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The Hounds of Hell Will Massacre You II
Word count: 5,400
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Nella
Yuurei looked outside the window, her eyes scanning the exceptionally chilly streets of Moscow. The nippy morning air wafted through the room, but the jacket Eiji gave to her was quite a help. Well, if it weren’t for the said piece of clothing, she could have gotten a cold. The assassin was still sleeping on his room when she got out of hers, and the silence around the place was deafening.
I wonder how they were able to clean that mess up... Yuurei thought as the image of the dead cerberus flashed back into her mind. Two large heads on the ground with a pool of crimson blood around it, with chunks of flesh and raven fur from the third one. Well, not my problem, she shrugged it off and walked towards the kitchen, a small book in her hands. It was a small cookbook that she thankfully found among the stash of books on the small bookshelf at the corner of the living room, right beside the couch. And thankfully, it was in some language she understood.
She never really had the penchant for foreign food, but the heat from the stove was enough of an excuse to actually get her to cook. A blini with smetana and salmon, paired with hot milk with a little honey. It seemed simple enough, she only hoped for the best that they had all the ingredients on the refrigerator given to them as well. After all, it says traditional Russian breakfast.
It should be easy, right?
Wrong.
Although the book instructions were understandable, the ingredients were left on their Russian counterparts. It meant that she would have to guess what the ingredients were, with the images provided in the page. She just hoped to get it right, at least before the assassin wakes up.
He had probably needed a full night of sleep more than the arcanist had. After all, ever since he had joined the Gotei, he had not been able to relax even for a single day. It had been a busy time non-stop, even for him it was a long. Nonetheless, he had been assigned a task once again. This time was a little bit different though. He had not gotten any real information of his target. No name, no location, not even a visual of it. This time around, he had to actually track something of unknown origin. Easier said than done. At least the information I got from Yuurei last night will probably help me a bit.
He got up from his bed which he had left in a mess and entered the room that was supposed to be the kitchen in the small apartment. Even thought it had a stove and a sink, it felt more like a kitchen nook than an actual kitchen. She faced the stove and smoke came from the pan she had on it.
"What are you cooking?” he asked. Not because he was hungry, but more because he loved to eat. He could eat anything, as long as it was man-made.
"Something they call a blini,” Yuurei spoke, her auburn eyes poring over the creamy solution on her pan. "It looks like a normal pancake, only a little thinner,” she tilted her head towards the assassin and smiled. "It’ll be done in a few minutes!”
Using the black spatula, she flipped the small blini in the pan. It was the tenth one she finished, and the last piece she intended to cook. Everything was already prepared on the table, and the last piece they definitely needed to complete the table was the blinis. Her pancakes were a tad thicker than those images presented on the cook book (they were so thin, she swore she would have to eat so many before she could even feel satiated), but definitely not smaller than the pan-sized ones. Finally placing the last blini on the stack, she turned off the stove and walked towards the table.
"Well, it’s chow time,” she smiled at the assassin.
Eiji had already taken a seat at one end of the table. He sat hungry with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other. The blini seemed to be something quite different than he had eaten before. Even though they looked like regular pancakes, the name gave them some sort of exotic feel. If not for the weather in Moscow, one could even call the food tropical.
As the arcanist placed the plate on the table, he did not wait a second before grabbing half the stack and placing it on his plate. With the help of his fork, he had pierced through five of the pancake-lookalikes and immediately started pouring syrup on them. The liquid dripped slowly on the plate as he pressed it with quite a lot strength. I don’t understand how they can make something as good as this flow so slowly.
As he ate one blini after the other, he started thinking a bit about the information she had given him last night.
"Those clones that you sent out last night,” he began as he cut up another piece and placed it in front of his mouth. "If what you said is true, and that hound you guys fought was visible to the human eye it must mean our enemy is a human as well. And seeing as he can actually see spirits, he must have some sort of power himself. What clues do we have to finding him?”
"On the north of this city, there is a tall house with a large yard, where the reiatsu fluctuations were felt last night,” she spoke, carefully placing some smetana and several slices of salmon on the blini on her plate. "My clones were not able to enter the place since it was heavily guarded,” she folded the sides of the blini and rolled it so that the cream and the fish would remain inside.
"Since there are four of them, they investigated four different places, as instructed, but the places they found weren’t really so far from each other.” The arcanist took a bite from the blini, clearing up the imagery of the clone’s observations in her mind. "Well, on its far left was a factory. At least, that’s what it looked like...”
She took a sip from the cup of warm milk before continuing on, "On the far right was a laboratory of sorts. Again, the clone was not able to verify whatever it was really a laboratory, but that’s what it looked like.”
