15. Be There or Be Square

He wasn’t going to let another one die, not while he had breath left in his lungs, blood in his veins, or a shadow to cast.

That was the silent vow Tegata Kage had made to himself the moment he had fled that accursed, empty place. All he could ever do from now was make good on it. Otherwise, he couldn’t ever meet her eyes again. Would there even be another opportunity?

The intrusive thoughts stained his mind like the watermarks on a dry and dirty window. Tegata chose to look past the window, and down onto the street below.

Winter nights came swiftly. He had forgotten how fast the darkness fell this time of year; it had been so long. He didn’t have much time. The chill ripped through his hair as he balanced on the back of his Spire Crane. The gigantic bird was a borderless silhouette against the blackening sky, beating its wings in tandem with the air currents. He engaged the ethereal radar, listening to the ripples ping off his skin. The signatures were growing stronger now: both the Rejected, and the children. What they were doing out so late wasn’t important.

All that mattered was removing the threat to their lives.

A line of trees honed into view, and the dim field beyond it. Inohana Castle stood indifferent a little ways beyond. Tegata willed the bird to descend. The Spire Crane plunged, his stomach lurched. They soared down over the skeletal treetops, and into the park below. They skimmed ever closer to the ground, coasting on the draft. The Rejected’s awful howling echoed across the park. He knew that sound far too well. Across the stretch of green, Tegata spied the playground apparatus up ahead. His psychic vision merged with his real, and the signatures soon coalesced into kaleidoscopic figures in the distance. Blood pounded behind his ears. Two Rejected were aberrations even in the low light. Gross musculature twitched, tensed and rippled under the dim yellow streetlamps. Two little girls were backed up onto the metal climbing frame, cowering and clutching at one another. The Rejected roared blindly and hammered on the apparatus, shattering plastic and wood with each mighty blow, and sending quakes through the metal frame. The roars drowned out those cries.

No-one had come to help. Just as night had descended, so too had apathy. If the world weren’t deaf to the girls’ plight, it wasn’t bothered to act. There wasn’t another soul in sight, doors and windows all around shut and fastened tight.

“It’s not my problem,” thought every man for himself.

All bar one.

Tegata Kage leapt from his bird into a rolling dive. The shadow crowed one last time, and sunk beneath the shade he cast from the streetlight. He hit the ground at a run, tearing across the field. The current of psychic energy racing through the nerves lit up every limb into a neon purple blur. Stopping beneath a lamppost, Tegata thrust his arms out, clasping both hands together in the shape of a wolf’s muzzle.

SED JACKAL

冋豺 KEISAI

The shadow cast from the twisted hands suddenly embossed itself into the concrete, sinking into artificial depth. A resonant, deep sound—a thick, subsonic whoop—heralded a pair of mournful howls. A gleaming white pupil burst into life, and the shadow warped. Two jackals, blacker than darkness, swelled into being by Tegata’s side. Without delay, all three sprung forth.

The Rejected turned at the noise, but it was too late.

Nearing the first, Tegata kicked off the ground. Psychic energy arced across his limbs with a crackle. Chambering both arms, he violently twisted in midair and slammed his right foot into the side of its face. The reinforced kick compacted flesh and bone in that one instant, and toppled the reject sideways from the blow. It screamed and stumbled, before tripping over a low metal fence and toppling headfirst over the top from the momentum.

Rounding swiftly on the second, the jackals pounced with a growl. The shadowed beasts sunk teeth into the creature’s swollen flesh and tore ravenously. The reject screamed and stumbled around blindly, swatting at the wolves to dislodge them. It was futile. The jackals latched on with teeth and claw, not letting go until another chunk of gross, bleeding meat came away in jaw. They attacked in sequence, rounding relentlessly on the creature in a synchronised takedown.

Mauling the legs first sent the reject to the floor. It wailed and writhed, spewing thick dark blood from wound and orifice alike across the dim lit grey, bashing its warped skull again and again against the concrete in agony. It tried to reach for the jackals, fists banging a resonant drum on the floor, until both arms were wrenched clean from their sockets. The jackals lay mercilessly into the crippled monster, devouring their target until it began to disintegrate. To the very end, its bulbous eye cried a stream, until its unstable nature overtook its entirety, and was reduced to ash.

Tegata caught a glimpse and nodded. He whistled, and the jackals returned to circle him. The children remained on the climbing frame, arms tight around one another, legs twisted and anchoring them to the metal.

“Hey, you two.” Tegata slowed his approach and flipped up his hood. The magenta wave looked almost red in the lamplight. He wore his best smile, and widened his arms, voice low and gentle. “Are you alright?”

Both girls let out a yelp and shrank away. Swollen eyes had deluged a flow of tears, carving shadowed gorges down their cheeks.

Tegata stopped advancing. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”

“Mister,” one of them said between sobs. “What’s going on?”

“I’m so sorry this had to happen to you,” said Tegata, holding out his arms. “But you need to get down from there. Quickly. There’s not much time.”

The quiet command stifled the sobs for a moment and gave them a tangible action to process. Immediately the girls unlinked, clambered across the bars and descended the opposite end of the frame with little grunts of wide-eyed exertion, lowering one another to the ground. Tegata calmly walked around the side, casting a glance over his shoulder every few seconds. The jackals remained at his side, hackles raised.

“That’s it,” he encouraged. “You’re almost there. I’ll take you to safety.”

It took a few moments more, but at last they were down. Tegata stepped ahead of them and gestured towards himself. Their reservations broke the next instant. Both leapt forward, practically clamping themselves to the boy’s arms as he led them away.

“What’s going on?” One girl was trembling so much, Tegata felt his own arm start shaking.

“I’m so scared!” Warbled the other.

“I know.” He smiled down at her. “But you’re going to be okay, yeah?”

She nodded, swallowed, then smiled.

“Very brave.” Tegata’s smile widened. “Let’s keep moving, okay?”

He quickened his pace, and they followed. They had left the playground behind, and swifted across the grass towards an abandoned concessions hut. It was only twenty yards away now. But that signature was drawing near. The ground began to rumble, furious rhythmic quaking drawing closer. Tegata hastened further still, until they were running. He tightened his grip on both their hands, and heard the girls gasp and pant as they struggled to keep up. “Nearly there, I promise. Keep going!”

