The spew of expletives flowing from Nitori’s mouth was actually quite impressive.
Koishi didn’t know what any of them meant, of course. The kappa was using one of those archaic youkai tongues so as not to offend her companions. But swearing was almost a universal language, and Nitori’s flushed face and angry grunts were enough to Koishi to get a vague grasp of the content.
“Of all the fucking times,” the kappa blurted, slipping back into a human language. She smacked a hand into her desk. “Why’d she have to show up now?”
Her outburst continued unabated for another thirty seconds, none of the Sirens finding the nerve to interrupt her. Sango stepped in from the corridor, placing a glass of water on the table.
“Thank you, Sango.” Nitori snatched up the glass immediately, downing its contents in one swig. The blush faded from her face as she did, and by the time she’d laid the empty glass down again her fervor had mostly faded.
“Finished?” Sakuya said.
“Just about.” Nitori wiped a layer of sweat from her brow and took a deep breath to regain the last of her composure. “Sorry for the tantrum. It’s not every day one of the most powerful youkai in history shows up to ruin all of your work.”
“You said her name was Ran Yakumo, right?” Komachi asked. “So does that make her Yukari’s daughter or something?”
Nitori shook her head. “Ran wasn’t Yukari’s daughter. She was an apprentice, the only one Yukari ever took on. She was given the Yakumo name as a badge of honour.”
“So she’s strong, then?” Youmu said.
“Oh, undoubtedly. Maybe not quite at her prime, though. You can’t do much training if you’ve spent the last few millennia in hiding.”
Koishi still struggled to grasp the time frames that youkai functioned in. She’d be lucky to live for a century, but even Nitori was thousands of years older than that. To her credit, the kappa didn’t look a day of her actual age.
“OK, you lost me.” Mokou raised her hand to ask a question, the classroom environment making its mark on her. “If she’s so incredibly strong, why is she being so secretive? Are the Claw out to get her?”
Again Nitori shook her head. “Ran barely cares for either side anymore. We should be thankful she was at least courteous enough to warn us, but now she’s just waltzing off to kill Futatsuiwa in broad daylight.” The kappa gripped her temples. “I swear, if I ever hunt her down, I’m going to pluck every hair off of those goddamn tails as punishment.”
Futatsuiwa. That name again. Nitori recognised it, just like Ran had promised. Maybe there were answers to be found here after all.
“Kawashiro-sensei.” She stood up, staring straight into the kappa’s eyes. “Who is Mamizou Futatsuiwa?”
“She’s Ran’s prey, of course,” Nitori answered. “The two of them have been playing cat and mouse across the planet for centuries, now. Normally they’re not quite this upfront about it, but I guess Ran’s bored of the game now and wants to skip the pleasantries.”
“But why?” Mokou asked. “What did this Mamizou girl do that was enough to get one of the deadliest youkai on the planet on her tail?”
Nitori sighed. She picked up the glass, motioning towards Sango with it. The dolphin quickly picked it up and darted out for a refill.
“It all started back in the war,” the kappa started. “At that time there were distinct kingdoms for various youkai races. Ran was the ruler of the foxes, and Mamizou ruled the tanuki. They were close comrades for the first phase of the war, when it had simply been a matter of humans fighting youkai.
“But when the Ravager got involved, their relationship became a lot dicier. The creature made an offer to Mamizou, you see - it would spare her kingdom if she made a surprise attack on the foxes. If she refused, the Claw would burn her country to the ground.”
“Sounds like a fun choice to make,” Sakuya said. “I assume Mamizou opted for saving her own skin?”
Nitori nodded. “They attacked at night, when most of the recruits were sleeping. Ran herself barely escaped with her life...but most of her followers weren’t as lucky.”
An image flashed into Koishi’s mind. A battlefield strewn with corpses, former friends fighting to the death. A general watching in horror as her forces were ripped to shreds in front of her. A nation burning at the torch of its supposed ally.
