"Smell? I don't smell anything." Kaiyo answered Fudo's comment on the warehouse.
"How can't you smell this? It's like my nose is burning up from the inside!" He furiously replied to Kaiyo, but she still didn't understand what he meant. All she could smell at that moment was air. It didn't smell like anything at all, and most of all, not the way Fudo described it.
"Hey... would you smell this for a second?" Kaiyo asked before she pulled Excalibur from his sheath. Fudo turned around after hearing her odd request, just to feel Excalibur's tip touch the space between his nose and lip. He didn't make a sound. He didn't even move a bit. He only stared at the sword before Kaiyo's gaze loosened up, and she took the sword back a little.
"I'm sorry, whenever I point him at someone, it's usually for threatening." She walked up to Fudo and held his edge a little under his nose. "I just want you to take a quick sniff."
"A sniff?" He asked, eyeing the sword under his nose. He didn't know why she wanted this or even what she meant before the blade began to emit a colored aura. A black and red mist that seemed to be nothing but an illusion came from the handle and surrounded the blade.
"You see his aura? That's the compressed Elysium. I just want you to smell that a little." Kaiyo told him, closely observing his reactions.
"It smells like..." He didn't finish his sentence. The moment that the aura entered his nose, his eyes became wide and began to tear up. His arms flung up to cover his nose as he did his best not to yell out. "It burns... it fucking burns! Why did you make me do this?!"
"It's not supposed to do anything. It shouldn't smell at all." She said with a confused gaze at the blade just before she sheathed it back. "... What or who the fuck are you, Fudo? A noes that can use Elysium like no one with an esper... and you can even smell Elysium? There's no way you're a normal fucking human, but we'll get that later... what you smell here, is it the same?"
"Y...yes...yes it is." He said, wiping away the tears from his eyes. "Your sword has the same smell...but way stronger...as if the whole scent was shot at my nose in a matter of seconds... does that mean there are espers in here?"
"Oho, we got a smartie here. It does mean that... but the way I like to think about, this means that-"
"We are allowed to kill them?" He hesitantly cut into Kaiyo's explanation. He wasn't very fond of the idea of killing someone, even if it was Tsubasa, but he knew that Kaiyo wouldn't hesitate. At least, that's the impression he got of her.
"Wow, how did you know?"
"..."We can't allow our side to shrink while our enemies grow." You said that earlier when you threatened us to join your company... and in the library... I think I heard you say something along the lines of you being allowed to kill esper users from other fractions... and when you see it as necessary."
Kaiyo made a short whistling sound, surprised by his answer. "You got a good memory, Ironskin." She chuckled. "Exactly, if these bastards happen to be affiliated with either Genesis or Empereur, then we can cut 'em up without worry."
"So... will we just break in there?"
As she heard Fudo ask that, she began laughing once more. "Wanna see mommy make an entrance?"
"They already have an entrance in the back."
"Then why did you ask that in the first place?"
"Uh... I thought you had like... a key to get in anywhere? I mean, you are working for the government." He answered with a confused look.
"I don't know where you get your information on government workers, but they don't have that... I think. Also, we are government-funded, but we are technically a company of mercenaries."
"Ah... well, that changes things... how exactly did you want to make that entrance?"
Kaiyo smirked again. "This is how the sins get their job done!" She raised her sword, the aura wrapped around it once more. Fudo didn't know what that was supposed to do, but he took a step back just in case while also covering his nose.
The aura surrounding the blade grew thicker. It almost looked like it became an extension for the blade. The blade only grew a tiny bit, but the second that Kaiyo swung Excalibur downwards, it seemed like the sword was hundreds of meters long.
A single swing ripped the ground apart. One single crack that looked like it was caused by a giant claw decorated the earth in front of them, but Kaiyo didn't do that just to show off. As soon as the dust that was whirled up disappeared, a similar crack in the warehouse became visible.
"And that's a simple, one-armed shockwave from my beautiful Excalibur. What do you think, huh? Am I awesome or what?"
"It reeks..." Fudo simply answered, trying his best to not look amazed by Kaiyo's attack. He held his nose shut, not wanting to smell any of the aura any more than he did before.
"Tsk... you're just a brat, you don't know how amazing this is." Kaiyo clicked her tongue, going ahead and towards the opening she just made. She grabbed Fudo on the hood of his jacket, pulling him along just in case he tried to run away now, but that wasn't Fudo's intention at all. All he wanted to avoid was killing anyone, but even that was inevitable, he knew.
"So, bratty, if we saw someone in there, you may kill 'em, you know that, now, correct?"
"I do, yeah, but I won't... Tsubasa... maybe... but none of his people."
"Yeah, yeah... then let me do the killing... I hope more than just one or two have an esper... I'd like to kill more than half of these child parasites..." Kaiyo dropped Fudo in front of her, patting his shoulder without looking away from the crack in the warehouse's walls.
