It perplexed Serena why some idolized specific Urasaria students, or how little it often had to do with their personalities. Even their appearances hardly mattered aside from how much blood was on it.
Then again, she supposed it was the same with serial killers: it was never random murderers who received fanmail in prison. She watched Aimee speaking with the crowd of fans in front of their hotel, and saw Mia frown as she looked over the girls among them, wrapping a scarab-covered arm around Aimee a little too tightly.
"Someone's possessive." said Jeanne, holding Nuiko's pouch.
"She's a real yandere." said Yuruko.
Aimee made a gesture to the crowd, who talked amongst themselves as her & Mia walked back to the others. "Uh, not gonna book our rooms here. Just gonna teleport out of here with Rider, me and Mia'll book a different hotel. Figure you guys don't want to be woken up in the night by some fangirl trying to climb in your window."
'Or Schultzy killing one of them.' she mentally added.
Samuel's Texas parentage still showed in his accent. "You need somebody to keep them all busy?"
"She already told them two of you would be signing autographs." chimed Mia.
"You motherfucker." muttered Yuruko ruefully.
Jeanne shrugged and agreed to be #2. As Rider's tendrils came out of Aimee's wrists, Aimee princess-carried Mia, who asked: "Serena, will you be alright if I leave?"
Serena's face winced. Since her week with Kirihara, Mia had been tightening around her like a soggy blanket, and none of Serena's reassurances seemed to slacken her. "Yes."
Rider's tendrils went taut, and the prodigal couple disappeared. Jeanne & Samuel made their way over to the crowd, and as Serena began walking away down the sidewalk with Yuruko, she heard the crowd laughing. Samuel was already starting up a windy yarn: one that would end with him ripping the host's head off.
As they passed the corner, Serena glanced back and said: "Okay, I gotta ask. Did you actually call Mia a yandere?"
Yuruko grinned. "You know what a yandere is?"
"Yeah, but I don't think she's one." she laughed. "Um, she's my mentor."
"I can tell."
They walked for another minute and Yuruko said nothing. This silence uneased Serena, so she said: "Um, I like your hair color. You look like a main character."
"That's because I am." said Yuruko, relevantly. "Uh, it's meant to be the same shade as Rei's."
"From Evangelion?" said Serena, referencing an anime.
Yuruko nodded. Her connection with Rei Ayanami wasn't solely in her hair color, either: when she was younger, she strongly identified with Rei's lack of strong emotion, stiff habits and flat affect. That these traits had come from Rei's upbringing & not autism was something she liked to ignore. "Yeah. Did you see the new movie?"
"Um, yeah. I still think the show was better."
"Yeah, I get that. Coolio." Yuruko's free hand scrunched. "Uh, sorry, I'm just used to chicks on campus who - you know, they like to say they're a huge otaku or whatever, and then they just watch shit-tier anime like Boku No Hero Academia."
"I mean, I guess I watch JoJo's." said Serena, hoping it wasn't shit-tier.
"JoJo's is fine." shrugged Yuruko. "At least they actually, y'know, use strategies in their fights like an actual shonen. And I mean, I know that's supposed to be a demographic term, but fucking everybody knows what shonen means. You get what I mean?"
Serena nodded, comprehending most of it. As she had seen an ad for an arcade at a nearby mall, she asked Yuruko if they could stop there, and the blue-haired chemist took up most of their conversation on the way there. That was alright by Serena: she usually hated her own voice anyway. Asking Yuruko a little about Mia, she soon got the feeling Mia & Aimee were the only women on campus Yuruko didn't dislike. Aimee never pretended that they shared anything but a common sex, and she assumed this in to her girlfriend as well.
Serena frowned as they came in to the arcade: the counter was at the left, and only one line of machines was to the right. Judging by their selection, this was one place prone to sorry games. As she dug in to her pockets, her frown grew like Yuruko's.
"…no quarters." muttered Yuruko.
"I left my money with Mia." mumbled Serena.
"What is she, your mom?"
Serena winced, not knowing Yuruko had intended it jokingly. "Um, she's just - I nearly died my first week, so. She's kinda protective."
"If you're not going to buy anything, you can leave." droned the clerk, as ugly outside as in. "And if you're going to play - what are your Revenants?"
"What's it to you, smelly -"
" - uh, mine is a black fog, super corrosive." chimed Serena, patting Yuruko's back with a winking hand.
"Uh - yep. And mine... just lets me do this." said Yuruko, and she held her hands out and away. A spark lit at her gloved fingertips, and lightning arced between.
The clerk frowned. "Fine. Don't fucking use that on the machines. They're expensive. Imported from Japan. Practically last of their kind - because kids these days would rather waste their money on puerile shit rather than appreciate the classics. CAVE's been reduced to fucking mobile games -"
"- we won't." chimed Serena, and set her hands in her pockets, metal inside suddenly jingling.
Yuruko glanced with a question at her, but caught the trend again. The two walked to one of the machines at the back. "Quarters?" she whispered.