The rumbling intensified.

The jackals began to whine and growl.

“Mister!” The other cried, tugging at his arm and pointing backwards. “Behind you!”

Tegata slung both girls out ahead of himself, and formed another shadow under the pearlescent moon.

SECOND PLAGUE

二番役 NIBANYAKU

Another subsonic whoop, and a thousand shadowy frogs spilled out from his shadow. They engulfed the girls in a wave, a fleeting blanket that swarmed towards the hut, leaving no trace of them behind.

Tegata dug his heel into the floor and wheeled around, raising a cross guard on instinct. His eyes widened. The remaining reject had its fist wound right back, and loosed a chilling scream. The instant before impact, purple lightning flashed across Tegata’s body. The wildest of all haymakers struck true and punched him clean off his feet. Tegata slammed back against a wall and felt all the wind knocked out of him. His head bounced off of the brick, lights popping behind his eyes. He slid down and slumped over, gasping for breath.

The two girls were nowhere to be found. Tegata smiled. He had acted in time, but the problem wasn’t over yet. The reject was closing in fast.

He tried to stand, but everything ached. If it hadn’t been for his psychic reinforcement, he would’ve died on impact. Even with, he would be extremely lucky to escape without some severe bruising. He’d lost focus on his summons too. Hauling himself upright, he steadied his breathing, and centred his mind. Psychic energy flowed through him like a current, exciting every cell.

SED JACKAL

冋豺 KEISAI

One more rose from his shadow.

The reject faced off against Tegata and his guard. It let out a roar and charged, driving a punch into the brickwork where Tegata’s head had been a few seconds ago. This time, he had opted for evasion. Sliding underneath it, Tegata twisted and drove a sweeping kick into the back of its legs. The reject cried out and crumpled under its own weight.

“Go!” He commanded the hound, and it pounced.

The shadow sunk its jaws into the creature’s leg, and dark blood oozed from swollen veins. The reject howled and thrashed wildly, stumbling all over the place, but the dark beast wouldn’t let go. It then seized the jackal by the back of the neck and tore it away, taking out a chunk of its leg in the process.

The reject cocked its arm back and catapulted the jackal across the park. It hit a tree and caved in the trunk. The zelkova tree gave one final creak before collapsing under its own weight. Lying lame at the base, the jackal gave one final whimper, before melting into the surrounding darkness.

That was all the opportunity Tegata needed. Running at the crumbling wall, he scaled it, turned about face and kicked off the surface, diving in from the side. Fist sparkling with psychic energy, he drove a cross into the reject’s temple. It connected with a resounding crack, and its skull splintered. Bone shards spiked the eye, blood jettisoning from the punctures. The reject couldn’t blink but howled in pain, swinging both fists around in wide, sweeping arcs. Just one would’ve taken Tegata’s head clean off, had he not somersaulted backwards on instinct.

Landing on his feet, the psychic energy arced down his legs. He skated backwards on purple rails under both feet. Retreating to kneel under another lamppost, he summoning another jackal. The reject howled and stomped around, flailing with powerful fists and narrowly missing him several times through sheer luck. Even when misdirected, the blows were strong enough to cave solid stone.

At the first lapse, Tegata kicked out at the inside of the reject’s knee—sharply twisting its leg, upsetting its balance and snapping a few tendons—before ducking in for an uppercut. The rush of psychic energy knocked the creature straight from its slouch.

It stumbled back, teetering on its heels one moment until it swung forwards the next. Both hands lashed out and seized Tegata by the shoulders. The pink-dark boy strained and writhed in the crushing grip, before digging his fingers into the muscles of the forearm. He grinned. His third eye began to vibrate, quivering violently in his skull. Psychic energy hummed through his body before flashing bright, discharging a sharp shock into his captor. The reject howled and let go, arms smoking from the burn.

“Now!” He cried, and there came a thunder of paws. The jackal summoned earlier dashed in from behind, tearing the reject’s arm asunder. Tegata dashed in with two swift body blows, wincing as ribs cracked under his knuckles, before kicking off the ground into a floating tornado kick. Unbalanced with only one arm, the reject began to topple over, but not before Tegata had finally managed to retrieve the bowie knife clipped to his belt from under his coat.

Weapons weren’t his forte. He needed both hands free to summon. But, for a coup de grace, it would suffice. He spun the ringed guard around his finger, catching it in a reverse grip, before he leapt and plunged the dagger into the creature’s eye. A jet of dark blood narrowly missed his face. The reject stumbled once more, then fell on its back with a tremulous thud, a black geyser spouting into the air. Tegata turned away and cleaned the blade in the crook of his elbow, then pointed behind him.

“Feast.”

The shadows did as he commanded. Tegata only wished he didn’t have to listen to the aftermath. He screwed his eyes shut and waited. He needed to go and check on those girls. Half a minute later, he felt a cold, formless snout push against his limp hand. He opened his eyes, and caressed the jackal’s head. It crooned with an eerie reverb. He was just about to dismiss it, when a third eye gleamed from the other end of the park.

Tegata froze.

Forty yards away, a woman in a long black coat stepped into the lamplight. She smiled far too widely, a closed teeth grin. She didn’t advance, didn’t retreat. She stood there, and grinned at him.

For ten whole seconds, neither of them moved.

Tegata’s eyes started to dry out. His fingers twitched. The jackal at his side began to growl.

A psyche user?

Her signature was strong and concentrated.

How did he not detect her until now?

A signal that concentrated couldn’t have slipped past his radar.

Had his crows given any signal?

They were responding now, of course, but all too late.

He blinked, and a shiver arced down his spine. He moved his hands to act, to summon another shadow, but in that momentary lapse, the woman now stood right in front of him. She grinned.

“Boo!”

