Chapter 2: Hot Child in the City Two - Electric Boogaloo
"Seriously, how is it any different from calling another dog 'Fang', or a dalmatian 'Spot'?"
It was just under two hours 'till mid-day now, and Brick had already been up for about five of them. He had been woken up ever-so-gracefully by a stupid, orange cat farting directly in his face. Well, to be accurate, he'd actually been woken up by said cat's tail batting him across the face. The stupid thing had somehow gotten in his room and elected to make his chest its new bed. Upon him waking up—and spooking the cat as a result—it had seen fit to let a smelly one rip directly in his face before skittering off. Brick wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to escape the room before Bark woke up and made mincemeat out of her, but he promised himself that if he saw the cat again today he was sure to let his dog turn the blasted thing into his new slippers.
After getting dressed and heading down the stairs, he'd told the innkeep—Jubei, he learned his name was—that he would be forwarding the bill to him if he got pink eye. This only served to remind the man-cat that his newest tenant had a debt of his own to pay off and he hastily got him to work doing exactly that.
"Dogs have fangs and spots. They do barking." retorted the innkeep, watching as the teenaged human carefully placed bags of flour up on a stocking shelf.
It had turned out that whether or not Brick was talented at housework wasn't really an issue to begin with. Jubei had a whole list of chores that had been "somewhat neglected" around the inn and all he really needed was the free slave labour with which to tackle it. Slave labour which Brick was now providing.
The cat-man, in spite of having chosen to supervise the youth's work all day, never actually did anything as esoteric as 'helping' or 'showing him how to do it' of course. Rather, Jubei would simply give Brick a command and then crack the boy across the lower back with his saya (calling it a 'scabbard' earlier had earned Brick a swift correction accompanied by another crack) whenever he was doing something wrong. The 'whippings' were only ever enough to get him back to attention and never really hurt, but Brick had quickly gotten aggravated with his overseer's preferred method of nit-picking.
The cat—apparently used to dealing with hot-headed youths who didn't like to be woken up in the morning—had skillfully provided the boy with some distraction in the form of banter while he worked. This let the teen vent his frustrations while simultaneously giving Jubei the opportunity to directly oversee the quality of said work.
"So? At least it's something dog-related. What's the sense in calling a dog 'Fido', or 'Pluto', or 'Mr. Peanutbutter'? Dogs don't understand human language…" he paused here, expecting a rebuttal, what with the fact that he was currently having this conversation with a talking cat. However, the innkeep let the comment slide, so Brick just continued. "As long as it's mono– or bisyllabic and the dog responds to it- Ack!" he was cut off by another whack across his lower back.
"Those are rice bags," said Jubei in reference to the bag Brick had just absentmindedly put next to the flour. "They go on the second shelf. Pay attention," chided the cat with veiled schadenfreude.
Brick rubbed his lower back and shot the cat a scowl, but quickly and dutifully picked up the rice bag he'd left on the top shelf with the flour and moved it down to one of the lower ones, as indicated by the slave-driver. "Like I was saying, if it's a simple word and the dog responds to it, who cares about 'imagination' when coming up with a dog's name?"
"Normally I'd agree with you. Your human concept of 'pet names' gets ridiculous on the best of days. Still, saying things like 'Bark barks' just sounds awkward."
"So, by that argument, no human should ever be called 'Dash', 'Mary', 'Taylor' or 'Carrie'? Those are all verbs too, you know," retorted the teen, putting away the last of the rice and carefully examining the inventory sheet for where the rest of the stock went.
This gave the old cat pause (no pun intended)."Hmm… fair point." he conceded.
"Hah! So you agree that 'Bark' isn't such a stupid name after all," smirked the teen victoriously, while still knowing better than to stop working during his boasts.
"Oh, it's still plenty stupid. Just not any more stupid than any other name you humans can come up with," retorted the cat coolly.
"Bah, sore loser," dismissed Brick, earning a satisfied chuckle from Jubei.
It was another ten minutes of ultimately pointless back-and-forth between the two until order was restored to the previously disarranged storeroom.
"Alright, took you a while to get everything sorted, but everything looks acceptable now," said the cat, hopping off his perch and ignoring the disdainful look his halfhanded compliment earned him. "You've got one last job to do for me and then we can consider your debt cleared off."
"Another?!" exclaimed the boy. "You said that two chores ago!"
"Considering how slow you were going, you needed all the motivation you could get."
Brick offered an unimpressed scowl at this. "Yanno, you could just say you were lying through your teeth."
Jubei chuckled and shrugged as he walked past his aide and out of the storeroom "Fine then, I lied." he threw back casually.
"Un-fucking-believable..." Brick shook his head and followed after his warden. "So, what is this 'last job' of yours exactly?"
"Groceries," replied the cat-man matter-of-factly, though this earned him another disdainful glare from the human beside him.
"You lazy—! Why do you not have your own groceries done!?" The human was baffled how anyone running an establishment could be so unprepared with their own housekeeping and general management
"To give slackers like you a way to pay off their debts," retorted the cat without missing a beat. It seemed he was absolutely unflappable before the teen's morose and argumentative mood.
Brick was given enough time to go wash his face and hands from the manual labor that morning before they would head out to the grocers. While he appreciated the small reprieve he didn't spend any more than the minimum amount of time on cleaning up his appearance. Once he'd washed off the grime of working all morning and given his hair a quick rinse to help keep it out of his eyes, he stepped out of his room's bathroom and spent the few minutes he had leftover to play with Bark.
The girl had been on edge today—cooped up in a room, surrounded by the smell of cat—and thus appreciated finally getting attention and affection. She'd bounded up from where she was laying the moment he had walked into the room and then hardly stood still the entire duration he'd spent taking care of his toiletries. If nothing else, going to the groceries would give him a good opportunity to take Bark out on a well-deserved walk.
Deciding he'd rather not risk the innkeeper's ire by making him wait too long, the teen quickly made his way downstairs after only a few short minutes of play. The gray haired mutt began bounding excitedly around his feet as she put together that they were getting on the move again. Coming down the staircase and turning the corner into the entrance corridor, the pair was met by Jubei already waiting for them by the door. The cat was wearing his usual yellow hoodie, but the saya he'd previously wielded like a whipping cane was now strung across his back, a protruding hilt indicating it was currently holstering its previously vagrant blade. Actually, when Brick got a closer look at it he saw two hilts, one sticking out from the top and another from the bottom. He thought this was strange but didn't get the chance to inquire about it before Jubei spoke up.
"Huh, so you're bringing Bark along, huh? Guess I prefer her being with us rather than possibly coming back here and finding some of the other cats mauled," asked the cat man with a raised eyebrow, eyeing the dog slightly suspiciously as she rounded the bend.
"You mean like a particular orange tabby that totally has it coming to her?" retorted the young vagabond with a smirk.
"Hmm, yes, well 'has it coming' or not, I'd still forward you the vet's bill," Jubei replied calmly as he opened the door for the two to step out.
"Hah, I should tell you the same thing about the medical bills incurred by this back of mine that you seem so determined to break," shot back the teen.
At this point, banter had more or less become the vagabond and the innkeeper's default method of communication. While he'd never say it out loud, Brick actually found himself enjoying the crotchety old feline's company by now. Aggravating as the old man could be, he was still entertaining conversation and wasn't exactly unfair in what he was demanding from Brick. Though, the werecat's current choice of equipment was mildly concerning.
