Yuriko held herself ready, waiting for her wily foe to return. Her sunblades were ready to explode with all the Radiant energy they held. The the explosion and damage wouldn't be as powerful as using Radiant Lance, it had the advantage of being easy to use, and there were dozens of sunblades at the ready. At the moment, there were thousands, and while her Intent and Will rapidly depleted, it was better than open herself up to attack
Still, it wasn't as if the sunblades were doing anything else. She sent hundreds of them inside the manor, ignored the yelps and screams of surprise, then moved to secure her students as well as the other abductees.
She hovered just outside the mansion, and when one of the abductors resisted too much, by threatening to shoot one of the kids with his sidearm, she took off his arms. The flesh was cauterised so he wouldn't bleed to death, but it would take advanced Arcana Weaving if he wanted to get his limbs back.
The display, along with her Terror Mien, which she should have used instead of blunt force, Yuriko realised, kept them away now. She was too agitated and the fact that her obsidian arrow-flinging foe had not made another appearance only upped the tension. She used her Animakinesis to speak with Sofia, who looked to be in more control of herself than Juliette.
"Sofia, take Juliette and the other hostages. Leave towards the garden, I'll open a gap for you."
Sofia nodded, and took Juliette by the hand, who startled from the sudden contact. The teacup clattered as she placed it back down the saucer, and Yuriko saw her look around. But the guards that had been keeping a surreptitious eye on them had already been taken down too quickly for them to even scream. The rest of the hostages, half a dozen academy-age youths, all girls, were similarly nervous.
"We're being rescued." Sofia said, "Come with us."
Yuriko focused a strand of consciousness on each of the hostages and kept the rest on the lookout. The sunblades were becoming too much of a drain on her resources and she released eighteen hundred of them from active control. The Animus and Radiant energy within them would last for a few minutes at most, and she only left instructions on each blade to explode on contact with the elusive elderly man.
Afterwards, she flew over to the garden where the eight hostages were. The girls ranged from pre-teen to Sofia and Juliette's age. None of them looked much worse for wear, just a few bruises on their arms, and one had a broken lip. None had the empty eyes of the gravely abused, thankfully, but rage still boiled in Yuriko's veins. She was about to execute the abductors when she heard and felt several sunblades explode. North, south, east, and west.
"Tsk." Yuriko clicked her tongue.
No time to lose now. Eight women were easily picked up by her Animakinesis, and she did so with alacrity. She pulled them close, and sped away towards the southwest, coming closer to the Kerromere Mountains in the process. A few minutes later, no exploding sunblades made themselves known, and she wondered if her elusive foe escaped them or managed to neutralise the Radiant explosions. Her Intent recovered slowly compared to her Animus and Radiant energy reserves, and it slowed even further if she didn't have time to rest and meditate. As it were, she could bring out her full complement of sunblades once more, and control them for five minutes before she was depleted.
Ideally, she shouldn't do that, as the more depleted her Intent and Will became, the longer it would take to recover them. An hour's meditation would see her topped up now, but if she depleted them, she might take a week or so before she came back to full. She did not have the chance to ascertain her limits in that regard, however, and based it on the knowledge she inherited from Damien.
She brought them to the skies and flew as fast as she could. She kept an eye out behind her, but aside from a single volley of obsidian arrowheads, that she easily deflected, nothing else attacked them.
She arrived back in the Abad estate a couple of hours later, and as soon as she landed, along with all of the rescued girls, Duke Fluffington pounced on her and ended up toppling her over. His tongue was rather rough against her cheek, and she couldn't help but giggle.
"Alright, alright! Enough, Fluffers." She pushed his snout away. He'd grown just a little bit bigger over the past couple of weeks, and his Anima reach had grown by half an inch or so. Not a very impressive increase, but all things considered, it was only to be expected.
Sofia and Juliette walked up to the giant wolf pup and rubbed his back, while the rest of the rescued girls hung back and stared at Fluffington with not a little bit of wariness.
"You're safe," Yuriko said as she stood up. "This is the Abad estate, a few longstrides south of Virtalla. I'm sure Juan Carlos will send a message to your guardians." She gestured towards the manor staff, who were more than surprised at the girls. Juan Carlos himself had emerged from the main house and rushed to envelop Juliette in an embrace.
"I'll do that," Juan Carlos said as he eyed the girls. "Hmm, Pedrero, Acin, Pastor, and Roses families?"
Two of the older girls, the ones Juan Carlos called Roses, looked practically identical. They were clad in their festival costumes, and the only differentiator was whether their ponytails were gathered to the left or right side of their faces. Of course, Yuriko's perception could tell them apart from the very minute differences in their features and their Anima, which she could only feel if she pressed her perception into their skin.
