The remaining two men reacted fast. But no matter how fast they were, how could they possibly outpace Shiraha simply moving his lips?
"Bang!"
Shiraha provided the sound effect again. Elysia genuinely couldn't muster any enthusiasm for this sort of thing.
The exact same scene played out once more.
Mei's mind had gone completely blank. It wasn't fear, exactly. It wasn't relief either. At nine years old, she wasn't a complete child anymore.
She'd seen her father lose his temper. She'd seen bodyguards spar with professional precision. Two years ago, during the first kidnapping, she'd even seen the murderous glint in her father's eyes.
But she'd never seen this.
The gray and the red, splattered against the wall, oozing down the grooves of the wallpaper.
The strength slowly drained from her body. She tipped sideways, chair and all.
"It's okay now."
Shiraha rushed over and caught her. He pulled the chair upright, one arm wrapped around her shoulders, and gave her that familiar smile.
But Mei felt no comfort. She just stared blankly at Shiraha's smile. His face looked the same as always, so well-behaved. So obedient.
Images of red-streaked gray pulsed through her mind. Her small frame trembled unconsciously.
Shiraha's hand rested on her shoulder, his palm warm. Mei couldn't feel it. All she could see was Shiraha smiling.
Monster.
Mei didn't say it aloud. What little rationality remained told her that Shiraha was her friend. Her family, second only to her father.
She swallowed the thorn whole and buried it deep in her heart.
Shiraha patted her back in a soft, steady rhythm.
"She's terrified."
Elysia spoke quietly. She stood behind Shiraha, watching the scene in silence. Her fingers trembled faintly. It had been a long time since she'd turned her hand against another human being.
Shiraha looked up at her. His smile was faint, a little helpless.
Elysia forced a smile in return. They'd both crawled out of the hell that was the Previous Era. A scene like this barely counted as a scene at all.
"Get her out of here first. Then we figure out how to contact your Ryoma-nii."
A moment later, Elysia even had the wherewithal to crack a joke.
Shiraha nodded slightly.
"Mei. Time to go home. I'll talk to Uncle Ryoma afterward. We'll get placed in the same class. Nothing like this will ever happen again."
Mei's small body trembled even harder.
Finding a phone was easy. This was 2006. Touchscreen smartphones wouldn't officially usher in the new era until 2007.
Mei stood there woodenly, watching Shiraha retrieve a phone from one of the corpses and dial Ryoma Raiden's number.
The call connected almost instantly. Ryoma's voice came through, fury barely restrained. "Name your demands. Whatever they are."
"Uncle Ryoma. It's me. Shiraha."
A long silence stretched over the line. Shiraha's voice carried a slight, almost imperceptible tremor. Mei didn't notice it, at least.
"You were taken too?"
Ryoma felt the sky collapse. What the hell were the bodyguards at the gate even doing? Letting Shiraha slip out was bad enough but letting him get caught by the same kidnappers?
Shiraha turned his back to Mei, his expression taut. After a pause, he spoke in that same voice, the one with the buried quaver. "I killed someone, Uncle Ryoma. Three people."
Silence again.
Longer this time.
Ryoma's mind latched onto the explanation almost instantly. A natural-born Stigmata wielder. A controllable one, Different from Mei's.
"Are you and Mei alright?"
He forced his voice calm. He desperately wanted to demand their location, but the person on the other end of the line was a six-year-old child. He knew what he had to do.
Truth be told, as long as it wasn't his own daughter, Ryoma Raiden generally knew exactly how to handle people.
"Mei and I are both fine. But Mei seems really shaken. Uncle Ryoma, can you come? I... I'm starting to feel a little weak."
The tremor in Shiraha's voice deepened, just barely. Ryoma immediately soothed him. "It's alright, son. This isn't your fault."
"Find a clean spot there and stay put with Mei. I've already traced your location. Just hide for a little while, just a little while longer. Be good."
He paused, then added, "If you're scared, don't hang up. Keep the line open. I'll be there soon."
Shiraha gave a soft murmur of assent. His eyes swept the room once, then he returned to Mei's side.
"Mei-nee. Let's go hide in the bedroom for a bit, okay?"
Mei was still wooden, but she nodded. She let Shiraha pull her along, moving almost mechanically into the bedroom. She watched as he lifted the blanket and draped it over her head, covering her completely.
"It's okay now, Mei-nee. We just have to wait a little longer, and we can go home."
Maybe it was his imagination, but after the blanket settled over her, Shiraha thought Mei buried her face in her knees and quietly cried. The sobs were faint.
Shiraha didn't do anything else. He just tugged the blanket down a little further.
Elysia sat at the foot of the bed, watching Shiraha move through everything with practiced ease. She spoke softly. "Were you from the Manticore unit?"
Sakura herself might not have been much of a performer, but one shouldn't conflate the individual with the whole. The Manticore' collective skills in assassination, infiltration, and disguise were among the very finest in the entire Fire Moth.
Shiraha didn't answer. He simply returned a look that said he wasn't inclined to discuss it.
Elysia didn't press. She changed tack. "Did you learn the technique from just now?"
Shiraha tilted his head. Senpai... did you actually teach anything just now?
He raised his hand again, trying to recreate the sensation from before. He aimed at a magazine on the cabinet and Bang!
The effect was minimal. The magazine simply flipped a page... Wait.
Shiraha froze. It actually worked? Hang on. Why am I able to do it too?
As if sensing Shiraha's confusion, Elysia explained, "This skill isn't particularly difficult. Essentially, it's an application of Dystopia's Authority from the Previous Era."
"You know who Dystopia is, right?"
Shiraha nodded. If it had been some obscure MANTIS soldier who'd never appeared in the story, he likely wouldn't have a clue. But Dystopia had at least a decent amount of screen time.
Her Authority was the materialization of psyche, what countless web novels would call psychokinesis.
"I'm not sure exactly how much time has passed since our era ended, but it seems the Fire Plan was successfully completed. Many people in this age carry fragments of Stigmata passed down through the generations."
"And the Authorities in those Stigmata fragments are often drawn from the MANTIS soldiers of the Previous Era. Or, in some cases, from descendants who forged their own path as this era developed."
"I know a fair bit about this project. I even discussed related matters with Dr. Mobius. Actually, Mobius's earliest little secrets... I was the one who exposed them."
Elysia's expression softened with reminiscence as old memories surfaced, though she didn't linger there long.
"I just helped stir up the genetic fragment related to psychokinesis inside you. You should be able to gradually develop this Authority on your own now. I hope you can truly cultivate it into a full Stigmata."
Of course it would become one. Why? Because that was simply how much confidence Elysia had in herself.