Hot & Cold Research [Arc 22]
[START OF URASARIA ACADEMY: YEAR FOUR]
[ARC 22: TEMPERATURE RISING]
In early August, the Royal Four visited the staff again. They'd replaced the dead guard with a man. Mia had her presidential outfit on again, and was stroking her Worldwide scarf. She had no trouble over the summer, aside from having needed to find a maid of honor dress Serena liked.
"I have two requests. Gender neutral restrooms in every building and a new assistant for Hirogane. Poach one from another academy if you need to. I expect both of these fulfilled by September."
She stood up and walked out, her three following behind her.
"Sheesh." laughed Samuel. "They really are scared shitless of you."
"Do you think they'll find an assistant?" said Serena and Mia shrugged.
"Hirogane asked me to request it." 'And you the other.'
"Think we should go out to celebrate." said Samuel. It was his usual habit to celebrate anything with food, no matter how miniscule.
Mia laughed. "Fine, we'll try it."
The four walked out of Urasaria and to a local restaurant. Once they got up to the counter, the manager recognized Mia & the others, and though he offered a free meal, she paid the regular price with some embarrassment. She still was not used to being recognized. They filled their plates with food, Outcast's ghastly hands balancing three plates for Samuel as they sat down.
Serena and Yuruko whispered amongst themselves, as Serena seemed to try to be suggesting something to her. Eventually Yuruko said: "Mia, can you ask Aimee what threat level I am?"
"Yes." Mia nodded and texted Aimee.
"Apologies for how I'm going to look for the next ten minutes." Samuel started eating.
"I know I haven't been fighting a ton, but Medicinal's an atomic manipulation Revenant, so I just was wondering."
"Plus it can break the economy." said Serena.
"Yeah, but I meant... um, the guy who nuked Los Angeles and Moscow had an atomic manipulation, too, so... he could turn people in to gold statues and shit like that, supposedly."
Mia sent another text to Aimee.
"His name was Daigo, right?" said Samuel, wiping his face as Yuruko nodded.
"I think so, yeah."
"Didn't Ryumi kill him, too?" said Serena and Mia nodded.
"That was her last fight before she died, yes."
(Aimee) "Here's Yuruko's profile - she's national because of Daigo, yeah. [Picture Attached]"
(Aimee) "your's doesn't say existential yet, though"
She frowned. Was there a fire hotter than purple, or a purple Solar Beam? Would she ever need to go beyond blue for any host? Frustratingly, she had never found any footage of the woman, no tricks with Worldwide she might've learned from her, and they had refused Aimee's request to unlock her profile. Ryumi's image in her head, despite Era, was about as perfect as the woman who married Magnus could be. For all she knew, Era may have been her Kirihara - but that didn't make her evil. It made her human.
She sat up as she heard Serena speaking.
"Yeah, but Yuruko found a paper by him." said Serena. "Um, Mia, by that one Revenant scientist. What's his name?"
"You found a paper by Magnus?" said Mia to Yuruko.
"Um, yeah." Yuruko resumed eating. It was not really that she didn't know how to act socially; she just didn't care.
"Did he use Scourge for it?" said Mia and Yuruko nodded.
"Yeah. I guess he knew this pair of Siamese twins who had a Revenant."
"Probably Mirena." said Serena, relevantly, and Mia laughed.
"What did he find out, then?"
"Apparently he was just like, ripping their hearts out and shit constantly. He just found out that you could make something that kinda acts like Volgari proteins. It wasn't that special, since there's plenty of papers about that. They just haven't been able to make anything that would do what you expect them to do."
"His conduits." muttered Mia. "Well, did he have any other papers?"
"Uh, the only other one I saw was experimenting how Revenants react to super high or super low temperatures. Him and Worldwide's last host."
The four's table was next to a head-high wall with the front counter over it. Mia heard someone gasp to her left, and being the tallest, she looked over and saw a man at the front whispering to the hostess (but not that kind). Her tablet vibrated, and she set it silent quick.