Yuurei took another bite from her blini and frowned. The fourth one didn’t really find any striking landmarks, but she did a good job giving them a view of the vicinity. "Well, you see, the fourth one just surveyed the area. There are only a few people on that side of the city, yet there reiatsu fluctuations were abound in that spot.
"Considering that he was on a large house, it must have been really easy for him to plot his stuff inside that place. Also, why would he bother doing his business on somebody else’s lot, if it’s so important and all?”
She finally finished her second blini and washed it down with another sip from her cup of milk.
"What they found was probably their main base. Usually, someone would have a few sub-bases that they would reveal to get someone off their tail. Seeing as we found it so easy, there are two options. Either they are heavily guarded enough for them to be confident about no breaches, or they are in one hell of a hurry.” Eiji set down his cutlery on the plate and carried it off to the sink. He walked back to the table slowly, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. It was a fine coffee made from beans that were supposedly imported from South America. It was a wonderful to smell it, and even better to drink.
"I reckon we scout first. We need to know how well guarded they are and if they have some sort of force that could go for an ambush. Those clones that you sent out last night might be of great help to us. If possible, I would like to enter with one of them. Make sure you ready yourself.
"We move out tonight.”
"Sure, but you can only have a clone for twenty minutes. That’s as long as I can put them up,” she spoke, her eyes on the assassin. "And since I can use up to four one-hit clones, I suppose we’ll just have the others scout the place outside?”
"No, make them all scatter around inside. It will work as a diversion. I will have no problem entering the grounds and keeping myself hidden. All I need is a diversion to make my job a little easier. You think you’re up for it?”
"Sure,” she nodded as she continued eating her blini.
* * *
"Damn those shinigami! Looks like I’ve been found out...” A man slammed his hands on the wooden table, his eyes filled with fury. He was breathing heavily, and his sinister eyes rested on a woman who sat on a chair opposite to him. "You should have been the one to follow the woman. Not only did we lose a potential candidate, we also lost the mongrel. Do you even have an idea how hard it was to create that hunter?!” His voice reverberated through the room as he stood up straight and paced around the luxurious carpet.
"Well, the woman is dead. I suppose she’s not worthy enough to join in our ranks,” the woman spoke coolly, her blue eyes staring straight at the bookshelf on the far side of the room.
The man finally stopped in front of the woman, and leaned on the wooden chair’s manchette. "And you suppose you are?” He hissed, his deep blue eyes narrowing on the woman.
"Yes, else I wouldn’t be here,” she replied in the same cool tone, and met the gaze of the man in front of her.
He merely smirked in amusement. "You only faced me, you’ve never really faced that cerberus,” he let go of the chair’s arms and stood straight, looking down on the woman with vexation in his eyes. "Do you really think you’ll survive if I asked the mongrel to hunt you down?”
"At this point, yes.”
"Bastard.” He paced away from the woman and towards the glass window. With a single hand, she shoved the deep green curtains on the side and took a peek at the world below. "Approximately two hours from now, we’ll have a visitor. If you think you can survive the cerberus, let’s see if you’ll live after facing her.” With an eyebrow raised, an amused smirk spread across his face.
* * *
Good luck. You have twenty minutes to keep them. Yuurei perched near the ledge of a rather tall building near the house, far away to be seen from the house itself, but near enough for her to observe the place with a bird’s eye view.
Eiji entered the unfamiliar ground with the four clones. Luckily for him, he was trained in silent killing and had no problems infiltrating without being seen. With the help of some distortions to hide his reiatsu and himself from vision, he moved over the gate swiftly. Each of the clones split away into a direction of their own. Their job at this point was quite simple; wreak havoc and be seen. But don’t let it be known that an assassin entered the grounds with you.
The first of the clones moved towards what seemed to be the laboratory that had been spotted last time one of them was sent here. It moved quickly towards the two grand doors that were the entrance.
Two of the moved together in the front yard, their aim being the main building which seemed to serve as a base of some sort. The windows were all covered in curtains and one would not be able to know what was inside if he did not enter.
The fourth clone stood outside some sort of warehouse. It supposedly held a great deal of mechanical items and animals, which you could hear clearly from the outside.
Cloaked as he was, the assassin could only use his spiritual pressure to sense the clones once every few minutes. As he entered the front yard, aware of his surroundings and sure that nobody was near him, he released the cloak and expanded the area where he could sense reiatsu. But he could not feel anything. There was nobody near him and he could finally move freely.
