"Asagi," said the prime minister. "A word."
The second she'd made it back to headquarters she'd made for the airport. He'd ushered her into the meeting room buried deep within its walls and once in she motioned for him to sit across from her. "What is it?"
"See," he said with a strained stretch of his neck. "I trust you."
Asagi eyed the security detail for an answer but they were as lost as her. "I'm not sure where this is-?"
He cut her off with a wave of his hand. "So you know how my vice minister and your director are, shall we say acquaintances, no?"
Asagi agreed silently.
"Well they've informed me of something you haven't," he said, once more cutting her off as she moved to speak. "I'll hear you, patience, but now I am curious," he said and Asagi obliged. "Ingrid," he began, studying her steely complexion for any give. "I know you weren't there when the rift opened some 40 years back. But you've seen," he said. "What they did to this world." He took a long while to recollect himself, taking comfort in the soft clouds below. "What they are still doing to it."
"Sir I'm sorry I don't under-"
"You know I was an orphan," he said. He knew they had his file even if he'd requested they burn it. They had most anyone involved in the dealings of the demon question. "I watched my sister die and honestly I can only hope the same fate befell my mother. Father, after that, he was a dead man walking and it didn't take long for that to be made official. See that was Ingrid," he said. "I have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. They have assigned my head to her. You and I will see her, but I am curious. Why haven't you told me? Am I missing something?"
Asagi didn't know where to start, taking in a long sip of coffee as the prime minister's eyes bore into her. "The demon question is our fight," she began. "Ingrid is but a small player in our game."
"And what are we?"
Ikenami didn't bother taking the train. She walked the long 10 miles in the dark all the way back to Gosha academy. She'd been stopped by officer and passerby alike more than a few times on her pilgrimage. She knew her blood stained uniform and daggers in hand would warrant that but she was far past the point of caring.
When she buzzed the gate it took a long while for it to open. When it did the sight of Yukikaze limping out to her made her collapse with relief.
Yukikaze caught her head before it hit the pavement and helped her past where the gate shut. "What happened?" She asked, brushing Ikenami's hair out of her eyes even if the smell of her alone gave most of it away.
"Ing....!" Her tongue caught, burning with such cursed fire that she double back onto the pavement in agony, kicking at some nonexistent assailant as to free her from the fires within. But it was enough. Enough to make Yukikaze's face run pale. She pulled Ikenami hard to her feet and dragged her inside as fast as they could. "Sakura!" She called the second the doors clattered open with their arrival.
Sakura and Ayaka were the first to them, helping her into the doctor's room. "Where's Emily?" Sakura asked.
"She's asleep, I'll go get her."
As Ayaka left for the doctor, Sakura inspected the Taimanin on the bed. She would leave comfort to her friend in arms. There were questions that needed answering. "The senator?"
Ikenami covered her eyes both from the lights and Sakura's stare. In the dark the scenes of that night played on repeat. "She killed him," she said. It hurt, those words. She knew what it meant. How after all she'd been through the success of her mission had slipped right through her fingers.
Ayaka burst through the door with a visibly tired Emily in tow, practically throwing her over onto Ikenami. "Well?" She asked.
Emily shot her a poisonous look. "I just got here you twit." Emily's annoyance quickly passed at the sight of her patient. "I'm gonna check a few things," she said, beginning with her ankle. A sprain, but bad. Her shoulder had been dislocated but it had popped back in on its own. She'd be alright. "You're gonna be alright," she said but the look she gave Sakura could only convey one thing. She gently removed Ikenami's forearm from her wet eyes and set it at her side.
Yukikaze caught that look as quick as it was and held her friend tight. "It's okay now," she said.
"No it's not!" Ikenami burst, upright in an instant. Sakura's expression was steeled, her mind running over exactly what was to be done. Now that the senator was dead, now that his information was gone, and now that her most promising graduate had failed her first mission. "I failed! He's dead!" Ikenami didn't respond to Yukikaze's embrace. As warm as it was the cold exterior of the prior two weeks was too thick for it to perforate. "Where were you?" She asked. To Yukikaze, to Sakura she didn't care.
