Lord K
A.N./ A big chunk of this (mainly Kudzu's story) is actually adapted out a snippet I originally had floating around. Initially it was supposed to be a discussion between the pilots on how, even if Ai is an amazing pilot and a decent commander, she's actually some what of an annoying wingman to keep up with. One of the original themes was also supposed to be on how, even if they didn't know what was going on, her human friends and fellow pilots were not completely blind to the fact that there was some odd shit going on with Ai's flying abilities.
With the advent of the Tengu Maneuver though, it gets to be re-purposed.
In one minor note that I'll admit irks my sensibilities or realism, but I'm not sure if anybody else has picked up on, Mozu 3 is supposed to be a four man flight, just like the rest of the Abyss Diver's flights. The other two guys just never appear because I can't figure out how to make them work or bring something unique to the table, that isn't already covered by the other five named Abyss Divers at this point, or superfluously bloats the cast with characters who aren't really needed. I just like to pretend they aren't as close with Umiu Flight as Gyaru and Kero are
Questions and Answers
"I can't believe it. I can't fucking believe it."
Watching Kero pace back and forth across the otherwise empty rec-room of the 13th/7th Strike Fighter Squadron, "it's lucky", Boke vocally reflects as he watches the pilot of Mozu Flight mutter and burn off his energy, "that everyone else is currently either in the air or on leave."
Bemusedly tracking the path of the only other non-member of Umiu Flight from the couch and quietly flicking the case of her turned off phone open and closed, Gyaru gives a joking smile and a shake of her head. "Man, and there I thought the only thing up with Tengu was that she needed to get laid."
Boke gives an unamused snort at the Okinawan's sense of humor, while from in front of the TV, Taikomachi finally gives up on scrolling past the same set of recommended TV shows for the fourth time, and spins in around annoyance to face the pacing pilot who is normally the other fellow funny man of the group. "Hey, maybe if you say "Dattebayo" a few times, you might not just believe it, but you'll then be able to pull off your own shonen level bullshit as well."
Looking back at his fellow pilot, Kero snorts. "Oh, I can fucking believe it all right. Even without the gun-cam and targeting footage, or seeing with my own eyes, the fact that Tengu snapped almost every single horizontal spar in her wings, yet still managed to make it back to the base, I'd believe this story of a wild ride with Mr Bones up in the mountains. What I can't believe, is the fact that I was right!"
"Oh boy, not this shit again," mutters Boke, earning an honestly baffled look from the Mozu pilot in return.
"How the hell can you say that now?!" Triumphantly, he then gestures out the window, in the vague direction of the hangers, and a certain pilot's aircraft that is now center-piece to a revived mystery and old topic of discussion in the squadron. "I've been saying for months now, there is something up with Tengu's piloting, that isn't just beyond the range of being exceptionally skilled. It's not
normal. It's not logically
possible to be that good,
every. Single.
Time."
Giving a grimace, Gyaru can't help but look like she feels like agreeing. "As much as I hate to admit I was wrong, I think Kero might have been right."
"Might have?" asks Taikomachi in exasperation as he finally tosses aside the controller. 'Gyaru, I was
there, and I can tell you right now, that wasn't just MSSB level shit. That
blew MSSB right out of the water."
"Well," offers Boke gruffly. "Maybe she's just some sort of exceptionally gifted shipgirl or something? Maybe we're looking at the first ever
planegirl, and never realized this entire time?"
Kero however, swiftly shoots that idea down faster than a Corsair on a Zero. "Shipgirls operate on a compressed set of logic and physics that actually make sense, and are technically already somewhat understood when placed within the contexts of naval warfare and ships. If the airship-girls the British and Americans have been using were to be taken as a close approximation for what could be expected from any theoretical planegirl, then the basic rules and limitations of flight that would effect their original forms, should also apply to them as well to some manner or degree."
Taikomachi grimaces, thinking back to what he witnessed. "Which is something that Tengu can apparently ignore at will, judging by what we saw."
"Not quite at will," corrects Boke thoughtfully. "She did put her plane through so many Gs, she basically flexed and sheared most of the internals apart, and barely mad it back to base."
"Which probably explains how she survived that time she got tagged by a 16-inch sanshikidan, and still managed to crawl home despite missing a wing, an engine, most of her nose cone, and a tail." adds Gyaru quietly.
"I think it explains a lot more than that," crows Kero. "Remember all the
other shit I brought up the last time we discussed this? All the stuff that
you guys said was just me being
envious?"
Collectively, the other three shift guiltily in their seats, before Gyaru finally speaks. "Well.... it was kind of nice just to think we had somebody who was
that good watching our backs."
"Yeah," says Taikomachi. "Like that time she nailed that Abyssal Ohka with a single cannon burst when it tried to turn around and suicide into the nuggets from Misago Flight."
"Or that incident where she flew low enough to the water in full afterburner, that her back-blast detonated that torpedo before it could hit that freighter," adds Boke.
"Yeah, she got in a hell of a lot of trouble with the brass for that one, just barely escaping the blast and then narrowly missing that wave at the end like she did," reminisces Gyaru. "Although I still don't think that was anywhere near the almost heart attack Ugeki had, after that time Busu took all that damage after his ballsed up run where all his screens and his instrument panels got shredded by shrapnel, and then Tengu followed him into a perfectly mirrored spiraling dive to act as a reference point and guide him out of it."
"She has a thing for dives and acrobatics," notes Taikomachi as he looks back at Kero. "Weren't you saying something about trying to replicate one of her maneuvers in a sim the last time you brought this up."
The pilot of Mouzu 3-3 nods. "Remember when we had the Iruma Airshow last year? And there were the guys we were supposed to have the faux WVR dogfight with?" Upon seeing the other three nod, Kero grimaces. "I didn't want to sound like I was siding with an asshole, because those guys in the F-2s were kind of annoying, cocky, fuckers, but what started me looking into it was that one of the guys Tengu got paired off with, was initially complaining that he got paired up with a drone. That's when I looked up the dogfight again, tried replicate it in the sim, and discovered that she was regularly pulling 11-Gs in some of her maneuvers."
"So?" asks Gyaru with a shrug. "Even if you didn't say it was
that much last time, it's not entirely unheard of with particularly sharp movements and high speed pullouts."
"Those are spikes during that usually last barely a second at most during those events, before then returning to a more moderate level as we either pull out or change course, otherwise logic and training force us to release the pressure," counters Kero. "But there was one case where she "slipped up", if you could call it that. After a particularly "tasteless" and uncalled for remark about some of the girls in the squadron, she then took the dogfight into a sustained circling turn that lasted well over twenty seconds, and eventually psyched the other guy out because an interceptor-derived strike fighter was winning in a turning fight against his F-2. Whenever I try it in the sim under the same conditions and altitude, the computer tells me I've passed out from trying to sustain it for so long, and lawn-darted before I can wake up."
"Maybe she just has a high tolerance?" suggests Boke.
"Yeah," agrees Taikomachi sarcastically. "To go along with her uncanny aim, unbelievable understanding of how her plane is flying at any given moment, her baffling ability to pretty much never get hit by anything unless she's off guard, a sense of energy balancing and perception of movement that would make Giora Epstein look like a drunk, and now apparently the ability to casually ignore physics and mechanical issues like which way the directions of thrust and momentum are actually fucking pointing."
Uncertainly, Gyaru bites her lip as one of Taikomachi's observations brings something to mind. "Now that I think back, I did think it was odd that she would just lose the fight after getting jumped by one of the other Opfor pilots from above like that. Tengu has eyes like a fucking hawk, and I'd swear I've seen her react to, and command everyone to dodge flak coming up from below, before it's actually reached us on a few occasions."
"And now we have tonight's little maneuver around the skeleton." mutters Boke. "Which is of course a whole kettle of fish by itself, but seeing as it's
hopefully dead, that leaves us with the immediate question at hand.
Who or
what the hell exactly is Tengu, if she
isn't some sort of planegirl?"
"Maybe she has Kanmusu blood in her?" suggests Gyaru.