"Who are you?!” Someone bellowed from inside the laboratory grounds as soon as the first clone went to the door. A man in black quickly approached the gate and spoke to her from beyond the metal bars. He wore a pair of black slacks and a thick leather jacket. His face could barely seen from beyond the tousled fringe of hair hanging on the front of his face, but she could see the pair of black sinister orbs staring straight at her.
The first clone was flabbergasted, and she didn’t even know what to say. "I... uh... I was just passing by,” the words flowed nervously from her lips, and a slight laugh followed soon after.
"Look, if you don’t have any business here, you might as well do away with this place,” the man waved to her, shooing her away. Still, there was an annoyed look on his face.
The clone merely nodded and walked away to the side. She was frightened enough, and she didn’t know what to do with the man. Although the assassin instructed her to survey the area, she might as well be dead if she were to stay within the man’s sight. Still, her eyes scanned the whole area. She was tasked to observe her surroundings. Well, she might as well spend the last of her minutes fulfilling that task.
"What are you doing here?!” A bulky man came nearer to the clone, with a weapon on his hand. She had no idea where the assassin was since they parted ways upon entering the lot. Wherever he is, he might be in a better condition, because she definitely wasn’t. "Do you know you’re trespassing?” The man bellowed to the clone, and stopped barely three feet away from her. Other men garbed with the same threads appeared from the shadows, all three of them.
The man reached for his phone and looked at her with narrow eyes. "Sir! There’s a trespasser in here,” he spoke in a gruff voice, his eyes still on the girl. He nodded and within a few moments, a gun was already pointed to the clone’s head. "You’re going with me!”
Gosh, they’re scary.
The man wore a pair of black slacks, and a black leather jacket. For guards, they looked really slick. In fact, it looked like they came from a mafia of sorts. Not that the clone would live long enough to know, anyway. He attempted to snatch the clone by seizing her by the arm, but the clone disappeared as soon as the man tried to take ahold of her.
"Huh?” The man blinked as his hands caught nothing but thin air, and looked around for any signs of the intruder. "Why won’t you look at that? She disappeared...”
Yuurei blinked from where she was, surprised by the sudden rush of sensations. One of them was gone? Then, where...
The one with Eiji!
Darn, at least let him succeed on this one. That place is heavily guarded, just as the clones said last night...
The third clone surveyed the surrounding area, without any aim in particular. It had been a few minutes since the other clone passed by the warehouse, and it looked like she was heading to that specific direction. She stopped by the gate of the warehouse and looked at the building. She was merely walking, and she did not even notice someone nearby.
"You again? Are you really looking for trouble, woman?” A man’s voice spoke from behind her, with something pointed at the back of her head. "I believe I told you to buzz off.”
She gulped. "No, no, I’m not looking for trouble! I’m going to leave now,” she laughed nervously and attempted to run, but the man seized her by the collar.
"You’re not going anywhere!” He growled as he tried to push her with the tip of the gun. "You will come with me.”
Oh no! I’m in deep trouble... The clone thought and nervously looked around.
"GO!”
She trembled, and she didn’t know what to do. In the end, she simply walked as the man instructed. Let my twenty minutes finish already, she pleaded.
The one near the warehouse went closer to the gates. Approximately two feet away from a gate, there was a thick black line painted on the concrete ground. The clone barely noticed it, and a laser spot quickly appeared on her foot as soon as it stepped on a black line and within moments, something shot right to the clone, and she disappeared as soon as the attack touched her skin.
Eiji kept his eyes on the main hall as he moved. The huge building where two of the clones were sent had started to awaken; lights were starting to become lit and he could even spot some sort of movement around the house. Shadows appeared behind the dark curtains and the boy had to go into hiding again. A distortion around him was created and he was hiding again.
Why would the lights turn on at this hour? Have the clones, or perhaps even Yuurei-san been spotted? I better hurry before something bad happens.
He was on the move once again. He walked straight, towards the main house without giving a care of what he could find around him. There was no time left to investigate the whole grounds, he had to move quickly towards the main building to find some sort of indication that this was what they looked for. His task would be quite easy if he could only get all the information. Unfortunately, this mission included him doing all the investigation and tracking as well.
Pain seared on Yuurei’s leg as soon as the clone dispersed, and the same familiar sensation as the previous night’s rushed in. Even though she wore the assassin’s jacket, it could not help against the cold that the clone brought with her.
Well, that’s one thing to look out for... Yuurei cast a concerned glance at the direction of the factory or warehouse of sorts, and continued prying over the main building. There were two people outside the main gate, and one of them promptly looked at the top of the gateway’s arch. After a few moments, someone met them on the gateway and opened the large metal gate. The arcanist could not hear anything, given her distance from the gate, but there was a slight clang when the person finally locked the door and escorted the two women inside.