She felt sick at the thought of it.
“Of course, the Claw ended up losing the war in the end,” Nitori continued. “Mamizou was placed on trial as a war criminal, and a council of all the great youkai leaders was brought together to decide her fate.”
“So what was her sentence?” Komachi asked. “Death? Imprisonment? Exile?”
“Actually...” Nitori bit her lip. “The council acquitted her of all charges.”
“What?!” Mokou leaped out of her seat. “She stabbed her best friend in the back, and they let her go? That’s ridiculous!”
“Is it?” Sakuya held up a finger as she took on the role of devil’s advocate. “A ruler’s duty is to act in the best interests of her people. If she hadn’t attacked, the Ravager would have destroyed her nation rather than Yakumo’s.”
“That doesn’t excuse the fact she killed thousands.” Youmu almost instantly took the opposite stance from her sister. “Surely there should be some form of punishment for that.”
“And it’s not a dichotomy, Sakuya-san.” Koishi found her voice as she chimed in. “It wasn’t as if there were only two options. She could have found another solution, something that helped both her and Ran-san, but she just gave up right away.”
Sakuya scrunched up her nose. “True. Not even trying to find an alternative is rather telling of her character. I suppose she wasn’t that good a friend after all.”
“That’s not how the council saw it, though.” Nitori sat upright as Sango entered with a fresh glass of water and placed it in front of her. She took sips between sentences as if the very act of telling the story was an exertion. “They wrote off her duties as unpleasant but necessary to look after her people. This was after a war that had nearly destroyed the world as we know it, remember, so the last thing anyone wanted was to start another dispute. The vote was almost unanimous, with only one dissenter.”
“Ran,” Koishi whispered.
“Of course. She demanded justice for what had happened to her people, speaking about how under Yukari all youkai had joined forces for the greater good. Thing was, Yukari was dead by then, and any camaraderie between the nations died with her. Everyone was too busy putting their own country back together to offer support to anyone else.”
Nitori finished the last of her water in another hasty swig. “So she took matters into her own hands. She abandoned her post and hunted down Mamizou herself. They’ve been playing their little game of hide-and-seek ever since.”
She placed the empty glass on the desk, as if to punctuate the end of her story. “And it isn’t going to stop until one of them is dead.”
No-one was sure how to respond at first. It was Sango who brought the conversation back to life, looking up at the clock.
“Uh, guys...she said she was giving us an hour, right? Well, she said that about forty minutes ago.”
Koishi jolted. Of course. She’d been so caught up in the story that she’d forgotten about the matter at hand. There was no point thinking about tragedies long since past when there was another disaster she could do something about.
“She said she’d be at the zoo, right?” Komachi said. “We’re gonna need a lift if we want to make it in time.”
“Leave that to me,” Nitori said. “There’s a van out in the car park big enough to fit all of us.”
“And what do we do when we get there?” Youmu already looked set for a fight - if she’d brought her swords, Koishi would have sworn the girl was already on a battlefield.
“The first priority is stopping their little clash before it can start. An ounce of prevention, or something like that. Failing that...” The kappa winced. “Well, there’s no way we’ll be able to contain it without people noticing, so just don’t let that happen.”
Koishi nodded. There was no time for any plan more thorough than ‘get there and do something’. Time was of the essence, and they’d already squandered enough of it.
But there was one thing that still worried her. “Kawashiro-sensei, one more question-”
“Make it quick, Koishi-san. We need to run.”
“These youkai...they won’t hurt the humans, will they?”
Nitori paled at the thought. She eyed the empty glass on the desk.
“Ran, probably not. Mamizou...well, let’s not wait around to find out.”
-----
There. Done.
Nazrin slipped out of the last cage with a yawn. The mission had taken her all night to accomplish, but at last every youkai in the zoo had been warned of the coming breakout. She’d gone without sleep for it, but she barely felt the fatigue as she started the journey back to Mamizou’s office.