"That runs into the same issues of "defying the rules" as if she were a straight up kanmusu or planegirl though," points out Taikomachi. "Not to sound like a nutcase or conspiracy theorist, but maybe it's a JASDF thing? It's no secret that they've been wanting to be in on the whole magic business ever since the war started, and to do something more glamorous than blasting hilariously outclassed abyssal aircraft out of the sky between stints of being the JASDF and JMSDF's bomb-trucks. She's an orphan, has that one aunt
nobody apparently ever sees anymore, and is the coolest fucking cucumber, no matter what we fly into the throats of. Tell me that doesn't sound like some sort of set up for some sort of government super-soldier-cum-pilot."
"Sounds more like the set up for some sort of anime if you ask me," grunts Boke.
"Regards of what it sounds like, or what's going on with Tengu," interrupts the Mozu pilot before the potentially side track worthy argument can start, "I think I do know one thing about this whole mystery."
"What's that?"
"I think Kudzu knows," says Kero carefully. "Or at the very least, he suspects or has a better idea of what's going on than me."
Gyaru frowns. "Wait, really?"
"Think back for a moment. Every time we've discussed how batshit Tengu's skills are in the past, even just normally." Raising his hand, Kero then begins counting fingers to highlight his examples. "Who is always non-committal about what he thinks of her latest insane stunts beyond the usual friendly checks that she's okay and the congrats on the results. Kudzu? Who is the only person who puts up with her occasional hypocrisy of always telling us to stick together, when she keeps on splitting off for wild maneuvers nobody can keep up with, if they were even physically possible in the first place? Kudzu. Who was the most vocal person in shutting down all my points the last time we seriously pondered about what the hell was actually up with Tengu? Kudzu. Who is the only person who never seems concerned that his wingman occasionally just drops off the face of the fucking earth for hours at a time, when she is supposedly on base? Kudzu."
Kero glowers, having built up steam over the course of his emphatic delivery. "I'm not even sure
Tengu realizes he knows something, but after the shitstorm of tonight, he really needs to fucking tell us what the hell he knows or suspects!"
"Who knows or suspects what now?"
Turning around at the familiar voice, the four pilots discover the wingman in question and opposite number to the still absent topic of the night's discussion now standing in the doorway, a cup of coffee in hand. For a moment, an awkward silence seems to pass, as the focus of their current debate almost seems to loom in the doorway thanks to his height, before finally entering and closing it behind him. Communicating with a look how much he does not want questions, Kudzu quietly takes a seat at the table.
Unfortunately, the silence does not last long.
"So. What the hell is going on?"
Kudzu chooses to ignore Kero as her takes a seat opposite him at the table, instead looking to Gyaru as she also takes a seat beside him.
"Where's Tengu?"
"She's with the Colonel still." Waving a hand vaguely, the pilot of Umiu 2-2 then takes a sip of his drink. "Something about a special debrief, though I think the gist of it will probably be delayed until the morning."
"Which is when we'll get filled in too right," asks Taikomachi as he wanders over. "Yeah, OpSec and all that I get, but there comes a time in a man's life when, if he finds himself fighting giant skeletons and watching anime-tier bullshit, he understandably feels entitled to some answers, yeah?'
"I wouldn't bet on it," mutters Kudzu. "For all I know, they might not tell anyone anything. For all we know, keeping this quiet and not talking about it might be for the best."
A stunned silence fills the room, before finally Boke marches over to the table in disbelief. "Now what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"The careful opinion of an observer." responds Kudzu calmly. "Someone who leaves the decision of how we're even going to talk about this to others."
"This isn't the time to be cryptic asshole!" counters Taikomachi as he now joins them at the table as well. "First Tengu does her bullshit that is at least just an extension of the slow list of "beneficially awesome weirdness" she's built up over time, but the last thing we need is you acting like a cagey fucker hiding shit from us we deserve to know."
"You know something!" points out Kero. "You, Gyaru and Tengu were the unit nuggets long before we even turned up, and the three of you even graduated from the same training groups together. Even if you didn't know something, you at least suspect it! So what the fuck is going on, because if you expect me to believe that that shit with the skeleton and the motherfucking dragon Tengu somehow knew to wait for, is in anyway related to the abyssals, I'll eat my damn hat."
Frowning, Gyaru looks at the taller pilot carefully, for a long, uncertain moment. "Kudzu.... Are you.... Scared?"
"Yes." The honest admission between sips of coffee throws the other four for a loop.
"Wait, because of the skeleton thing?" asks Boke uncertainly. "Or Tengu."
"Both." Comes the carefully measured reply. "And the dragon too. But not for the reasons you guys might think."
Gyaru frowns. "Well, sure she kept this shit secret from us, and just off the top of my head, I can think of a ton of cases when it would have been useful for her to do something like that, but I'm sure she had her reasons or something."
"Oh, I don't doubt she had her reasons," mutters Kudzu darkly. "And if you guys want to do what's best for not just her, but all of us here, you'll be careful to who, and where, if ever, you talk about the shit that happened today."
For the second time, the room is silenced by such an uncharacteristically ominous sentence, before finally the questions erupt.
"Cut it with the with the vague bullshit already asshole!" demands Taikomachi
"Fucking hell Kudzu!" Cries Kero "There are monsters out there. Actual ones we might not know nothing about if these really aren't abyssals."
"There are some things people like us are better off
not knowing." the lanky pilot heatedly mutters into his quickly emptying cup.
Kero gnashes his teeth furiously. "Do you really expect me to believe that there are things out there that we are just supposed to accept as inexplicable?"
"Yes!" the increasingly riled up Kudzu insists.
"That is horse shit!" observes Kero with equal vehemence.
"There's a reason for it!'
"Then enlighten me!" demands the shorter pilot as he slams his palms of the table. On either side of the two, all Gyaru, Taikomachi, and Boke can do is watch the flow of the increasingly heated argument with worry. "What the fuck makes you so scared of informing us all?! The hell is out there that can threaten Tengu when she can pull of that shit!? What else is under our noses, that you seem to think makes living in willful ignorance of dragons and skeleton monsters the better option!?!"
For a moment, Kudzu stares at Kero. Even as he remains unmoved from his position, an almost helpless anger seems to radiate from him, that leaves the pilot somehow unable to look any of the others in the eye. Finally however, he bares his teeth in a snarl, and slams his empty cup down on the table.
"Fine! You
really want to know what I know? Fuck it. I'll tell you. Maybe you'll understand why I suggest being cautious then, You'll want to strap yourselves in though, it's because one
shitshow of a tale."
Uncertainly looking at each other, the other four settle into their seats, while Kudzu tents his hands and seems to become lost in thought for a moment. The moment begins to stretch on however, and after almost a minute, the still simmering Kero finally speaks up.
"Well? We're waiting?"
"Shut up, I'm thinking!"
The harshness of the bitten out remark takes even Kero off guard considering the normally calm and rarely raised voice of the pilot. An awkward, uncertain silence elapses, before Kudzu finally takes a deep, steadying breath and at last starts speaking.
"Before Blood Week, I grew up in a small, podunk village in the middle of nowhere. So podunk that every morning to get to school, I had to get on the train with my little sister to the town fifteen minutes ride to the south where her school was, get off there, then catch another train for another fifteen minutes to get to the slightly bigger town where my High School was."
Pausing for a moment, Kudzu then sighs.
"And every day, there was a guy from our village who would take the same train as us, get on the same second train as me, but then get off at an earlier stop where he worked with bunch of friends of his in a logging company. I think there were a few other people from our home town that had similar commutes along the line like that, but Mr Akayama always stuck out for two reasons. The first, was that my little sister was scared of the man. Absolutely terrified. The second reason which ties into that, is that the poor guy was ugly as sin."
Observing the pilot as he tells his tale from the seat beside him, Gyaru raises an eyebrow. "What, like how bad are we talking here? Did he just look weird? Asymmetric features and deformities? Accident with a wood chipper? Faceless fat guy from a hent-"
Thankfully Kudzu chooses to interrupt her. "I'm talking "hit every single branch when he fell out of the ugly tree, then climbed up and did it again for added effect". Bad teeth, permanent glare as a resting expression, and a face that looked like it once got into a bar fight with a brick wall and won, then decided to beat up the wall's friends as well. The part that always used to freak my sister though was his skin tone. Even though he was always sober, he constantly had this crazy, permanent flush like he'd been drinking. My sister used to think he was angry all the time, and that one day he'd get so mad that all the blood would just explode out of his face while we were riding the train with him."