The devices given to her were quite heavy, but she somehow needed to set it up. Darn those scientists and their equipment. How could they walk around with these stuff?
She looked for the largest generator where she could hide and began setting up the whole damn contraption.
Bigger than even the doors in Seireitei, he found himself standing outside the main entrance. The lights where still lit in most of the rooms, but some had been reverted to the state they were in previously. The curtains still covered the whole building and made it completely impossible to actually get a sneak-peek. There were no visual guards anywhere near, but he was sure that there were at least some traps, or the like of it at least. To ensure his own safety, he chose not to enter through the grand gate in front of him.
He circulated the whole building once. There were only two doors if you did not count the main entrance. One was located on the opposite site and one west of the main one. He could not decide on which would be the safest route immediately. Searching through his pockets, the assassin brought out a small silver coin with two different sides. He balanced it on his thumb and flipped it high in the air.
The west entrance, sounded his first thought. Not even glancing on what side the coin had landed on, he proceeded to around to the door. He opened it slowly as he removed the distortions around himself and revealed his body. You could now see him with just the naked eye, but the reiatsu was still blocked from perception. This was his trump card for now and he was not gonna let go of it that easily.
As he entered the grand building, he noticed how well mannered it was. The building itself resembled something from ancient Greece, with many visible, decorated pillars upholding it. Slowly walking up to the first of the pillars, he placed a camera that would give him vision of the whole room.
It was a miniature device, but a great invention. The cameras had been left by Taka before he had left, together with a set of screens that connected them via some sort of wireless connection. The main devices had been left with the arcanist, for her to set it up and gain visual of the insides. Along with that, they had also been given some sort of analytic device that could sense the reiatsu of the inhabitants of an area within one kilometer of the cameras.
Yuurei finally managed to set up the three large screens. Each screen had exactly twenty four screens, but they remained blank, the screens left with a gray and white noise to show the arcanist.
Eiji kept going around the main hall, placing cameras in as many places as he could. If they were to keep surveillance of a manor this big, they would need to keep it all under their watch. There were cameras everywhere; on pillars, inside of lamps, between the handles on the staircase, under chairs. It was the perfect setup for their initial plan.
She finished setting up the powerhouse of the whole setup. It was a small box about the size of a shoebox, but it was perhaps the heaviest. There were several sockets on its back, and she could only guess which connects to which, hoping for the best that it would work. The elder scientist left her with an instruction manual, but everything still seemed quite complex.
He placed not only cameras in the main hall, but in every single room that had been available for him to walk inside of. Oddly enough, he was yet to encounter some sort of guard or obstacle, which would even slow him down the slightest. The manor seemed empty, or at least the main rooms were. He had no idea why it was so, but there had to be a good reason. Some of the doors he found were locked and he could not do much about that. Had he tried to break them open, the noise would probably alarm any guards that were around, and that would bode ill for both him and the girl. Even though she was outside of the building, heck even outside the grounds, with technology on a high enough level, one would be able to find her.
The arcanist beamed at her achievement. Finally, the contraption whirred into action and within moments, she could see the interior of the manor.
As soon as he had finished, he walked back to the door he had entered from. It was still as quiet as when he had entered, but this time he made sure that the reiatsu cloak covered not only his reiatsu but him as well. With that, he exited through the door and was back outside. Now I only need to find out if we have visual. If there was some way I could signal her, or if she could contact me. Those clones she used would be perfect for this kind of message to be transmitted.
I wonder, this is already it, right? But where is he?
Yuurei gingerly reached for the denreishinki inside her jacket, her hands shivering from the cold. Without further ado, she tapped the same numbers and sent a message to the assassin, hoping to get into a warmer place soon.
Eiji-kun.
I already got it working.
Where are you?
He could feel how the spiritual phone he carried vibrated. He had turned off the sound before entering, and only left it with the vibrating function on. If it were to start ringing, it would probably alarm everyone in the residence. Compromising his mission like that was not something he could afford at the moment. Picking up the device, he clicked it open and read the message that had been sent to him.
The way he had set out the cameras had been a success, and he could finally relax a bit. The only thing that he had to do now was to actually get out of this place, before anyone noticed the cameras. Eiji hoped that the cameras would at least remain unnoticed until they could extract some information about the people in there.
Have you seen anything yet?
I’m on my way.
As soon as he had sent her a message, he moved towards the same place where he had entered the grounds. He was done for now and he awaited word from the arcanist so that he could move on.