"So, do you routinely cut up your own meat at the butcher's, or...?" inquired Brick, trailing off with a nod of his chin towards the katana handles poking out of the top and bottom of Jubei's saya.
"Even a retired samurai wouldn't leave his swords at home when he steps out; they're more than simple weapons," answered Jubei somewhat evasively as he closed the door behind him and then joined Bark and Brick at the bottom of the steps. He proceeded by turning right and leading them down the street, towards the shopping district.
The mop-headed teen couldn't help but look around as the party walked through the Third district; what had been a closed-off and deserted battleground for him last night was now a bustling forenoon-time borough for the Transit City residents. People were coming in and out of the boutiques, curiosity shops and specialty stores lining the street while gummi cars hovered speedily by on the paved road. One almost wouldn't believe that someone had fought for their life here not half a day ago. Almost. Brick, however, was noticing a fair bit more people wearing the Tristam Academy uniforms walking around, more than he'd seen the previous day.
At first he may have chalked it up to paranoia, but the way the uniformed members of the city watch moved around the streets today seemed a little too purposeful compared to the largely carefree kids he'd seen walking around the previous night. Brick didn't know if he was the person or thing that they were looking for today, but something told him to keep his eyes forwards when one of the uniformed youths turned his head in his direction. Jubei noticed the teen beside him growing distinctly quiet but chose to leave it alone for now. Far be it for him to pry into the musings or troubles of someone he hadn't even known for a whole day yet.
Leaving the area, Brick observed a noticeable drop in the amount of uniforms patrolling around. At first, this made him relieved. However, he quickly realized that this meant their presence around the inn was more than likely related to the incident last night. He only hoped that they were investigating how the heartless got in and not who took them out. Somehow, he got the impression that being able to summon a magical sword chained to his wrist was not going to earn him all that many friends. Not without requesting an extensive explanation that, frankly, he did not have.
He flexed his hand semi-consciously, resisting the urge that had been nagging at him all day: The itch to summon his blade. So many things about last night had him swimming with questions, and he felt like that blade was the key to unlocking all of the answers.
Why had that blade responded to the appearance of heartless?
Did it even respond to them or just the fact that he was in danger?
Would it even respond to his call a second time?
He'd felt positive of that last one the previous night. However, doubt was now starting to set in and he wanted to test the summoning out one more time to make sure his feelings were right. More than anything, though, he wanted to know one thing: what the hell was that sword?
Once more, Brick's mind turned in on itself as soon as he had no external distraction and his body followed Jubei's lead as if on autopilot. Once more, he became engrossed in the mystery of his identity and tuned out the world around him. As he pondered and pondered, finally, there came an answer from the murk of his thoughts, the first he had ever obtained.
"Heartbreaker..." he said in muted wonderment, a sudden expression of clarity painting itself across his features.
Heartbreaker, that was his sword, that was what it was called. That was what that name meant, and the fact that this was the first word he had remembered when he woke up meant—
"Hmm? Wha'd you say kid?" spoke the deeper masculine voice at his side.
Brick had to resist the urge to facepalm at his own absent-minded stupidity. He really needed to learn to not think out-loud.
"Oh! Uhh, nothing, just—" he quickly glanced around him for anything he could use to explain away his sudden exclamation. Thankfully, it was Saturday, and they were downtown in a major metropolis. Thus, the universe quickly provided. "That girl over there! You see the one in that yellow, mini-skirt dress across the street? Must be quite the little heart breaker, that one." Brick looked around some more and affected a casual smile that he—surprisingly—didn't have to fake in the least. "Actually, now that I'm paying more attention, there's more than a few pretty girls around here. Must be nice living in a place of beauty, eh?"
The werecat only chuckled at the suggestion. "I really wouldn't know."
Brick smirked at this. "Oh? What's the matter? Cat-man can't get any pus-"
"Go ahead and finish that sentence," interjected Jubei with a cold glare that made Brick swallow his words. The swordscat rolled his eye and shook his head at the boy beside him. "You humans always think you're so terribly clever with that joke."
"Gee, what crawled up your ass and died?" stated Brick with a slight pout, putting his hands behind his head and interlacing his fingers as he kept walking along. Inside, he smiled in satisfaction. The conversation had distracted Jubei about as successfully as he could have hoped for.
"Eat dirt!"
Steel met steel as the boy punctuated his mid-air flip with a stylish but powerful axe kick, his entire body weight focused down into the plated heel of his boots that came crushing down on the heartless' helmet. The Soldier heartless' head was resultantly sent crashing into the cobblestone beneath it, the force of the impact causing its body to instantly burst into Darkness.
The youth himself landed expertly on his feet and then swiftly brought up the two golden tonfa in his hands, blocking a volley of fireballs launched from his left. The culprits were a trio of Red Nocturnes that had been hovering around the edge of the battle so far. However, when the harmful fire magic dissipated, the fighter ignored the elementals and kicked off in direction of the single remaining Soldier, intent on quickly dispatching it. However, movement caught in the corner of his eye informed him of his mistake in doing so.
Coming in on his right was a Large Body heartless, sliding along the ground on its stomach Armour in a berserker charge. Agile as he was, Zio knew he would not have the time to dodge this attack and opted to skid to a halt, putting up his tonfa again and preparing to take the hit.
Luckily, just before the Large Body collided with him, Cendre's frame appeared in between the blond and the heartless. The more thickly built boy had two onyx black, metal gauntlets adorning his hands, through which slowly pulsated golden power-lines.
He caught the charging heartless with both hands, causing the gauntlets' power to envelop it in a golden aura that completely negated the fat heartless' momentum. A quick"'Thanks" was all Cendre got from his rescued friend, who then promptly resumed his attack on the remaining Soldier.
Rather than respond himself, Cendre decided to hoist the fat mass of Darkness currently in his grip high into the air, tossing the Large Body up about three meters. He drew energy into his left gauntlet and, just as the Large Body was about to begin its fall earthwards, Cendre threw his palm upwards and caused a ball of gold and purple energy to appear next to the heartless. Instead of falling, the Large Body was now orbiting around the magical orb helplessly, flailing its arms and feet around in a fruitless attempt to regain control of its orientation.
With the heartless caught in the magical trap, Cendre balled his other fist, the power lines now changing to orange-red with magical energy gathering in the gauntlet. By the time the gravity spell timed out and the Large Body began its second descent towards the ground, Cendre had already stepped out of its trajectory. He jumped up to meet his opponent mid-air and smashed his open palm into the fat heartless, releasing the magic and sending the Large Body crashing to the ground in a torrent of flames. The intense heat, coupled with the impact, broke what was left of the heartless' power and caused it to explode into Darkness.
Cendre landed on his feet and only had enough time to see that the Nocturne trio had been literally pinned to the ground by three thin, pink senbon needles before he saw them dissolve into Darkness as well.
"Hehe, well wasn't that flashy?" came Zio's teasing voice. Well, at least that meant the Soldiers were all gone now too.
"Seriously? Coming from you?" shot back Cendre with a smile as he turned to face his friend. "I wouldn't have to be 'flashy' and take them out quickly if you just mastered basic situational awareness."
"Or, you know, awareness at all." chimed in Rin, jumping down from her perch in a nearby tree.