Pain spiked his solar plexus. Tegata coughed, bent double and fell to his knees. The woman’s grin twisted into a sadistic snarl. She wound back her fist, then flinched. A dark shape blurred; the boy’s jackal pounced at her, guarding its master all too late. Its teeth snapped on empty. She was faster. The woman shimmered away faster than it could strike, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Woah—what a thrill!” She gave an exhilarated sigh. “It’s so dark out, I didn’t realise you had one of those still summoned. That could’ve been nasty.”

Tegata had risen and now took a low guarded stance. One hand stayed chambered by his side, and the other extended out flat and loose. The jackal growled and circled him. He made another handsign, and, under the light of the moon, summoned another to his side.

“I didn’t think you’d just let me do that,” she said, shaking out her hand. “I mean, you just stood there. What’s up with that? They said you’d be tough. You know who I am, boy?”

“Kaori Sumiyaka of the Glass Eyes. I remember your face,” he spat. “I knew it was only a matter of time.”

“You did, did you? Were you actually trying to hide?” Kaori asked. “Gotta say, you’re not doing a fantastic job, fighting out in the open like that. You took the bait so easily. Your signature’s very distinct, but you’re good at hiding it. I had to ask her to help me track you down, you know.”

That damn grin made his jaw clench. Tegata pointed. “Go!”

The jackals burst forth with a pair of howls, two dark torrents in convergence, but the woman blinked past them both.

“You’ll never beat me with those puppies,” she said.

With a flourish, she shed her long coat, revealing a loose white blouse tucked into waist high slacks. She lashed forward, seizing him by the wrist. She tugged sharply, pulling him from his stance, and let fly a flurry of punches.

Her hands moved so fast, one motion blurred into the next. Human eyes simply couldn’t keep up. Tegata’s head and body repeatedly snapped back at every angle, as Sumiyaka landed blow after blow—a gatling barrage. Lights burst behind his eyes. The spit was knocked from his jaw. He couldn’t even take a breath. One punch by itself was fairly minor, but every single one crackled with her psychic energy. And just when he found himself pushed back, she looped in a grab to pull him back in before the next.

With one final hook to the jaw, she sent him spinning to the ground.

“I was wrong,” she said. “You are tough. The fact you took all that on the chin is amazing. What did they do to you kids back there? That’s so scary.” She didn’t look scared. Looking behind her, she even laughed. “Looks like your doggies are are all gone. Isn’t that a shame?”

Tegata rose from the floor with an unnatural grace, like a puppet lifted by its strings. He stared her down with all three eyes, fixed a crick in his neck and rolled out his shoulder. “You’re fast, but you lack power. You’ll have to do better than that.” He resumed the same stance as before, and beckoned with a hand. “Try again.”

“Cocky prick!” Her grin didn’t fade—it never did—but her eyes twitched. “You’ll regret that.”

She rushed him again, but Tegata dropped limp to the floor. Her eyes widened, but he hadn’t collapsed at random. By falling onto his hands, Tegata twisted at the hip, driving the downward momentum into a sweeping kick and knocking Sumiyaka off her feet. Thrown off balance, she inhaled sharply and pitched forward.

In the space where Tegata had been, one of the jackals remained. It sprang up with powerful legs and slashed at her arm, leaving three deep cuts, oozing red, then pounced and bit her on the leg. She rolled to the side, desperately trying to tear it away. She tried to sink her fingers into its throat, only for the creature to melt away into fleeting black.

“Scared of a little shadow?” Tegata had risen. “Grow up. You’re not a child anymore. There’s darkness all around us.” His eyes burned cold, pale yellow. He cared not for the injuries inflicted, only that he still lived. “You could’ve won by now. Why didn’t you stab me from the onset and get it over with? There’s nothing stopping you carrying a weapon.”

Sumiyaka stumbled to her feet and snarled. “You’re lucky the boss wants you alive.”

“Then knock me out, why don’t you?”

“I thought that would’ve done it,” she hissed. “I didn’t think you had it in you, kid.” Psychic energy sparkled in waves over her skin, twinkling in the darkness.

“Careful now, your flow is breaking up,” he observed. “I’ve figured out your move. Had to take a few hits to get there, but sometimes that’s the cost. You’re a technical-type, disguising yourself as a speedster. Your Third Eye projects a static of yourself in your opponent’s vision to disguise your enhanced approach. To them, you’re standing still. They never see you coming, and you’re able to overwhelm them at close range.” His eyes narrowed, derisive. “Did you copy that from her, too? So derivative, not nearly as effective. Did you come here to taunt me with that? Are you really a Glass Eye?”

“Why you—” She bared her teeth at him, but wasn’t grinning anymore.

He contorted his hands into another form, and held it beneath the moon.

“Shadow Puppet,” he declared. “My Specialty allows me to animate the shape of my own shadow. There’s almost no limit to what I can summon, nor how many summons I can have at once.” His eyes flashed to the side. “I wonder what this form will take. Don’t get too scared now.”

BAST

大山猫 BASUTO

The heavy shot of bass reverberated around the park once more, and another creature crawled from Tegata’s shadow. The lynx was longer and more slender than the jackal, its ears raised and pointed with those curved, devilish whiskers. It slunk in and around his legs, growling. “She’s a little moody,” he said, stroking her behind the ear, “but she never gives up a chase. If I tell her to go after you, she won’t—” Tegata was already preparing another shadow— “but if it’s all just a game, then—”

FLOCK

群 MURE

Tegata’s clenched fist opened, and a single shadow pigeon burst forth.

Sumiyaka’s eyes widened. Psychic energy flashed down her arms as she crossed them in a guard of what was no doubt to come, but when she looked again, the lynx had disappeared. The pigeon hadn’t hit her either, swerving over the top of her head and swooping in a halo in the air above.

It had all been a ruse. The one on the offensive was Tegata. Purple arcs flashed cross the ground as he closed the gap. His approach wasn’t nearly as immediate as hers, but he made up for it in power. Tegata jabbed, she parried. He threw a right cross, and when she feinted, stepped through and caught her with a blinding snap kick to the side. Sumiyaka dug her heel into the dirt and seized his leg, pulling him off balance to strike open-palm at his back. Tegata somersaulted on recovery, then blocked her next strike with a backhand. Their exchange quickened and blurred into a flurry. Magenta sparks arced in the space, the wintry air ionizing with the faint stench of ozone.