She’d spent a lot of time thinking over what she had heard, the stories of what the youkai had suffered through. The story of the hawks had been among the worst, but it was far from the only tale of woe this place had to offer. There was a new form of neglect around every corner, fresh abuse waiting at every turn.
The entire experience had been eye-opening, in the worst possible way. Even on the streets she had never been this exposed to the cruelty humans were capable of. Her master would never have dreamed of any of the horrors she had witnessed here, but with every story she grew more convinced that Shou had been a miraculous occurrence among a race that seemed almost pre-programmed to hurt others.
Youkai were better than that, Nazrin thought to herself. She would never do something as cruel as what had been inflicted on these creatures, and neither would Mamizou. There was a standard they maintained that the humans ignored entirely. As she wandered across the zoo, she watched the first swarm of humans drifting in to gawk at the cute little animals in their cages.
A tiny part of her didn’t want the humans to escape. They’d get what they deserved when the breakout started. But her conscience cried out against that idea; it would be stooping to their level. Better to prove their higher morals than dirty their hands.
Still, she had to admit it’d be fun to watch these bullies’ hard work go to waste. She wasn’t just ready to set the plan in motion, she was looking forward to it.
That enthusiasm vanished when she saw the body on the floor.
What...?
A human was lying face down a few feet from the entrance, his body cold and his lips blue. Nazrin darted over to him, nuzzling at his cheek in a desperate attempt to wake him.
She saw scratch marks on his neck where his killer had choked the life out of him.
No. No, no, no. Not again.
All Nazrin could hear was her heart pulsing into overdrive. They had already taken one master from her. Now the self-proclaimed FBI agent was here to take a second. The mouse flew into a panic, shifting to youkai form and running down the corridors as quickly as her legs would carry her.
The corpse she had found was only the first of many. Other employees were strewn across the halls in similar states. Some had been choked, others stabbed and lying in their own blood. All of them were beyond any sort of medical help. But there was no sign of Mamizou, living or dead.
By the time she finally found the security room, her feet were covered in dried blood. Her eyes were bloodshot, her heart ready to explode. If she stopped to think for an instant her lungs would realise they were starved for air.
And there, in the midst of the chaos, sat Mamizou Futatsuiwa.
“Morning, Nazzie.” Mamizou offered the mouse youkai a playful salute. “Glad you could make it.”
The first, instinctual emotion that came to Nazrin was relief. She ran a few paces into the room, arms outstretched and ready to embrace the tanuki.
It was a few seconds before her higher brain functions kicked in and made the connection.
Wait. She couldn’t have-
Nazrin had assumed this was the work of the youkai who’d been after Mamizou, but she was nowhere to be seen. The only people still breathing in the whole complex were her and her master.
Another jolt of fear ran through her body, but this was fear of a different sort.
“M-Mamizou...you didn’t...” She pointed at one of the bodies, no more than five paces away from the chair Mamizou now inhabited.
“What, them?” Mamizou looked down at the body and offered a noncommittal shrug. “How else did you think I was going to override the lock? By asking nicely?”
She smiled, her tail rustling behind her, as if the bloody corpses at her sides didn’t exist. That was more terrifying than anything Nazrin could think of.
“Besides, this is nothing.” She pointed to the row of screens showing visitors flowing along the zoo’s pathways. “There are gonna be a lot more casualties when the breakout starts.”
Nazrin’s jaw dropped. “B-But you said you were going to evacuate the humans before you let the youkai out!”
“And turn down a golden opportunity for a distraction?” Mamizou rolled her eyes. “What kind of moron do you think I am, Nazzie? I said that because it was what you wanted to hear.”
No. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t what she’d asked for. She was meant to bring about a righteous rebellion against the oppressive human race, not help a murderer pave the streets with corpses. She grasped at her head, the chasm between her expectation and the reality too great for her mind to traverse.
“...Why?” The word barely croaked out of her. “Why would you do this?”