"Uh, hopefully close enough." murmured Serena, and pulled two bits of quarter-shaped metal from her pocket. The two held breath deep as she placed it in -
- and to their smile, the counterfeits passed. Yuruko took position beside Serena, readying for two-player, gloved hands on joystick and two buttons.
"If you're not going to buy anything, you can leave." said the clerk behind, and as they turned -
- there stood a costumed weirdo at the counter, wearing red sleeves&blue gloves, blond and shaking his head.
"No, no." His eyes caught the two at the other end, and he placed his hands on the counter. "Do you have change, by any chance?"
"Yeah. One dollar per fifty cents." muttered the clerk, digging under the counter. He pulled a roll out and clutched it like it was an artifact, one hand on the counter.
"What a dirty bitch you are." yawned the man. "Purify."
He tapped the counter, and in the next instant -
- the clerk's right hand fell in to the counter as if it were liquid, and his right arm corroded away as if by acid; he shrieked and stumbled forward, direct in to the incorporeal counter -
- and the acid dissolved his body from the neck down. The man gripped his head mid-fall, and threw it at the two women at the other end -
- and with the speed of light the two dodged away, the machines touching their backs.
"We don't have that tablet, dipshit!" said Yuruko.
"Yeah, dipshit! No tablet!" said Serena.
"Dirty, dirty mouths." muttered the man.
Out of the corner of her eyes, Yuruko caught something moving in the grisly head on the floor; a white worm. It slithered out of the stump and towards her, and as it leaped towards her boots -
- she dodged away and to Serena's side, assuring her balance on a nearby machine; the snake caught nothing but arcade cabinet, and as it dissolved in to one's case -
- a horrific shriek erupted from Yuruko, her gloves on the machine suddenly corroding and burning her skin, pain staggering her forward -
" - Medicinal!" shouted Yuruko, and her torn gloves reformed - but the women had no time to rest. The white serpent burst out of the machine behind and leaped to Serena's shoulder, and as it readied to burrow in to her jacket -
- Yuruko ripped it off and threw it back to its master.
"Let me handle touching it. Medicinal's got it." said Yuruko, the two stepping carefully back, the cabinets safe again. "Bet I can guess your Revenant now, dickless!"
"Yeah, dickless!" shouted Serena, utterly clueless, but less anxious.
Scooping the quarters up, he threw them rapidly forward, and before the women could react -
- three acidic quarters entered Yuruko's chest; she shrieked as she stumbled back against the wall, wounds corroding through her heart and dissolving her veins, and as another volley missed narrowly her neck -
- a stream of black fog filled her heart with new flesh and blood, healing her rapidly. With no time to waste, Yuruko pressed her hands on the back wall, gesturing for Serena to follow; her hands swept down -
- and the wall turned to water, roof starting to collapse; in to the back room ran the women, fog filling the hole with steel as they rushed across the room and to the back wall.
"This - this is near the parking lot, right?" said Yuruko, catching her breath quick. "Outside - outside?"
"Um - yeah, but -"
" - need to go - quick!"
She yanked Serena by her collar, her free hand sweeping down the back wall -
- and an entrance of sudden water was cleared again, the sidewalk and parking lot ahead as the women rushed through the sudden entrance, a second stream of fog filling the exit behind.
Over the sidewalk and through the parking lot the women ran; but a horrific scraping soon entered behind their ears, and as they turned -
- they saw the entire shopping mall collapsing in, the walls dissolving and melting, last screams inside. Billows of smoke filled their eyes and ears, and as the clouds of smoke threatened to strangle the two -
- a gust of black fog filled the smoke with gusts of wind, dispersing and throwing it skyward, clearing their ears and eyes. The women stepped carefully back, the ruins of the shopping mall dissolving ahead.
"That's - that's a lot - a lot of - dead." panted Serena, seeing their foe rise from the rubble in the distance.
"I - y-yep. He's - he's gonna turn this parking lot acidic when he gets here. Jump when I say jump."
"Okay."
Their foe stepped out of the ruins and rushed up to the sidewalk, and as his hands tapped the beginning of the parking lot -
"Jump!" shouted Yuruko -
- and the two women jumped, Yuruko kicking below Serena in mid-air. A platform of stone formed below, and with no time to waste, Yuruko turned and wheeled, a bridge of stone - then asphalt - then stone - forming beneath her boots as she ran, Serena rushing close behind on the midair bridge.
"Stay behind - two different materials - hard - hang on - need to catch my breath -" panted Yuruko, and the two halted, Serena huddling at Yuruko's back.
Not catching the trick, the man ran in pursuit below, and reached the beginning of the bridge; he leaped and tapped the asphalt, white serpent slithering from out of his palm, and as the asphalt in the area turned acidic -
- the women were unharmed, standing on stone now, Yuruko cackling ahead & above, the cars around melting and dissolving in to the asphalt.
"He turns -types- of material acidic. C'mon, we need to run, gonna let the others know -"
- the man tapped the stone; the women swept back to the asphalt, and as they readied to flee -
" - you know, Purity works on biological signatures too, young women!" laughed the man.
Yuruko's blood turned to ice as she saw the man crouch, and scoop something from the ground - drops of sweat she knew were her's, and as the white worm slithered in to the liquid -
" - Blackburn!"
