["Ghost" - Avery Alexander is your music cue for this chapter.]
As they sat within a lit hotel room they had rented for the night, Mia peeked out the door and saw small mites of electricity buzzing out from the wall, slowly creeping across the balcony connecting all rooms. "It's here."
Aimee sighed as she came up behind. "Was hoping it'd get Marisa and Makoto first. Alright, I'll send her the signal."
Mia waited for Aimee to text them, then threw the Boudourquin out to the balcony by a thin strand. As the electric tendrils crept upon it, they gripped it deeply and left several scorch marks over it; Mia dug her heels into the ground and pulled hard at it, allowing one half to separate for the tendrils to rip apart while the other half returned to her & Aimee. "Coordinates."
"Entering in... figure being a few feet off won't be too bad." muttered Aimee, examining the scorch marks pointing vaguely north.
The pairs had arranged themselves in a circle around the center of town; Mia & Aimee were south, Marisa & Makoto north-east. As Mia & Aimee were conducting the assassination itself, they would need to move clockwise once Marisa's scorch established if the host were within that circle.
"Rider in 3, 2, 1..."
Mia was in her butch's arms a moment later and at the hotel's parking lot; she glanced back and saw the tendrils rushing into where their room had been. She swept into the passenger side of their prepared vehicle, and Aimee pulled out of the lot as she started down the road back into the city.
As Aimee glanced up, she saw the electrical tendrils moving across the power lines, swinging vaguely; but without direct sight, they hit their car but did no damage before moving on. "How do you think Marisa's handling being stuck with Makoto?"
"Likely with a roll of duct tape and a noose."Mia leaned back in her seat. "But I'll enjoy seeing her make Makoto cry when she rejects her."
"Doubt it'll change Makoto any, though. You know, wanting to change is usually more difficult than actually changing, but she's been like this for years. I don't think she wants to be anything other than what she is."
"Then she can enjoy being alone. She just comes across as a desperate and dishonest pervert. Someone who says things simply to get a rise out of others."
"Mm. You don't think that Marisa will get the idea to fix her, though, do you?"
"I don't think she will, but..." Mia sighed. "She's mentioned things like that in the past to me. She has this one girl she liked in highschool, and she blames herself for not being able to secure romance from her. She compares everyone to her. But this is all about someone who, speaking objectively, was likely not all that interested in Marisa to begin with, nor could be, but she can't withstand the idea that someone could not be attracted to her."
"Shit, how many years ago would that have been? Three?"
"Five or six."
"Six? How well can she even remember that? Enough years without somebody and all you've got is the summary."
"She doesn't even have that. She has this template of a memory, like from something in a movie or book, the idea of this woman who regrets her just the same. That this was her first love and is supposed to be the greatest one. And she's collapsed that conception into the space where this girl used to reside." said Mia. "I just can't understand thinking like that. I've always tried to see things as they are. Even when the whole of something can't be grasped, I try understand its silhouette. That was something Magnus exploited in me."
"Speaking of." Aimee rubbed her thigh as she continued to drive. "Feeling any better? You were doing rough for a bit."
"I was. But I loved you getting to have you take care of me." Mia smiled, then placed her hand over Aimee's. "I'm feeling better, but perhaps partially because we have... a murder to conduct." She pulled Aimee's hand a little higher up her thigh.
"Trying to distract me?"
"Mm. I wouldn't dream of it during a fight. But I'm certainly looking forward to next time we have a bedroom to ourselves."
They pulled into one city street, driving down the road as they were flanked by powerlines and concrete apartment complexes. Aimee took a left into their planned parking lot, then frowned; the lot was full.
Then she remembered she was a Urasaria student and this car was stolen regardless, so she shrugged and parked it away from the surrounding buildings; only one direction led out to the sidewalk. Pressing the driverside door open, she frowned as she saw electrical tendrils hanging from the powerlines over their way out. "...ugh. Fuck."
"Wait for it?"
The tendrils extended, tapping the row of cars ahead and slithering through their vents; it was a speed fast enough few civilians would notice, but these two hosts did.
"Going to hit us soon..." Rider's tendrils went taut, then wilted. "This fucking- ugh."