Ruefully, Kudzu gives an embarrassed shrug. "In reality, he was by all accounts a pretty nice guy according to all the neighbors that lived near him on the edge of town. I'd be lying through my teeth though, if I didn't say that whole family looked like Sylvester Stalone's evil bodybuilding clones on a group steroid binge."
Taikomachi snorts and has to restrain himself from laughing at the mental image. Kudzu's face however, turns somber.
"The day Blood Week started, they cancelled classes and told all the students to batten down at the high school since it was somewhat inland, and in defilade thanks to a hill between it and the sea. My sister's school however, was right next to the coast and only hidden from view by a low sea wall, so since most of the kids lived close by, they just told everyone to head for the hills. She wanted to go home though, and before the phone lines overloaded, she pleaded with me to come pick her up. So like the heroic big brother I thought I was, I ducked out and headed for the train station."
For a moment, the lanky pilot of Umiu 2-2 trails off, staring contemplatively at something he can only see in his memories. "I don't think I actually saw Mr Akayama on that first train with me. There were a lot of people trying to head back up the line to their home towns and families, but he must have been in the crowd, because he was definitely on the next train with us, even if we didn't know it at the time."
Stopping again, this time Kudzu closes his eyes and gives a shudder of remembered horror. "We must have only been about a minute from our stop, when the Abyssals went from being something on the radio news bulletins and the emergency broadcasts sirens to reality. The first sign that Blood Week had come to our town was when a pack of, what in hindsight I reckon were probably just destroyers, shelled apart the track directly in front of the train."
Across the table, Gyaru cringes and looks away, no doubt remembering her own experiences of the day the Second Battle of Okinawa began.
"Trains.... Are very interesting things," observes Kudzu with carefully measured words. "We tend to think of them as being solid and unstoppable. Destroying cars, smashing anything unfortunate enough to be on the track, roaring around so fast or with so much weight they take kilometres to stop. But when a train derails at high speed- and especially if it hits something, like a very big hole in the ground, one of three things tends to happen."
"The first carriages that impact" Kudzu begins, "tend to just go to bits. They pretty much explode, as all the walls and everything inside tries to keep moving when the front is already stopped. They break open, spill apart, slice through each other, then throw people and all the shit that was inside them all over the place, killing everyone that was in there. Carriages towards the rear tend to either bend and twist, or if the train is long enough, they might not even derail or be damaged at all. Carriages in the middle, and especially those more towards the front however.... they tend to concertina."
There is an abrupt round of quiet swearing and sharp intakes of breath as the lanky pilot lifts up his shirt to reveal the ropey circle of scar tissue just bellow the line of his rib cage. Taikomachi looks ill, but Boke just furiously mutters "Fucking Abyssals."
"Holy shit man....." Kero looks sick. "I always figured there was a reason you never talked about that thing, but....."
Pulling his shirt back down, the lanky pilot grimaces. "The doctors told me I was lucky I was always so tall for my age. My sister was fine because she ducked down right before the impact, and everything missed her and her seat. But because I was so tall, I put my hands on the back of the seat in front of me to brace."
"If I'd been short enough to duck down in my seat like her, I'd have lost most of my skull. If I had been the height of the average kid my age and done what I did, they reckon the debris would have shattered my sternum and likely perforated my heart and lungs with the shards. As it was, my height meant that the piece of debris just missed the bottom of my false ribs, drove me back into my seat, bruised and lacerated my lower chest and upper belly, stabbed just under half an inch into me, and then got caught on the frame of the seat in front, just in time to avoid actually penetrating the sack that holds the stomach and all of the human body's other abdominal organs in."
Kero looks equal parts green and disturbed as he stares at Kudzu "You're fucking lucky to be alive!"
"That I am." Admits Kudzu, even as he shudders at the memory. "It could have been far worse. Only a little bit deeper, and it could easily have been fatal, or caused lasting damage. Unfortunately, while it wasn't as serious as it could have been, it still looked horrifying and seemed as bad as it could get. I was pinned, couldn't move or breath properly and was in serious pain. A lot of people thought I'd been impaled right through by whatever it was that hit me, and that I was a goner. I.... kinda thought that myself at the time too."
Shaking his head, the pilot of Umiu 2-2 continues.
"Not helping things, was that the Abyssals were still around. After they'd blown up the train tracks, they then turned their attentions to the tsunami barrier that crossed the river the town was built around. Looking back now, I guess their plan was to stop anyone from closing it, since they mainly just targeted the control houses on either side of the barrier, while sailing up toward the river mouth. It would make sense if their original intentions had been to go up the river and then attack a few of the neighboring villages you could reach with deep draft fishing boats before it got too shallow."
Hesitating for moment, Kudzu then gives each of the pilots present a piercing look, carefully choosing his words as he does so. "It is from this point forwards, that the...."official" story and what I am about to tell you, greatly....
diverge."
Kero frowns, equally intrigued and uncertain. "What do you mean?"
"Well....." Gathering his thoughts, Kudzu then lays out his facts. "The official story is that after shelling the train, an Abyssal force of destroyers then destroyed the tsunami barrier control stations, but inadvertently caused damage to the barrier that caused it rolled out into a closed position and collapsed part of the adjoining tsunami wall into the channel. Upon this happening, the Abyssal Destroyers gave up, didn't even both taking pot shots at the town, and then turned tail and ran up the coast, where they did their level best to raze a second town to the ground before a JASDF air strike got them."
The group share a collective glance before then turning their focus back to Kudzu. "And unofficially?" Kero asks hesitantly.
Leaning back in his chair, Kudzu sighs and tries to figure out where to start.
"Mr Akayama happened."
"What do you mean."
The lanky pilot runs a hand through his hair, struggling to put into words something even he doesn't quite seem to believe.
"Like I said, when the train crashed, that front section just totally went to pieces. The front of the first carriage dipped into and got stuck in the shell hole where the tracks should have been, but the rear half and most to the second carriage then just went straight through it. It turned most of the thing inside out. Should have killed everyone in there. But it didn't. I
saw him tear his way out of the wreckage with his own two hands. I recognized the high-vis as the same one he always wore on the way to work when we rode with him. But he looked.... not normal."
The other pilots look at each other uncertainly, before Boke finally asks the question. "Are you sure he wasn't just injured?"
"No." Emphasizes Kudzu. "He wasn't injured. His clothes were shredded, but I don't think the guy would have had a scratch on him. But he didn't look
human anymore either. Mr Akayama had always been heavy set man, and looked like you'd expect for a guy who climbed up pine trees to manage their limbs with a chainsaw for a living. But now he was at least a foot taller, and he looked like he could karate chop those trees and
bench press them. And that wasn't the only thing. His flush wasn't normal anymore either, now
all of his skin was this steaming vibrant red, and on his head...."
Hesitating and glancing at the others to gauge their reactions, Kudzu then blurts out the final detail, running a hand from his elbow to wrist as if to emphasise a distance. "And on his head was a horn, about this long and red like the rest of him had become."
Boke's eyes narrows. "Abyssal...." he hisses.
"No...." Kero stares at the lanky pilot with shock. "An Oni..."
Kudzu nods. "It fits with what I saw to a T. He couldn't have been an abyssal or anything all that malicious. Even if I never knew them that well, the Akayamas had been in our town for years. They didn't just pop out of the ether. Friends used to visit them from wherever it was they'd moved from. Their daughter was in the year group below me, and went to all the same schools I did. I remember as a kid, all the adults going around to drop off stuff when their youngest son was born."
Trailing off quietly, Kudzu then notices Gyaru. For once her phone isn't in her hands, her fingers instead worrying at a chip in the edge of the table's faux plastic lacquer. In her eyes, Kiba can see the Okinawan survivor already has an idea where this story is headed.
"What happened to him."
Kudzu winces. "I think he realised pretty quickly what would happen. Nobody knew what we were looking at, but it wasn't hard to figure out what they'd do if they got past the tsunami wall and the barrier, and then up the river. Not with the way they were shooting up everything surrounding the estuary, and what bits of the harbor they could see."
The lanky pilot then shakes his head in disbelief.
