Corpse March

Chapter 59 Killer Queen

“Ready?” 

“Ready.” 

In the dead of night, Kikimi and Kazuko creep through the empty halls of the Curia. Kazuko hardly makes a peep while Kikimi tries her best to keep up. 

“Everything good?” 

“Yeah… yeah. Everything’s fine.”

She can’t get the image of the girl standing over all those corpses out of her mind. When she kills Tsuki, will she be the same way? How much of herself will remain? She doesn’t know.

“Kagami… please give me strength.” She offers a quiet prayer.

“Hm?” 

“Nothing. Nothing.” 

“Well, look sharp. We’re here.” 

The door to Tsuki’s room stands before them, tall and imposing. 

Kikimi touches a gloved finger below the door handle, where the lock should be, and turns it into a silent bomb. The sorcery of Mute Charges. That is the nature of the magic contained within the artifact. Whatever Kikimi touches with the glove becomes a bomb. All she needs to do is snap her fingers and the lock should detonate. 

‘Click’

Sure enough, the lock explodes without a sound. There’s a little ‘clink’ caused by the shrapnel as it sprays outwards but it’s so quiet that it hardly matters. Though, Kikimi did overdo it somewhat. Not only did she destroy the lock, she also accidentally destroyed the door handle itself. The door slowly creaks open. 

Kazuko leads the way, rapier drawn. She slowly pushes the door open, keeping her ears open, making sure that Tsuki’s asleep before taking a step inside. Kikimi follows close behind. 

“Finish the job.” Kazuko positions herself next to the door, watchful for any intruders. 

“Right.” Kikimi nods. 

Tiptoeing as lightly as she can, Kikimi slowly makes her way towards Tsuki’s bed. She only needs to touch Tsuki’s heart and detonate it. That’s all that she has to do to snuff out her life. She imagines herself doing it over and over again, as though it will prepare her for the real thing. 

Tsuki looks peaceful. Her chest doesn’t heave up and down since she doesn’t breathe the same way a normal person does. If Kikimi didn’t know better, she’d think that she’d already passed away in her sleep. 

She slowly peels back the blanket with her off-hand, careful not to make any sudden movements. The once muffled ticking sound her body makes suddenly fills the room. Kikimi gulps. She pulls down a little further. There. She sees it, the pulsating mechanical… thing that Tsuki has for a heart. Nearly getting her fingers crunched between the myriad grinding gears, she lowers her finger down into Tsuki’s body and hovers it just a centimeter over her heart.  

Once her finger makes contact, there’s no going back. She’s going to have killed someone. She’ll become just like the very person she hates the most. No, no, that’s wrong. She has a reason for why she’s doing this. But then again, so did that girl.

She swallows. 

Dammit. She can’t do it. No matter how she tries to spin it, she just can’t do it. Either she lowers herself to the same level as that girl or she elevates that girl to the same level as her, both are equally abhorrent. Slowly, she retracts her hand and takes a breath. Just what is she doing?

“WE’VE BEEN HAD!” Kazuko suddenly yells. There’s barely any time for Kikimi to turn her head before someone kicks in the door. 

“Ladies.” Haru’s wicked smile gleams as she turns on the light. “Ah! It’s you!”  

“Hello, Tot.” Kazuko wipes the sweat off her chin. “Funny you show up here of all times.”

“You’re… Kayako, right?” 

“Kazuko! Kazuko Kuzue!” This is the angriest Kikimi’s ever seen Kazuko. “At least try, goddamnit!”

“My bad, my bad.” KANNIBAL hangs intimidatingly from her loose grip. Haru’s head turns to Kikimi. “Oh, Kikimi. Fancy meeting you here.”

“...”

“You’re like, the last person I’d expect to be working with Lady Kentomi’s killers.” 

“Shut up.” From the very beginning, Kikimi never liked Haru. Brash, loud, annoying, an outsider, and worst of all, she’s right. What is she doing? Is this… is this what she’s let herself become? “Just please. Shut up.” 

“Alright, fair enough.” Haru slings KANNIBAL over her shoulders and rests her head on it. “I suppose I should let my assistant do the talking.”  