"Asagi radio'd me to assemble a rescue team. The breach was worse than we'd thought," she said. "Ingrid, you said?"
Ikenami nodded furiously. "Y-yes. Tonight. She'd been watching him from the day I arrived."
Sakura's lip twitched. "And you told no one?"
She could feel the scorn radiating down from her superiors' well concealed scowl. "Your coms were down by the time I figured it out," she said, her voice scant more than a whisper. "And he..." Ikenami shook her head in defeat. "He just wouldn't listen!" She cried.
Before Sakura could continue her interrogation Yukikaze interrupted. "Did he say anything?"
"Nagoya," she said. "Nagoya harbor and Kyoto. Those are their next targets. A distraction I think but I'm not sure."
Asuka entered the room silently. She noticed the deathly tone of their silence and the eyes of a failed Taimanin. "Nagoya and Kyoto?" She asked and when Ikenami confirmed it ruffled her dirty hair into a fray. "Good work kid."
The shadow of Edwin's castle loomed large before the great Hell Knight Ingrid. Before its gate rows of soldiers parted to aid her passage. As she walked, Okobu and general Hammond's heads in either hand, she slowed as three figures manifested out of the parting gate. The day was cavernously dark and the golden lights of the castle's interior blinded the Hell Knight in her path.
"Late," Lina chimed. Ingrid's lip twitched in annoyance. Once she'd raised Lina. Like herself a former slave to the coliseum. Black had seen promise in her and entrusted her training and teaching to her. As much of a dream as it had been all those years back she barely recognized the girl before her. Ingrid wished nothing more than to wipe that cheeky smirk off her face. "You're getting sloppy."
Ingrid pushed past who Edwin Black had bestowed the title of her second in command. As she moved quickly to Moloch the sight of Oboro sliding back into the light beyond drew her eye. Odd, she thought. Typically Oboro would be right by Lina's side, hanging on whatever fault they could find as if their lives depended on it. Moloch lifting the head of the general broke her train of thought.
"Who is that?" He asked and she quickly pulled the severed head from his hand.
"None of your business."
Moloch laughed. "Ingrid, where's the girl?" Normally she would've ignored a question like that or given him a 'where's your shirt?' but something about the tone of his voice stilled her tongue. "Where's the Taimanin?"
Ingrid cleared her throat, straightening herself before the crowd. "What's more important, the head of a lowly bitch or the skull of a general? Asagi's voice in the army."
Edwin Black rose from his throne at her sight. Oboro and Lina at either side. "Ah, Ingrid, a lovely sight as always," he cooed, his voice like rolling thunder in the hollow chamber.
Ingrid tossed the heads of her victims at her master's feet. "Your prize my lord," she said. The sight of Oboro and Lina fanning out to her back made her voice shake. "The senator and Asagi's general."
Edwin Black moved so close to his subject he could feel her breath. See how the pupils of her eyes danced between the three that surrounded her. He set a tender hand down on her shoulder. "Oh Ingrid," he sighed. "How disappointing."
Before Ingrid could answer he kicked the head of the general down the red golden carpet. As she watched his head roll Edwin lifted her by her collar with ease. She knew better than to draw her sword. As strong as she'd grown she was no match for him, dangling helplessly in his arms. "But sir I-"
He cast the Hell Knight to the ground between Oboro and Lina. "Remind me slave, whose heads were to be brought?"
The suffocating laughter of Oboro and Lina flushed Ingrid's face red with hate. From the ground she shook her head. "I'm sorry master," she hissed. From the corner of her eye she could see Kiryu Sabato the scientist emerging into the great chamber. "Master why is he here?" She kept her eyes to him, tracing his approach.