"Sometimes I still don't know if what I saw was real, or if it was just the shock but- He grabbed and broke off part of the rail line. Just a whole length of it that hadn't been fucked up from the shelling or the crash. I mean, this thing must have been the length of a freaking telephone pole. And then he threw it." A somber grin tugs at the corners of Umiu 2-2's lips for a moment. "The Abyssals took issue with that."
"It didn't kill them, I don't know if he even could have, but this thing
flew like a fucking javelin from the gods, right up until it finally arched down and nailed what I think was an I-Class almost a kilometer away. In and out, straight through the mouth, taking the cannon with it."
"The Abyssals weren't stupid. They realized something had hurt one of them and started maneuvering to dodge further attacks while trying to find it, which got a whole lot easier when Mr Akayama started running down the tracks like a big red Hulk throwing more rail line at them. But that must have been his plan, because it slowed and distracted the Abyssals from shooting at anything else or going up the river mouth, long enough for him to go the kilometer or so from where we'd derailed up on the high ground, all the way down to the river mouth and the tsunami barrier."
"The control houses were gone. The system
could have been manually operated from controls on the gate as well, but those would have been useless with the hydraulics and gear assemblies underneath the main control house blown to bits like they were. Because the system was only built in the 70s and we weren't a town with a lot of money to throw around, the old council hadn't be able to afford a gravity drop gate that was tall enough to still let the trawlers through. So instead we got this big sliding door thing that was supposed to roll out from a channel in the seawall to stop tsunamis." Kudzu looks at the others, no small amount of admiration in his eyes. "Mr Akayama
grabbed that thing, and started
pushing this
huge, 12 meter tall and 8 meter wide sliding door made up of layers of I-beams and two inch steel plate, out into the channel, and all while being surrounded by a
rain of abyssal shellfire."
"Maybe they didn't hit him directly? Maybe he was just immune to the blunt force and the shrapnel to a certain degree? Maybe what we were looking at was the oni version of the same thing that makes grandmas lift SUVs and parents not notice their skin's starting to fall off after running through a burning building to save their kid? His wife and son would have still been home, and from the opposite side of that seawall, you could see pretty much every single house in the main part of town."
Tapping his fingers on the table absently, Kudzu then grimaces at the memories being dredged up.
"The Abyssals couldn't kill him. But even from where we were, we could see how messed up he must have been. Covered in blood and flesh wounds. Part of his horn was even blown off. It must have been like death by a thousand cuts, yet even then he kept going. After finally getting the tsunami gate closed, he punched the ground hard enough that he collapsed part of the tsunami wall, and what was left of the control house into the channel to add to the barrier. Then he started grabbing bits of it and throwing them, tearing up these
huge multi-ton concrete tetrapods out of the wall, and lobbing them off into the bay." A sad, sardonic smirk makes Kudzu chuckle. "Like an oni raining down boulders from the mountain."
"I think that was when the Abyssals finally threw in the towel. The railline javelins could over-pen or miss important internals, but it would have been a bit harder to just shrug off three tons of concrete coming out of the sky at highway speeds. They kept on shooting back until they rounded the headland and went up the coast, but I guess by that point, they realized that unless they brought in anything with a bigger gun, there was easier and more helpless prey to be had elsewhere."
Around the table, the other pilots share looks at this apparently successful saving of the town. One that has a rather glaring hole, considering none of them have ever heard this story before.
Hesitantly, Kero broaches the question on everyone's mind. "So.... what happened to Akayama then? You'd think this would be one of those things you'd hear rumors and stories about all the time. Like how some of the JGSDF guys are always going on about that dragon girl on the Hidaka."
Something ugly and unsure twists at the corners of Kudzu's mouth. "I think the reason no-one ever hears about Mr Akayama, is for the same reason what I'm almost certain is Kiyohime is still only a rumor, despite there being at least five different incidents caught on camera early on in the war, but her notoriety only becoming more common after a few incidents involving her two or three months into the war."
"What do mean?"
"Because of- " Opening his mouth, Kudzu hesitates as if something has occurred to him. Then, practically radiating the image of paranoia, the lanky pilot looks around the room to make sure they are completely alone and there's no one else present, even giving a glance at the window, before finally leaning over the table and speaking low enough that the others have to follow suit and huddle to hear him too.
"fuck this sounds so stupid but- I never figured out a name for them.... Any description always sounds too corny, and I've always stayed quiet about it anyway so.... In my head, I always thought of them as "the Cloaked Men"."
"The Cloaked men?" Seeing the confusion around the table, Kudzu grimaces.
"If you guys thought me seeing an oni was nuts, then you're going to think I'm fucking bonkers for this next part. Before the Abyssals had completely rounded the headland, Mr Akayama had slowly been wandering back in our direction. He was trying to keep up with them, and still tearing up stuff to throw at the undamaged ones. Trees, blown up cars, I-beams from destroyed buildings. I guess he was determined to make sure they couldn't hurt anyone else or wouldn't want to come back. He was almost back to where we were with the trainwreck. People wandering around in shock or dying, while those who weren't too messed up tried to get out the people still injured or pinned like me. And then-" Cutting himself off abruptly, Kudzu is silent.
"..... and then what?" Asks Gyaru with a rare, cautious gentleness.
The lanky pilot exhales, even in his eyes, appearing uncertain and doubting of what he knows and recounts seeing. "At first I thought it was something exploding in the distance. Just this whooshing "pop" or a sharp but muted "bang", like somebody setting off a firework or pulling a Christmas cracker. But then there were more of them, and I realized, this was something happening around us in the crash site, not far away. I could hear people yelling in surprise from outside. And then right in front of the big hole in the side of the train where my window used to be, and through which me and my sister had been watching Mr Akayama having his running fight with the Abyssals, I saw..... I saw this
person. This
thing that looked like a man in a big old-style cloak, step out of thin air. Just one moment, nothing, and the next there's this guy, almost unfurling into reality in less than an eye blink."
Kero looks like he wants to ask something, but Kudzu holds up a hand. "I know blood loss and shock can do so strange shit, but I
know what I
saw. I have no idea what the hell if that even was a human, but on the names of whatever the hell is actually out there, and until my dying breath, I will
swear that I saw that man appear out of nothing."
The downward turn of Kudzu lips deepens in tandem with his cringing grimace.
"And then Mr Akayama lost his shit. As soon as he saw the Cloaked Men, it was like somebody flipped a switch. It wasn't like he just boiled over, or the dam broke after everything that happened. Mr Akayama wasn't known for temper or that kind of personality when I was growing up. Yeah, he had a face only his wife could have loved, but everyone that actually knew him seemed to think he was just another one of the guys, just another one of us seaside country folk, with the temperament to match.
This..... That
anger.... I don't think I have even seen anybody ever look at somebody with that much fury and honest, unrestrained
hatred in their eyes."
"He didn't go berserk, or into a rage, or even
do anything that violent. But the instant he seemed to realize who the Cloaked Men were, he began to
rant. I couldn't understand half of what he was saying, partly because his speech was all garbled from his face being messed up, and I think his hearing was gone from being hit by shells so many times, but even if a lot of what he could say properly went over my head, you could get a general idea from the way he kept pointing at the retreating Abyssals, at the Cloaked Men, at what was left of the harbor, and then in the general direction of the capital. He was practically spraying blood everywhere from how wildly and crazily he was gesturing, his eyes almost seemed to
roll with how furious he was, and I think his mouth would have started frothing if it wasn't for all the blood and splits in his lips."
"I don't know if he was blaming them for the Abyssals specifically, but he definitely seemed to blame them for things getting to where they were. He railed about something in English called "the Statute" and I think the word "Secrecy" was mentioned alongside it a few times as well. He used the word "Auror" a bunch of times as either a title or a suffix, and kept on bringing up some group called the "muggles", who it sounded like were also caught off guard and with no knowledge of the Abyssals. From the sounds of things, he almost seemed to be acting as if the Cloaked Men should have, or even may have
known of the Abyssals
before Blood Week. Then he started demanding what they would do to him. He kept on going on about "Reserves" as if he was going to be punished for saving us all."
Kudzu pauses, considering something in his head.