“Assistant?–”

“NOW!” 

The window suddenly shatters inwards as a black shadow smashes through it. Acting on instinct, Kikimi raises her hands to shield herself from the spray of broken glass. She doesn’t realize it until it’s too late but there’s a pressure pushing against her, causing her to fall backwards. Her back hits the ground with a resounding ‘thud’. She tries to get back up but the shadow clamps down on her throat. 

It’s only after a moment do her eyes adjust to the brightness and she sees the shadow for what it truly is. Green eyes, flowing black hair, and a well-pressed suit. Without a doubt about it, it’s her. The girl who stood on all those corpses as if they were nothing more than grass. 

All of her reservations go out the window. If there’s one person who she would be okay with killing, it’s her. To avenge all those she killed, she has– no, she’s going to take that girl’s life. 

“Surrender.” The girl turns to face Kazuko, like Kikimi isn’t even there. “Now.” 

Kazuko opens her mouth to say something but Kikimi is faster. While they don’t expect it, she quickly flicks a coin that she was keeping in her pocket up at the girl’s face. Right at the apex of its trajectory, she snaps her fingers.

 Brilliant orange light begins to emanate from it as a detonation the size of a grown man bursts forth. It blows the girl off of her feet and slams her against the bookcase on the far end of the room. A faint yellow glow flickers around her for a moment before fading away. 

“Tsk. You shoulda just stayed down.” Haru scowls at Kikimi from a distance. She starts to move towards her but Kazuko blocks her way. The two lock eyes. An instant later, sparks fly as they lock blades.

“I’LL KEEP HER BUSY! FINISH OFF TSUKI!” Kazuko yells.

Kikimi freezes. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!” Kikimi takes out another coin and attempts to throw it at Kuroko but she’s suddenly stopped by a vicious tackle. At first, she thinks it’s Haru who’s carrying her but after a second realizes it’s actually Kazuko. 

“What are you–?!”

“We’re retreating from an unfavorable situation! Strider!” Kazuko’s feet are wrapped in an ethereal energy as she jumps out of the now open window and begins running up the exterior wall. Below them, both Haru and the girl give chase. 

Haru slowly climbs her way up the wall, using the windows as footholds and jamming KANNIBAL into the wall for handholds. The girl, on the other hand, is much faster. She manifests strings from her hands, forming a makeshift rope that connects to the roof of the building. Kazuko changes course to cut the rope but she just manifests another one. 

“Damn it.” With a fanciful flip, Kazuko lands onto the roof and sets Kikimi down.

“Th-thanks–” Kikimi is rudely interrupted by a full-force slap across the face. 

 “What the hell was that?!”

“I–” 

“You had her.”

“I hesitated.” 

“Whatever.” Kazuko extends her hand. A tiny gun pokes out from her sleeve and into her palm. She leans over the edge of the roof and begins firing shots at Kuroko. She’s fairly certain that the faith shield that would normally protect her from small arms fire got taken down from that bomb detonation. The fact that she’s putting in so much effort swinging from one rope to another to dodge her shots is proof of that. “We’ll finish the job later. For now, we have to deal with these two. Think you’re up for it?” 

“I suppose we have no choice.” Kikimi grumbles to herself. It’s bad enough they’re stuck in this bad situation, it’s even worse that she knows it’s her fault. She takes out another coin from her pocket and throws it down at the girl. Once the coin gets in range, she snaps her fingers and it detonates. 

Kikimi is fast, but Haru is faster. She quickly jumps over to where Kuroko is, mutters something under her breath, and a blue plane of force manifests above the two of them. Instead of blowing them both away, the explosion simply bounces off harmlessly. They continue their advance in this way. Slowly, but impervious to anything Kikimi or Kazuko can throw at them. Though, that doesn’t stop them from trying. 

Kazuko unloads bullet after bullet into the shield while Kikimi throws entire handfuls of dust, pebbles, and whatever else she can find. But it’s all to no avail. Eventually, the girl and Haru do make it to the roof’s edge. Close enough for Kazuko and Kikimi to touch.