Mamizou raised an eyebrow. “I thought that’d be obvious by now.” She stood up, stepping over a body without paying it any notice. “I need to disappear, and Ran needs to stay busy long enough for me to make my escape. How better to do that than throw the whole place into disarray?”
This wasn’t Mamizou. This wasn’t the master that had taken her in when all seemed lost. Nazrin couldn’t believe it, wouldn’t believe it, but there was only so long she could hide from the truth.
In an instant, her wretched fear transformed into simmering hatred.
“I...I trusted you.” Nazrin clenched her teeth together, her whole body burning with anger. “I thought you cared.”
“And that was your first mistake.” Mamizou seemed entirely unperturbed by the mouse’s anger, reaching out to pat her on the head again. Nazrin batted the hand away, smacking the tanuki’s wrist as hard as she could. Mamizou tensed, but only for an instant.
“See? Now you’re learning.” A cruel grin spread across Mamizou’s face. “In the end, everyone’s looking after number one. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar.”
In all her life, Nazrin had never wished pain on anyone as much as she wished it on Mamizou right now. She’d been duped, manipulated in her darkest hour. Right when she’d needed a friend more than ever, she’d been exploited by a monster.
She didn’t realise she was screaming until she saw her own fist flying for Mamizou’s face.
“See?”
In a single, lightning-quick motion, Mamizou’s hand was wrapped around Nazrin’s wrist. She squeezed, and Nazrin felt the bones creak all the way down her arm. She howled in pain, unable to escape the tanuki’s vice-like grip.
“I was hoping we could come to an agreement, Nazzie.” Mamizou frowned. “But I can’t have you telling the Pearl about my plans, so I’m afraid this is where we part ways.”
Her eyes shone, and Nazrin felt her hand grow numb. At first she had thought it was from the pain, but as she looked down she saw her skin slowly turning a deathly grey.
“Don’t you think you’ll make a nice statue?” Mamizou smiled again, that wretched grin that made Nazrin want to tear her apart. “You were at your prettiest when you weren’t talking, in my opinion.”
The curse moved along her body at an alarming rate. Already it had passed her elbow, and her shoulder wasn’t far behind. Nazrin put all of her strength into escaping the hold, refusing to give Mamizou the pleasure of her screams. But even with all her might behind it, the tanuki was too strong for her to overcome.
By the time the petrification had reached her neck, she had all but accepted her defeat. The only thing left she could salvage was her pride. She refused to let this monster see her cry, staring defiantly back at Mamizou until the very end.
Master...I’m sorry. I didn’t know-
Then the stone engulfed her entirely, and her thoughts died out with it.
-----
“’Scuse me. Step aside. Coming through.”
Mokou shoved aside the twelfth family in a row, ignoring the grumbles and complaints she left in her wake. The Sirens kept closely behind her, passing through the holes she left in the crowd as they pressed through the zoo.
Koishi was a bit more attentive of the glares their group was getting. “We look pretty terrible, don’t we?”
“They’ll thank us when this place doesn’t get leveled by a fox with a score to settle,” Komachi answered. “On that note, how are we even supposed to find this woman? Aren’t foxes meant to be tricksters or something?”
“That they are. Tanuki, too.” Nitori’s eyes bounced around the crowd, her brain chugging so rapid that Koishi could almost hear the cogs grinding together. “We’ll figure something out, okay?”
It was hardly the best way to instill faith in her followers, but at least Nitori was being honest. They’d rushed out here without any clue how to solve the problem in front of them. They knew they had to do something, but the sticky matter of what was something they’d never managed to pin down.
Just look around. There’s got to be a clue somewhere...
Koishi joined in the inspections, eying over every passer-by and giving the cages a glance as she walked past. She’d never visited before, but the impressions she got from a small taste were far from positive. The visitors looked like they were enjoying themselves, but the animals seemed to be in a dismal mood at all times. She could even make out poorly-hidden scratches and cuts on some of them, small marks made by something no larger than a pebble.
