A Saniwa's Duty

Field Test

When the group reached a wider street, they decided best to split into four groups of two. Honebami and Namazuo went off to patrol the alleyways. Mutsu, accompanied by Hachisuka, decided to take to the roofs, much to the latter's disdain. Souza and Sayo went off to the Sanjou bridge, while Chiaki and her brother set off for the outskirts of Kyoto.

★★★

The crunching of dirt beneath their feet was the only noise that broke the silence as the siblings trudged along. Not a single revisionist had been spotted since the sun set several hours ago.

"Oh my gods, it's so fucking quiet," Chiaki complained, throwing her arms up in the air out of frustration. Tetsuo meanwhile, remained alert, eyes beadily scanning for suspicious movement in the dark.

"Well yeah," her brother replied, rolling his eyes. "Do you honestly expect the Time Retrograde Army to yell 'Hey! We're changing history by fucking up this important thing that happened!' No? Of fucking course not. They're just as sly as we are."

The redhead pouted and was about to respond, when the sound of rustling leaves alerted the two. Seattle at the ready, Chiaki approached the spot where a bush continued rustling. Once close enough, she yelled and was about to strike when a dark figure shot out.

Moonlight illuminated their surroundings, revealing the figure to be...

"A raccoon," Tetsuo deadpanned, lowering his hands. The creature chattered, as if offended by their intrusion. Then it turned to the sage, squeaking in alarm before hurriedly scurrying off. The redhead in question was mildly confused by it's sudden behavior.

"What could that've possibly meant?"

"Maybe it saw your face and got frightened, so it ran off?" her brother teased, heartily chuckling.

"I am not that shitfaced, meanie."

A rush of wind brushed against her cheek, disk grazing inches away. The sage saw her brother's arm was raised. "What the hell was–"

She noticed his gaze wasn't on her, and turned around to follow it. A couple revisionists stood several meters from her, swords raised mid-swing before disappating as the disk flew back to her brother.

Or maybe it's because of that, Chiaki noted, sword at the ready.

"You sure are terrible at this," her brother mentioned as they carried on when they felt the coast was clear. "You didn't even figure they were behind you. If it weren't for me, you would've-"

"Yeah yeah, no need to remind me," the redhead rubbed her arm with her free hand, shivering slightly. "Sorry if I lack extrasensory spatial awareness, unlike some people out there."

Leaves rustled as a chill wind blew through, as if replying.

"This sortie's gonna be over in a few hours and we still haven't gotten a proper chance to test our new gear," Chiaki whined as she tossed her ponytail outward, feverishly scratching the back of her head.

Suddenly, low growls and grumbles could be heard in all directions. The siblings stopped and subconsciously stood back to back, weapons at the ready just as several dozen pairs of red eyes peered out in the dark, gaze burning with hatred.

"Thanks." Tetsuo mumbled.

Time seemed to slow as the enemies rushed forward. The smaller ones, like tantous and wakizashis, were dealt with in haste, crumbling away into embers.

The hairs on the back of Tetsuo's neck stood up, and he looked up for a moment. One of the larger enemies, a tachi, came straight for him with sheer velocity. Thinking quickly, he repositioned himself so that his adversary, another tachi, took his place. Both collided and exploded into nonexistence, embers burning out rapidly.

It was no use, however, as wave after wave of enemies seemed to be rushing out of the forest. The blond saw his sister staggering and struggling against three tachis simultaneously.

"Hey!," he called out. "What's say we test our new gear out, huh?"

"Great idea," came a sarcastic reply. "Too bad I don't have an opening!"

And with that, a disk came whizzing and sliced through her adversaries. "You're welcome."

There was a click, and Chiaki turned to see her boots glow orange in some places. She turned to face an oodachi, grinning. "Let's light 'em up!"

Quick as lightning, the redhead delivered a powerful kick, sending out a burst of flame, which caused the bigger sword to back away. It was no use however, as it's arm had caught fire.

"Hey!," she warned her brother. "I'm gonna turn up the heat. Don't get caught!"

Tetsuo grunted in acknowledgement. Chiaki then wasted no time, hastily putting away her sword then got on her hands, spinning her body around like a windmill, as if breakdancing. Pretty soon, there was a wide enough flaming ring surrounding her. Those foolish enough to come forward were easily incinerated.

The redhead stopped rapidly, running forward to deliver a kick, which sent out... nothing. Oh shit, they're empty. The flames died, but the fury of her adversaries still burned, and they took this as an opportunity to strike.

"Gah!," the redhead choked out as she hastily flung herself backwards, barely missing being cleaved in two by several inches. "Switch out! Switch out!"

As she got into a ready stance, she felt her boots harden further. Looking down, they seemed to glow a dim gold. She reverted her attention just in time to catch the tachi from before as it charged forward. Having no other choice, she rushed forward and delivered a strong front kick, noting an obvious increase in weight on her normally light boots.

There was a sickening crack as the tachi stopped when her foot connected with it's lower torso. It flung backwards with force greater than expected, exploding the instant it came in contact with the ground.

"These earth Fractals should last longer than your fire ones. Granted, they're all small ones, so I'm actually not sure how long 'longer' would quantify," I.R.I.S. informed. Good to know.

By the time Chiaki brought herself back to her senses, a good portion of the area had already frozen over, with the remaining revisionists encased in large ice blocks. She noticed Tetsuo's disks seemed to emanate frost, glowing a faint icy blue.

"Nice!" the redhead remarked. "You have elemental assists now too!"

"I suppose it does make things a little easier. I need some time getting used to it."

They got to work quickly, smashing and slicing every last revisionist they could locate. After what seemed like 10 minutes, they felt the surrounding area was now back to it's usual, quiet state.

★★★

It was an hour past midnight when all 8 of them met back up in another clearing, a good ways away from the entrance they originally landed in. The wakizashis reported seeing no revisionists the entire evening.

"Uh ho! You guys are lucky!," Mutsunokami remarked. "We ran into a couple of large ones in the nobles' district. It was difficult for me to not grab my gun and start shooting."

The sage nodded in acknowledgement, and then turned to the Samonji brothers. "My brother works quite efficiently under these circumstances," Souza commented, patting Sayo on the head. "I wonder if this is true for the others as well..."

"They're... still pretty squishy," Chiaki reminded, recalling how difficult it was for some of the tantous when it came to sparring. Still, I admire their resolve to prove themselves to me, then smiled fondly at that thought.

"Were you able to test out your new equipment?" Honebami spoke up, looking at the tech with reserved awe.

The redhead's smile widened into a grin, clearly pleased with the test run, despite almost getting cleaved several times. "You dang bet I did! What's say you, aniki?"

Noticing that all eyes fell on him with expectancy, Tetsuo simply gave them a thumbs up.