"I think he possibly
knew at least one of the Cloaked Men. There was this one guy in particular he kept on bellowing at, and this guy kept on gesturing and pleading with Mr Akayama to calm down in response. The man who was obviously the leader of the Cloaked Men though, along with what must have been his second in command or something, took issue with Mr Akayama stomping towards them and yelling at the top of his lungs. The leader stepped forward as if to try and attract his attention, and then yelled at him in the same way you'd see police officers confront someone on a drug-rage, or who shouldn't be where they are."
"'Cease and desist youkai!' is what he shouted. 'This is a national emergency and as such, your presence shall be overlooked! Turn around now, and return to your registered home at this time!' is generally the gist of what I remeber. No thanks for saving the train or the town, and scaring off the Abyssals, or anything like that. Just a very official 'stop right their citizen, and now kindly fuck off, or we will make life difficult for you'."
The lanky pilot sighs with a grimace. "I don't know if they realized his ears were probably blown out from all the shelling. I don't even know how well he could see either, with all the blood and cuts on his face. He just kept stomping up the hill, homing in on the one guy he knew, with his furious raving just getting louder, and louder, and more incomprehensible, the more worked up he got. 'What are you going to do with me, huh? You going to stick me in a reserve for for saving all these people?' Was the main thing he kept on repeating. 'Are you going to relocate my family too?' Was another question that only seemed to make him wilder every time the poor guy he was bearing down on just stammered and couldn't give him an answer."
"The lead Cloaked Man however, reacted to all this by.... Well to continue the police comparison, he started yelling more and more forcefully and warning Mr Akayama to stop. That it was his final warning, even as he pulled out...."
"Pulled out what?" asks Gyaru nervously, a growing dread for Mr Akayama increasingly written across the faces of the other four pilots now gripped by Kudzu's tale.
"It was definitely not a staff, and it was too small and plain to even really be called a sceptre. Rod might have fit, but again not really. What he raised, I'd have called a wand."
Boke blinks "A wand?"
"Yeah. A few of the other guys followed suit, pointing these plain, wood colored or lacquered sticks of varying shapes, lengths, and styles, but generally the same thing, all in Mr Akayama's direction. One or two also held bits of paper, which I guess would have made them onmyouji practitioners. The lead Cloaked Man shouted what he said was his last warning, but Mr Akayama still didn't seem to realise what was going on. Still kept on stomping up that hill, bellowing and gesturing like a raving madman."
"Then finally, the guy he knew at last seemed to realise that something must have been wrong with Mr Akayama's hearing. He turned around to shout something to the rest of the group, only to see them all pointing their sticks of wood. He raised his hands up, I guess to yell and gesture at them to stop, to not do whatever they were about to do. Something which finally seemed to make Mr Akayama pause as well, look up with his ruined eyes and notice that there were other Cloaked Men about. I remember picking up all these little details in just the span of that moment. How tired and ragged the Cloaked Men actually looked, like they'd been busy even before this. How much the leader looked like he didn't actually want to hurt the oni stomping towards them. The sneer on his second in command's face. The slight shift in what was left of Mr Akayama's face as his expression only just began to change from blinded rage to surprise."
Kudzu pauses, hesitating for a long moment while silently staring not quite at the surface of the table before him, but almost at something much further and distant instead. Slumping, he then gives a defeated sigh.
"The lead Cloaked Man, I think reacted defensively. From it's linguistic similarities, my passing delvings into English and Latin, and the fact that it created a spherical light show around the Cloaked Man Mr Akayama knew, I guess "Protego" must have been some sort of shield spell. A bunch of the other Cloaked Men, shouted various things that fired red bursts of light that only seemed to partially absorbed by, if not bounce off what was left of Mr Akayama's skin. The last guy though. He cast something green, with this harsh sounding incantation that had a sequence of hard "ar" and "var" sounds."
For a long moment, Kudzu doesn't say anything.
"Maybe Mr Akayama wasn't ready for it. Maybe he was weakened by all the other red spells that didn't initially seem to do anything. Maybe he'd just had too much taken out of him by the Abyssals by that point. Maybe that was the straw that broke the camels back. Whatever it was, as soon as that green light hit him...... It was like somebody cut his strings. This giant oni, that tanked gods know how many Abyssal shells to save the town, was dead before he even hit the ground."
Around the table, Gyaru holds a horrified hand to her mouth, while Boke looks like he doesn't know whether to seethe or respectfully bow his head. Between Taikomachi and Kero, the former looks stunned, while the latter looks uncomfortable and guilty at making Kudzu bring up a story with such a terrible turn.
"The Cloaked Men surprisingly weren't of one mind about this event. The leader immediately started tearing a strip out of his second in command, who was pretty unrepentant and actually seemed to believe that the nature of the martial law that had been declared by then, justified his escalation to lethal force." Awkwardly, Kudzu shifts in his seat. "I'll admit, from a certain stand point, that sounds like a justifiable context on paper, but what I saw.... That was just callous and uncaring. Things then really went to shit when, after confirming that Mr Akayama really was dead, the guy he knew then walked up to and started a physical brawl with the second in command. And while all this was going on, the rest of the Cloaked Men were...."
"Were what?" Asks Gyaru nervously.
"Doctoring memories I guess."
Boke frowns. "Wait, like Men in Black with the deneuralizers?"
Kudzu grimaces. "That's not actually a bad comparison really. They were going around casting something, a spell with a white light and the phrase "obliviate", on anybody they could find, who may have seen Mr Akayama's counter-attack and closing of the gate. A lot of people were terrified, but having just been in a train crash, there weren't many who could just run away. Not that you could out run the Cloaked Men when they could teleport, freeze you in place, or put you to sleep." The lanky pilot shakes his head quietly. "Very few of them seemed to be all that keen on it by that point though. I heard a couple of them talking about what just happened as they looked through the carriage I was stuck in, talking about how that was "the final straw" and that the three of them should just say "to hell with the obliviations and clean ups", and just go to Kagoshima or Tokyo, where from the sounds of things, a bunch of other "Aurors" had gone rogue or AWOL to help fight Abyssals."
Frowning for a moment as something occurs to him, Kero then looks at Kudzu curiously. "Wait. If they were erasing everyone's memories of what happened, then how the hell do you remember all that?"
"Good question," says Kudzu with a morbid chuckle. "It's because they didn't bother to erase mine at all." Quietly, the pilot looks out the window. "Those three who were already talking of going rogue.... I remember, can still see that moment one of them actually came up to me. He raised his wand, and even now, I can see his lips moving to begin the first syllable of the incantation. To this day, I can feel that terror. The realization that this guy was going to do something to my mind and memories, and then probably my sister's too, with nothing I could do to stop him."
"And then one of the older Cloaked Men put his hand on the other's, and lowered his wand. Just coldly told him to "not waste his time." That "this one isn't going to make it", and that that "even if he does, he's so grievously injured that nobody would ever believe him". They seemed to think I'd already suffered enough bloodloss, that it would probably ruin my memory.
The lanky pilot then gives an ironic, depreciating snort. "I'm still not exactly sure who the joke's on for that one. On the one hand, I lived and remember everything in perfect clarity because I was no where near as injured as everyone originally thought and my memory has always been great anyway. On the other there hand, after the hospital, when I realized the only other person who remembered and was asking around about Mr Akayama then had his memory doctored a few days into his stay, I never directly spoke of or asked anybody about what happened ever again." Guiltily, he then looks down quietly. "You guys.... You guys are actually the first people I've ever talked about this with since the hospital."
"Holy shit." Kero stares at him with wide eyes. "Kudzu- Saito, why didn't you try and tell anybody about this?"
The pilot of Umiu 2-2 just shrugs helplessly. "Who'd believe me? I was a teenage kid, bleeding out and supposedly traumatised from a combined train crash and Abyssal attack. And then I was also terrified for years after, that if the Cloaked Men ever realized I'd survived with my memories intact, they might come back to do the job properly. And the most gaping flaw in my story was that officially, Mr Akayama's body was never found by the authorities."
"Wait-" Taikomachi looks at him in confusion. "What happened to his body then?"
"The Cloaked Men took it. I think? One of them pointed their wand at it before they all disappeared again, and literally made his corpse vanish into thin air. Whatever he did with it though, that actually seemed to piss off some of the other Cloaked Men who'd been at least respectfully, looking through the guy's wallet for some sort of "registration" so they could figure out where or who to drop the body off with." Kudzu then grimaces, uncertainty and worry writ upon his face. "I don't know if they found anything. But part of the other reason I was so scared of the Cloaked Men for years afterwards, was that from what I heard while I was in the hospital, the Akayama's just disappeared."