"Hey, it's easy to be 'situationally aware' when you hide in vantage points all fight long," taunted Zio, turning towards the blonde girl with a smirk. "Why don't you try coming down and fighting with the big boys once in a while?"
"Uhh, and ruin my make-up by sweating?" replied the girl with a sarcastic tone that let Zio know exactly how dumb she considered the prospect to be. "Thanks, but no thanks. I fight with you meat-shields for a reason."
The group shared a laugh at this as the barriers protecting the buildings around them dropped. However, the laughter was quickly interrupted by a cool voice coming through the three communicators currently wrapped around their ears.
"Well, I'm happy to see you're all so lackadaisical about this. I assume you've already eliminated the threat?"
"You know Cee, keep eavesdropping like this and people are gonna start making rumors about you being nosy and overbearing," said Zio with a sarcastic smile as he touched his finger to the communicator in his ear.
"Considering the fact that everyone at the academy is still talking about the Peach Blossom Incident, I'm sure I can avoid any rumors being spread about me as long as you're still in my squad to draw attention," came the calm reply, though they could all practically hear the mocking smile on the end. It was quickly joined by a couple of good-natured laughs at Zio's expense from his other two teammates.
"Seriously! How was I supposed to know it would stain that colour?" protested the bleached blond boy, clearly embarrassed by the memory.
"Try reading a chemistry textbook once in a while," replied Cendre with a pat on his friend's shoulder as he walked past him and towards the district gate leading to the Second, predicting their squad leader's next orders.
"Alright everyone, that's a wrap. Meet me back here in the Second District and we'll finish up our report."
"Great, if the heartless can piss off for a bit, maybe we'll actually get to enjoy our Saturday." stated Zio as he dispelled his tonfa and fell in step behind Cendre, Rin joining him quickly.
"Hmm, I heard that Sakura's got a new parfait on their menu. I hope they still have some by the time we're done," mused the cherry blonde lightly as she considered the group's plans after their 'extra curricular activities' were done.
Zio chuckled at this. "Yanno Rin, if you keep eating so much sugar you'll get real fat someday; 'a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips' right?"
Cendre gave an amused snort at this, which made Zio's grin grow wider. "See? This guy knows what's up," continued the spiky-haired blond.
"Better than you, evidently," corrected the bespectacled brunette with a half-cocked smile. At the spiky haired blond's confused expression, Cendre simply pointed upwards. "She hasn't dispelled her weapon yet."
It was at this moment that Zio felt something cold sprinkle down into his hair. Looking up he saw an iceberg twice his size floating a foot above his head.
"You were saying?" asked Rin with an innocent yet terrifying smile.
"Great, if the heartless can piss off for a bit maybe we'll actually get to enjoy our Saturday."
Ciel shook her head with a small smile and cut the comm link to her team. Zio was a good fighter, and surprisingly loyal once you became friends with him, but she really wished that he took his duties more seriously. Hopefully, getting to go to other worlds after graduation would do him some good and teach him a little maturity.
She dispelled her curved blades and, simultaneously, the bodies of three Armoured Knights collapsed around her, dissolving into Darkness.
The barriers erected around the large mall behind her lowered and gentle tones rang through the district, informing the civilians it was again safe to be outside. People began slowly filling out into the streets again, resuming their routines as if the intrusion of Darkness had never occurred.
Transit City was no stranger to heartless, of course. In truth, rarely more than a week went by without some section of a district or another being locked down by barriers, all caused by heartless parties managing to worm their way past the world's defenses. Though, this always resulted in city watchmen being dispatched to banish them quickly thereafter so it wasn't like the citizens were ever exposed to any real danger.
Despite this, some of the residents looked more concerned than others. They spoke with hushed voices about what they only hoped was their wild imaginations. However, Ciel knew better, knew their concerns were valid. Two breaches last night alone, one of which was somehow resolved before any watchmen had even arrived on the scene (though this latter fact was not public knowledge for obvious reasons), and then three more incursions today within ten minutes of each other. Nothing they couldn't handle, and all threats had been dispatched easily, but slaying as many heartless in 24 hours as the Watch would usually face in a month was no good sign.
Considering it all, Ciel couldn't help but be reminded of scouting parties. Send in a few weaklings to measure up opposition, verify infiltration points, and give the enemy a skewed impression of the attacking force's capability.
Usually, this kind of tactic would have been completely beyond heartless. They were too simple-minded and brutish for something so refined, and thus could normally only appear in Transit City if their ships used brute strength and sheer numbers to make it past the gummi blockade patrolling around the world. Having a constant rotation of gummi ships on the lookout for approaching heartless meant that any would-be invaders were usually shot down before they got anywhere near Transit City, it's populace, or the hearts they held. This was how the watch kept the amount of intrusions so low in spite of the thousands of hearts occupying the city-world. It was why, when intrusions did occur, it was the junior watchmen still attending the academy who were usually dispatched to deal with them, rather than the graduates. They were usually the ones piloting the ships in the blockade to begin with.
If so many heartless were appearing all at once, though, it would suggest that a Heartless fleet broke through a section of the blockade and, for whatever reason, higher brass wasn't informing all the Watch members of this.
Or, it could mean that there was a Dark Lord somewhere on the world, drawing heartless in directly through Corridors of Darkness and completely disregarding the blockade. Ciel wasn't sure which scenario would be more potentially disastrous.
Throughout all this thinking, she couldn't help but remember the other anomaly of the last 24 hours: The vagabond and his dog from yesterday. The timing of his appearance seemed a little too coincidental, what with everything happening just a few hours after she'd parted ways with him.
Part of her knew she could be seeing connections where there weren't any, looking for an explanation that she didn't have the information to reach on her own yet. After all, he seemed troubled, but not any more than you'd expect any teenager to be after having just lost their world. He certainly didn't seem to be carrying enough Darkness in him to be considered a Dark Lord with any control over heartless.
Still, she found herself doubting him. Her suspicions were not quelled by the fact that the second intrusion last night—the one that somehow seemed to resolve itself on its own—occurred in the Third District, where she'd sent him off to. One way or another, that couldn't be good. If "Brick" really wasn't related to any of this, then it was entirely possible that the heartless had found him and… well, there was usually only one reason heartless left on their own accord after having invaded a world….
These circular thoughts had been plaguing her more-or-less since she'd woken up, and only became more pervasive in her mind after the three additional heartless incursions of the day. Between the paranoia of having potentially helped an enemy, the guilt of having potentially failed to protect a newcomer, and the uncertainty over whether any of what she was thinking had any merit to begin with, Ciel had found herself eager to drown herself in work and take her mind off things. She may not have known what became of the vagabond, or of his involvement in the situation yet, but she was still a (junior) member of the City Watch. If heartless were appearing in Transit City then—regardless of their origin—it was her job to guard the innocent from them.
This was why she'd decided to split her squad up and send Cendre, Zio and Rin to the Fourth District while she mopped up the outbreak in the Second. Under normal circumstances, she prefered fighting with the group, but two simultaneous heartless incursions had given her the opportunity to show the upper brass that her squad could handle itself without her direct oversight, and that she could carry on efficiently even without the added manpower. It had also given her the opportunity to lose herself in her work for a few minutes while she busied herself with fighting alone.