Mia grabbed the Boudourquin on her back and ripped its head clear off, then threw it at a car ahead & right; when the tendrils examined the vehicle, they gripped the severed head, and Mia pulled Aimee with her as she rushed forward. They were nearly out of the lot when another swarm of tendrils appeared on the powerline above, but she hit it with a mix of ice & scarabmetal scarabs that kept them encased in a scarabmetal sacrophagi, wide enough for the tendrils to travel but not erupt out from.
They hit the streets and ran in the center of the road, then ducked into an alleyway right as the tendrils began to come up from behind, swarming past where they had just been.
Aimee leaned her head out left, seeing the tendrils disperse at an intersection far ahead. "Might be heading Marisa's direction soon. We'll get to our spot and wait there if the tendrils don't follow us." She showed Mia the map on her phone. "Mostly north, just taking a right occasionally since we're going clockwise."
Mia nodded, and they began through the streets, carefully at first while verifying the tendrils were not near them. She heard a soft screech from other streets, a low thrum as tendrils continued along powerlines in the distance, the root of one upon the roof of an apartment complex occasionally suggesting a swarm of them within the halls below.
Soon they heard nothing, and Aimee nodded as she started to run.
Mia stuck to the pace of a civilian, and had to rush to pull Aimee back as Aimee started to hit a speed only a host could reach. Aimee looked to her a little quizzically, and Mia was reminded again she was one of the few Urasaria students who had ever been a civilian.
"You would have made Usain Bolt blush if I let you continue like that." Mia giggled as Aimee tried to match her own pace, then leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. "We're civilians, yes? Not attracting attention?"
"Just was trying to impress you."
"You can impress me by not screwing up our little assassination attempt." chimed Mia. "And stop looking at me with those big eyes."
"I would if there was anything else I wanted to look at with those big eyes but you."
Mia blushed as Aimee smirked. "I-... o-oh, you know how to catch me so off-guard."
"Been getting better at it lately, don't you think?"
"You have." Mia smiled as she kissed Aimee, squeezing her close. "I'll have to be careful you don't go charming anyone else. Now, shall we continue?"
Aimee nodded, though the pour of her desire into Mia had shunted out any other possibility but their own coupling; she had never been attracted to anyone but Mia, or rather believed she had not. This was monogamy to Aimee, singular devotion even in memory; the religiosity repeated throughout the entirety of her being had begun its transfiguration into subtler forms, as traumas often do.
As they continued on their way to the third location; located in the north-west of the circle; Aimee checked her phone as it vibrated; she had received a picture from Marisa of one of the Boudoirquins, scorched and pointing in a direction, along with her coordinates. "Got the second set. Watch for me..." She put it into her phone, then nodded. "Center. Thank god. We'll get to the third spot and wait there."
They ran for a while until the electrical tendrils began in the area again, and proceeded cautiously.
Mia looked ahead. There was a line of buildings at their right ahead, and a street left led to a small neighborhood of poorer housing. She was confused as Aimee continued walking forward rather than left. "Wait. We can cut through there." Mia pointed to the neighborhood.
Aimee glanced over it. The street led into the driveway of one house, but turned left and curved throughout, flanked by housing the entire way; there was hardly a sidewalk, at least not maintained. Many of the houses she saw were small and unlit, but she knew they would likely be filled with electronics. "Lot riskier, though. More chances of getting spotted, more electronics for her to sprout out of. Don't want her to get our scent. They'll descend on us."
"I can short out the entire grid if we're about to get caught."
Aimee winced. "Can if we need to, but I don't wanna lower our already abysmal reputation with civilians."
"They'll blame it on a rogue host."
"They blame that on us."
"Well, why should I give a fuck if the people who live because of the safety we provide want to criticize how we provide it?" Mia looked over at Aimee with frustration, then felt guilty. She kissed her forehead. "And it isn't... it isn't as if we'll be doing that with no... I- er, it'll save us time. Isn't that enough?"
Aimee nodded. They walked into the neighborhood and turned left, walking in the road and between the powerlines & houses. It was a few minutes of walking before they heard the tendrils buzzing behind, and they glanced back; they were swinging low from the powerlines, wide enough that the women could not avoid them if they were to stay outside.