“Why the long face, patchy?” She quipped, backtracking and circling around him. Her panting seemed a little forced. There was no colour in her cheeks, not even from the cold. “You aren’t enjoying this a little?”

Tegata remained still and poised. He wasted no effort on back-and-forth motion. “You won’t win if you continue like this.”

“Where’d your kitty cat go, hm?” She taunted. “Seems like it abandoned you, just like you did her.” She pouted. “Isn’t that sad?”

Tegata saw red, seized the knife from his belt and dashed her. He slashed twice then lunged in a stab, but each time she remained just out of reach. He stepped forward with successive attacks, but it was like he wasn’t making any ground at all! She evaded by the slimmest of margins, grin still surgically carved into her face. Sumiyaka strafed to his right—he turned to follow—and wound back a straight punch.

What? What did she hope to accomplish with that? She was too far away!

But before he could even guard, she sucker-punched him in the cheek, snapping his head back. The knife went spinning from his grip. She tracked it, and blinked up to catch it in mid-air. Landing softly, she twirled the circular guard on one finger.

“Damn, a hunting knife? This isn’t bad. Where’d you steal this from?” She hummed, then said, “You know? I might even take some advice for once.”

Before his world had even stopped spinning, searing pain lanced from his gut, then warm sensation spread through his torso. Tegata cried out into a blood-soaked cough. Sumiyaka had crossed the distance between them before he could even look straight, and plunged the blade through his side.

“They said alive, not unharmed,” she said, gleefully. “A little stabby-stab like that won’t kill you, right? You’re tougher than that, right? I can whisk you back before you bleed out, I bet.” Her grin widened as she twisted the knife in the wound. Tegata grit his teeth but couldn’t stifle the pain. His yell was ignored by the city. Not a single window turned bright.

“You were wrong about my Specialty,” Sumiyaka stated gleefully, fixing a hand around his throat. “I can’t believe you fell for my misdirect. You really think I’d derive my technique from her? You’re such romantic, Tegata Kage. Get real,” she spat. “I am a speed-type. My Specialty is ‘Strider’. I can control the distance between myself and a target. There’s no illusion involved. There was never any from the start. I was there, now I’m here. It’s not teleportation; I’m warping metric space around me. You couldn’t keep up, could you? You had to invent an explanation you could understand. That’s why you lost.”

A hand clenched tight around her wrist, the one holding the knife to his side. Tegata lifted his head, and for once, matched her grin. “Who ever said anything about your Specialty?”

Her smile dropped. “What?! Let go of my hand!”

He shook his head. “I said your ‘move’. From the moment you rushed me to begin with, I suspected something like that was up. That last punch nearly took my lights out, but it was exactly what I needed to confirm my suspicions before you disclosed your technique. Seems you fell for my bait even harder than you thought I did yours.”

He looked up to the sky, and she followed in horror. A pigeon was circling, silhouetted against the moon. Pawing at it, curled up atop a streetlamp, was the lynx.

“Dive!” Shouted Tegata, and the bird dropped from the sky. Talons tore a gash down Sumiyaka’s face, and she screamed. Tegata shoved her away and made distance, before the wildcat shadow pounced down from on high. The woman howled as the shadow slashed her up under tooth and claw. She wrestled with it to no avail, but it was heavier, its assault far stronger than the jackal before.

Psychic energy crackled through her, third eye glowing, before she pressed both palms to the cat’s chest.

STRIDER

躍進 SUTORAIDĀ

Suddenly, the lynx was fifty feet in the air, where it remained for a precious moment, before plummeting to its doom. The creature met ground ten feet away with a heavy thud and could only manage a small mewl before it, too, faded into the darkness. Tegata, nearly bent double, winced with every step as he stumbled forward with the knife still in his side. Sumiyaka whipped back to her feet, though she was much the worse for wear. Her suit was in ruins and soaked in red from the lynx’s lacerations. Blood from the cut on her face was leaking into her eye, which she had to repeatedly wipe away. Despite everything, she stood straighter, and moved far smoother, than her target. But her grin was absent now.

“You’re finished,” she said, cold. “You’re using all your internal reinforcement to stop yourself from bleeding out. Give up while you’re still alive.”

Tegata snarled at her. “Kill me. Finish the job. See how much your boss likes you then. You’ll be painted across the walls of that place before sunrise.”

Sumiyaka made to rush, but a glint from the sky drew their eyes. The ripple of two signatures registered on their periphery, before a yell crashed down from the heavens.

SEVERANCE PLANAR

絶断平面 SEBERANSU PURĒNĀ

A brilliant white line cleaved through the air above them, revealing the boy who had just landed in (what he thought) was an epic finishing pose. Rinkaku Harigane stood and swept thick black hair from his face, looking around.

“What?” He sounded disappointed, looking around at an absence of split corpse. “I could’ve sworn I got them. We positioned that so well! Didn’t we?” He asked, as a girl touched down far more gracefully, abseiling from a tall tree.

“You missed her. Look.” Kinuka Amibari pointed behind Rin, to where Sumiyaka had rushed off to the moment before the strike.

Rin turned and pointed. “Hey! There you are! You just ruined my cool entrance! What the fuck, lady?”

Sumiyaka was shifting on her feet, having retrieved her coat and slung it back around drooping shoulders. Her grin had inverted, as she surveyed her less than favourable odds.

Tegata gasped and fell to his knees. Kinuka noticed the knife and cried out, rushing to his side.

Rin looked over his shoulder. “This woman’s the enemy, right?”

Tegata couldn’t speak for all the pain, but managed a grunt and a nod. Rin focused his gaze, and psychic energy rushed down his peripheries. He drew out a frame between his hands, and spun it on his palm. “She’s injured. I’ll take it from here!”

But before he could even take a step in approach, Sumiyaka rushed to crouch by his front, driving a fist into his gut before rushing back to where she stood. Rin crumpled to one knee, winded, and started coughing.

“That’s a shame… Looks like the mission’s a bust,” she admitted, rather detached for all her injuries—choosing instead to examine her nails. “I wondered when those two would show up. I don’t fancy fighting you three-on-one. That’d be silly. I’m paid too much to go killing myself.”

