both of them, a Boudoir-rubberband forming in the middle of the road ahead; when she hit it at full speed it launched the car back & up at four hundred miles per hour, the occasional strand-to-road helping keep it upright and centered as she landed back down the avenue, veered left and peeled out down another road.
Marisa heard more vomiting in the back. She wondered if Boudoir gave her immunity to motion sickness, or if it was rather that she had, since the time she was a teenager, often gone bouncing and gliding off local mountains. Sometimes she misjudged her landings and took a blow to the head that would have given a civilian brain damage.
Regardless, she chimed as she continued down another city road: "Hey, just think, that would have killed a civilian twenty times over."
[Music: If you'd like to make this next part (and all driving fights) smoother to read, my personal preference is listening to Yakuza 0's 'Ultimate Road Rage'. Music helps convey constant motion.]
"If only I were so lucky." groaned Aimee. She crawled up slowly. "L-Let... let me drive?" Marisa slid over as Aimee got in the driver's seat. Rider's tendrils burrowed into the dashboard, then went taut again: "Fuck, not good-" The vehicle lurched with a burst of speed far shorter than usual. "...keeping my eyes on- w-what's happening out there?"
Makoto sat up in the center backseat and looked out the back. "Fuckton of electric tendrils coming our way..."
"They're searching." groaned Samuel.
A web of electrical tendrils was claiming the roads behind, swinging wildly out of every source of electricity that they could find; Aimee accelerated to 100mph, then 150mph; the car could not take much more than this, but the avenue was growing denser with vehicles ahead. "Samuel, clear-"
"Got it." muttered Samuel, barely able to sit up; a procession of ghastly blue hands shoved away the remaining cars and cleared a path through the denser segments of the avenue. The army of tendrils was growing behind, splitting and forking at every intersection. "Doesn't have visual confirmation, t-that's why." He coughed. "Sending the dogs out to hunt, not aiming the gun herself."
Aimee checked her rearview; the tendrils would be upon them soon. She veered right onto another road, muttering about knowing a backroad a minute or so away; the tendrils gained in speed behind and followed their vehicle all the way down, bursting out of the flanking streetlights and shooting through the car's hood; no slowing of movement came, but Marisa heard the car creak further and realized: "-coming in through the vents, fuck-!" She shot a Boudoir bullet at every air conditioning vent she could that expanded into fabric and closed them up tight. "I mean, that's not g-gonna last long, but-"
Mia glanced out the window as she sat up and saw an odd sight; the root of the tendrils constantly slid along the power lines as their stalks attempted to push in through the vehicle. Traffic thinned ahead and shops were sparser; on the horizon was one of those interminable stretch of sparsely-populated land that typifies western America, but they were not yet there. A van came into view far away & behind themselves, and the tendrils yanked out of the vehicle, then began bashing at the windows, glowing hot as their current shattered the glass away in the instant; a bevy of shouting and lasers and flames and trumpet blares came as the women sliced away the troublesome branches, one wave down but more already sprouting and shooting towards them all around.
"Fucker has visual confirmation now." sighed Samuel.
A mile separated them from the stretch of road ahead; ahead and flanking, only a few speciality stores remained, but a web of tendrils shot out from them, splitting and propagating, forming a lattice wall 10 seconds ahead of their vehicle; Aimee winced as she slammed the gas even harder: "-guys, solve that-"
"-Mia, arc!" shouted Matoi as a storm of missiles flew out of her window and to the power lines all beside; a swarm of electrical scarabs rode them out and when they both exploded, a storm of electricity claimed all behind them, overloading the power grid as the city around them dimmed with only a few dull slices of light remaining; the tendrils wilted as the students shot past, but a rush of bullets entered their vehicle from behind -
"- Symphony: Hymn..."
Makoto played as fast as she could as more & more bullets shot through the vehicle; what few made it through the constant-repair had enough momentum to slice open their skins. Marisa reached her hand out the window and smacked her glove on the car; a fabric layer grew and provided extra protection, but the bullets continued to come.
The enemy vehicle was growing closer behind, twenty seconds or so; a straw hat was affixed to the hood, out of which the hellish barrage of ammunition was coming.
"Vortex." Makoto sighed. "Hey Aimee, are you planning on actually using Rider any time soon or-"
Aimee felt Rider's tendrils twitch; there was a vague pulsation within time about to take place, until she accelerated time itself for a millisecond and whatever the pulsation was going to be withered. "Keeping something they've got in check. Lay off my ass."
"Oh fine, Miss President has her important-"
- a rocket blasted the vehicle from behind and set them spinning wildly, off-center and rolling- "-Boudoir-fuck!" - strands yanked their vehicle upright and kept them on the ground, yet another rocket came and blasted the rear wheels clear off, trunk hitting the ground and scraping asphalt with a horrific & metallic screech, Makoto shouting for Hymn as the vehicle tried to repair under the explosive barrage -
"- alloy!" shouted Mia, and the next scene was instant. The car repaired and a layer of Boudoir fabric grew over it, one level of protection; a layer of scarabmetal coated the exterior; second level of protection; a second layer of Boudoir fabric, and the next rocket that came barely tilted the vehicle, hardly a scratch and only a tremor as they were forward and moving at full speed again.
"Open an exit port so I can return the favor." said Matoi.
A hole opened in the alloy for her window, and she leaned out of it; a barrage of missiles burst out of Wedding's silos, dozens & dozens & dozens flying towards their foes; they struck the opposing van and the explosion blasted the hood clear off, blocking their sight of her next wave; a storm of missiles claimed the van and blasted its doors clear off, throwing one enemy host clear out to roll & scrape & roll for hundreds & hundreds of feet down the road.