Boke pales, shock and anger on not just his face, but chilling the veins of the others as well. "No... You don't think?"
All Kudzu can do is shake his head. "I have no clue. I don't know if they were sent to one of those "reserves" Mr Akayama was yelling about, or if they disappeared on their own. Even today, it still baffles everyone in town. Everyone who didn't see the fight or got memory wiped, just thought Mr Akayama was missing. But the next morning, his wife and kids were gone. The reason I'm not sure if they were taken or just ran though, was that the entire house was empty. Nobody heard anything in the night, and they only owned this little Suzuki that could barely fit the family themselves, but from what I heard, that house was cleaned out from top to bottom. They didn't just take essentials and clothes, they even managed to take their furniture with them, all without any of their neighbors noticing a thing. Just gone. All three of them. Poof, into thin air. Like magic."
"And you never heard from them again?" Asks Gyaru quietly.
"For all I know, they have ended up dead and in a ditch like Mr Akayama was, before being disappeared off into who knows where. But if they did run, I am almost certain I know why."
"The Cloaked Men," mutters Boke.
"And whoever they presumably answer to," considers Taikomachi worriedly. "Those guys sound far too spread out and disorganised to be the leaders or sole members, if they're doing the dirty work, talking about taking orders, and have friends who can abandon their cover up jobs to go help people."
"That's why you never say anything or complain," whispers Gyaru as she abruptly interrupts with an awful realization. "That's why you were the only one who ever put up with Tengu's craziness and acrobatics back in BFT and BCM. You weren't tolerating her leaving you behind all the time. You were protecting her from being paired with anybody who might notice and comment."
Quietly, Kudzu nods. "Pretty much, yeah. Tengu's not as good at hiding her capabilities when put in the hot seat and the heat of the moment, as she must think she is, especially when lives on the ground are at stake. I don't know what she
is, but no human should ever have the kind of control over her plane and the level of sustained g-tolerance she has. I'm pretty sure many of her lucky escapes and runs through flak clouds are probably enabled by some kind of shield effect too. I figured that out early on. But having seen the Cloaked Men, I don't know if I can
blame her for hiding whatever she can really do or is, and sandbagging whenever anybody is looking."
Turning his gaze back to Kero, Kudzu sighs. "You asked me earlier, if I expect you to believe that there are things out there that we are just supposed to accept as inexplicable?"
Quietly, Kero nods.
"My answer to that is no. I don't think so." For a long moment, Kudzu is silent. "What I think, is that there are things out there, that are
not allowed to explain themselves. That
fear the consequences if they do."
An awful pall settles over the group as they contemplate Kudzu's tale.
"That," interrupts a familiar, guilty sounding voice that causes all the pilots present to jump in therir seats, "is not all that far from the truth."
"Tengu!" Turning as one and with almost simultaneous cries, the five pilots are shocked to discover the sixth member of their group, standing in the doorway awkwardly. Hovering uncertainly on the threshold of the rec-room, and obviously having caught the last few notes of their discussion, it suddenly strikes the group how different the dark haired pilot is to her usual self.
Normally, Ai is infamous for her undaunted confidence, and aura of reserved professionalism in any situation. On occasions, she has been chewed out by the brass for reckless flying and endangering her aircraft, only to cooly argue back and unrepentantly elaborate in perfect detail exactly how she was in control every single time, and the justification in lives often saved because of her riskier and more extreme maneuvers. Now the very-likely-magical ace looks uncertain. Almost lost and ashamed as she enters the room, not quite able to meet their eyes.
"I.... believe I owe the five of you an explanation..... A personal one before the Colonel officially addresses you about what is-
has been going on..... And an apology."
For a moment, the five human pilots share a look, the events of Kudzu's story still hanging in the air between them. Finally it is Gyaru who rises first. Then, to Ai's immense shock and surprise, the Okinawan ace walks towards her and pulls her into a hug.
"Gyar- Misha?!"
"Damnit, you crazy nutcase." She mutters into Ai's shoulder. "No wonder you're so high strung all the time."
Stepping forward as well, Kudzu then settles for resting an understanding hand on their flight lead's free shoulder. "There's nothing to apologies for Ai. We know you. Deception and omission are not your style, and.... well, if you heard the last of my little story, I guess you heard that we can already make a stab at figuring out why you never told anybody." Rising from their seats and gathering around too, Boke, Taikomachi, and Kero all nod or give words of agreement as well.
For a moment, Ai's gaze almost seems to water, though she furiously blinks and remains dry faced. "Damnit you five...." Unable to help it, she gives a helpless chuckle. "You do not even know the full story yet and you still want to-"
Shifting so that she goes from hugging the dark haired pilot, to having one hand slung over her shoulder, Gyaru then playfully nudges at Ai's shoulder. "Come on Ai. You think we'd stop being your friends over this. Or even respecting you as a pilot? You're obviously torn up enough about this, we'd have to be blind to think you did this maliciously. We just wanted to no why. But there's nothing you need to explain if you don't want to."
Smiling, but also unable to mask the worry for her in his eyes, Boke nods. "Are you even....
allowed to tell us? You don't have to if it could get you in trouble."
Ai just gives a rueful laugh and a hopeful smile at the thought. "Maybe before Blood Week that would have been a risk. Back then, I'd probably have been caught out as soon as we landed. If not, even while still in the air after attacking the Gashadokuro. In the years since though, to call the resources and infrastructure of the magical authorities "sparse" and "crippled", is a bit of an understatement."
Boke frowns deeply at Ai's wording. "Wait, so the Cloaked Men are actually recognized as an authority? The hell kind are they supposed to be? The secret police?"
Taikomachi and Kero on the other hand, look alternately confused and horrified.
"The Dark Souls reject giant skeleton was a what now?"
"That was a fucking
Gashadokuro?!?!"
Now out of combat and her trained composure that comes with it, even after defeating the giant yokai, Ai can't help but shudder and look sick. "Indeed it was. To be honest, all we were truly doing that entire time was distracting it and annoying it with what could barely be considered flesh wounds given that one's size. Even my maneuver at the end was supposed to just delay and keep it occupied." The pilot shivers at the memory, with the more mythologically inclined Kudzu and Kero looking almost as pale and disturbed as her. "I have no clue what they did on the ground. But I guess congratulations are in order."
"What do you mean?" asks Gyaru, much less familiar with mainland folklore for obvious reasons.
"Do you know the Cazador meme?" Asks the pale Kero.
"Yeah?"
"Well, take the Nope-factor, and then multiply that by cancer."
Ai nods in agreement. "Traditionally, there was no real way to kill a Gashadokuro other than to let them wander around until they either ran out of people to kill and went elsewhere, or the grudges of the collective dead holding them together finally expired. The only real thing one could do, would be to set up wards and seals around your house, and pray it didn't notice you or get in, or that it didn't just decide to wait you out until you ran out of food and water."
As unnerved as Ai still is that they even fought a Gashadokuro, she still can't help but give a wry smile to the other members of Umiu Flight, that from her normally reserved self, may as well be whooping and triumphant grin. "Technically, were are now all party to the slaying of a monster from legend, which historically, has always been to all intents and purposes, unkillable and unstoppable."
Kero still looks mildly disturbed. Taikomachi however, slowly develops a grin. "I wonder if we could add a skull and crossbones to our kill silhouettes...." Ai reflexively shudders at the suggestion.
Boke however, is by this point, well beyond confused. "Okay, I'm sorry. But I am completely lost here. Gashadokuro? Grudges? Magic? When did we become the JMSDF?" Automatically, there is a round of snorts and chuckles at the jab towards their sister service. "No offence Tengu, but we still don't even really know what you've been doing the entire time, other than that it has to be magic. Or how you've managed to avoid the Cloaked Men for so long either."
The disguised pilot can't help the slightly amused twitch of her lips at the appellation Boke uses for magical law enforcement. "Maybe it is a good idea I explain myself then, if only so you can go into Ugeki's debrief without any set misconceptions. For one thing, the Cloaked Men as you refer to them, are officially known as Aurors. They are supposed to be somewhat akin to a police force, and serve under the National Auror Agency for Law Enforcement, who in turn answer to the National Magical Safety Commission."