With the threats gone now, though, the worries crept their way back to the surface of her consciousness. Rejecting the idea of looking nervous by pacing or fidgeting, Ciel elected instead to go and wait for her team by the Central Transit City Bank. She leaned her back onto one of the pillars supporting the archway entrance and crossed her arms. From here, she would be out of the way and largely ignored unless something urgent came up, but she would still be able to keep an eye on the majority of the southern plaza and would have a clear view of her squad coming to meet up with her. Once they got there, they could all go report to brass and hopefully get some actual answers.
"Uuuuuugh! Why is this taking so long?" groaned the teen, kicking a concrete divider lightly.
"Heh, want some more cheese with that whine? It's only been ten minutes, humey," reprimanded the cat to his left, keeping his gaze fixed on the district gate a dozen meters or so in front of them. More specifically, he was keeping his eye fixated on the barrier that had gone up just as Brick and he were coming up to it. Heartless were detected on the other side and movement in or out of the district plaza would be sealed until they were taken care of and either the Watch or its systems gave the all-clear.
"Dude, I took out two heartless with my bare freaking hands yesterday." Brick showed his bandaged-up forearms to further illustrate his point. "This is these guys' jobs, and it sure doesn't sound like there's hellfire and brimstone brewing over there."
"Sounds are all but cancelled by the barrier. It's a countermeasure to the different types of heartless who use sounds as part of their attack," explained Jubei without tearing his eye away from the barrier. "Also, the ones you supposedly took out by yourself yesterday were Soldier types. Second from the weakest of their kind and arguably easier to kill than the actual weaklings that we call Shadows."
"Aww piss off with this 'supposedly' crap," protested the youth while making sure to keep his tone low enough to avoid drawing attention. While the majority of the pedestrians were crowded near the gate, waiting to be let in, Brick and Jubei had hung back on the sidewalk by the road. The teen hadn't needed to be told that it would be best to remain inconspicuous regarding his exploits from the previous night.
"You dressed my wounds for pete's sake. You know anything besides a heartless that gives you glowing, red claw marks that don't bleed?"
Jubei chuckled lightly at the boy's complaints. "The fact remains: they might be up against some tougher stuff up there compared to what you fought yesterday, and in bigger numbers. Of course, if it was something really nasty they would order everyone to get indoors. If we're all allowed to wait here it means there's no risk of what's inside getting out, and negligible risks of there being an incursion here. Be patient and the barrier should come down soon enough."
Brick sighed and turned around, sitting down on the divider protecting the pedestrians from the gummi cars speeding past. Beside him, Jubei was sitting down on the sidewalk in the lotus position.
"So, how often do these 'nasty' heartless show up?" the teen asked to pass the time. Heartless seemed to be connected to his heartbreaker somehow, and thus connected to his identity. It wouldn't hurt to learn more about them while he had the chance.
"Not often," replied the cat calmly. "Once a year, if that. Heartless can't help being attracted to this place and all its hearts. Even as dumb as they are, they understand the concept of wanting something very much and the frustration of never being able to get it. Every now and again, a heartless armada shows up on the radar and launches an offensive to try and get through. It's hard to contain every single ship up in worldspace, so some inevitably punch through our blockade and come worldside. When they do, something big usually takes advantage of the hole in security to slip past along with 'em."
"Geez, you guys fight off huge monsters once a year? Reconstruction must just be a permanent thing for this city, huh?" Brick didn't know exactly how bad these 'nasties' got, but if it took a whole armada to make a hole large enough for one to get through he figured they couldn't be much of a walk in the park. A single Soldier had almost killed him with one good surprise attack before he got his weapon, and apparently those guys were about as basic as it got when dealing with heartless.
"You think we would still be here if we didn't know how to handle it?" retorted the old cat. "Whenever we spot an armada on the horizon, we recall all of our senior watchmen from their world hopping. A couple of those guys is usually all it takes to keep the city safe."
"Heh, so you guys leave it to a couple of geezers to protect you whenever the going gets rough? Kinda sad, ain't it?"
Jubei gave a low laugh at this that made Brick realize he'd said something funnier than he knew. "Well, some of them certainly aren't spring chickens anymore, but I think you'd be unwise to call most of our Senior Watchmen 'geezers'. It's a position earned by merit, not tenure. Most of them aren't even twice your age."
Brick raised an eyebrow at this and affected an intrigued smirk. "Oh really? Any of them hot chicks?"
Jubei looked decidedly unimpressed with the question as he rolled his eye, and didn't even spare the vagabond a glance as he replied. "Teenagers…" he shook his head lightly.
"Yeah, we're either thinking about kicking ass or getting some," boasted Brick unapologetically.
Jubei had nothing to say to this and, thankfully, hadn't needed to supply any form of retort. Their mutual attention was instead grabbed by the fact that the barrier to the district gate suddenly began shimmering and subsequently let out a low tone. After an additional shimmer, the barrier fell—signalling that it was safe to allow passage between districts once more. Soon afterwards, the district gates themselves slid open and watchmen started administering residents through.
Jubei unfolded his legs out from underneath him and pushed himself to his feet with a small grunt, using his sheathed swords as a support. "Well, there you go; we can get moving again and you can get that much closer to paying off your debt to me."
Brick made an amused sound at the cat's statement as he pushed himself off the divider. "Oh joy of joys, my indentured servitude resumes."
"Do you ever not complain?"
"Only when there isn't anyone that's as fun to annoy as you are around."
The werecat shook his head in mild exasperation and the two continued their trip towards the shopping district in relative silence, Bark following along quietly and sticking close.
With the amount of people who'd been waiting to get in before them it was almost another 5 minutes before they even got into the district plaza.
Inside, one could hardly tell that there had supposedly been monster-slaying taking place there a few minutes prior. Not only was there no sign of battle anywhere in the large public square, the citizens were going about their business as normally as any other day, cementing the notion that heartless were a truly mundane occurrence here.
Brick took a look around at the different establishments surrounding the plaza: directly across from them, at the northern end of the square, was a three-story-high mall that seemed to be the main attraction for the different pedestrians milling about the plaza. The surrounding buildings were no less impressive, featuring a large bank hugging the mall's western flank which was designed with a mixture of greek and modern architecture.
To the right of the mall, from Brick's perspective, was something that looked to be a large arcade, the words 'Moogle Mode' hanging above the entrance in sharp, unlit blue, green, and yellow neon letters. Lining the rest of the circular public square were a collection of shops, cafés, restaurants and boutiques somewhat similar to the selection found in the Third district. The ones here differed from those mainly in their price ranges, with the higher-ticket items being sold here if the prices displayed in the store windows were anything to go by.
"See anything you like?" asked the cat man beside him, having noted the interest with which Brick studied all the surrounding buildings.
"Why, you offering to buy?" replied the teenager with a sardonic smirk, causing the cat man to let out a sharp bark of laughter.
"Hah! Sure, I could use the help of my 'indentured servant' for an extra couple of wee—."
Jubei suddenly froze and his paw flew by pure instinct to his top-facing sword hilt. Brick took another step and a half before noticing this and turning around, throwing the cat a bemused look.
"Dude, what's got your fur on end like that?"
The answer to his question came when, without any warning, the barriers suddenly reactivated around the plaza. Before anyone could even process what had happened, the sound of bubbling space permeated the area. Six Soldiers, four Air Soldiers, and a trio each of Red Nocturnes, Yellow Operas, and Blue Rhapsodies suddenly spawned in from clouds of darkness all over the plaza.