"Silent alarm." she muttered to the others, and Yuruko glanced to the front.
"He's robbing them?"
"Uh, do you want to try it?" laughed Serena and Yuruko grinned.
"Sure."
"Go ahead."
The man looked towards them, and in the next instant -
- his head burst open in a shower of gore; the four shot up -
" - you're safe!" shouted Mia, Yuruko disintegrating her handgun, filled with Xenocyclin-bullets much like what Morgan Haldvan had used.
"Hell yeah." laughed Yuruko, and Mia vaulted over to scan.
++++++
A week later, Serena & Naomi had been called in to one avenue for a musical & smooth criminal. Naomi put her ear up as they came on to the sidewalk.
She frowned. "Is that Flight of the Bumblebee?"
"What's that?" said Serena and Naomi paused.
Over the summer, she had become more cultured than her mentor through Julia, and thought Serena was a little immature for still being in to cartoons at 21 - but she didn't let it affect her friendship with her or Yuruko.
"Uh, it's classical music." chimed Naomi, relevantly, and in the next instant -
" - Gershwin!" shouted a man's voice behind them; the two swept forward and turned -
- and saw their earless foe standing 30ft away on the corner, stores at their right as the two stepped back. One ear was planted on the sidewalk ahead, and as they backed away near one door -
- in to a thousand shards of glass it burst -
- and Serena winced as her tentacle caught every last shard, swift streams of fog filling her suction cups to corrode them away. She glanced right just in time to see a left ear falling off of the shattered door hinge; beside, Naomi's stone arm formed -
" - Avalanche!" she shouted, gripping the sidewalk and starting to rip it up -
- but she sighed as the sidewalk's ascent stopped right before the section where his right ear was planted; beside, Serena rushed up to his severed left in the door -
- but staggered back clutching her ears, classic music filling her veins & streams of fog filling her pockets as she pulled her knife out -
- and slit her wrist open; a jet of blood burst out and towards the man -
- and the acid within left half of his melted face clinging for life to the other. Do I have to say how he gurgled -
- and a chunk of concrete slammed right in to him and sent him flying across the street, leaving a mark in the fish store opposite as he smashed right through the window and in to the store.
"B-blood - blood pressure - really fucking high." winced Serena, music exiting her veins as their foe's ears reappeared in their rightful place ahead, his bleeding & melting face suddenly stopping once his right ear appeared.
With no time to waste, the two rushed across the road and up to the store, fog & stone-hand ready; as they ran in to the store, they saw him fleeing and flinging fish all in their path, leaving a trail of oil as the two rushed through -
- and their step suddenly slowed as his left ear appeared in the trail ahead, his face melting again & oil starting to harden solid -
" - I - fuck -" winced Naomi - " - gotta be - stopping or something, but -"
- streams of fog flew in to the oil below -
- but couldn't even penetrate, Serena sighing as she pulled her cup out -
" - Avalanche!"
- and the next scene was instant. Naomi pulling Serena in with her flesh arm, her stone fingers snapped and put a crack through the ceiling, and as it started to collapse -
- she laughed as their foe threw his left ear up to the ceiling & paused its demolition, oil turning back to liquid below. Free again, the two rushed in pursuit as they saw him running out the back door & slamming it shut. Naomi snapped and stitched the ceiling's wounds as they came up to the back door -
- and frowned as she couldn't pull it open, left ear she knew was on the other side keeping it locked.