Rin opened his mouth to shout something rude, but hesitated for a second. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

From her coat pocket, she retrieved two orbs. “Doesn’t mean I won’t leave you with a present!” The grin returned for just a moment, as the orbs began to glow. “Congrats on your ascension, kids! Shame it won’t last too much longer. These two will put you in the ground.”

She tossed them out and they landed feet from Rin. The next moment, she was gone.

“Hey!” He cried, looking around. “Where did she—”

But they had other problems to worry about.

The orbs rumbled and shattered, only for two more Rejected to raise their heads and roar, somehow rendered even more monstrous in the low light, musculature half-shaded and pulsing as they bore down on the remaining three.

“Oh, come on!” Rin shouted, backing away in a hurry. “Kinuka! What’s the situation?”

In the meanwhile, Kinuka had managed to drag Tegata back underneath a lamppost to give herself a little extra light. The bloody knife, still red and dripping, lay cast aside. No matter his insistence on sitting up, Kinuka had forcefully laid him flat.

“Go,” he protested, shoving at her shoulder. “You two shouldn’t be here…”

“That’s one hell of a thank you!” She fired back, then looked to Rin. “He’s bleeding out! I can fix him—I think—but I need time!”

Rin nodded. That left him by his lonesome against two more of these freaks. Kinuka and Tegata were indisposed—if the Rejected got through, they would be doomed for certain. His hands were already moving, the lines twisting between his fingers. It wouldn’t be perfect—it didn’t need to be—but all he needed was something to secure them for now.

Just a box would do, right?

Oh, and the Architect had said it needed a name. Well, that was just perfect timing. He had just the thing in mind. Rin took the shape in both hands, and expanded it to enshroud both of them.

BOX TECHNIQUE: COCCOON

囲箱技「繭」 ISŌGI・KEN

The frames locked in place with a sweeping translucent sheen, forming an isolated cuboid barrier. Hopefully he had trapped enough air in there with them—he had tried to make it larger than need be for that reason alone. Four cubic metres should be enough.

Heavy footfall descended behind him and Rin whipped back around. The first of two Rejected were closing in. Psychic energy arced down his limbs, giving the skin a purple glow. He raised his arms and crossed them. The reject roared and flung a fist, striking square on. The concentrated force broke his guard and sent him reeling, but not flying!

Rin nearly lost his balance, arms flailing, but planted his heel down firmly behind him and stood true. His heart hammered in his throat, pulse thundering behind his ears. He took a sharp, deep breath. The air chilled his throat, and sharpened his eyes. Tendons flexed, and he curled a fist at his side.

He couldn’t keep defending. If he didn’t strike back, they would overwhelm him. He needed to create space to operate, and now!

His third eye pulsed. The psychic energy sparkled along the myriad pathways until his skin tingled and crackled. Rin burst forth, striking the reject across the jaw. The raw force snapped its head sideways and knocked it off kilter. But he wasn’t finished. The right was followed by a reinforced left cross to the shoulder, forcing a backwards step. Rin’s reinforcement rushed into one leg, and he hopped to the other, twisting his hip and snapping a kick into its side. It stumbled, balance lost. Rin seized on this and stepped forward with another punch to the side of the face, knocking it to the floor. The crash made his knees tremble, and Rin was forced to kneel. Breath left him at a pant, all three eyes twitching.

Was he overdoing it already? Damn it!

The other wasn’t just going to stand there, either. Rin’s perception sparked danger, and he leapt to the side, narrowly avoided the crushing blow from his right. The reject’s fist followed through and carved up the ground beneath them, dirt and grit scattering. Rolling to his feet, Rin ejected the dirt and spittle in his mouth.

There was no way he could fight them both at once. He could manage a one-on-one, but attempting to fend off both would be the end of him.

He kicked back off the ground, creating a little more space.

The reject started to charge.

Rin’s hands blurred, fingers twisting the white lines into another cube. He didn’t even need to layer it this time.

FRAMEWORK

枠組 WAKUGUMI

He held out the cube, and expanded the vertices in front of him. The reject made ground fast, but stumbled into the bounds. Rin snapped his fingers, and the outline shimmered. The cube locked in place, the bright sheen wiping across the vertices and turning the immaterial space into a fixed object. The reject’s charge froze, mid-step, as it was sealed within the cube. The fist was only a foot from his face, and all the shocked Rin could do for a moment was stare, before his face split into a grin. A demented little giggle slipped from his lips. The shock rippled down his skin in a delighted shiver.

Holy shit.

---

Kinuka Amibari dared not look outside the barrier, concentrating solely on the injury beneath her fingers. Tegata groaned and twisted on the ground, but she had sat firmly on his leg, pinning down his opposite shoulder with one hand.

“Lie still, damn you,” she cursed. “You won’t shrug off a knife wound like that!”

“I’m fine!” Tegata snapped through gritted teeth. “I need to make sure they’re okay,” he said. “I need to fight off the Rejected; I need to save them—”

“For gods sake, I can fix you!”

His eyes widened. “You can?”

Kinuka flashed a glare, one hand pressed to the surface of Tegata’s shirt, thick and matted with blood. The fibres tore under her fingers, springing apart and exposing the punctured flesh beneath. “Who do you think mended the great gaping hole in Rin’s chest? Who do you think brought him back to life?!”

His eyes closed. “So, it really was you,” he said, and finally stopped resisting.

Kinuka grit her teeth.

Was it really her?

Her hands had moved of their own accord. She was filled with another power, another presence who she could only name, whose essence arced along her fingers from that grotesque third eye. Another soul had robbed her of autonomy, puppeteering her body as though it no longer belonged to her. If placed in that situation again, could she really have replicated the Seamstress and her masterful craft?

Still, the vestiges of that power remained, like they were etched into her muscle. Her fingers, already familiar with the winding of thread, executed her will, and the world responded. She had already mended the bullet wound in Rin’s leg, enough for her to stand, jump and run.

