Chapter 44 - The Passing

The Passing
The Witch looked back at Rokiahi, snarling and slowly lowering her hands from her face. Rokiahi came back to her senses and ran straight past the Witch. The Witch initially watched Rokiahi run but soon returned back to sobbing in her hands again.

As Rokiahi continued to run, her thought processes were on high alert. The yellow eyes of the Witch reminded her of the yellow eyes of the Gensokyo loyalists. Was there a connection? And weren't the undead meant to be stuck in Area 51?

Without warning, the metal entrance barrier burst open with a loud crash, startling the Witch. She cried out in fury, arms outstretched at something downstairs, and she ran down aggressively. However, this was quickly followed by gunfire and the screams of the Witch as was gunned down. Mikoto Misaka reached the top of the stairs first, her yellow eyes obvious in the dim setting. Clearly, the zombies and Gensokyo were not allies.

Still looking over her shoulder, Rokiahi ran even faster, fully aware of Misaka's powers, the shopping centre not taking any turns.

Misaka put a hand in her skirt pocket, as her Helgast gun squad appeared behind her, all in black military suits and heavy air filtering helmets with glowing red goggles. The Helghast all adopted shooting position, the ones in front kneeling on one knee, all raising their guns at the fleeing Rokiahi. "Fire!" called Misaka. The gunfire was deafening.

Rokiahi turned to face the bullets with a determined glare on her face, summoning the One Ring in her left hand. If she was going to go down, the best she could do was not let Rulia get hit first.

"I said NO!" shouted Rulia, the bullets all slowing to a stop in front of them. As her voice echoed through the mall, the bullets fell to the ceramic floor. Rulia groaned, her grip of Rokiahi quickly loosening. She opened her eyes in pain, apparently only just coming back to a state of conciousness.

"Rulia, how are you doing?" breathed Rokiahi.

"It hurts," replied Rulia, her vision blurred, "Where are we?"

"Almost there," whispered Rokiahi, taking steps backwards away from Misaka, who looked enraged, "I didn't know you could stop bullets."

"... Who? Me?" Rulia had no idea what Rokiahi was talking about. Misaka took an arcade coin out of her pocket.

Rokiahi thought fast, summoning a gravity lift right under her. As she was pushed up by the compressed air, she aimed her assault rifle at the glass roof and shot a single projectile, a humming glass-breaking ring. The ring embedded in a thick thick glass panel, which suddenly shattered from its high frequency waves. With her right arm still raised, Rokiahi quickly summoned a metal sleeve round her lower arm, which fired a self-propelled but very small grappling hook, latching onto the underside of a pane of glass next to the hole. Then the grappler automatically retracted, pulling Rokiahi upwards at high speed. However, Rulia was not ready for the sudden jerk and lost her hold of Rokiahi, despite being inseparable beforehand. A panicking Rulia fell back to the floor but the still functioning gravity lift stopped Rulia's fall, where she hovered directly over the lift for a brief moment. Then she launched up with force, now without Rokiahi's weight. Rokiahi pulled herself up onto the roof and reached her left hand downwards at Rulia, who had her own hand outstretched upwards. Rokiahi caught Rulia and was about to pull her up when... nothing happened. A shocked Rokiahi looked down at a desperate Rulia. In horror, Rokiahi realised her own hand was opening up, weakening her hold of Rulia.

"No, Rokiahi," spoke Rulia, shaking her head, her own grip failing to hold onto Rokiahi's glove. There was a hiss below as the gravity lift ran out of gas.

Completely speechless, Rokiahi tried to stand up, to pull Rulia to safety. But her body refused to move, opening her hand even further.

It was inevitable, Rulia's hand slipped off Rokiahi's, the One Ring dropping after her. Rulia fell more than ten metres to the floor, trying to land on her feet but the intense pain in her right ankle forced her to collapse onto the ground. Gasping in pain and fear, Rulia saw the Helghast squad ran towards her, guns raised. She grabbed the One Ring nearby and thrust it onto her left middle finger, "Save me, Haruhi!" she cried, suddenly turning invisible.

But Rulia could not move out the way before a Helghast swung a strong kick in her direction. There was a sound of impact before silence as Misaka eyed Rokiahi on the roof, her right hand ready to flip the coin.