The panic was immediate.
After all, the idea of Heartless may have been mundane to most of Transit City's residents, but when they were suddenly presented with the unnatural threat in flesh and in force, the common folk found themselves losing nerve and running whichever way they could for safety. The fact that the barriers had uncharacteristically activated before the populace was evacuated from the area did not help things, as now none of the trapped citizens had anywhere to run to. Chaos spread like wildfire as desperate citizens tried to avoid becoming monster food without any clue of how to actually go about doing so.
"Dammit! How the hell!?" muttered Jubei under his breath before dashing forwards and drawing one of his swords, revealing it to be a short-bladed kodachi. The swordmaster slashed through a nearby Soldier and dispersed it in one fell swoop. He turned back to Brick, who had frozen in the sudden shock of the moment, and yelled him out of his daze.
"Kid, get your ass outta here and find somewhere safe!"
This was, indeed, enough to snap Brick out of it and make him suddenly aware of the yanking sensation on his pants leg. Looking down, he saw that Bark looked just about as panicked as the rest of the people in the plaza, but hadn't moved from her master's side for fear of leaving him behind. She had chosen, instead, to press him on by pulling at the hem of his pants with her teeth. Before Brick could follow Jubei's council, however, he sensed something coming in from his right and turned around just in time to see an Air Soldier swooping down towards him with outstretched claws. He jumped backwards to avoid the attack but found himself bumping into someone behind him, causing the both of them to go crashing to the ground. He didn't even bother to take note of whom he'd run into as he looked up and locked eyes with the flying heartless still hovering overhead. Once more, he could feel the intense hunger emanating from the yellow orbs dancing behind the heartless' aviator goggles.
The Air Soldier rose higher in the air, winding up for another swoop, and Brick knew that, with no time to get to his feet and dodge, he'd soon have to suffer another strike from the noxious, crimson claws. Just as the heartless began its motion towards him, however, a yellow blur appeared before it. In the next instant, the heartless was bisected and burst into Darkness. Jubei dropped to the ground and turned to glare at Brick with his one good eye.
"Didn't you hear what I just said!? Move!"
Brick blinked as he processed what had just happened but then threw a scowl at his saviour. "Move where exactly!? The barriers are up!"
"Somewhere besides on top of me would be a good start!" came up a feminine voice from underneath him.
With the adrenaline still pumping through his veins, Brick had actually managed to forget that he'd just tumbled into someone else. He quickly got himself off the soft body beneath him and was surprised to find the same midnight-haired girl from the day before when he turned around.
"Ciel!?" he exclaimed, his expression speaking volumes of the confusion and surprise he felt as he simultaneously extended a hand to help her up. "What the heck are you doing here?"
"Coming over to ask you the exact same thing, actually," she said, gratefully taking his hand and helping herself back to her feet. She turned her attention to the werecat who was holding guard around the two, paws clenched tightly around the swords he returned to his sheath after each swing.
"Master Jubei, as odd as it is to see you escorting this vagabond, I'm happy that you're here. My teammates and I could use your aid dispatching these heartless."
Her statement caused Brick to suddenly take note of the fact that the heartless were no longer as spread out as they were when they spawned in. The remaining air and ground Soldier types were clustered towards the center of the plaza, where the spiky-haired blond and stocky brunet from yesterday were handing out a beating to anyone getting within striking range. The Red Nocturnes were nowhere in sight, having been dispatched while Brick wasn't paying attention, and the remaining magic-using heartless were being handled by the cherry blonde from Ciel's group. She was currently occupied dancing gracefully around the offensive magic that the heartless threw her way: skating, gliding, and twirling gracefully like a figure skater on the ice she created beneath her feet. She retaliated whenever she could find an opening by throwing back pink, crystalline needles. It was impressive to see how they'd sprung into action so quickly, but Brick could tell that, while the junior watchmen were handling themselves well for now, they were outnumbered and constantly had to let up the attack on one heartless and change to another target so as to keep all the monsters aggravated on them. They needed to ensure that none of the creatures decided to start attacking the largely defenceless civilians still all around, and it was clear that that was hindering their chances at finishing off most of their enemies.
Jubei scowled, noticing how the presence of civilians was stopping the academy warriors from using their stronger attacks and dispatching the heartless quickly. "Keep an eye on the brat for a second," he replied to Ciel gruffly, grabbing onto both sword handles and drawing them slightly, letting only the first few centimeters of the sparkling white blades shine out above and below the saya's two mouths.
Before Brick could protest being called a brat, the cat man had disappeared again and, for an instant, there was no sound save for Jubei's voice ringing out across the plaza.
"Mitsuyoshi no Yōshiki: Odayaka Kiki Ansatsu"
As quickly as the original Jubei had disappeared, after-images of himself manifested one after the other, appearing next to each heartless in the area in quick succession. The after-images displayed him in a variety of positions, each having just swung one of their swords through one of the enemy heartless. Before Brick could grasp a full understanding of what was going on, the last heartless was paired to its feline after-image and the real Jubei suddenly reappeared in the same spot from which he'd just departed. The cat finished sliding his swords back into their sheath and—as the twin Kii of the handguards meeting the saya's ends rang out—his doppelgangers were banished and the til-then-frozen heartless all burst into Darkness.
"Well, that was certainly convenient," stated Brick bluntly, looking around and noting how everyone was carefully checking their surroundings, assuring themselves that the threat had passed. "Why didn't you do that from the beginning?"
Still visibly tense, Jubei ignored the teen's question, his left paw refusing to move from the top-facing handle protruding from his saya. "What is the Watch doing? Why aren't the barriers lowering, and where are all these heartless coming from?" he demanded from Ciel abruptly, eye still darting around in case any more heartless showed up.
Ciel looked consternated as she answered. "I'm not sure, heartless activity has been agitated and irregular for nearly 24 hours, but nothing that should be causing this kind of issue in the system. There haven't been any reports of the blockade faltering, though."
"Uh, guys?" tried Brick, suddenly having noticed something very wrong about their surroundings.
"So then what, a Dark Lord?" continued Jubei, ignoring the teen again. "Heartless shouldn't be able to spawn like this without a conduit into the world if the blockade is holding up."
Ciel threw a quick, concerned look in Brick's direction when Jubei mentioned the possibility of a Dark Lord, but didn't let it linger. "I...I'm not sure. It sounds reasonable enough but, then again, how could they hide from our security systems? What would a Dark Lord even be doing here?"
"Seriously, guys—!" tried the teenager again, futilely.
"Well, the heartless have have to be coming from somewhe—"
"HEY!" Brick finally yelled, sick of being ignored.
Ciel and Jubei turned to the now very angry looking vagabond, somewhat shocked by the sudden outburst. Getting their attention did nothing to ease his deep scowl though; the expression remained plastered over his features even as he spoke.
"Where the hell is Bark?"
The duo paused at this momentarily, each taking time to look around, now noticing the dog's absence. However, Jubei quickly caught himself and gave an annoyed growl.
"We have more important things to deal with right now, kiddo. Your dog probably just ran off somewhere."
"Without any of us noticing!?" pressed on the boy.