"Some police force" mutters Boke darkly.
Kudzu however, frowns at the titles. "That almost sounds like somebody copied the National Police Agency and the National Public Safety Commission."
Ai shrugs. "I know the NMSC and NAALE were reformed out of older entities around the same time their non-magical counterparts were during the post-war occupation. Maybe somebody was inspired by the organisational chain and naming scheme? I have to confess, I was not really paying all that much attention to the revisions to the law system when they were first doing them in the late 40s and 50s."
It takes a moment for Ai's words to sink in across the group, before Gyaru suddenly lets out a strangled cry. "You're over 70 years old?!?"
Ai winces, even as she raises an eye brow "Wait, I thought you had already figured out I am not human?"
"You look younger than me still!!!" Wails Gyaru, causing Kero to breakout in giggles, Kudzu to fail at hiding a grin, and even Ai to finally give an honest smile as she facepalms.
"It's a combination of transformation and illusion. Something of a reverse engineered technique normally used by tanuki and kitsune. Without it, I look nothing like this," admits Ai as she slowly rolls up a sleeve. "I am actually a little bit of an oddball when it comes to my magic. Most of my kind are not anywhere near as adept at disguises, while I am not all that martially skilled for one born of my heritage and time."
"You aren't" asks Kudzu in confusion?
"No." Says Ai with a shake of her head, recognising the source of his bafflement. "A lot of what I do in the air is basically mcgyger'ing together heavily supercharging cantrips, what few defensive spells I know, and a bunch of "quality of life" techniques, all being modified far beyond their original or intended purposes." In demonstration, with her sleeve now rolled up above her elbow, a visibly swirling ball of air forms in the palm of Ai's hand, almost like a writhing, spherical mini-tornado. At the same time, the space surrounding her pale skin seems to ripple, and then suddenly from the bicep down, there is an undoubtedly non-human limb covered in black feathers, as well as bird like scale around her forearm, hands and fingers, which in turn are tipped with avian talons.
For a moment, there is a stunned silence, before Taikomachi is finally the first to speak. "Is that a rasengan?"
Gyaru dope-slaps him, while Ai rolls her eyes and disperses the spell. Despite this, the irreverent question seems to put the non-human pilot at ease, even as her limb subsequently returns to it's "normal" appearance. Kero meanwhile, laughs at the irony.
"Holy shit! You really
are a tengu! That's what you are right?!"
"Kotengu, technically." Admits Ai. "There is a notable distinction between the Great and Small Tengu, though the last 150 years have.... somewhat blurred the sociological divide between our kind, even if the physical differences remain."
"So...." says Boke, summing up the past few minutes of conversation "You're older than my grandmother, fighting the Abyssals, against the will of some sort of shadow government, using magic to blend in with us normal pilots. I'd imagine there's one hell of a story behind all that?"
Ai nods, thinking for a moment, before gesturing towards the table everyone was only just sitting at previously. "We should sit down. If I am going to properly explain why I am doing what I'm doing, I'll need to start with the events going on in Japan shortly before I was born."
"Which I'm guessing that could take a while, considering you were born in the '50s." agrees Kero with a nod as everyone shares a glance and then begins moving to take seats.
"Actually," corrects Ai with a wry smile, "I was born in 1869. January 15th if we go by the date of the modern calendar."
Kero almost misses and falls out his seat in shock. Taikomachi stares open mouthed. Gyaru can only manage a jealous whine. Kudzu just blinks owlishly. "I thought your birthday was in July?"
Ai just laughs, slightly embarrassed. "Oh, that's a fake date. Once you turn 50, having to plan around getting snowed in all the time loses it's novelty, especially when the few people you know are scattered across most of Japan before the advent of cheap, easily accessible rapid transport. I started listing it in the rough area of June to August after I changed my non-magical identity for the third or forth time. It's easier to travel around then, and the nicer weather usually makes for many more options."
"Is Aina even your real name?" asks Gyaru awkwardly.
The kotengu chuckles in guilty amusement. "Technically it is, and it isn't. "Ai" actually
is my real given name, but I've always been absolutely horrendous at picking up when people are calling me by new names whenever I change identity. Which is why I have a bad habit of choosing appellations where the obvious shortening for most people once they are familiar with me, is to just call me Ai."
Taikomachi suddenly explodes with spluttered laughter as something simultaneously occurs to him and he connects the dots, while being reminded of a certain humorous paradox "You're your own aunt!"
With the last member of their group having finally completed his mental math however, Boke then stares at the non-human pilot in almost embarrassed amazement. "Tengu, if you were born in 1869, that makes you
144 years old."
The no longer disguised Tengu laughs, amusement shining in her eyes. "Oh, don't think I am some ancient, curmudgeonly, mountain-sage of wisdom or something. As Kotengu go, I am actually not that old. Maturity is a bit hard to measure when your unaltered lifespan is measured in hundreds of years, and easily lasts beyond a millennium with the right magics, lifestyle, knowledge, or service to higher beings. Under the Old Ways, I would probably only be considered in comparatively the same social standing and age group as you five."
Kudzu raises an eyebrow, obviously still trying to wrap his head around her age, let alone the fact that despite it all, she would still be considered young. "Wait, really?"
"I guess that makes 144 the new 24," Taikomachi absently quips.
Ai gives a small laugh. "I will admit, sometimes I certainly do feel those 144 years, even if I don't look it." Sobering for a second, Ai looks at her hands quietly for a moment, absently tapping her fingers on the table as she finally unclouds her thoughts and figures out where to begin.
"I was born on an estate, just outside what is now the neighborhood of Yotsuya in Shinjuku." Ai then pauses and makes a face. "Actually, back then it was called Tsunohazu. After World War II, it was initially a nice residential district with a near mall, but most people now days only know it for the Kabukicho red light district. I stopped living there after the war however, seeing as the old compound got leveled in the-"
Cutting her rambling off and looking pained for a moment, Ai shakes her head and returns to where she started, voice now much quieter and tinged with melancholic sadness. "My father was a hatamoto. A bannerman and retainer of a onmyouji shugo-dai, primarily charged with managing the finances and operation of the compound and surrounding estate we lived upon."
Ai grimaces quietly. "But the late 1860s were immensely troubled times for not just tengu, or even yokai in general, but all the peoples of magical Japan as a whole. While the turning point of the Bakamatsu resulted in the Meiji Restoration which brought Japan into the modern age, among those versed in magic, it was the hopeless grand finale of a divisive and self-destructive series of events, machinations and finally civil conflict, dating back to the fallout of the Perry Expedition twenty years earlier. By the time I was born, much of the global magic community espoused a doctrine of not just separation, but also absolute secrecy, hiding away from the rest of the world. A policy making mindset we have the Europeans and their slow colonisation of the world to thank for. Japan was one of the last holdouts against this way of thinking, with onmyouji and yokai actually being some of the major backers behind the long standing policy of Sakoku. Most of the daimyo and kuge liked it because it kept the foreigners out, and a tight control on wealth, knowledge and trade entering or leaving the country. The onmyouji and yokai liked it because it kept out western representatives who might subvert those who stood to stand and gain from a shake up of the old order."
Kudzu grimaces, thinking back to what he saw so many years ago. "Which I'm guessing did happen in the end, didn't?"
Ai nods somberly. "The Opening of Japan changed everything. But it wasn't a sudden thing either. To get to what I currently live under, took well over thirty years of political maneuvering, diplomatic pressure, bad luck, and people simply being people. Just like in any large group, there is always going to be at least a few who think they have much to gain and little to lose. At other times, honor and pride can undo even the most rational logic and reasoning. In many cases, the desire to one up someone, or be the biggest at the top of the pile can be a very blinding thing sometimes. So blinding, many didn't realize that while they themselves were only undercutting the pile a little, collectively they were carving chunks out of the ground beneath their feet. And all this culminated in the now forgotten and erased magical politics and actions in the Boshin War."
"There was magic and yokai involved in the Boshin War?" asks Gyaru curiously. "I've never really heard anything all that notable, even as stories, involving the supernatural from that time period?"
The tengu among them gives a resigned sigh. "I am not surprised. Being recent history, it was one of the main things the victors prioritized erasing as quickly as possible, especially thanks to photography increasingly becoming an issue during that time period."