"We're moving out," ordered Misaka, pocketing the coin, "Get something to chase Rokiahi to stop her from following us." They descended the stairs, Rulia's bumping echoing loudly, as one of the Helghast dragged down her invisible body, all eventually moving out of view.

Rokiahi screamed in rage, the mall echoing back her anger. "What do you plan to do to me?!" she cried, turning her head to look at the figure behind her. The female shooter, that had caused so much pain was stood behind Rokiahi. She possessed no colour at all, completely black from head to toe. The sniper rifle was coloured normally however, and, as Rokiahi had feared, was extremely familiar. The shooter's body shape was also recognisable, as Chamber had stated, only missing her helmet.

"You cannot escape your fate, Rokiahi," said the figure. The voice was the final giveaway.

But Rokiahi did not have good will towards her friend. She stood up to face her, "What have you done to me, Naluri?"

Naluri answered, indirectly, "The Writer decides all."

"And who is The Writer?" It was notable that Rokiahi did not protest about The Writer's existence.

"It is too early for you to find out. You must continue to suffer until then."

Rokiahi took a step towards Naluri, "What are you planning?" Naluri said nothing as Rokiahi took another step forward. "Where are you taking Rulia? Did you do something to Void and Chamber?" Again, Naluri did not speak. "You leave them alone," shouted Rokiahi, "Do what you want with me but leave them alone."

"It is worthless to make requests of The Writer," noted Naluri, "The Writer decides all. And The Writer has decided that you should lose everything to protect them from you."

"From me?"

"Rulia, a sweet young girl in a vulnerable state, but all you could think of was how much of a useless burden she was. You hated how much she clung to you for protection. To you, she was the one to leave behind as a distraction for you to escape."

"That's not true."

"Chamber, a man in another body, forced to put himself in danger for you. The thought constantly through your mind was how it wasn't you on his back, with no need to walk. You felt how Chamber ought to be protecting you all the time. You regularly felt things would have been better if he had been a full android.

"Stop it!"

"Void, a doll often misjudged from her looks, the one looking out for others. You hated how it was her on Chamber's back instead of you. It was your view that it ought to be Void who should have been carrying Rulia. You thought perhaps it wasn't a good idea to have Chamber head back to pick her up again."

"Shut up!" shouted Rokiahi, throwing a wild punch.

"And then there's me," spoke Naluri. Rokiahi's punch stopped short of Naluri's face, allowing Naluri to continue. "A loyal friend who gave nothing but love, trust and faith to you. But after Doomsday, did you come searching for me? And this morning, when I went missing, did you look for me? Or did you choose to sit tight in a school for your own protection?"

Rokiahi was frozen in place, unable to think straight about what Naluri was telling her. As much as Rokiahi wanted to deny it, there was truth in what Naluri was saying, and she had no way of explaining her thoughts in a nice way.

"Naluri, I-"

"You cannot be true to others if you are not true to yourself."

Rokiahi recognised the line immediately, "You- Who are you really?"

"The Writer decides all, Rokiahi," repeated Naluri, "You are not free."

"... Why... why did you choose for this?" cried a despaired Rokiahi, her fist still in front of Naluri's face.

"It is for the best," declared Naluri, "You will continue to suffer until you take a stand and change. In your current state you are incapable of making a difference. You are broken and in two minds. Punch me."

Rokiahi tried her best to push her fist just that little bit further to strike her friend's face. But her body refused to cooperate and did not move.

"Punch me!" shouted Naluri.

"I can't!" called Rokiahi, stumbling backwards in fear.

"Tsk," jeered Naluri, as a double-rotor AH/G-24 Banshee fighter vertically rose behind her to hover above roof level. It immediately began unloading its missile pods. "There is no rest for the wicked."

Rokiahi turned round and ran for her life, the missiles hitting and shattering all the glass behind her. She did not even turn to look back at Naluri as she jumped off the side of the building. Rokiahi tumble-rolled onto the flat roof of the building next to the mall before jumping off this one as well. As she abseiled down, the grappling hook holding onto the roof, Rokiahi was crying, thinking about what Naluri had said.

As she left the alleyway back onto the main road, she could see that the tarmac of the road had been melted into what looked like bubbly gloop. Glancing to the left Rokiahi saw a incoming heavy tank, similar to the Overlord but with even thicker armour, down the street, with the Banshee hovering above it. The gatling cannon on the Emperor Tank's turret turned to Rokiahi.

