The following day, the prodigal pair had been called to Nuiko's office for a bizarre request.
"No. No way." said Serena.
"It's three thousand dollars." said Nuiko. "I'm just saying, most people have to deal with narcissists for free."
"After the way she treated me? No way."
Mia nodded. "Is there anyone else available for it?"
Nuiko's frown answered. "…it's been like this all year finding anyone who'll go with her, you know. I mean, at least Hitler had Italy."
"Yes, but..."
"Um, I could go with you if you want." said Jeanne. "She really hates me. It'll be like that metal rod that attracts lightning. Lightning poles or whatever."
Mia glanced at Serena. "…would you be alright with that?"
"…I guess it's $3,000." muttered Serena.
"Yeah, exactly." Jeanne smiled to Mia.
"I'll go with you. They need me there since it's a delivery, anyway." said Nuiko.
++++++
As Kirihara stood on the platform of one of the trains that led out of Urasaria, and watched the gate of Urasaria's entrance, she saw someone covered in blood stepping through it. She enjoyed the goriness this implied; not an unusual trait for hosts, but Kirihara had a gleefulness towards murder above the norm. It was a trait she had identified in Serena during the week they spent together, and that she had almost immediately noticed Serena also possessed (in modern parlance) a juicy ass certainly didn't hurt.
Her kills were generally a level above the sadism & gore of Serena, and one such kill occured on a date Kirihara remembered very clearly: March 10th.
She had just finished killing a host by herself, had impaled it to the wall using Carve's spear, and was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world to watch it spin and wash blood all over the place. She then heard a scream, turned to see a civilian who had just passed by the corner looking at her and *this* how you would expect. Kirihara's badge was not visible through the blood, so this woman screamed louder for help.
This annoyed Kirihara, but as much as the woman reminded her of a mangled siren, she did enjoy at some level being able to get away with this. That she could openly murder and enjoy it openly was something that put her above the criminals she killed. But she rolled her eyes and went back to her business. She noticed it eventually stopped, and turned to see Mia standing over the woman's shoulder, comforting her, giving a similar glare towards Kirihara.
This dual wave of targeted disgust coalesced in Kirihara's memory, and sometimes on remembrance, it would be another student who had seen her or multiple civilians. It has already been mentioned how apt the human mind is at stamping traits, voices, and memories with certain molecules it possesses no atoms of; her fixation on this eventually caused several faces, including Mia's, to merge in to one Urasaria face that she felt she must contort in to control; thus her ambition to presidency.
Yet, perhaps in this, she was rootly aware of her own psychopathy. It would be difficult to diagnose such a condition in hosts, and what spurs you as a civilian to laugh at Serena's cartoonish violence yet retch at Kirihara's is really, more likely than not, that you like Serena and dislike Kirihara. So subjectivity is no basis for diagnosis. Go south of the equator, and some countries find lesbians as evil as Hitler.
Regardless of what it was, Kirihara now saw only one face walking to where she was standing, smiled to it, then was annoyed to see the four-or-one following it. "What, you coming to see her off?"
"They're coming with me." said Serena, stepping inside the carriage.
Kirihara frowned as Jeanne, Nuiko (carrying her pouch with the painting), and Mia followed after her & Serena. Three of these people were insects, and she needed to be one step ahead of them. "Hey. Serena. Serena, listen to *me*. The contract was $9,000 for three people, not-"
"Yeah, I know." Serena sat next to Mia.
"No, you don't." Kirihara tried to sit next to Serena, but was beaten by Nuiko. She stood there for a few moments, then leaned against one of the poles as if this had been her expectation to begin with. "They don't pay out more the more people you have. C'mon, you don't know that by now?" She glanced to Mia, began to say something, then decided against it as the train moved in to the afternoon.
These mag-lev trains were part of an ongoing network to connect Urasaria Academy to the rest of the country, though in 2020, it still only covered the tri-state area surrounding New York. These models had been a collaboration between Western & Eastern countries with all the bickering, bitching about unfairness and favoritism towards certain companies & friends that these government projects entailed; but the windows of these trains that contain smears of city passing by at hundreds of miles an hour has often been a sight a student, or mentor & protege pair, has turned their faces towards in the steep evening after a hunt.