She didn’t have to wait long to figure out the source.
“Yeah! Look at ‘em squirm!”
A small group of high-schoolers was gathered outside the hawk enclosure, throwing rocks inside to ruffle up its inhabitants. The creatures let off an infernal screech, one flying right up to the edge of the cage to try and scare them off. It got a rock in the eye for its trouble.
Koishi grimaced. She looked in both directions for zookeepers to warn, but there wasn’t a staff member in sight. The crowd was keeping their distance, too - no-one wanted to be the one guy causing trouble.
Koishi had no such inhibition. She broke away from the Sirens and approached the teenagers, her duty momentarily on hold.
“Eh? Koishi-san?”
Sango was the first to notice Koishi slipping away, reaching out to grab her and missing. Koishi looked back at her with a wink.
“Don’t worry, Sango-san. I’ll catch up.”
Sango didn’t get a chance to answer before she was whisked away by the crowd. In seconds Koishi was alone, stepping forward until the teenagers finally noticed her.
“Eh?” The first one to talk was taller than his companions and had the look of a leader. He was slim, pale, and covered in acne. He tossed a pebble up and down in one hand as an unspoken threat. “What’re you lookin’ at?”
Koishi stepped forward, snatching the pebble out of the air and pulling it away. The act was brazen enough to leave the leader stunned, his followers gasping in surprise.
“Leave those birds alone.” Koishi threw the pebble to the floor. “What makes you think it’s okay to bully them? They never did anything to you.”
Even the birds seemed surprised by Koishi coming to their defense, flying over to the front of the cage to watch the drama unfold. Acne-Face clenched his now empty hand into a fist.
“A real goody-two-shoes, aren’t we?” He motioned towards his gang, who quickly circled around Koishi. “You wanna see what happens when you get on our bad side?”
Koishi soon regretted taking these thugs on by herself. Maybe Mokou could handle them, but outside of Siren form she still wasn’t much of a fighter. She pulled up her fists, ready to give as good as she got from these creeps.
She was interrupted by what could only be described as hysteria.
“HYAAAAAAAH!”
A cry burst out from a woman standing in front of the vulture enclosure. As she leaped back, the doorway opened in front of her, and almost immediately the birds swooped out and descended on her.
The crowd reacted in the same way all crowds reacted in situations like this - complete and utter pandemonium. Screaming and yelling echoed out in every direction. More doors opened up, letting the animals loose upon the unwitting public. Some of the animals took the chance to make a break for freedom. Others, like the hawks, made the most of the opportunity to hand out some payback.
“W-What the hell?!” The tallest of the thugs got the worst of it, a bird falling from the sky and slamming him to the floor. His friends didn’t hang around to help him, quickly vanishing into the panicking crowd.
“H-Hey, guys! Don’t just leave me here!” Soon the acne-riddled boy was as surrounded as Koishi had been. Every time he tried to get to his feet, a hawk swung at his face with a talon. With no way to defend himself, he curled into a ball and let the hawks have their way with him.
For a moment Koishi was paralysed with shock. In less than a minute the world had fallen into complete chaos. The animals that stayed behind were attacking with intent to kill - and if nothing was done soon, they’d succeed in that. The hawks were baring their claws, drawing bloody marks along their victim’s skin.
This wasn’t the plan. This was everything she wasn’t meant to do. But she knew she had to do it. Reaching into her pocket, Koishi raised her Teardrop to the sky.
“Forged in light, a candid friend
On whom the people can depend
Answering the Siren’s call
The Ocean Princess fights for all!”
The flash of light that burst out of her stopped the fighting for an instant. Every eye, human or youkai, was focused on her as she emerged in Siren form. She held her sword in both hands, light shimmering along its golden edge as she pointed it forward.
She swung only once, the hawks splitting apart as she cut through the air they’d inhabited. The boy was still trembling, only now finding the nerve to open his eyes and look up.