Taking her other hand from Tegata’s shoulder, she pulled away at the rest of the fabric before getting to work. The boy’s skin underneath her hand grew rough like sack cloth, tearing to reveal the damaged layers beneath. Kinuka shut her eyes, and poured her will into the wound. Deep within his side, the threads of tissue surged and rewound, progressively layering with the sound of fibres stretching, hooking and looping around one another. Thuds shook the ground outside, though no sound penetrated their cuboidal sanctum. It took everything she had not to look over her shoulder.

Rin would be okay.

Rin would be okay.

The sooner she finished this operation, the sooner they could help, the sooner she could make sure—

The psychic energy danced across her body, a ghostly lighting under her skin. Tegata watched the concentration in her face, the flexing of her third eye. It was a haunting and majestic sight, enough to distract him from the ebbing pain in his side.

Who was this girl? Who was she really?

She and this Rinkaku Harigane—two with such potent aptitude for Psyche.

The final few threads had to be done by hand. Kinuka hooked the flesh-strings around deft fingers, and within the next minute, the skin was whole. The material sat flush and unpunctured, and as her exertion waned, the fabric reversed its transmutation, back into skin. The clothes took no time at all. Kinuka stitched the rips and smoothed it over as though the blade had never touched it.

Once she had removed her hands, Tegata shuffled upwards and massaged the former point of injury.

“Phantom pain,” he concluded. “That’s all that’s left.” He shook his head, and blinked. “Incredible.”

Kinuka tutted. “If you had kept struggling, I might’ve accidentally miswired a few more blood vessels. It won’t be perfect, but at least the stab wound was clean and didn’t go at an angle. You should be careful, though. You’ve lost a fair bit of blood.” She then looked at her own hands, now caked in red. She retched a little, then hastily wiped them on Tegata’s trouser leg.

Tegata looked away. “You shouldn’t worry about me.”

Kinuka shuffled across the ground and retrieved Tegata’s knife. “Ouch—this could’ve been lethal, you know…” She held it aloft by the tip of the blade for him to take by the handle, smiling sweetly. “Try not to get stabbed again, okay?”

He stared at her, and blinked.

Her face fell. “That sounded more funny in my head, sorry.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “We need to get out of this box,” he said. Taking the knife, he stood and stowed it safely away. “Your friend’s still out there fighting the Rejected; I don’t know how long he’ll—”

But he couldn’t even complete the sentence, before the frames surrounding them shattered, and the projectile body of Rinkaku Harigane bowled them both over, shards of glittering construct raining from the sky.

---

Everything had been going fine up until that last moment. Once he had sealed the second reject away, Rin had been able to refocus all effort onto the first. There was no point to trading blows when he already had a method he knew would work. Cutting the reject’s head off seemed a sure-fire way to kill it. They were strong, but they couldn’t regenerate. Small saving graces were all he’d ever get, it seemed. Such was life.

Another was their lack of strategy. These Rejected were brutes. They threw their full weight behind whatever first entered their line of sight, and wouldn’t stop until they had pounded it to a paste. No doubt they could still detect whatever signal the Ascension Blade was giving off, he thought.

His punches from before had only been enough to stun it temporarily. Rin’s fingers itched by his side, twinging with little flashes of psychic energy. The reject stared down at him, twisted its head in odd ways, arms gyrating, layers of taut muscle flexing all over. The endless screaming from within its bulbous central eye was just as haunting, just as loud. Rin forced himself to avoid making eye contact, or else his own head would be overrun too. Those first two kills had been a fluke, and he had nearly died in the process. He couldn’t afford to be sloppy. His gaze flashed to the box where Kinuka still attended to the wounded Tegata. For this fight, he was all alone.

Fine.

The reject snapped its head back and roared up to the sky. Before it could even begin its charge, Rin countered. Psychic energy sparked along his hands. He stepped forward, conjured a wide screen and shoved. The barricade slammed into the reject head-on, shattered on impact and sent it reeling.

Rin swooped, already constructing another square frame. His most elementary tool was an absolute knife; anything between the vertices would be cut. The only way he could build something more sophisticated—even approaching whatever the Architect had been able to—he would have to build up from fundamentals. He swung the frame at the shoulder joint, and captured. The blade sliced clean through skin, muscle and bone, rending one arm from the body. It howled and lashed out with the other, but Rin raised an elbow guard and absorbed the brunt, only momentarily losing his footing.

Stumbling back, he connected a sparkling cheapshot jab to its face and stun it a second longer, enough to create another frame and slice at the other shoulder. The arm fell to the ground, dark blood gushing over the grass as the flesh jerked then began to burn away. The reject stumbled around in agony, and Rin grit his teeth.

It’ll be over soon.

For a single moment, the reject was perfectly still. Rin could visualise it: a single line tracing down the centre. His first attempt had been a failure, but only because the target had evaded. That was crucial information. Each frame took a certain time to fully capture, depending on the size. The separation boundary progressed from one corner to the next, marking a clean cutting plane. If he traced the line, the boundary would follow soon after. All he had to do was trace the path.

Psychic energy charged his jump, and Rin soared. He formed the frame in one hand high above his head, and in his descent, traced that perfect centre line.

SEVERANCE PLANAR

絶断平面 SEBERANSU PURĒNĀ

The brilliant white line cleaved straight through, and the clean halves of the disarmed reject fell sickening and wet to the ground, where they dissolved. Picking himself up, Rin still couldn’t shake the cold shiver that crawled down his back. It had also once been human.

JPRO were behind all of this human experimentation.

The fact he couldn’t even pin a culpable face to this atrocity made his blood boil.
Now all that was left to do was take care of the one he had sealed away. The great glass block shimmered under the yellow lamplight. Hoping he could shatter it like the rest of his frames—crushing whatever was trapped inside—Rin channelled psychic energy into a punch and drove his fist into the surface. The punch landed, the energy dissipated, and nothing happened. It felt like punching a brick wall. Rin held his fist to the wall a moment longer, before cradling his bruised knuckles and admitting a feeble little, “Ow…”

Well, that was humiliating. Either he was too weak, or that massive solid box was far too strong. Either way, hoist with his own petard already. Great. Rin looked around, just in case he could catch the Architect laughing at him. No? Well, another small mercy, at least.