Here it was a distractant from Kirihara.
Eventually they departed and changed to another civilian train, and were halfway through their ride, when in the next instant -
- they heard a shriek of terror ahead, sound of four footsteps beginning on the roof ahead; the five shot to their feet -
- ahead, the roof began to buckle inward, collapsing a clear hole through -
- and down the hole fell a bizarre creature, four bowed legs to the ground, a mark on its neck, enormous tongue and covered in boils; a hundred feet separated the five and it.
"Revenant." said Jeanne, stepping carefully back.
"Uh, yeah. Obviously." groaned Kirihara -
" - civilians." nodded Nuiko, readying to make her way back; with a nod from Mia, Jeanne & Nuiko fled to the back, disappearing through the carriage doors behind, creature still standing still ahead.
"Got the dead weight gone." chimed Kirihara, and in the next instant -
- the train began to speed up, sudden change in momentum throwing the women off balance and forward, creature starting its charge forward as they stumbled -
" - Carve!" shouted Kirihara, sawblade appearing ahead, unseen force remolding it to a solid pole -
- and out the side of the carriage it pierced, hitting the wall and grinding for hundreds and hundreds of feet, slowing the train steadily; ahead, the creature's tongue lashed the windows -
- and a hundred glass shards appeared on its body, sharp ends facing the women.
It was like a glass and crimson nightmare as it rushed down the corridor, low legs hurtling its body along at terrifying gait, and as it came halfway between -
" - Worldwide!"
- a pillar of white flame claimed its body -
- and still it rushed out of the pillar, covered in white flames, carriage walls starting to melt all around them -
" - fucking dipsh-" grunted Kirihara, and before she could react -
- the creature pounced on her, misshapen hands and feet pinning her down with the weight of a thousand; she struggled and thrashed, and as its tongue sought her throat -
- a spear of steel burst out of her chest, piercing and impaling the creature to the roof, thrashing as it was pinned. With a grunt, Kirihara stood, Carve's reformed blade keeping it trapped as the women backed away - but they had no time to rest.
Its tongue erupted from its maw, slicing in half Carve's spear -
- and turning itself upsidedown on to the ceiling, crawling above as the women backed away again, thirty feet separating them and its flaming body. Kirihara took position ahead of Serena, and as it started its rush again -
" - Worldwide." sighed Mia, aiming her sword high -
- and a jet of water erupted from the tip, dousing its flames and covering it in water. It dropped down the floor again, shaking rabid and covering the three in liquid -
- and Kirihara's blood boiled as she saw its tongue tear at the floor, burrowing and attempting to dig in to the third rail of electricity, and as it opened a hole in the floor -
" - Blackburn!" shouted Serena -
- and streams of fog flew in to the third rail and corroded a section away, creature's tongue catching only acid. It stumbled back, body suddenly covered with acid -
- and corroding through the floor rapidly; with no time to waste, it started its rush forward, readying to pounce on the women, and in a sweep of its tongue seeking Serena's neck -
- the next scene was instant.
Two streams of fog flew in to its tongue -
- and its entire body dissolved in an instant, leaving a laughing Serena, Kirihara grinning as it disappeared.
"Got it." chimed Serena, fog refilling the holes left below. "I, uh - made a reaction for a super strong acid, so - it could only get immune to one of them, I guess."
"Good job. Smart girl." Kirihara placed her hand on Serena's shoulder. "You alright?"
Mia watched as Serena turned, gently grabbed Kirihara's hand, then set it off of her. "I'm fine."
Kirihara gave Serena a look of disdain, then looked to Mia, nodded, smiled back to Serena & herself, and said she would see how it looked ahead. With the conductor dead, Mia & the others spent an hour evacuating civilians to the next train station using a bridge of Worldwide ice, then took their first stop in the city there.