A house at their right looked abandoned enough, and Aimee pointed to it as they rushed up to it; Rider's tendrils accelerated the front door's decay and they swept within, a hallway with rooms adjacent and the backdoor at the end.
No lights were on, but Aimee and Mia backed away deeper into the house, until they heard the electrical tendrils emerging from the outlets in the other rooms.
"Fuck." muttered Aimee. "Really don't want to have to-"
"-wait." muttered Mia, and her ice scarabs chilled their bodies to a temperature not-human. The electric tendrils encroached upon them, but did not bother to touch; she guided them gradually across a current of heat outside of the hallway, then stepped chilled across it until they were out in the backyard and re-heated; Aimee stumbled, but Mia caught her and pulled her back.
"O-One... s-second..." winced Aimee.
"I suppose I did just give us hypothermia." muttered Mia, placing a coat of fire scarabs around her butch.
Aimee shivered. "Surprised you could even... fuck. You're getting really goddamn strong."
Mia leaned in and grinned. "Is that so?"
"Just wouldn't have expected that. There's usually a pretty wide gap between first-years and third-years, but..."
Mia stroked down Aimee's back, and she felt that urge to effigy again, the fierce pull of energy into her ego. It was not enough that she be a strong host, but that she should be the strongest host in the universe; no constraints should barrier whatever temperature of heat she wished to ram into reality; and yet with that urge, she felt a revilement of herself and a hatred of her own weakness, until her mind receded and she was at the shore of afterthought wondering if something had waved.
Soon Aimee nodded and they hit the road again. They had saved some time cutting through the residential neighborhood, but were still not at their target. They traveled through the streets until they came across a shopping district, mostly closed for the night, but with many stores flanking them as they walked down the sidewalk right.
Aimee's hand paused Mia as they saw a woman across the street, who was gazing into the closed storefront of a ceramics shop and seemingly evaluating its craftsmanship. She was muttering something to herself in Mandarin, but Aimee could not verify if this were Mei or not; she could not remember what she looked like from behind.
Aimee gestured to the gas station, and Mia quickly nodded as they turned from her and into the lot.
Aimee heard the woman hum something, not a popular song or at least one Aimee knew, yet it seemed to be classical music. She recalled that her father had occasionally played the piano for her mother, but it was never the music she recalled, but rather the architecture and angles of their bodies away from one another as her mother laid and father sat that suggested distance to this ostensible affection; thus with some merit had she believed the piano was the loneliest instrument.
As they entered the gas station's convenience store, they heard the low thrum that suggested the encroachment of electrical tendrils nearby; the women quickly made their way to the back, near the bathrooms, Mia crouching slightly so they could be hidden behind a shelf.
Aimee glanced up at the lights as a scarabmetal scarab burrowed into the wall, and she gestured to Mia the motion of a scissors cutting & a nod if needed. They heard the doors open and a woman speaking with a Chinese accent, but they could not reveal themselves to check her appearance, inching further until they were near the entrance to the bathrooms.
Mia gestured to the door to Aimee, then grabbed her by her shoulder; the scarabmetal scarab burst and diverted the electricity for a second, causing a brownout that paused the store's electricity for a moment as they swept into the bathrooms, burnt an exit out through the back, then resumed running until they found another street they rushed through.
As they heard the frantic buzzing of electrical tendrils begin from the powerlines above, Aimee whispered: "-here." to Mia; Mia hurled the Boudourquin out and the tendrils gripped it, scorching it; Mia pulled it back as the tendrils relented their grip, but they shot towards her next; in an instant she was 30ft down the street being pulled back by Aimee. The women turned and rushed as fast as they could as the swarm of tendrils pursued behind; two plumes of fire cut the power lines in half and the tendrils slid down the suddenly amputated connection, swinging confusedly for a moment while the women were already gone down another street.
"Entering, entering..." said Aimee as they ran at the speed of hosts, her fingers frantic at her phone. "She's here." She showed Mia the triangulated position. "We run here-" She tapped- "-slow here, sneak around, verify the house before we torch it."
Mia nodded, and she threw the Boudourquin behind for the tendrils to feast upon if they found it; this bought the women thirty seconds of running before they were within the suburb that their host was located.