He’d just have to slice apart this one like he had the other. Rin put his hand to the box, and willed the frame to vanish. The planes lost their shine, as the vertices faded. The reject tumbled out of suspended animation, and whipped around. Rin and it stared at each other for a good few seconds. A vital thought process then connected in Rin’s brain, albeit far too late.

“Oh fuck—”

The monstrous backhand struck him clean across the face and sent him flying. Rin crashed headfirst through the barrier holding Kinuka and Tegata, knocking all three of them to the floor. The teenagers disentangled themselves from one another, rolling around on the floor in various states of distress.

“Ow—” Kinuka winced, picking herself off the floor. She kicked Rin lightly in the side. “What was that for, Rin?”

Rin lay prone, his face buried in a groove he’d carved into the ground, his voice muffled as he lamented, “I’m such an idiot!”

“You’d best get over yourself quickly, and be glad you’re not dead.” Tegata had risen sharply, eyeing up the approaching reject, before he spied the disintegrating corpse of the other. Rin had fended them both off by himself? Even for such a short while…

“I can help, Tegata.” Kinuka stepped up next to him, strangely emboldened. “No, I will help.”

At a side glance, a loose determination shrouded her face, one of focus. He nodded. “What can you do?”

“Threadwork—that’s the name of my ability,” she stated. “It turns ordinary matter into thread, which I can manipulate as I see fit. My control’s not great, but I can do something. This reject—I think I can restrain it, if that helps.”

“That’ll be enough,” Tegata crossed his arms, folding his hands together.

“Rejected can’t discriminate between targets, and if it could hear us, it couldn’t understand. Just stay where you are.”

He turned in the opposite direction, and bolted.

Silence elapsed.

Kinuka paused and looked around. Tegata was nowhere to be seen. “Huh?!” She cried. “Wait—what do you mean, stay where you are? Tegata?! Where did you go?! You’re not going to just leave me here, are you? Seriously, what the hell?! I thought you had a plan!”

Ahead of her, the reject roared and started its charge. The sound flipped a switch in her mind, and the panic stilled.

If it’ll pursue me singlemindedly, there’s no use in running.

She dropped to the floor, and started working the ground with her hands. The earth twisted, tore and stretched.

THREADWORK

糸織 ITŌRI

A tangling mess of earthen strings wound themselves into ropes and rose from the ground like snakes from a jar. The reject thundered toward her, but she stared up at it until the very last moment.

The hulking mutant raised both fists and brought them down in a hammer, but Kinuka kicked backwards off the ground, psychic energy pulsing through her legs, and skidded a while away. She had noticed the threads she created and controlled seemed to respond to her will a little while after she ceased contact, but there was no guarantee this would work.

Gritting her teeth, she clenched her fist. The earthen ropes snapped to attention, winding their way up the reject’s arms and fastening tight around its neck. They contracted, pulling it sharply to the ground and locking it down.

More footsteps approached from behind the reject. Kinuka saw a glint of magenta, as Tegata Kage descended from above, two shadowy jackal in tow. A stomp leaden with psychic energy caved in the reject’s back, snapping the spine. The hounds then descended on their prey, tearing flesh asunder.

It was a gory, vile display she wasn’t prepared for at all. Kinuka clapped a hand over her mouth and shuffled back, only to bump against Rin (still grumbling into the floor.) Jumping off the crushed creature, Tegata touched down softly and approached. At her horrified expression, he looked over his shoulder, then back at her, attempting a smile.

“Oh, best not to look.” He cautioned, extending his arm. “It’s not very easy on the eyes, I know. That was an impressive use of your Specialty,” he added, more as a distraction. “That binding would have kept it held down for another while at least. Good thinking on your feet, too.”

He offered a hand to help her up. Cautiously, wordlessly, she took it. They looked at one another a moment, before she slapped him across the face. He stayed that way for a moment, and massaged his cheek, turning a wounded side-eye.

“Don’t give me that look,” she snapped. “You scared me half to death with that ploy of yours! ‘Stay right there’,” she mocked. “I could have died, you weirdo!”

“Oh…” His expression crunched, avoidant and morose. “Sorry… I’m more used to fighting alone.”

“You don’t say.” She sighed. “You say you’re looking for allies, but can’t actually work with others? Honestly!” She huffed, turning around and bending down to hoist Rin upright by the strings of his jacket like some bedraggled puppet.

“Come on, that’s enough moping for you.”

Slumped, Rin gave her a wounded look.

“Not you too!” She cried. “Fine! I’ll put you back in the ground, if you’d rather!”

“If you must…”

“Snap out of it! Am I the only lucid one here?”

The moon was now in full view overhead. She surveyed the ruined park a little dispassionately. Dented playframes, carved up ground and a few shattered trees meant little in her many eyes.

Eventually, Rin did indeed snap out of it. Unfortunately, that only meant he rounded on Tegata. “Why the hell would you rush off on your own like that?” He asked. “You were just about to give us more answers, too! Stopping in the middle of your sentence like that. Do you know how irritating that is?”

Tegata didn’t rise to the bait, or even look at him. He was walking towards a pavilion that sat a ways off in one direction, mercifully forgotten by the action just past. Rin and Kinuka were following him (because, realistically, what else were they to do?) The jackals had long since finished their last meal. There was no trace of the Rejected anymore, only ash in the wind. They prowled in a ring around the trio, much like the crows that circled overhead.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Tegata replied at last. “I felt their psychic signatures isolated and in distress. They were in danger. I couldn’t ignore it.”

“Who is they?!” Rin cried. “Stop being so vague! There’s literally no point in being so vague. You’re not a suspense narrator!”

“Just be patient,” Kinuka chided and put a hand on his shoulder. Rin shrugged her off and sidestepped a pace. Her eyes lingered on him a moment, hands retreating to her chest. She turned back to Tegata. “That said, it would be helpful to know.”

Tegata pointed ahead of them to the brick pavilion. One of the doors was open, and two little faces poked out from the near-darkness. Spotting Tegata at last, they left the building and ran up to him.