"Terrific." she said. "Samuel, prepare for their counter and assess."
Another set of missiles burst out from her armor, but as they reached the van's doors, a bat screeched and the missiles were returned flying back to sender; ghastly blue hands directed them into Samuel's armor as he took a few hits deliberately, no detonation or other damage dealt.
"...momentum. Control over momentum." he said after a pause. "Wish the pet bat came with it, though."
Makoto laughed. "Hey, I remember that one, that dumbfuck almost got kicked out of Ningsing because he-"
"Makoto, focus?" said Aimee with a wince; fortunately no one else noticed.
The gunfire began again and the scarabmetal alloy was beginning to tear, but Mia was speaking with Marisa quickly: "If you can allow some deliberate damage, then I can-"
"-got it- opening in two, one-"
Outside, a top layer of Boudoir opened and every bullet honed into the scarabmetal; bits & chunks & shards fell off, but a swarm of fire scarabs turned them into molten projectiles falling behind, until a straw hat thrown out of the van captured & absorbed them all to be deposited to a land far from here; Mia groaned as her & Marisa reconstituted their armor, cursing as the van continued to gain on them, only a few seconds away.
"Arc again?" winced Mia, looking to Matoi.
Makoto tried to summon her cymbals; they woozed in & out of sight, but she felt a burgeoning. "Samuel, make it so I don't get shot in the head when I go out-"
"-what are you-"
"-I've got like three thousand decibels left to collect before-" She shoved her head out of the window and every bullet in the area homed into her disproportionate-to-her-body bobblehead-like skull; ghastly blue hands redirected them away from her, but she said: "No no, get them close to my ears, I gotta charge - god damnit fuck why do I have to explain this shit every time- got it!" She yanked her head back in. "Whatever, whatever, Symbiosis charged..." Her fingers were quickening at her fully summoned cymbals. "Major and Minor. Dunno what to make them think is small, though. Lotta choices."
Mia sighed. "I realize this is a very inopportune time to ask, but what the hell is Symbiosis?"
"Uh, concentrated Revenant ability. Major makes shit look big, Minor makes shit look small-"
"-scarabmetal, then, we'll flood them out-"
"-good idea!" laughed Makoto; a glance at her confirmed her seriousness as Mia sent a thousand scarabs out of the window and to the road behind, exploding into a waterfall of scarabmetal that carpeted the entire road, yet to all hosts but themselves appeared only as a few droplets.
As the van drove through it, Mia lit the fuse on one side and Matoi's lasers curved to strike the other; an inferno of white fire claimed the entire van as a series of shocked & agonized screams came from behind, veering off the road & rolling for hundreds of feet as every host within was trapped in a molten inferno; Makoto blasted her trumpet out of the window, filling the road behind themselves with holes and making it as undrivable as she could, as eventually all that remained of the van was a burning husk with multiple hosts crawling of it covered in horrific burns; Rider's tendrils went taut and the students' vehicle lurched forward another 1000ft until their foes were a dot on the past horizon.
"Another successful Symbiosis." yawned Makoto. "I want a handwritten letter from these limpdick fucking cucks saying 'Makoto Jakuzure is a superior host to us in every way'."
Marisa sighed as they continued to drive to the speed of purpose.
"Gotta keep moving." muttered Aimee. "Give it a half-hour, sleep in shifts. I should be good for a few more hours of driving."
"How close are we now?" said Samuel.
"One day, tops. Don't know what we'll run into when we get to Lanara, so I want us to get another round of sleep, if we can."
Makoto felt her heart-rate double, then double again. The beckon to bloodshed that her bacterial colony granted opened into an urge for agony. She wanted to maim and torture and humiliate and destroy an enemy host all at once, to objectify through a platoon of corpses her own superiority as a creature. There was no surge of emotion nor rush of hormones, yet she felt the foundation of her subconscious alter; instinctual purpose began to consume rational thought; violence and its methods her firmament. "A-Aimee, I'm feeling the effects-"
"-Samuel, I need you to subdue Makoto before she hurts herself-"
Makoto tried to jerk herself away, but Samuel predicted her movement and a single punch to her left hand shattered every bone in her arm; she shrieked like a god dethroned as Samuel broke her right hand while Matoi's lasers burnt her lips shut, a few whistles out of Makoto's nose slicing her cheeks as Makoto kicked uselessly.
"Um, Mia, you can sit up here if you want." chimed Marisa in the passenger seat.
Mia quickly swapped positions with her, and Marisa went to work tying up Makoto. "What- what the hell is wrong with her? What does Symbiosis do?"
"Fun fact: we used to call that host flu." said Aimee to the back. "Um, but - Mia. So, you know hosts produce Volgari proteins, which Revenants feed on to grow. We get strength and they get food. Simple symbiotic relationship. Symbiosis abilities reveal the... psychological half of that. Heart rate goes into the low 300s, you get an incredibly strong desire to kill enemy hosts, even more than we already do. The way I think about it is Symbiosis is your Revenant letting you use its deepest strength in exchange for you letting it use your mind. Not that Revenants are sentient, but you get what I mean."
"Were you worried Makoto would attack us?" said Mia.
"Not exactly. It won't make you attack anyone you don't normally want to attack, so don't believe anyone who claims that bullshit. It's just... Makoto's unruly enough as-is and she didn't get the chance to kill anyone right after it, which normally helps calm her down, so. You'll understand once you get your's in a few years."