- with the speed of fog, a black cloud filled Serena's cup with liquid, and as she threw it in Yuruko's face -
- the sweat flew out from her pores, landing and corroding the bridge ahead, the labcoat-woman unharmed. A second stream of fog repeated the same for Serena, the two women now dripping in hydrophobic grease.
Ahead, their foe leaped to the bridge and vaulted up; the women wheeled, rushing down the suddenly-forming bridge out of the parking lot. The road was just ahead, the streets below packed with cars -
" - hey - leap when I say leap, okay? Just - one step forward - " whispered Yuruko as the two ran, and in the next instant - " - leap."
Serena leaped over the next section of the bridge that formed, stumbling as she landed behind Yuruko, the women's bridge over the road now, civilians below and their foe behind.
"Wait - shit!" winced Yuruko, hearing their foe laugh behind, and in the next instant -
- the asphalt of the road below turned corrosive, dissolving cars and swallowing hundreds of civilians in its wake, the last screams filling their ears. Yuruko halted sudden, hand on Serena's chest, and the two women turned to the devil still in pursuit.
Yuruko sighed as she saw him leap over the same section Serena had, the trap she had left useless.
"Fuck - Medicinal doesn't have much left, fuck -" panted Yuruko, hearing the rushing of footsteps below, but daring not move her eyes for a moment -
" - you've dropped something, here!" shouted the man, crouching to scoop something from the bridge again -
- and Serena's blood turned cold as she saw him scoop the hydrophobic oil in his fingers. The white worm slithered from his palm to within, and as the oil on their faces turned corrosive -
"Medic-"
"- White-Hot!"
- a pillar of white fire erupted from below, claiming his entire body; he swept his eyes below -
- only in time for a frozen projectile to pierce through his brain & eyes. A second and third burst through his chest and out his back, and he fell rigid on to the ice platform suddenly below.
There, Mia stood, sending a swarm of fire scarabs to burn his body to ash. A fourth disintegrated his heart, and they knew that he was dead.
"Are you alright, Serena?" she shouted up.
"I- yeah!" shouted Serena, and whispered to Yuruko. "Um, you're okay, too, right?"
"Yep." said Yuruko, wiping the oil from her face.
Serena thought she had done something to anger her, but it was simply Yuruko's trait to speak in a monotone. Yuruko stepped off the bridge and stairs of stone formed, noticing Mia's expression was concerned as they came up to her.
"I'm- I'm sorry I left, Serena. Jeanne and Samuel were also attacked, and I thought…" Mia stepped behind Serena. "…er, let me check you for wounds."
Serena felt self-conscious as Mia gave her a look-over, checking for any holes in her jacket or pants. She remembered when she was younger, her father having died, and her then-on having to put up with her mother ruffling her hair until highschool graduation, and she felt her body shrivel.
Unbeknownst to her, Mia was worried for what Marisa once warned her about: the danger for new hosts to be unaware of their new pain resistance. It was something she had learned to respect.
Yuruko checked her tablet and laughed. "Aimee tore the guy that attacked Samuel a new asshole. Fatality."
Mia nodded. "Er, we should return -"
" - oh shit, she actually did." said Serena, peeking over Yuruko's shoulder. "Mia, you gotta see this, he literally shit himself when she killed him, but it went out his -"
" - some other time." winced Mia at the two laughing devils. She had made another idiotic mistake and slipped from her plan. As she looked back to the dissolved shopping mall, she was eager to direct her own attention away. "Did he say his Revenant's name?"
"Uh, Purity. Dude looked like a total weirdo." said the blue-haired woman, wearing a lab coat, gloves, thick glasses, and rubber boots.
"Yeah." said the black-haired punk, wearing a spiked leather jacket and boots.
The white-haired woman wearing a beaked obsidian mask laughed. "He did look a little odd. Er, still, I - I apologise, Serena. We should be fighting as a pair."
"Um, don't beat yourself up." chimed Serena.
"Guess we should go check on them." said Yuruko, and they set off.
Jeanne & Samuel had been eating in a diner together before they were attacked, and the three entered to a bloody scene. The fryers at the back were filled with red and gore coated the floor. As they turned left, they saw Jeanne limping with her chest caved in, leaning on Aimee & Samuel for support.
Serena rushed over to them and Blackburn's fog set to work.
"What the hell happened?" said Yuruko.
"A fast Revenant." muttered Samuel. "I've got Outcast's armor, but her-"
" - w-water-steel doesn't taste good." coughed Jeanne.
"He dragged her in to Dream's trap." explained Aimee. "Uh, she sprayed a hole in the floor by turning it to water, and … you see."
"Gonna be alright?" winced Samuel, as Jeanne motioned to be transferred on to Serena's shoulder.
Her body tottered until they sat down in a booth together. As streams of fog healed her lungs, bits of tile that hasn't fully dissolved started coming back up Jeanne's throat, and she could feel her fingers dig in to Serena. Still, she supposed this was better than last year, where she would've been glad to choke with an excuse.