"Well, between the two of us tumbling to the ground and master Jubei dispatching our attacker…" brought forth Ciel, hoping to calm him down and prevent any rash decisions.
"Look kid, the barriers haven't gone down yet. Why that is exactly, I have no idea, but one way or another it means that your dog hasn't gotten out of this Plaza," continued Jubei. "She couldn't have run off very far, so keep your cool and she's bound to show up again sooner or later.
"For now, though," he turned his attention back towards the junior watchwoman, "mind giving me some information as to why exactly these barriers haven't gone down yet?"
"I'll try to find something out," replied Ciel with a worried look, placing her hand on her communicator and attempting to patch through to central command for an update.
Brick, on his end, hadn't been completely reassured by their statements; however, he did hear the logic in them, especially Jubei's point. He was anxious about Bark's safety, but he also agreed that it wasn't like she could have really gone anywhere. One way or another, though, it was pretty clear that neither of these two had any intention of helping him find her. Leaving the girl and cat to discuss public safety by themselves, Brick began wandering about in search of Bark.
With a deep sigh, Ciel removed her hand from her communicator, lowering the feed volume so she could report to the swordmaster beside her. "The comms are still up but…" she glanced around to ensure no civilians were close enough to overhear her before continuing, "City Watch doesn't know what's triggering the barriers anymore. Hell, they seem to be running around like headless chickens just trying to figure out how it is that they didn't detect this last intrusion until after it happened."
"Hmm, this can't be good," replied Jubei, glancing out of the corner of his eye to make sure he hadn't broken line-of-sight with the vagabond youth yet.
Noticing the stare, Ciel decided to voice her worries to the cat. "Master Jubei…" she started, not entirely sure how to broach her suspicions. "I…Why exactly were you with that boy today?"
Jubei gave her an unreadable stare for a few moments and then turned his attention back to following the vagabond through the crowds. "He's paying off a debt to me," he answered flatly.
"But Master Jubei!" she continued, put off by his sudden aloofness. "Certainly you—"
"He's been working off his debt all day long," reported the cat flatly again.This time Ciel took the hint.
"Which means that Master Jubei has been keeping an eye on him all day," realized Ciel. "He already knows something is off about that boy... But, if he's not to blame for what is going on, then who is?"
After a few seconds of consideration she opened her mouth to ask another question. "Mas-"
"I don't teach anymore," cut-in Jubei abruptly, "you really should stop calling me that."
Ciel smiled at his correction with a hint of nostalgia before continuing. "Master Jubei… is he dangerous?"
The cat paused and seemed to consider the question before answering. "Probably."
While she did her best to not let it show in her expression, Ciel was gripped by a sudden pang of guilt upon hearing this. She should have known better. She should have followed her gut and kept a closer eye on the vagabond. She'd been sloppy and now it was one of the best swordsmen in academy history cleaning up her—
"Probably more so to himself than anyone else though," added Jubei after a moment's consideration.
This time, Ciel did let the confusion show on her face. She opened her mouth to vocalize it, but it seemed as if Jubei sensed her thoughts without having to look at her.
"The boy came to me with heartless claw marks all over his arms and stomach yesterday. He fought and beat a Soldier bare handed. More than one after that by using… something else."
"'Something'?" inquired the midnight haired girl.
"I don't know what exactly. He's been hiding it, rather obviously at that."
"And whatever this 'something' is could hurt him?"
"Well…if it makes him stupid enough to try and take on heartless barehanded…"
Ciel mulled over this information, finding herself tracking the vagabond as well. After a moment of silence, Jubei spoke up again.
"He isn't a bad kid. He tries to lie, but he's too honest to pull it off. He doesn't seem to trust anyone that talks, but stupidly goes out of his way to help a dog he just met."
"So…you're saying he has nothing to do with all this? That he's somehow just some unrelated kid with his own share of secrets?" Ciel couldn't explain how hopeful she felt asking this, but one way or another, made sure to keep the professionalism in her voice and expression.
"What I'm saying," replied Jubei with a sigh, "is that he's not the Dark Lord you're looking for. He's too terrible a liar to hide that kind of inner Darkness, at least from me."
"...But?" asked Ciel, giving voice to the unspoken sentiment.
"But…I'd bet one of my tails that that idiot is related to all this, whether he knows it or not."
Of course, the young woman agreed entirely. She couldn't shake the feeling that this 'Brick' fellow was important to all that was going on somehow. Rather than voice these thoughts, though, she instead decided to inquire as to Jubei's reasoning.
"What makes you say so, Master Jubei?"
Again the old cat seemed to mull over his thoughts silently before offering a response. "He reminds me too much of someone I used to know."
"Bark? Baaark!" yelled out the teenager, making his way through the plaza, bending over to look between the legs of the gathered shoppers trapped in the square with him. After five minutes of seeing neither fur nor tail of the first friend he'd made in this city, Brick's previous anxiety was mounting again. There was no way that she'd gotten nabbed by a heartless in the confusion; it would have been impossible to miss.
But then, where was she, and why wasn't she responding to the sound of his voice?
"Well, if it ain't Mister Hobo," came an especially grating voice. Brick turned around to see the two blonds from Ciel's group approach him. He remembered the annoying boy's name—Zio, but couldn't place the girl. He could only recall the creepy smile she gave him yesterday…and gave him again now when their eyes met. Shrugging off a shudder, he turned his attention to the one who'd spoken to him.
"What do you want, Thunderbolt Hair? I'm kind of busy to waste time on you right now."
"Oh ho ho, just as mannerless as always, huh?" replied Zio with a toothy smirk. "We're only over here because you've been shouting up a storm."
"You lose something?" asked the girl beside him with her unsettling smile.
"Like a bet? Or maybe your mind?" added Zio mockingly. "Why are you going around yelling 'Bark' like a lunatic?"
Brick was tempted to rise to the provocation but only gave a hard glare and turned away. "Like I said, I don't have time to waste on you."
The teen only had time to take a couple of steps before feeling a hand grip his shoulder tightly.
"You know, brat, we can only chalk your disrespect up to you being new around here so many times," came Zio's voice as a low, threatening rumble behind Brick. "Learn to bow your head around your superiors, before someone else forces it down for you."
The girl next to Zio gave a small giggle at his choice of words, but Brick paid her little attention. This jackass had been rubbing him the wrong way from the moment they met and, judging from how he was openly antagonizing him right now, the blond clearly felt the same way about him. He wanted to just go look for his dog already, but if Spiky was going to be an obstacle in that then he'd just have to tear the obstacle down. He turned around and shot a hard glare to meet the taller boy's mocking smirk.
"So this is what makes your 'Watch' so special, huh? You guys talk a big game about protecting the city, but really you're just thugs throwing around your weight and authority to feel strong." For all the venom Brick had put in his words, Zio's smirk was unaffected.
"Oh, but we ARE protecting the city, brat. You just don't happen to be a part of it. You're just some unregistered hobo taking up space. Honestly, you showing up here right around when the barriers start going nuts is pretty damn suspicious, if you ask me." The golden haired boy flicked out his right wrist and, from the citrine ring on his middle finger, materialized one of his tonfa.
Brick spared a glance to take note of the weapon that had appeared in his adversary's hand but quickly brought his glare back up to lock with Zio's stare. He felt a smirk of his own tugging at the corner of his lips when he replied. "So what, you're going to throw me in jail now?"
