Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

With the bullets flying through the air, it wasn’t as if Yuriko could simply sit down and eat. Besides, Fluffers would also need his nutritious, if bland tasting, burrito, too. Some stray bullets smashed up her third one, but it also damaged the machine, and now it was spitting out food like a machine gun. Yuriko caught several that flew her way, even as she nimbly sidestepped more strays. The opposing gang wasn’t really shooting at her, but the crossfire and the general lack of aiming were enough to be annoying.

The assailants didn’t give her a second look, but that didn’t mean they didn’t shoot at her. At one point, someone aimed at her legs, but she simply moved out of the way. The exits were blocked, and the wounded snake gang members' fire wouldn’t allow her to exit so nonchalantly. At least, not through the doors.

She was right next to the wall, after all, and this one was not laced with the same material as the one in the mega buildings, so she could use her perception through it. With some concealed sunblades, she cut open a hole and walked right on through.

Hmm, she’d grown annoyed since they killed her burritos, but since the machine spat out more, she was fine now. The question she was asking herself was if she should interfere, or if she should trail the seemingly humanoid Scourge. Ah, she should go get Fluffers.

She spread her perception across the entire motel, covering it as well as the adjacent petrol station. The rooms were on two floors, in a building that overlooked the neo-petrol station as well as the small parking lot. Her Kanegawa was still parked where she left it, and from the room’s window, she could keep an eye on it. The rest of the gang’s motorcycles were still three, but the bikes were hedged in by a large hauler that had its back compartment open.

The assailant gang was rounding up the people who rented rooms. Those who resisted were shot in the leg or the arm, or if they fought too fiercely, shot in the head. She noticed a few runners, but they weren’t being pursued. There were probably fifty people in the motel, guests and staffers.

She felt Fluffington come to full alert as someone kicked open the door, but he didn’t revert to his full size. Instead, he played weak while the gangsters rushed into her room, their guns pointing at every corner. Only when Fluffinton felt their attention was diverted from him did he act. His Animakinesis wasn’t as nimble as Yuriko’s though it was several times better than Heron’s. He grabbed one ganger’s gun with his kinesis, pushed the muzzle towards his fellow, then Fluffers pulled the trigger. The resulting spray of bullets cut the ganger’s friend down, though it hadn’t killed him outright. The man’s high pitched screaming caught the attention of everyone on the floor, and the shooter tried to regain control of his weapon. In turn, Fluffers relinquished control, seized the fallen man’s gun, pointed, and shot at the first ganger. The bullets didn’t all connect, and what did hit him pinged off his ‘chronian arms. At that point, the Elemental Wolf leapt at the upright gangster’s throat and used his razor-sharp claws to rip the man’s throat open.

Yuriko grinned in amusement, but her voyeuristic pleasure was stemmed by the fact that a half dozen gangers came up on her in the hallway.

“Arms up, broad!” One of the men yelled reflexively, only to double take once he caught sight of her properly, “Wow, a Doll.”

The label irked Yuriko, now knowing exactly what the man meant. Just because she looked good didn’t mean she had her features altered!

Her right hand drew her Defender pistol and her left drew her straight blade. She pulled the trigger as soon as the muzzle was clear of the holster and pointed vaguely in the man’s direction, and she used her Animakinesis to guide the bullet to hit the man’s hands, effectively disarming him.

“Rusty nails!” the man cursed but otherwise didn’t seem bothered by the pain. Yuriko frowned, but her quickshot didn’t seem to deter the group. The rest of them opened fire on her.

The bullets were easily avoided since their attack was haphazard at best. Plus, by holding the sword and invoking the Phases of the Sword, she used the Metal Phase to keep track of the assailant and the bullets. She sidestepped, ducked, and waved her blade in front of her, catching a couple of bullets that would have smacked her face. It wouldn’t have hurt, of course, but it was excellent practice.

They were separated by only a few paces, and they were well within her reach, but she didn’t use her Animakinesis. These people were mortal as far as she could tell, and the only thing uplifting them from a mortal warrior was their weapons and ‘chronian gear.

They spread out to surround her. She took a couple of steps forward, almost too fast for them to see. She fired a couple of rounds, curving the bullets past the front row and slammed them into a couple of people behind them. Her shots struck them on the knee, away from their chronain gear. While her perception was unreliable, Metal sense told her where the metal was in their bodies, so she only had to steer her attacks clear of them.

The two she hit collapsed. She was within range of the man who yelled at her. She struck with her sword. The blade wasn’t anything special, with nothing to its name other than toughness. It was also relatively cheap, less than two hundred ACs. For all that, she could have used a blade of grass and achieved the same effect. The Ennoia of Radiant Flying Swords empowered her blows simply because she was using foundational skills that all swordmasters utilised.