Well, nothing suspicious inside,
But two people just came in within the vicinity.
They came in a few moments ago.
Yuurei had no idea whether he knew of their entry but he had to know, somehow. After all, who knows what those two could possibly do inside?
The scientist conveniently left her with the reiatsu tracking device, and with enough luck, they might be able to verify where the reiatsu fluctuations were coming from. She gingerly reached for the small phone and opened it. There were a few dots on the screen, but no, no anomaly of sorts yet. For some reason, she could not see the assassin’s reiatsu nor could she see a small dot on the screen to pinpoint his location, but she just assumed that he was somewhere there.
He read the message she had sent him and stashed his denreishinki into his shihakushou. The boy climbed the gate which he had gone over last time. Having the four clones as distractions made it easy for him to actually enter. Without them, he had to be careful when exiting. Too quick movement, or even too much could disperse the cover he had over himself and reveal where he was, which would kind of make the whole infiltration unnecessary.
As soon as he had made it over the gate, he released the cloak and flew across the streets and to the place where the female shinigami was. It took him less than two minutes to reach the tall building and he walked up to her as quickly as he could. The ability to defy human laws was great.
"So, what do we have? Anything interesting yet?” he asked, almost sneaking up on the arcanist.
"No, nothing yet,” she spoke as she huddled closer to the setup, just to bask herself in the slight heat that emanated from it. People walked around the manor, and to and fro from the various rooms, but there didn’t seem to be any suspicious movement. No, more like, none of them noticed the cameras yet.
"But I’m also watching this little thing over here,” Yuurei held up the small phone Taka left and showed the reiatsu-sensing screen. "It’s a tad more sensitive than our own, and it’s pretty nifty.”
"I would like for you to keep track of every single change in spiritual energy you can find. If anything at all were to happen, I want to know it. As soon as you find anything concrete, we’re moving out.” Eiji moved around the equipment for a while, not wanting to touch anything really. He was mostly afraid to break the stuff since he had never handled anything like that before.
"Well, if they start activity now, then we’ll probably see. But in the meantime while we’re waiting...” Yuurei cast a glance on the screens and looked back at the assassin, "What did you find out inside the house -- er -- a little manor of sorts?
"You see, my clones seemed to have seen people wearing the same uniforms, all of which appeared to be guarding the area around the place. Any thoughts?”
"Nothing. There was not a single soul that acted as if it was alive.” He tried remembering the whole route he had passed in the house. It was like he had originally thought; an empty house which was just a cover for something.
"My opinion is that there is more to the building than just the one above the ground. It has to have some sort of underground level, or another dimension connected to it perhaps.” His thoughts began to sounds absurd and crazy, yet it was the only thing that could actually make sense. "There is another function to those cameras that Taka-san told me about. Apparently, they are mobile cameras. He should have left some instructions with the connected device, or perhaps back in the room.
"I suggest we move back to base and set this up there. It will minimize the risk of us getting spotted as well as give us some warmth. This cold is really starting to get on my nerves.”
"Well, that’s an excellent idea!” Yuurei beamed at Eiji, still shivering slightly from the temperature.
They packed the devices with haste and made sure that they had taken everything. Seeing as a single cord or even small piece would make them unable to boot their system, they had to bring everything back. There were two cases, both quite heavy, which didn’t really bother the assassin. He had enough strength to carry the both and did so as well.
~
Back at the base they had established in the little apartment in Moscow, Eiji started setting everything up and made sure every piece was where it was supposed to. He had checked it all back at the rooftop and this was as much as he could remember. The arcanist helped him as well, with the pieces he could not.
He had made it so that both of them could watch a few screens each, just to split up the work and make sure they did not miss anything. He had the phone that Taka had left next to him, after taking it from Yuurei. He checked it from time to time, and there were not really any differences other than them changing locations.
He watched the different camera-angles for over an hour before actually noticing anything. He cross-checked it with the phone and did not really see it at first. The cameras showed pictures of every single spot he could find in the manor. The information that he had gotten from the arcanist was that none of the dots on the phone was even near the manor. Now, most of them had started gathering around the house, and some were still even in it.
What he found strange was that not a single one of them showed up where the cameras were. He could easily see that they were in the same spot, when he compared it to the map that the scientist had left. A few of the marks on the device showed themselves to stand exactly in the same spot as he had placed a camera or two. This is very odd. Is there some sort of distortion in front of the camera, or perhaps some sort of illusion that they set in front of every camera?
He kept looking at the phone and some of the reiatsu signals had started gathering in the same place. Don’t tell me... There is more than one floor in the building? How the hell couldn’t I find it?