Rokiahi had no time to think. She leaped over to the front door of the restaurant to her right. She hit the lock with the palm of her left hand. The flat Impact Dial seashell under her glove activated, letting out of the force contained inside it. The door was pushed off its hinges, tumbling into the hallway. Rokiahi dived inside as the cannon began to shower the pavement with bullets. Once inside, Rokiahi ran eastwards into the huge driving area, full of circular wooden tables and chairs. The Emperor tank quickly quickly caught up outside the window, pointing its heavy cannons towards Rokiahi, the gatling cannon whirling up again. Rokiahi threw out a small grey metal tin with all her might, smashing out a window. As she dived for a second time, putting on red sunglasses, the grenade exploded with a flash, filling the area with tiny grey particles. The gatling cannon fired a single shot before jamming, the adhesive-chaff blocking the barrels. However, the huge tank barrels were unaffected. It fired a shell, missing Rokiahi due to her roll but the second shell was right on target. Rokiahi quickly extended her left arm, the shell hitting her palm. But the Impact Dial absorbed all the kinetic energy, passing absolutely none to Rokiahi. The stopped shell fell to the ground and exploded. But, again, Rokiahi faced the Impact Dial at the explosion, all the energy taken in by the Dial. As she got back to her feet, she was hit in the side by a table, knocking her away, Misaka racing towards her from the restaurant entrance. Rokiahi, not happy upon seeing Misaka again who was particularly effective in small areas, jumped out the window into the front garden, preferring to deal with the Emperor Tank and the Banshee. The Emperor Tank's turret was slow in turning, Rokiahi easily outturning it her jump. The Banshee was not flying stably, the chaff clogging its twin rotors, an unintended but welcomed sife-effect of the grenade, unable to point towards Rokiahi.

However, Misaka had successfully flushed Rokiahi out the restaurant into the open, her right arm outstretched at her, flicking the coin into the air with her thumb. Rokiahi, in this amount of time, raised both her arms at Misaka. The coin fell back to Misaka, who flicked it once more, now applying her supernatural control over electricity, accelerating the coin more than three times the speed of sound, ripping through the air, with incredible accuracy. But it had far too much accuracy as Rokiahi had correctly guessed where she was aiming, her left hand in the way of her face. The melted coin hit the Impact Dial, negating all its kinetic energy, the misshaped coin falling to ground, though it burnt a hole in Rokiahi's rubber glove. Rokiahi, using her right arm, fired the grappler at high speed, the small hook latching onto Misaka's torso, the metal mini-claws painfully attaching to her skin. The grappler's automatic reeling kicked in again, pulling Misaka off her feet towards Rokiahi, who had her own feet firmly planted on the ground. As Misaka hit the wall under the window with a crunch, Rokiahi summoned a metal golf club, shooting the grappler again at the middle of club. Instead of firing a new grapple, the grappler fired the other end of the cable, also with a claw, holding onto the golf club. While this meant the cable could no longer auto-reel, Rokiahi didn't need that functionally, hitting the ground with the club as hard as she could. The club head embedded into the ground, Misaka crying out, her stored electricity passing through the grapple cable and golf club into the ground as it was earthed.

The Emperor Tank was standing by, seemingly waiting for Rokiahi and Misaka to move further apart, in case of friendly fire but the Banshee had managed to at least face Rokiahi and began firing its missile pods. Rokiahi rolled out the way, onto the road, right where the Emperor wanted her, turning its turret towards her and firing. But Rokiahi deployed a bubble shield at her feet, the shells bouncing off the golden barrier. The Banshee was again struggling to properly turn round. The Emperor suddenly lunged forward, fully aware that the bubble shield did not block driving vehicles. It drove into the shield, where Rokiahi was waiting, her left arm outstretched. She gave the tank an underhand slap with her left hand, the Impact Dial letting loose the immense combined energy from the Emperor shell, its explosion and Misaka's coin at one go, the tank thrown backwards into the air like a toy, smashing into the Banshee. The Emperor landed upside down, the gatling cannon snapping off, and skidded down the road helplessly.

Rokiahi turned to Misaka who had pulled off the grappler claw but had her eyes closed with tears running down her face, the sticky chaff having spread inside the restaurant, getting into her eyes, Rokiahi's sunglasses preventing it from affecting herself. After a moment's thought, Rokiahi faced east and ran, the Enterprise's body towering over the street.

There was no hope of finding Rulia.