The spiky haired teen's grin became outright predatory "Nah, just going to make you learn to bow."
Before Brick could react, he felt the reinforced end of the Tonfa smash into his gut as Zio delivered a quick, powerful thrust. Even if he hadn't been agile enough to block, dodge, or even really perceive the strike coming, Brick had still expected blows to start flying as soon as he'd seen the weapon appear. As such, he had already braced himself for a strike by tightening up the muscles in his body. What he hadn't been anticipating, however, was the accompanying electric shock that the weapon discharged upon contact.
Pain raced through his nervous system at the speed of lightning, radiating out from the point of impact. An agonized yell was forced from Brick's throat through his grit teeth. He clutched his midsection reflexively and sank to his knees when his muscles stopped seizing up all over.
"There. That wasn't so hard, was it?" laughed Zio, casually standing over his downed opponent.
Blinking the spots out of his eyes, Brick now realized that he'd been nearly doubled over clutching his abdomen. In this position, his head was currently bowed down in front of Zio.
As soon as the realization was processed in his mind, Brick's head snapped up and he shot Zio his most hate-filled glare. "You bastard!" he spat out while working himself back up to one foot, the numbness of the "small" shock already wearing off.
"Oh ho ho! Need another lesson, do ya?" laughed Zio, summoning his second tonfa and getting in a combat-ready stance. "Come get some, punk,"
By this point, a circle had formed around the two—the restless residents being attracted to the sight of a junior watchman apparently getting into a fight with some random boy. The girl who'd approached with Zio had now decided to move back to the ring of spectators. Evidently, she did not intend to do anything about the mounting situation besides watch and keep smiling creepily. That was fine. As long as she didn't back up Zio or try and stop the fight, then Brick was perfectly happy with the situation. It was time for him to knock Spiky down a peg or three.
Use me.
A malicious grin painted itself across Brick's features as his right hand twitched, palm burning with a power that was dying to be brought forth.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice," he whispered.
"Huh? What are you muttering about over there, freak?" asked Zio, not having caught Brick's last statement. "You about ready to beg me for forgiveness?"
Rather than answer, Brick stood up straight and placed his right palm open on his breast, closing his eyes. He felt out for the presence calling to him: his sword. He felt it in his chest, hot and excited, waiting to come out and serve him like it had the previous night. He pulled his mind back to last night, to that one fearful, powerful moment when the blade had materialized in his defense. He tried to remember the sensation, how it had felt leaving his chest and traveling up his arm, how the power had surged forth effortlessly from his hand and twisted itself to form his beautiful, black sword. It took only a moment before he could picture it perfectly. He had it now.
Brick opened his eyes again and smirked at the now confused-looking Zio. He threw out his right hand and called out to his sword. "Heartbrea-!"
wwwwWWWWWOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!
The power gathering up his arm fizzled out as his concentration was broken by the sudden wailing of alarm sirens. He looked up and around for the source of the noise before noticing that Zio wasn't even paying attention to him anymore. The junior watchman was looking towards the barriers with an expression halfway between panic and disbelief. From her spectator's spot, the blonde girl had finally stopped smiling.
Ciel had wanted to question the old swordscat on his exact meaning regarding whom it was that Jubei was reminded of when looking at Brick. Unfortunately for her inquiries, the common residents had been growing tired of being trapped in a shopping square in which no shopping could be done, all by their own city's defence mechanisms no less. Junior member or not, her fourth-year uniform had singled her out as someone towards whom could be directed questions and/or blame when no other target was available. Resultantly, she'd been quickly swept up in maintaining public relations with the citizenry and alleviating their worries as best as she could. Jubei, ever the social butterfly, had slinked off stealthily at some point to avoid dealing with the quickly forming crowd.
As was her unfortunate good habit to do so, the young woman became completely engrossed in her work as soon as she had a task set in front of her. As such, she hadn't noticed any of the interaction between her two subordinates and the vagabond she'd kept an eye on up until that point.
She was repeating for the seventeenth time that the watch was "experiencing unforeseen technical difficulties with the city protection grid" and that "all available professionals are working on getting everything resolved" when the sirens went off.
Like her teammates and anyone who knew what the sound meant, Ciel was initially seized by disbelief. However, while most were still trying to process the reality of what was about to come, Ciel's training brought her sharply to attention and her hand flew to the communicator still wrapped around her right ear, turning the dial away from 'general broadcast' to 'squad-talk'.
"Everyone, on me! We have a Boss incoming!" She warned with no small degree of urgency in her voice.
For all of her prompt reaction time, it made little difference to what transpired afterwards. No one in her team had been given enough time to even respond to her orders before a bolt of Darkness came down from the clear blue sky. The dark energy struck the center of the plaza, causing a an explosion of dust, Darkness and cobblestone debris.
Even before the smoke cleared, Ciel witnessed something that made her heart sink. Four, five…no less than seven hearts were currently floating upwards out of the dust cloud, victims caught in the dark attack before anyone could react. However, she had precious little time to grieve her failures; the mass of darkness that had just invaded the plaza was rising from where it had landed, growing fat on the fear and despair of the mob that had once more been consumed by panic.
Gradually, the Darkness took shape, adopting a rough humanoid form at first. As the shape became more recognizable, the hearts that had recently been freed ceased their gentle ascent to Kingdom Hearts. They began shaking violently for a short while, as if they were attempting to fight off a power that drew them back towards the ground. However, the struggle was soon over and the hearts were suddenly sucked back toward the forming mass. The humanoid head of the black creature cracked open, as if it were a snake unhinging its jaws, and the freed hearts were absorbed into a dark vortex.
In just the few moments it took to complete this action, the figure had already taken most of its shape, or rather, shapes. The beast was divided into seven distinct pieces that formed the greater whole. It stood as a three-story-tall parody of a royal knight, longsword in one hand and kite shield in the other. Its limbs and head were disjoined from the abdomen and each limb was completely covered in elegant plate Armour. As the heartless Boss absorbed the final heart, its unhinged jaw snapped closed and plate Armour formed around the head as well.
With the last of the creature's segments fully formed, the pure blackness faded away from its features. On the arm and leg Armour, the inky blackness was replaced with a regal purple, streaked in silvery gray. The helmet was somewhat similar to those variants sported by heartless Soldiers. However, it didn't jut outwards quite as far, nor did it split open in the middle to show the black, heartless "face" underneath. The visor of its helmet was closed, showing only bright yellow behind the thin, angry eye-slits. The spiral usually sported at the top of a Soldier's helmet was also replaced by a row of centurion-esque spikes lining the helm. Floating behind the heartless, pinned to an invisible set of shoulders, was a smoothly billowing, velvet cape animated by an undetectable breeze.
Doubtlessly, however, the most prominent aspect of the heartless was its centerpiece. A large chestpiece hung in the middle of the limbs, spinning on itself slowly. It was shaped like an elongated, stylized heart, giving the heartless a somewhat feminine appearance when matched with the other long, slender limbs. One side of the chestpiece was covered in plate mail matching that which adorned the Boss' limbs. Save, of course, for the fact that the silvery-gray lining was replaced with the heartless symbol, branded in black on the front of the chest.
More interesting, however, was the opposite side of the chest piece.