Aimee showed Mia her phone, indicating which house it likely was. It was a two-story house with an awning overlooking the porch. Using Rider's tendrils to decay and burrow underground, and Worldwide's ice to prevent collapse, they dug until they could sweep up undetected onto the awning, then begin climbing around the wall, only barely peeking into the windows.
They came to one whose shape suggested a bedroom, and Aimee paused Mia; Rider's tendrils went taut, and she gestured to indicate that the female host was in this room. Rider's tendrils dipped in Mia's veins, and she carefully set her hand to the wall, slowly pressing in with her strength until a small hole crumbled and she confirmed the female host with a cyst upon her neck was awake within, breathing with unnoticing eyes. A line of golden scarabs began crawling into the walls and burrowing, skittering slightly as Mia readied to turn the room into an oven.
A swarm of fire scarabs flew inside, and when they self-destructed an inferno claimed the entire room and blasted Mia & Aimee away out, yet not before hearing Electroshock screaming in agony and seeing the viscera of her eyes melt onto the horrific & flaming mass of flesh she was quickly becoming; Mia landed in Aimee's arms on the street below, a princess in her butch's arms. Mia kissed her on the cheek as Rider's tendrils went taut, and they were 50ft away in an instant as Mia called Marisa. "I can smell her corpse from here, so-"
"-on my way." said Marisa with some annoyance in her voice; Mia sensed she was not looking forward to having Makoto cocooned against her, but Aimee's rush continued as the home burnt 200ft behind them; then 300, then 500ft, until they were at their planned intersection; Marisa dropped their car twenty feet ahead of them, landing on the hood, yanking open the trunk (with Makoto inside) with a strand as Aimee & Mia got inside and drove off.
"Can't imagine there's many left." said Aimee, adjusting the rearview. Marisa swung inside and she pulled Makoto in with her, sitting in the back. "Two left that we know of. Straw hat is one. One of them has something dealing with time. Rider doesn't like it. Going to have to figure out on the fly how to deal with it. I'd prefer to solo it."
"Welcome to having a normal Revenant." said Makoto. "Not so fun when you can't just hit 'I win' and get a kiss from your girlfriend."
"Aimee, I would love you even if you didn't have a Revenant." chimed Mia. "...er, it would just make that love innately tragic due to your mortality, but-" She began peppering Aimee with kisses, who giggled and blushed.
"We're going to see Dmitri and Atori, yeah? Finally getting to this chick?" said Makoto.
"Should just be a few hours away, yeah, but we'll sleep before we get there. You wanna call them?"
"Fuck yeah." she muttered, setting her phone on her lap. She called them, and Dmitri soon answered. "What's up, motherfucker?"
"What's up, bro. You need something?"
"We're on our way." said Aimee. "We'll hit a rest stop, but gonna be there tomorrow morning."
"Thank fuck, I don't know why it took so long. We learn this lesson every year with these goddamn planes. This chick and her fucking parents, man, and then all these hosts on top of it... hey Atori. Atori's here with me."
"Hello."
"We just fought off another one this morning."
"Is the debt paid off?" said Aimee.
"Yeah, just about. Lanara's dad said his cousin's wiring him some extra money to cover the rest. You believe that? Can't go into protection unless you've got... well, whatever. Needless to say, they'll be good by tomorrow."
"Hey, are any of the hosts you're fighting Chinese?" said Makoto. "Because we've been getting a fucking shitload of them."
"Fuck, dude, I don't look at their race before I kill them. Most of these fucktards barely speak English as it is. Hey, Atori, didn't you fight some Russian guy the other day?"
"Correct."
"Yeah, see, he's attentive with shit like that."
The conversation soon turned away as Makoto took the phone to her ear.
There are broadly two kinds of lesbians; those that get along with straight men because their sexuality is similar and those that do not get along with men because their sexuality is not. Aimee was the latter lesbian, Makoto the former. She heard as Makoto talked with Atori and Dmitri; mostly Dmitri; and essentially every non-racial slur one could imagine was used at least once, albeit Makoto would claim she held no prejudice towards anyone, merely that she thought everything funny.
Sometimes Aimee was grateful for Mia's feminizing presence.