“You-you’re...” He was struck dumb by shock, unable to look away from Koishi. “How are you-”
“This isn’t the time.” She stepped in front of him, swinging again to keep the hawks back. “Run!”
That was enough to get him to understand. Koishi had never seen a man run so quickly before. He was lost in the crowd within minutes.
But he wasn’t the only one in need of help. Just from where she was standing Koishi could count half a dozen visitors pinned down or under attack. And if the rest of the zoo had been affected, the number would only grow.
She couldn’t be everywhere at once. The only way to save these people was to talk the youkai out of their attack.
“Youkai of Gensouto, leave these people be! Fighting will do nothing to solve this!”
Koishi thought she was ready for anything. As the youkai moved towards her, leaving room for their former prey to flee, she was set for them to crash down on her all at once.
She wasn’t ready for someone to speak out against her.
“You’re wrong, Koishi.”
As the crowds dispersed, a single figure stepped towards Koishi. She wore a long blue jacket, but underneath it Koishi could make out a dark purple bodysuit.
And a violet Teardrop hanging from her chest.
“Satori...”
Koishi’s mouth went dry. She’d thought she would be ready for this confrontation, but she hadn’t expected it to be now. Satori made the most of that hesitation, stepping forward as the flock of birds split apart around her.
“Fighting is the only way these creatures can make their voices heard.” She spoke with power and fervour, the sort that could win crowds and sway hearts. “You’ve seen it, haven’t you? The suffering these youkai have endured. How would you expect them to respond?”
Koishi felt a cold sweat building. She couldn’t believe these words were coming from her Satori. It was like someone had pulled away her sister’s skin and worn it themselves.
“...I can’t believe that.” Koishi pulled her blade around again, pointing it at Satori this time. “I won’t accept that fighting is the only way to help them.”
“And you say that while you point a sword at me?” Satori smiled. “You’re still so naive, Koishi. That’s why I told you to stay out of this.”
She grabbed at the Teardrop on her chest. “Now you’ve left me with no choice.”
Immediately the seventh Siren was engulfed in her own violet light. She chanted her own incantation, the antithesis of her sister’s.
“The wheels of change are crimson red
Rebellion rears its ugly head
I’ll pay no mind to evil’s plea
For I’m the Violet Valkyrie!”
As the light faded, Satori reappeared in the dark purple dress that Koishi had become familiar with by now. The domino mask was gone, but the winged helmet of the valkyrie was as intimidating as ever. She drew her saber, placing the blades flat-to-flat.
“I’m sorry, Koishi.”
The valkyrie’s eyes faltered, flashing with regret rather than scorn. For a moment, Koishi swore she saw a flicker of her old sister in those eyes. By the time she blinked it was gone again, but it just added to Koishi’s conviction that there was still a fragment of Satori left to save.
“Me too.”
There were no more words to be shared. Only the sound of clashing steel.
-----
“OK, so what in the love of Pete is going on out there?”
Komachi smacked her hand into the table, the other hand tugging at her hair. The food court was all but deserted now, though they’d heard a few nervous whimpers from people hiding in the bathrooms. When everything had gone to hell, this was the first building they’d seen to take cover in.
“I assumed that would be obvious,” Sakuya answered, her gasps for breath betraying her otherwise relaxed demeanour. “Did you not see the animals strolling around as if they owned the place?”
“Not the time, Sakuya-san,” Nitori said. “We’ve got a huge situation on our hands here. Futatsuiwa must have set this up to cover her escape.”
“You don’t have another one of those crazy contingency plans for this, do you?” Mokou strolled up and down the length of the table, refusing to stay still for more than a second. “Because we are gonna need a miracle to pull this off without someone finding out.”
“I’m a strategist, not a mind-reader. If I had a plan like that, I’d have set it off already.” She gripped at her temples. “I wasn’t set for her to let the whole zoo loose. There are going to be people in danger all over the place.”