"How could they have won though?" asks Taikomachi baffled. "Wouldn't you guys have had the home field advantage."
Ai just shakes her head sadly. "There were far fewer cases of foreigners supposedly impinging their ways on us and subjugating our way of life, than many liked to imagine or dramatise in later years. More often than not, it was Japanese spellfire and claws that did the subjugating and blood spilling against our own. The Boshin War itself was not the final nail in the coffin for yokai rights or onmyouji freedom of movement either. That was the aftermath, which trapped many who were once the political elite, in a Catch 22."
"How so?" asks Boke with a deepening frown.
"The issue of western interference was actually not all that notable during the war itself. But in the decades before my birth, many onmyouji and yokai prominently sided with various factions of the shogunate, with such political alliances particularly increasing in number to help back and pressure the daimyo into enforcing Emperor Komei's "Order to Expel Barbarians", after he proclaimed it in 1863." Ai snorts deridingly. "Of course, few in the Shoganate actually bothered to enforce the order, if they even supported it at all. But it still ensnared many of the clans in a growing variety of other behind-the-scenes political spiderwebs, that by the time of the Boshin War, would have made a diplomatic map of Europe pre-WWI look rather reasonable and well executed."
"So what?" questions Kudzu looking baffled. "Everyone important just killed each other?"
Unperturbed by his incredulity, Ai shrugs. "I summary? Yeah, pretty much. That is what happened to the line of the shugo-dai my family had served for most of the preceding eight centuries. He died in the same battle his lord did. And then his son died. And then his grandson. So then the title went to his other son. And if I recall correctly, it was in the hands of that man's second son after he and his eldest were slain in battle, just shortly before the end of the war."
Ai then gives an exasperated sigh. "This was all just before I was born, for reference. The Boshin War was comparatively bloodless for the non-magical populace, because some onmyouji picked up on a new tactic that was essentially "scry-and-die" from the westerners, without bothering to read up on most of the western specialized counters. So it quickly devolved into a lot of important people leading groups and playing hide-and-seek in heavily, but ineffectively hidden or not-actually-protected locations in the mountains, and tele-fragging or alpha striking each other with devastating effect and regularity. Unfortunately, when the obvious doctrine is to counter-target the people who know how to do this, and when the only people with the money to afford learning how to do this are the ruling members of your political and social elite..." The tengu shrugs helplessly. "Well..... you five can do the math."
"So what happened after the war?" asks Kero curiously. "Even if a lot of people died, surely that didn't remove everyone with political clout from power?"
"That is where the Catch-22 came in," elaborates Ai. "The mad webs of political alliances and marriages during the war often tore the largest and most politically active clans apart, and then set them against each other on a nuclear-family vs nuclear-family level. Whether onmyouji or yokai, blood was set against blood as alliances, favors, vengeance and opportunism often forced notable families to side with either the Shogunate or the Imperial Court. The problem was that after the war, Emperor Meiji was then restored to power, while at the same time, the court had largely been emptied of it's magical presence as a result of so many high ranking figures' deaths. Many onmyouji and yokai had already been extremely vocal opponents of the modernization and westernization, and unlike with Emporer Komei, relationships with the Emperor Meiji and Imperial court had grown strained. Something that only worsened due to so many having opposed the Imperial Court."
"From without you had westerners, both those who did and didn't know about magic, whispering the ideas of "out with the old and in with the new" for the sake of progress. Other's said that separating magic from the mundane was the modern way forward, along with the suggestions that it would be the easiest way to silence some of the greatest political enemies to the modernization. Meanwhile from within, you had fierce competition from onmyouji and yokai looking to claim positions in the imperial court after relatives and the direct line of succession had often died. In the process, they often ended up undermining each other and collectively shooting whole clans in the foot by bringing up ties to relatives who may have served with the shogunate, even if they themselves were neutral or had fought to help restore the Emperor. The end result was not a good look for anybody, and only made the onmyouji and yokai presence in the court easier to mock, shame, and then politically isolate, by non-magical members, who stood to gain much power from the muscling out of opponents by the slow separation of our two worlds. A process that slowly happened over the next ten years after the Boshin War, saw a final gasp of defiance by some of the more radically resistant elements during the last stand at Shiroyama, which actually made things worse everyone else, and then was basically completed around the late 1880s.
"That's insane" whispers Boke.
"That's politics." Corrects Ai with a disgusted sound. "It is what happened to my father and our family in a nutshell. We never fought in the Boshin ourselves, but our lords, and distant branches of the clan barely even related to us and living elsewhere in Japan did. So when they reorganised the government, they refused to acknowledge my father as the defacto tax collector and administrator for Tsunohazu, because we had ties to the old Tokugawa Shogunate, which was a
downright hypocritical load of shit considering all the people who actually did fight for the Tokugawa that they took in."
Her bitter vehemence and and language surprises the others, causing Ai to wince and look slightly ashamed. "I apologise. That was uncalled for."
Quietly, Gyaru reaches out and takes her hand. "I think it's pretty obvious that this.... you're allowed to be mad."
The tengu however, just grimaces. "I shouldn't be. Disappointed and sad, yes. Angry? No. All I ever knew as a child was the slow erosion of my family's status. I was raised upon a doctrine of rose-tinted longing for the "old days" by the my parents and other members of the clan. For the first 60 years of my life, I was only told to be angry and bitter at the inability to reclaim a past, I now in retrospect see we should have evolved with, instead of resisting and trying to return to." Ruefully, the tengu gives a self-depreciating smile. "I have changed much and become a very different person, with greatly diverging views from who I was over a century ago. But I guess we never completely let go of who we were as children."
"Was it that bad?" asks Kudzu quietly.
The kotengu shakes her head. "It colors what I feel looking back. But that time is not without it's happy memories and treasured moments. And though the world around us left us behind, I at least had the love and belonging that any child wants, from my family and and extended clan." Awkwardly, Ai then gives a slightly embarrassed smile. "My birth was actually seen as a fortuitous event by the elders. My elder sister was my only sibling at that point, so my birth would secure the family head's line with a "spare". Security that was especially valued with the Boshin War still taking place at that time."
Making a face, the tengu pilot then frowns slightly. "My mother being of the rather mystically enamoured sort, even brought in a onmyouji to make all sorts of readings about my birth, who supposedly saw all sorts of auspicious signs in it." Adding a slightly faux-spiritual and mocking tone to her voice, she then continues
"Born under the zodiac of the Earth Dragon as it prepares it's final cycle before the start of the Earth Serpent. Taking breath with the setting moments of the sun, the hour of the Omagatoki and the appointed start of the of a hyakki yagyo. An event that only progresses, upon the fading of the lingering blizzard that created hardship in recent days. And now revealed above, the first signs of the waxing moon, and the return of light to the darkened land". Ai then gives a deriding snort. "Mother wasted her money with that one. The woman must have been a crank."
"Why do you say that?" queries an intrigued Kero, obviously trying to figure out the meanings in his head.
"Because none of that stuff actually really matters or is a real sign by itself." Answers Ai with an exasperated and yet somehow still melancholic and fondly sad laugh. "In my opinion, most of it was just conjecture and metaphors my mother wanted to hear. If anything, the sunset I was born upon was that of the old Japan. Within a few years of my birth, we would enter the twilight of magic in Japan. And then eventually, the long night it has been since then."
A silence falls upon the group as they digest the heaviness of Ai's words.
"So that was what I was born into. Who I suppose I really am technically." says the disguised pilot with a defeated sigh. "While I have changed non-magical identities a number of times over the decades, I am still legally recognised as by the magical government as the name I was first registered under."
Even in spite of her resigned and heavy-hearted slump, it is notable how even unconsciously, Ai imperceptibly straightens as some small measure of lingering pride and defiance shines through the weight and sorrow in her eyes.
"I am Suburo no Ai. Second daughter of the hatamoto Saburo no Ate and his wife, Saburo no Saku, of the Edo branch family of the Iizuna Kotengu, loyal retainers to the Tokugawa aligned Nagai Clan of old Edo. Heiress to Tsunohazu-Shoen, a manor that has long been erased. Jito to a forgotten estate. Sole survivor, and last hatamoto of the Suburo line."