"Parasites...?" Fudo watched her stop in front of the entrance she created. "What do you mean?"
"The children you call your younger siblings started to make money just to pay these bastards their protection fee... they are feeding off the money of children... they can't be called anything but parasite, can they?"
"I guess... it's a new way to call them." He smiled a bit, sighing before he followed Kaiyo into the warehouse, where both of them were immediately greeted with gunfire.
"I wondered why they weren't coming out! Normally, these stupid insects are instantly running towards light!" She seemed to enjoy the sudden shots that were fired at them. She took Fudo's hood again and jumped into a small crack in a container that opened through her slash from before. She was able to evade all the shots, but Fudo had some of them hit his legs as he was pulled after her.
"I thought you were immune against bullets?!"
"I said they couldn't properly get through me! My skin catches them before they hit anything important... but it still hurts like shit!" He pulled the right leg of his pants up.
"These are normal bullets... your skin is full of Elysium, that shit shouldn't do anything for a few hours."
"I know, I know! The last time I was shot, the real pain came hours after the wound was treated."
"Get out of there!" A voice came from outside the container.
"Why aren't they just opening it... or shoot from where we came..." Fudo asked, a bit impatient and nervous since at any moment, there could be shots coming from any direction.
"I just cut open a whole part of their wall. They know that one of us can do that, so of course, they wait for us to act first... simple tactics, you should know that if you wanna make your own team."
"Aren't you worried about what's going to happen? We're surrounded! You're way too calm!"
"Aw... would you like mommy to rescue you?" She said with a smirk, followed by a banging against the door of the container. Even though it can only be opened from their side.
"This isn't the time for that! They'll shoot any second!"
"Man... I didn't know that Ironskin would be such a pussy." She laughed and stood up. She didn't seem to care about their shots at all, rather, she looked like she was waiting for them to shoot,
"I'm sorry that I don't have an all-destroying weapon like you!"
Kaiyo had a wide smile plastered across her face as she changed the way she held Excalibur. Previously she carried the sword with one hand next to her, but now she held the sword with both hands, and the tip pointed towards the door.
"This is gonna smell." The aura began circling around the blade. It expanded to look like a miniature tornado around it before she pushed the blade forward. The blade again didn't even touch the container's door, but the current made by the blade was enough to shoot the door away with a sound rivaling an artillery cannon.
The second she did so, she changed the grip on the handle back to how she held it previously while cutting the warehouse open. She stepped out as the area was still covered by the dust the threw up by her thrusting technique, but she soon realized they didn't simply wait for them to make the first move.
"Fudo, c'mere if you can walk already." She simply said in an annoyed tone, looking left and right to the parts of the hall she was able to see again. Fudo didn't limp despite being shot in the leg. He only covered his nose again. After all, he was in a small area where Kaiyo bundled a lot of Elysium, which was basically a weapon to him in a different way than intended.
"Did you...blow off the entire house...?" He asked, looking around at the Trees suddenly surrounding them. "And...also create a forest where it stood?"
"As if, look at the ground and concentrate. Activate the scan Miyo gave you and tell me the name you see." Kaiyo sighed. Both of them stood in the middle of a forest. It looked nothing like where they were before and not like there was a warehouse either.
"I don't see anything."
"I said concentrate."
"I am!"
"Then do it better!" She said slightly louder and more annoyed. Without waiting for an answer from him, she jumped up, trying to cut down one of the Trees. Excalibur went through the wood like butter, but the trunk didn't fall down. The cut-off part reconnected to the trunk the second Excalibur's blade left it.
"The... fuck?"
While Kaiyo tried cutting the tree down, Fudo tried what she told him to do. He stared at the ground, trying to concentrate on it as Kaiyo said, but he didn't get anything. His view stayed the same.
"Eh?" He suddenly saw something directly in the center of his view. A kind of pop-up. A window looking right out of a video game appeared in front of his eyes, but only for a brief second.
"Ok so... those trees are like... physical illusions... or however Miyo called these. They aren't real, but you can touch... 'em...what are you doing?" Kaiyo asked as she came back to Fudo. In the meanwhile, even the container they came out disappeared, and the area turned into the forest as well.
"I... I saw something!"
"Oh? Worked finally? Can ya do that again? I don't know where they are, and I don't know how long it'll take for them to open fire again...Excalibur is a damage dealer and no speed blade. I can't cut bullets mid-air."
"I...I'm trying." Fudo stared down. He didn't really understand what he did to see the thing from before, but he tried replicating that exact process. This time, it was more thorough. He could feel something inside his body enter his eyes. A burning feeling, like the smell coming from the warehouse and Excalibur.
Kaiyo sighed, thinking that it again was just a false alarm and he didn't actually see something, but before she could say anything, Fudo's eyes caught sparks.
"The storyteller's pop-up book."