Whereas the front was fully Armoured, the backside (which was regularly exposed through the abdomen's revolutions) was bare and revealed to be composed of a reddish-mauve crystalline substance. Ciel could make out some figures moving about within the chest and could yet more clearly see the floating lights of the seven hearts that the beast had just consumed. She recognized the monster from description alone and knowledge of the heartless' type filled her with some hope.
The hearts themselves were beyond saving now; they could only be returned to Kingdom Hearts from this point on. However, if the monster was holding some live captives in that chest piece, then she still had time to save them.
She brought her hand to her communicator again, standing determined in the face of what was, without a doubt, the most powerful heartless she'd ever fought. "It's a Royal Armour! We'll need to coordinate to bring it down quickly!"
"I read you," came Cendre's voice over the comm. "I have visual contact with you, I'm just west of your position. Heading to you now."
Ciel looked to her right and did indeed see him running across the cobblestone as quickly as the crowds would permit, which was followed by Rin's own "roger" coming through the radiochat. She noticed the absence of the third voice, though, and pressed on her earpiece again.
"Zio, report in," she commanded crisply, keeping the worry that he may already be injured out of her voice.
What came back over the comm was a simultaneously greatly relieving and maddeningly frustrating annoyed gruf. "Rgh! Just get over here and give me some cover!"
Before the squad commander could offer a rebuttal, she caught a distant flash of yellow and turned her head back towards the heartless Boss. She did so just in time to see the golden-haired warrior jump in the air and aim a lightning-charged strike directly at the enemy's chestpiece, aiming to hit the crystalline side while it was exposed. Unfortunately, said strike was blocked by the Boss' kite shield with little difficulty. To the boy's credit, however, he seemed to have thought farther ahead than his first attack.
After being initially repelled by the shield, Zio flipped in mid-air and gathered his energy in both weapons before calling out the name of his next technique.
"Lightning Barrage!"
Magic keeping him aloft, he began firing a barrage of lightning bolts from the tip of his tonfa as the thrust them forward in a series of machine-gun punches. This successfully resulted in Zio pinning the boss in a defensive stance for the duration of the attack.
Ciel frowned; reprimand for his actions would have to wait. Zio had given them an opening and now they needed to act.
Ciel switched her comm to continuous broadcast and brandished her twin sabres, starting to run towards his position. "Alright team, on Zio! He can't keep this up forever and we need to get over there—"
Suddenly, space bubbled and tore all around her and she found both Cendre and herself surrounded by a dozen Armoured Knight heartless. She skidded to a halt and swiftly crossed her swords in front of her defensively as the Knight standing directly before her rushed forward. It thrust it his own blade forward sharply, intent on skewering her. The Watchomwan caught the heartless' double-edged blade in between her own twin sabers and twisted it to the side, twisting her body own to the left in the same flowing motion to avoid the blow.
This allowed her to trap the heartless' weapon and avoid being run-through in the process. She then slid her left-hand blade forward, along the underside of the heartless' broadsword, and suddenly twisted it upward as it came past the handguard to slice the heartless' sword hand clean off. The monster reeled back and produced the closest equivalent to a scream of pain it could manage, but it was short-lived. As soon as the hand came off, Ciel pointed her right blade forward and thrust it cleanly between the heartless' eyes.
In spite of the girl's superior skill, however, numbers were not on her side. Even as she quickly dispatched the first enemy to lunge at her, a second to her left flank had jumped forward and was about bring its sword down on her in a large, vertical slash. Simultaneously, one to her right had closed in and was rearing up for a thrust like the first. Ciel was aware of both attacks as soon as she was done with her last strike on the first enemy, but knew she wouldn't have the speed to dodge or block them simultaneously. Her brain was frantically trying to choose which attack would be most lethal in the few miliseconds she had left to make a decision when a blur passed her by.The circle of heartless was itself circled by a yellow flash and, in the next instant, they all dissipated. Ciel blinked once and Jubei suddenly appeared in front of her. She opened her mouth to thank him but was immediately cut off.
"There's no time! That Boss is summoning a bunch of smaller heartless and I'm the only one fast and precise enough to take them all out before they start attacking the civilians! You and your team, keep that Armour busy until reinforcements arrive!"
With his message delivered, Jubei once more dashed off faster than the eye could track, chasing after each newly spawned heartless. Quickly processing his orders, Ciel turned to check on Cendre's condition. He had a glowing gash running across his right bicep, earned from taking on the half-dozen heartless that had spawned behind them before Jubei showed up. However, a stony glare from him silently conveyed that he was still fit for combat, and as such, she wasted no more time getting back en-route to the royal Armour. Zio's lightning barrage was winding down already and the heartless ambush had cost them precious few seconds in coming to their teammate's aid.
Thankfully, the civilians had all gathered near the edge of the plaza, huddling up against the barriers (which, of course, would not activate their magical counter-offensive against anything not composed of Darkness). They were still exposed to whatever attacks would be directed toward them, but at least now they weren't directly in the way and the Watchmen could more properly focus on the Boss.
Zio's technique finally ended and the magic that allowed him to defy gravity ran out, pulling him back down to the earth. The Royal Armour wasn't about to let the attack go unanswered, however. Now that its turn to attack had come, it lowered its shield and thrust forth with its gigantic blade in a single, fluid motion. Were it not for a red streak that flew through the air and collided with Zio, knocking him off course, the boy would doubtlessly have been bisected—split cleanly in half by the giant sword currently sliding gracefully and precisely through the space he had just occupied.
Ciel followed the streak with her eyes and was astonished to see the figure land only a couple meters in front of her, revealing itself to be Brick. The teen had Zio slung over his left shoulder and a greatsword of some sort in his right hand. Behind them, the Armour was turning its attention toward the duo, curious as to who or what robbed it of another kill. However, a pair of pink and white glyphs appeared beneath it, and suddenly both of its legs were encased in rose-colored ice. This, of course, didn't actually seal the monster's movements, as the other pieces were free to hover on their own. Hovering, however, was a far slower method of movement for it, and thus the attack managed to successfully steal the the great heartless' attention—causing its remaining pieces to try and catch the cherry blonde mage currently skating around the plaza and further antagonizing the Armour by peppering it with streams of sharpened ice shards.
Brick tossed Zio to the ground, prompting a groan from the recently rescued teen as he fell hard on his rear. "Agh, geez! Be rougher, why don'tcha? I think you left a few ribs uncracked when you tackled me."
Brick ignored the ingrate's protest, but did make a mental note to file away the look Zio had on his face when the blond realized whom exactly had just rescued him; he'd need the laugh once this was all done. However, for now, he looked at Ciel with a dark and stormy expression.
"Stay out of my way."
Without saying any more, he turned back and started running toward the large heartless, eyes locked on the floating centerpiece.
Ciel really had no idea what exactly was going on anymore but, for the moment, her teammate had been delivered to her injured and that would have to take priority over everything. Kneeling next to Zio, Ciel dispelled her blades and held out her hands toward him, concentrating as she gathered magic for a Cure spell in her palms. As she did so, she turned her head to watch Brick run off. A small, anxious crease formed in the middle of her brow as the only indication of the worry she felt, now that she had gotten a better look at the strange new sword the vagabond had chained to his wrist.
"Mitsuyoshi no Yōshiki: Odayaka Kiki Ansatsu" – One-Eyed Lotus Style: Gentle-Handed Assassination