"Blackburn." laughed Serena, and a cloud of fog cleared another exit through the back wall; out to the back alley swept the women -
- to find their foe climbing up a hanging ladder on the wall of the apartment complex left; with no time to waste, Serena & Naomi rushed in pursuit, and as Serena gripped the ladder -
- the bottom half of it collapsed with their foe still climbing up, right ear hanging off of the uncollapsed half -
- but streams of fog reached up to the top half of the ladder and filled it with hydrochloric acid & copper, causing it to rust and start to collapse -
" - G-Gershwin!" panted their foe, left ear forming on the ladder and keeping it stable as he kept climbing up, bits of his expression melting and hitting Serena's jacket below. Naomi winced as Serena called him a few words not fit to print, wondering why it'd befallen her to have such a creative mentor -
" - if I were you, I'd jump now!" shouted Serena - " - don't fuck with - um - Urasaria's #1 otaku!"
Above, he glanced down & saw Naomi stomping for a stone wall, and as Serena placed her cup on the ground -
- another stomp blasted the grenade inside at him with the force of a thousand -
- and the explosion sent both of his arms in to the sky; grip obviously lost, he shrieked as he fell -
" - G-Gershwin!" he shouted, left ear forming on his bloodied stump & spraying blood to Serena as he came 10ft within; as she staggered back, Naomi staggered to the wall as classical music filled her veins & he landed rushing towards her -
- but one Avalanche-punch left nothing but a red dot on his neck and they knew that he was dead. Serena nodded as she wiped it out of her eyes.
"…pretty gross." said Naomi, then shrugged. This was about the most she registered displeasure with ultra-violence now: she just tried to make it quick.
"Do you want to scan?" Serena offered her tablet to Naomi.
Naomi was careful to take it with her non-stone hand, then crouched down and scanned. "Done, right?"
"Yeah, you did it right." Serena smiled and hugged her, for this would be one of the last times she hunted with Naomi this year.
"Thanks." Naomi smiled as they started walking back. "So, when we get back, you and Yuruko still need to move into your new mansion, right?"
"Yeah. Um, would you be cool helping us with that?"
Naomi looked a bit sheepish. "…well, I'm feeling a... *little* tired, but..."
"I could ask Samuel to help out." Serena grinned and Naomi laughed.
"That might've motivated me a few months ago, but I'm not sure how much it does now. … But I'll still come if he does."
"You don't have a crush on him anymore?"
"I don't know. It's not that, necessarily, it's just having been on a few other dates, and... well. Maybe I should have gone with Samuel. I just feel it'd be a bit too awkward to do it now. I mean, I've seen him plenty of times."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything, does it? He's not the type of guy that would hit on you first."
"Mm, maybe." Naomi glanced at Serena. "I mean, is he actually straight? I, uh, do Revenants affect men's sexuality?"
"…umm. I don't think so. I don't know if you should date any guy on campus, though. A lot of them are really shitty."
"I know, Serena. I appreciate that." Naomi sighed. "Well, and after how the last one went, maybe I shouldn't. You're right. I'm just sick of civilian men looking at me like I'm some fetish. You know, they come into it with all sorts of fantasies they've picked up from student porn."
"There's porn of -- what?"
"It's an entire genre now, and it's usually... violent, dominant women. Which explains a lot about the type of men I match with. Some of the things they say, I've never seen anyone so bold." She shook her head. "Well, maybe I should try with Samuel. Is he nice?"
"I mean, he's nice, I just don't know much about him besides the jokes he makes." said Serena. "Um, he had Matoi as a mentor, so he's… probably good." She scratched the back of her neck. "I don't know if you'd get along with him hunting-wise, though. Like, his government profile literally says 'extremely violent' for how brutal he gets with enemy hosts."
"Is that the same profile that says you're, uh…" Naomi glanced back and Serena hesitantly nodded.
"…um, yeah." said Serena. "It says extremely violent on my profile, too, though, so."
"Yeah." nodded Naomi. "Sorry, I just - uh, yeah." She laughed nervously.
For some reason, after Kamon, Serena had been reticent on any trans-related topic, and though Naomi had become good friends with Julia over the summer, there had always been an ember of contention between the two that only Kate's presence kept from flaring up. Whether it was bitterness, dysphoria, or some other emotion Naomi did not know.