The sword’s edge touched the man’s ‘chronian wrist. The metal, whatever alloy composed of it, resisted the blow. It wasn’t as resilient as Orichalcum though, the alloy that made up both Fri’Avgi and Eli’Theria, so with just a bit of a push, the edge penetrated the alloy,then sheared through the man’s wrist. And the fact that it was ‘chronian told her why her initial shots didn’t hurt him, huh?

Now he was truly disarmed, doubly so when her reversed slash took off his other wrist. She followed the attack with a sharp kick to his middle, which sent him careening sideways towards his other buddy. She had used his body to cover the others’ avenues of attack, and when she moved out of it, they weren’t quite ready. Ah, it had barely been a second since she initiated her attack. The man’s feet had barely left the ground. Oh well. This was why playing with mortals was boring, at least against those who held little potential.

She aimed to attack the next guy, fully expecting the man to be just as helpless as the first. But she was wrong.

Her senses lit up as the man’s body shivered, and he began to move almost five times as fast as the others. The man’s expression was hidden behind his obviously metal cheeks, and his eyes were mechanical. Still, they burned red with fury. The man’s gun moved towards her body. It was a machine pistol, she thought, but she hadn’t memorised the gun store’s catalog to tell for sure.

He depressed the trigger, but although he was much faster than his fellows, and he reached Heron’s speed, Yuriko…was simply faster. The spray of bullets would normally be a cone of destruction, but she could see its trajectories. She could feel the bullets move through the air, feel the minute alterations to their path from the weight of the wind, and all she had to do was nudge them a little bit with her kinesis. She was about to do so when she forced herself to stop. Her kinesis was so convenient that it sometimes made her lazy in a fight. When was the last time she truly moved her body to the limit?

So instead of controlling the winds, she used her perception to move around the trajectories. Some, she deflected with her blade. Others, she nudged aside with her forearm. Her hands were occupied after all. The machine pistol had twenty or so bullets, and Yuriko simply counted how many had left the barrel before she made her move.

She struck the man’s wrist with her blade, but it seemed he was fast enough to avoid it. It did stop him from firing, however, so she aimed her Defender at his torse and shot him. He quickly moved to the side, getting out of the way completely. Yuriko followed him, steps elegant on the dance floor amidst stilled statues in varied contorted positions. Yuriko closed in, and the man tried to retreat. His other hand dipped towards his waist, grasping at a combat knife. He yanked it out of its sheath, and with a thumb, flicked a switch. The blade hummed and shimmered in place as it oscillated at a high frequency. He swiped it towards her, but Yuriko leaned back, not letting the vibroknife touch her or her weapon.

She closed in after his slash passed but he quickly reversed his attack. But she was already too close. Her forearm blocked his wrist. She twisted the Defender she held so that the muzzle pointed at his face. She was taller than he was, so the way her wrist twisted looked quite uncomfortable. It wasn’t though, and when she pulled the trigger, the recoil didn’t even make her wrist flinch. The bullet caught the man’s cheek as he desperately pulled his head sideways. His eyes were widening in fear now, and she could feel Terror welling from his core. It was pulled into her Mien and reciprocated in kind. Fear froze his joints, and whatever sped him up died with a whimper. Yuriko kicked his knee, shattered the bone, then sliced his arm off. She snatched the machine pistol from the air, his disembodied had still wrapped around the handle. Her Defended floated downwards since she dropped it to grab the other pistol, and she made a little hop to make sure it slid into her holster. She flicked the mechanical fingers off the handle, then took the grip.

“Tsk.”

She clicked her tongue as she heard a high-pitched beep. The machine pistol was locked to its owner and she couldn’t use it in the midst of battle. Useless for now, she flung it towards the fourth man, who was just turning towards them even as the first man’s flying body hit the third guy. The machine pistol spun in midair, and the handle smacked into the fourth gangster’s nose.

Crunch!

Blood and tears sprayed into the air and the man crumpled back. Yuriko’s feet settled onto the floor, and her perception of time returned to normal.

She spun her sword in a flourish and sheathed it. Battle time, five seconds.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

“Argh! You filthy joytoy!” the first man yelled, and Yuriko’s eye twitched. That was too much to bear. She drew her Defender and shot him between the eyes, accelerating the bullet with her kinesis, and blew his brains out the back.

Terror filled the air, as did the stench of urine filling their pants. Much better.

“Hmph!” Yuriko sniffed as she strolled past them, heading towards Fluffington. The wolf pup had finished savaging the room invaders, but he had drawn the attention of a dozen more on the same floor alone.

The quickest way there was to get out of the motel and jump from the neo-petrol station towards the second floor hallway. Except there were dozens of gangsters outside. She could take them all easily, but that would mean the altercation would end here and now.

But she had a feeling that these mooks would lead her to what she was looking for, so she simply told Fluffers to run into the bathroom and slip out through the small window. In the meantime, she had to stay out of sight, otherwise, there would be no end to the fighting and she probably needed them to succeed in their raid.