Another pair of girls, one the same age as the twins, who were probably a year younger than Sofia and Juliette, and the other was the youngest girl there, clung to each other. They looked wide-eyed at Yuriko, and she couldn't decipher their emotions. She did feel their threads enter her orbit in the dreamscape, but at least they weren't entangled. Though it would only be a matter of time if they stayed near her…or thought about her too much.
She tilted her head in wonder. How did she know or feel that? She was not in the dreamscape, and her Mien was in its passive state…
But it was already different. Stronger, and fuller…more of itself, as though the Mien before she allowed it free rein was but a shadow of itself. She shook her head and the sensations the Mien fed her moved into the back of her mind.
Ryoko. She still needed to rescue her handmaiden.
Juan Carlos ushered the girls into the house, but before he left the garden, he turned to her and said, "I received your Sending, but when I asked for more details, you weren't able to answer." He paused, "I thought the worst had happened…so thank you." He shook his head, then added, "The city is practically boiling in unrest, those godforsaken Scions…they turned their backs on the rest of us and worked with the enemy. Take care, Professor Davar."
Yuriko nodded and watched as they left. The girls looked back at her for a long moment, and the youngest even waved at her. Sofia and Juliette quietly thanked her before leaving.
Yuriko felt for Ryoko's thread and received feedback. She was still northeast of the city. It was already close to midnight, and the Half Moon was bright in the sky. However, if Yuriko flew with her full power, she could get to Ryoko in less than an hour. The emotions seeping through the threads remained guarded but stable. Still, she wasn't about to leave Ryoko in the enemy's hands.
"I'll going to get Ryoko," she said to Fluffington, who growled and pawed at her chest. "You want to come along?"
The wolf pup nodded, and Yuriko hummed and considered her options. She could fly with him and the puppy's weight, while greater than any of the other girls, wouldn't really slow her down by much. He might not be all that helpful against that elusive old man, but he would be able to fight or distract the others. And he might get himself filled with bullet holes.
"Show me your defences," Yuriko said.
Fluffington woofed softly and expanded his Anima. It wasn't much more than a pace from his fur, and he then condensed it, copying her method, until the sheen of his Anima turned silver. Yuriko poked it with a finger and her nail slipped off. She pressed down on it, and Fluffington whined.
"Too rigid. You need a bit of space in between otherwise all of the force hitting your defences will simply transfer it." She showed him how to layer his condensed Anima and was surprised at how easily he picked it up. His tongue lolled in happiness, and he barked his joy. "You're more like a dog than a wolf." Yuriko teased and she laughed when his face fell. "I suppose this works. Let's go."
She wrapped him up with her Animakinesis and brought them high up in the air, above the clouds. They flew for an hour at her maximum speed, though she had to devote a bit of her reach to give the pupper better protection. Once she felt Ryoko was close, she moved cautiously until she was directly above the area.
Enhanced Sight gave her a clear view. It was a cabin near the woods, roughly fifty longstrides from the Kerromere Mountains and a hundred twenty longstrides northeast of Virtalla. There were no signs of resistance, and Yuriko suspected a trap. Still, she had to go down there, and they both dove towards the cabin.
She let Fluffington off to check the perimeter and she expanded her perception throughout the entire area. Ryoko was alone inside, and she was drinking a cup of tea, of all things.
She sent her perception underground too, but found nothing within ten to twenty paces. Frowning in puzzlement, she opened the cabin door and found Ryoko exactly as her Anima perception saw.
"Young mistress," Ryoko said with a smile. "Thank you for coming so quickly. I've been a bit bored."
"What…happened?"
Ryoko shrugged. "I was brought here. Others were abducted with me, but we were separated afterwards. I was told a message to give you, young mistress." She smirked. "Such foolish men." Shaking her head she said, "Their message was to ask you to leave the republic, Virtalla City to be precise. They don't want us interfering with their…coup."
Yuriko shook her head, "I didn't intend to, in the first place. Not before they offended me by taking you."
Ryoko giggled. "I know, young mistress. That's why they're foolish. Shall we go?"
"I'm surprised they didn't try to keep you hostage," Yuriko said as she enveloped her, along with Fluffington, in her Anima.
"They intended to," Ryoko confided, "but they weren't firm in their intentions. It was easy to spot how nervous they were, and they didn't really want to offend a neutral True Magus." Ryoko scoffed, "As if you're as weak as their kind!"
Yuriko raised an eyebrow. "You talked them into releasing you?"
"As if that's hard." Ryoko snorted.
Yuriko chuckled and didn't say anything else. It was well past midnight by the time they arrived at the Abad estate, and they quickly sought their rooms.
They were woken by a commotion. The servants were running in the hallways and their voices were loud. Yuriko quickly readied herself, skipping most of her morning ablutions.
A maid knocked on her door and asked her to go to the dining room as the family head needed her presence.
When she arrived, the first thing Juan Carlos said was, "Ishodir invaded. They overran all three border forts, and are marching towards Virtalla."