“Are you okay?” One cried. Tears had dried on her cheeks, soft and pale. “We saw you get hurt…”

Tegata put on his best smile and knelt down next to them. “I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.”

“The monsters—are they gone?” The other asked. “Are they really gone now?”

“Yeah, they’re gone,” he said. He raised a hand and patted her softly on the head. “It’s all alright now.”

The girls hugged one another, still tearful, chests rising erratically with half-choked sobs.

“Just a pair of kids?” Rin asked, arms folded. “What the hell’re they doing out so late?”

“I don’t know…” Kinuka thumbed her lip. “Seems strange. It’s pretty late now, right? They don’t look older than six, maybe seven?”

“Where the hell are their parents?” Rin tutted. “What’re they thinking?”

Kinuka approached and gave them a little wave. “Hi there, you two,” she said, crouching down beside Tegata. After a cautious first look, the warmth on her face melted their apprehension. “What are both your names?”

“Hana,” said the first. She had long brown hair in a braid. “And this is my sister, Teruko…”

“Are either of you hurt?” Kinuka asked.

“I cut my knee,” said Teruko, whose hair was shorter, darker, and cut in a fringe. “It really hurts… I fell over when I was running away…”

She showed Kinuka the scrape, and the older girl smiled. “Just look at me a second, and I’ll make the pain go away, okay?” She pressed her hand to the kneecap, and less than ten seconds later, the girl’s face began to brighten.

“It’s all better now!” She gasped. “Hana, look!”

Sure enough, the skin was flush and healed.

“Wow…” Her sister was left in awe. “Thank you!”

“Why were you out so late?” Kinuka asked gently. “You know it’s not safe to be out at this kind of hour…”

“Um, we know that…” Hana scuffed her shoe. “We were just waiting for big sis to come back.”

“You have another sister?” Rin asked, a little coarse.

“Um, she’s not actually our sister,” said Teruko. “But she picked us up from After School club and took us to get ice cream. She said she was a friend of mommy’s from work…”

Tegata’s brow furrowed. “And what did she look like?”

Hana pointed to her sister’s fringe. “She looked kind of like Teruko, but she had a big wide smile, like this!” She tugged at the ends of her mouth and stretched wide.

Tegata’s face darkened. “Was she wearing a big black coat?”

Hana nodded. “She said she had to go take a phone call, so she told us to keep playing on the playground. She would be come back soon. We waited for her, but then those monsters came…”

Rin prodded Kinuka and murmured, “Hey, wasn’t that—”

She nodded hurriedly and shushed him.

Rin’s jaw locked. “Oh, for crying out loud.”

Tegata put a hand on the sisters’ shoulders. “Please listen to me. You must never do that again, okay? That woman was not who she said she was. She was not a friend of your mothers, and she put you in danger. You mustn’t trust what a stranger tells you.”

“But, you’re a stranger,” said Hana.

“I know,” Tegata nodded, “and it doesn’t make sense—I get it—but please promise me you’ll go straight home after your clubs tomorrow.”

They nodded.

“Us three, we’ll walk you home today,” Tegata said. “It’s not safe to be out at night. Are your parents at home?”

“Um, I don’t know… They both work pretty late, sometimes they’re not home until after we’re asleep. That’s why we go to the after-school club.”

“I’m sure they’ll want to see you home safe,” Kinuka said, smiling to ease their tension. Both were starting to shrink away from Tegata’s scary face. “Come, you can take my hands.”

“But, you’re a stranger too, miss…”

Kinuka’s smile wobbled a little. “Yeah, I know. If you don’t want to, that’s okay.” She stood and offered her hands all the same. It took a second, but soon they were both latched on tight.

Soon, they had left the park behind and were making tracks down the street, both children giving sometimes-accurate directions whenever they reached a street corner.

After a little while, Rin, sloping a few paces behind, let out a weary groan. “Oh my god, this is going to take forever! Tegata,” he whined. “Can’t you just fly them home on a big bird, or something? I’m so hungry I could eat someone.”

Little Teruko gave a timid shriek and clutched Kinuka’s arm tighter, nearly pulling her to the ground. “Rin!” She yelped. “Stop scaring them, for goodness’ sake!”

“No-one’s forcing you to follow us,” Tegata chided under his breath. “If you’re hungry, then find something to eat. Stop complaining—it’s an earsore.”

Rin scowled at him.

“You can construct objects with your Specialty, can’t you?” Tegata continued. “If you had constructed us a car, we’d already be there by now.”

“What do you take me for, an engineer?” Rin snapped. “Have you even seen a schematic for a car? I haven’t even figured out how to extrude a circle yet! This technique is complicated!”

“Uhuh,” said Tegata and Kinuka in sequence.

“You too, Kinuka?!” Rin hung his head. “Oh, give me a break.”

The other two shared a look, then laughed. It was a strangely solitary sound, in a night of so much noise.

The apartment complex was a little walk away yet. It didn’t take too much longer to drop the girls off back home—though Rin made it seem otherwise. Unfortunately the lift was out of commission, which meant five floors of much-lamented ascension. Both children were practically falling asleep standing up. It took a few prompts to guide to the right door.

After a teary goodbye, the girls disappeared into a brightly lit apartment. The moment the door shut behind them, a chorus of voices echoed beyond the walls. The catharsis radiated out so strong, Rin had to turn away a moment and screw his eyes shut. Kinuka clutched both hands to her chest, eventually shifting her gaze from the door to Tegata. Having endured two searingly grateful hugs, he had stepped away and now sloped over the concrete railing, looked out over the city. His shoulders slumped. The long hair framing his face looking dull and yellow-washed in the buzzing lights under the canopy.

Kinuka approached, tentative. “Tegata, are you okay?”

His head dipped a little lower. “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

“Good!” Rin exclaimed, stretching with a wince. “Now can we please get something to eat?! Come on, let’s go… I’m about to pass away here…”

Kinuka gave him a pained look, but shook her head. She walked over and stood next to him a while.

Rin stared at Tegata some more and wondered aloud, “Hey, d’you think that’s a thing he does often? I’ve never seen someone full-on brood in real life. I thought that was just like a movie thing.”

Kinuka sighed.