"Look at me," he said and when she didn't his voice rang like a storm, rattling the old bones of his castle. "Look at me!" His lips sliced to a smile when she did. And when she moved to stand again, stomped down hard on her back. "I am sorry Ingrid," he cooed, leaning down to whisper it into her ear. "You were mortal once."
Ingrid tried to push herself up against his strength but he smashed her back down into the floor with ease. "Please," she wheezed. The cackling laughter around her rose like a demented song up to the ceiling.
"You're sympathy for the mortals will be stripped," he hissed. "Take her back to the coliseum. We'll meet again when you're ready."
The second Black's leg lifted Ingrid tore out her blade. Before either Oboro or Lina could strike she was swinging, forcing them back long enough to stand. Ingrid knew that if any of them were to get behind her she'd be done for, running back to the nearest wall. The second she made it she barely had time to raise her sword to parry Lina. Her sword clattered to the floor between them but Ingrid swept the younger Hell Knight off her feet with ease.
Before Ingrid could retrieve her sword Oboro's steel claws crashed into the ground before them. Ingrid caught her second swing, jamming her claws far into the wall. "Stick around," she hissed and before Lina could swing again, Ingrid took her sword, running as fast as she could for the doorway.
To her horror, Kiryu stood barring the doorway. "Come here Ingrid," he hissed and as sick as it made her she did. What choice did she have? His arms distorted, spiraling outward before rocketing back in towards their target. Ingrid dropped, distended arms crashing into one another above and cut. Kiryu's shriek was music to her ears, fresh amputated limbs retreating to their source.
Seeing the now open doorway Lina assumed Kiryu's place, giving time for his limbs to mend. Seeing Oboro freshly freed from her master's wall she struck, sending her former master back. She swung again, and again, forcing Ingrid back faster. At the sight of her losing balance Lina lunged, stabbing out at Ingrid's chest.
Ingrid spun back upright and with her back to her pupil, swung for her neck. She put everything into it, shutting her eyes at the thought of Lina's final death. But at the sound of metal on metal her eyes were opened.
Lina was on the ground, Oboro's claw holding fast against her blade. "I've been wanting to do this for a long time," Oboro hissed, jamming her free hand deep into Ingrid's chest. She laughed, the sound of Black's precious Ingrid wailing up into the night lighting her world. She tore her claw out and watched as Ingrid stumbled blindly in its wake. Ingrid's healing wasn't a tenth of Kiryu's but Oboro wasn't done with heer yet. "Oh what's wrong Ingrid?" She sang. "That's it? How pathetic."
Ingrid plunged her sword into the floor to catch her fall, dropping to a knee. "Fuck you," she spat, blood flying from between her lips.
Lina swung again but the great Hell Knight tore her blade up from the floor and into her path in time. "You tried to kill me!" She screamed. In spite of herself the thought of Ingrid's betrayal stung. It stung worse than anything had in a long while. She swung again, upward, dashing Ingrid's blade across the palace floor. She kicked her former master onto her stomach and knelt down at her side. "Does it hurt?" She whispered.
In spite of the pain in her leaking chest Ingrid rose, crawling for her sword. Yet as her fingers touched the handle Oboro's red boot sent it skittering harmlessly out of reach. Ingrid let her head fall. She'd sworn she would never return to that place. She cried out as Lina dug her hand into Oboro's puncture mark, tearing her up to her feet. "How could you Lina?" Ingrid wheezed, head lulling back into her shoulder. The long figure of Kiryu bid her a slow approach. "No," she pleaded. She knew what was coming. The needle.
Lina held Ingrid's arms fast. "Be still," she hissed. "Struggling only makes it worse."
Ingrid shut her eyes and surged forward, stumbling forward out from Lina's grasp. She leant back to punch that stupid smirk right off of Kiryu's face when she stopped. Where her belly button should have been shone two of Oboro's claws. Shimmering through the red that surged over them. Her vision went blurry as Kiryu's hand reached out to her face, extending her neck out for the needle to follow.
***