“What about the authorities?” Youmu asked. “Won’t the police be in on this?”
“Sure, in about twenty minutes. And for a lot of people that might be too late.”
The table went deathly quiet. Everyone became painfully aware of the empty space at the table. The space Koishi should have been sitting in. They’d only lost her for a second - but by the time they’d noticed her absence, the chaos had already begun.
“...OK, I have another question.”
Komachi swallowed as she stood up. She’d seen it in Mokou’s anxious pacing, Sakuya’s forced calmness, Youmu’s deathly silence. She knew the question hanging in all their minds. From the grave look on Nitori’s face, she knew what was coming even before Komachi finished asking.
“What is it, Komachi-san?”
Komachi pointed out the window. “Why aren’t we out there helping people right now?”
The other Sirens turned to look at Nitori, silently redoubling Komachi’s question. The kappa blanched.
“I’ve said it before. We can’t let anyone know about the Sirens.”
“So you’re saying it’s okay for people to die to keep that secret?” Mokou’s strolling brought her around behind Nitori, eyes piercing the kappa from above.
The disconnect taking place in Nitori’s mind was almost painfully visible. Saying yes meant she was willing to let innocents die for the greater good. Saying no meant she was risking millions of lives to save a mere few.
Komachi saw her teetering between the options. Time to give her a little push.
“Nitori-san, I’m no general, and I know you want to say that it’s in our best interests to stay out.” She pointed at the window again. “But those people out there...they’ve got friends, families, loved ones. If one of them came up to you and asked why you let those people die, would you be able to live with your answer?”
Youmu and Mokou nodded in agreement almost instantly. Sakuya paused for half a second, but even she concurred with Komachi’s judgement. That left only the dolphin sitting in the corner.
“Phwee...” Sango pouted, nodding her head rapidly along with the rest. “Sorry, boss, but they’ve got a point. And there’s the youkai to worry about, too - if we don’t stop them first, the police are probably going to put a lot of them down to stop the fighting.”
Nitori’s body went rigid as all these claims struck her at once. For a moment Komachi thought the kappa would burst open, the pressure snapping her like a twig.
Instead, with a large puff of air, Nitori managed to smile.
“Good. I was hoping you’d say that.” Reinvigorated, she managed to pull her head up and face her subordinates once again. “Alright, then. You all have full clearance to intervene wherever necessary. But whatever you do, keep casualties to an absolute minimum - most of these youkai are lashing out, but given the chance they’ll come to their senses.”
“Understood.” Youmu’s eyes glazed over into the hardened look of a warrior. “So, what’s our battle plan?”
Committing to a course of action had seemingly freed Nitori from her constraints, and she approached the challenge with a newfound fortitude.
“The zoo’s too big for us to move about in a group. We’ll have to split up and focus on the most dangerous exhibits first. We lost Koishi-san somewhere near the bird enclosures, so we’ll have to assume she’s dealing with that. Sango, Mokou-san, you two deal with all the herbivores large enough to step on someone. Sakuya-san, Youmu-san, you handle the carnivores.”
“Lions and tigers and bears?” Sakuya smiled. “Oh my.”
“Very funny. I’ll pull back to the entrance and try to organise the relief team when it arrives. Any questions?”
“Uh, yeah, I’ve got one.” Komachi raised her hand. “Where do I fit in this plan?”
Nitori beamed. “You can fiddle with distance, right? That makes you the fastest of all of us. Your job is to find Ran and Mamizou before they can start blowing each other up.”
“And you’re sending me out to do this on my own?” Komachi glowered. “Against two of the strongest youkai in the business?”
“Don’t worry,” Mokou said, patting Komachi on the back. “They’ll probably be so busy trying to kill each other that they’ll barely notice you.”
“I’m not sure if that’s meant to be a compliment.”
“Don’t think it over too much, then.” Nitori rose to her feet, her commanding aura revived in full. “Alright, everyone. Let’s go save some lives.”
