White Rabbit

Chapter 43: Thunderous Ambush

REECE

We spent the night changing out who was sleeping and who wasn't in order to make sure that each of us got enough rest. Currently, Kazuki, Rai, Caliber, Clattonia, and Jace are going to go scouting, and I've offered to go with, along with Essence. In addition, Daemon called Rai and said that he's coming along to make sure she doesn't do anything reckless. Meanwhile, the others are working on things back at the apartment. And apparently something must have happened to Kazuki when he was talking to Ryouichi and Mitsuko, because he hasn't said a word all morning. He does look as annoyed as he always is though. On the other hand, Jace has been spacing out all morning and looking troubled, so who knows what's going on.

"Seriously," Rai sighs as she walks with her arms behind her head, taking long, animated steps as the eight of us walk down the sidewalk from her apartment, "Daemon, you didn't have to come along. I'll be fiiiine."

"Are you sure about that?" He glances at her pointedly and she pouts.

"Meanie," Rai mutters and keeps walking.

"Reece," Clattonia says and gets my attention, making me glance over at her, "I'm going over to the other side of the city with Jace and Caliber. I trust that the five of you can handle this side of the city while we search the other half?"

"Yeah," I nod, "we got this. Don't worry."

"Alright," Clattonia nods and looks up at the roof of the nearest building before running and leaping up, landing on the roof of a transport truck before jumping onto the top of a telephone pole and then landing on the roof of the building she was looking at.

"That's just not fair," Jace sighs as he pulls his pistol out of his jacket pocket and takes off in a run in order to catch up to her.

Meanwhile, Caliber smiles slightly at the scene and chuckles softly before running off after Jace.

Kazuki watches Caliber's receding figure with a forlorn expression before he goes back to masking his emotions with the same annoyed expression that he always wears as the five of us continue searching our side of the city. We come to a stop a few streets later whenever Kazuki halts in the middle of the road and I go to ask what on earth he thinks he's doing, but my eyes trail over to where he's staring first.

Loralai, the girl who fought alongside him and Minjonet, is standing in the middle of the street and watching us. Except, her eyes are no longer blue, they're crimson, and the once blue streaks in her hair are now crimson as well, along with her dress and heels.

"Lust," Kazuki scowls.

"Lust?" I question and Kazuki looks at me as if I'm stupid.

"Loralai has two parts to her Shift. It works similarly to how Ink has two personalities and each personality has a Shift that relates to the other. Except, Loralai only has one personality, but goes by two different names depending on which part of her Shift she's using. Her Shift is Desire's Calling."

Lust raises a brow at Kazuki being with us seemingly openly and she tilts her head slightly.

"And what exactly does this version of Loralai do?" I ask as I glance over at Kazuki and go to summon my great sword.

"Enough talking!" Rai shouts and summons a naginata, which she points at Lust, and wind picks up around Rai's feet and blows throughout the streets as thunderclouds appear and begin to rumble as the sky above darkens, "let's just take her in, eh?"

"Rai, wait--" Daemon starts as he reaches out to stop her with one hand, his other going for the pistol in his jacket, but he gets cut off whenever lightning strikes and an image of a tiger striking made out of lightning forms in the clouds as four glowing, electric tigers that are only visible due to their electric stripes appear and race towards Lust, "and there she goes again..."

Daemon sighs as the tigers pounce when they get close enough to Lust, who simply stares them down, and the tigers suddenly all stop moving and sit down at her feet before dispersing into thin air. Kazuki draws out his daggers and twirls them around while staring Lust down. Meanwhile, I hold out my great sword in a defensive stance and Essence summons a scythe made out of energy.

"Come on, it's five to one. How hard could it be?" Rai says, "I've taken on twenty at a time by myself before."

"Which is exactly why I insisted on coming along," Daemon looks at her sharply and she makes a sheepish expression, and the image of Rai running out by herself as Daemon keeps shelter behind a car as he shoots towards the enemies and calls for her to come back enters my mind.

"If Lust is here, that means Minjonet must be around here somewhere," I say and scan the area as Essence looks around wearily.

"You're probably right," Kazuki says, reluctant to agree with me, but knows that I'm right.

"That also probably means that White Rabbit is around here," I scowl.

Suddenly, Essence's face seems to hold a realization and she runs forwards, leaping into the air with her scythe raised above her head.

"Essence!" I shout in surprise as she swings her scythe through Lust, who flickers before disappearing as Essence lands slightly bent over.

Essence stands straight up once more and glances over her shoulder at me, sending me a slight smile.

"I noticed that she seemed too hesitant. It struck me as strange as to why she would stand there and allow us to talk for as long as we did," Essence says, "I came to the conclusion that there was a hologram of her being projected. I figured it would be easier to show you than to stand there and explain."

My eyes flicker up to a glint residing from the nearby rooftop and my eyes widen in surprise before they lock back on to Essence.

"Essence!" I shout and race towards her as she watches me with an expression mixed between confusion and surprise as I tackle her into the nearest alleyway as the sound of a gunshot rings out before I glance over to the others, who have all taken shelter behind various objects, "It's a setup!"

"Shit!" Daemon shouts as he hides behind a car in the street with his pistol clenched in both of his hands as several bullets strike the pavement beside the car and he takes occasional glances around the corner whenever he can.

Meanwhile, Rai took refuge behind a telephone pole and Kazuki is hiding behind a different car than Daemon. Essence continues staring up at me with wide eyes and parted lips as she lies underneath me and scans my expression. I manage to dial Clattonia's number on my watch as I hover over Essence and she picks up after a few seconds.

"Hello?" She starts before another hail of gunfire goes off, "Reece? What's going on? Is that gunfire?"

"Yeah," I try to raise my voice so that it's loud enough for her to hear over the gunfire, "look, can you three get here and attack them from the back? We were setup and from the looks of it, we won't be able to get any hits in like this. There's at least five snipers. I'll set up a time field once the three of you get here."

"Yeah," Clattonia says and I hear rustling in the background as she takes off in a run, "we're coming. Hang in there."

The call ends after that and I meet Essence's eyes once again.

"We're gonna be fine, right?" Essence whispers out.

"Yeah," I nod as I breathe out, "we'll be okay."

But, for how long?