Chapter 5
Chapter 5
Matsumoto, Nagano
May 3, 2013
8:15 P.M.
Ohta Ichigo
Things happened so fast that all I was able to do was to sit there and watch.
First, part of the roof caved in and someone dropped feet first towards Mr. Rat’s face. Then Mr. Rat was driven to the floor head first. After that he and the roof destroying asshole smashed a hole through our bedroom’s flooring, and finally the sound of a loud impact came through the floor.
The inari twins quickly reacted. One of them jumped through the hole in the floor so fast that I heard cloth rip rather than flutter, and all I saw was a blur that didn’t tell me who it was. I only realized that was Ran when Moe shouted at us from the door.
“Mr. Ohta! Ms. Ikeda! Please stay here while we take care of the enemy!” After she said that she passed the threshold of our door with the same speed that Ran showed earlier, and the same sound of ripping cloth. A few moments later gunshots and the sound of metal hitting metal came from the first floor, again.
I closed my eyes and slowly shook my head in despair at what was happening to our house.
‘At this rate, this house will be condemned by the city engineer. There’s no way anyone can fix a structure that might collapse at the slightest touch.’
All of a sudden Kurumi pinched my left arm.
I opened my eyes and was about to turn to her and ask why she did so, when I saw what was most probably the reason for the pinch.
One of the enemy soldiers was crouched amidst the remains of our table, aiming a rifle that was like the ones used during the Pacific war, but shorter, at us. Within moments, he was joined by five more soldiers jumping through our windows.
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Matsumoto, Nagano
May 3, 2013
8:15 P.M.
Ikeda Kurumi
'May peace prevail on Earth. May peace be in our home and countries. May our missions be accomplished. We thank you, guardian divinities and guardian spirits.'
As I watched several soldiers come through the opening that used to be our window one after the other, I silently prayed the Peace prayer over and over and over again. And I saw something curious happen, as we were surrounded in the corner of the room and as the door and the hole in the bedroom were secured amidst the sound of battle coming from below.
All the soldiers, who I could now clearly see were wearing black zentai suits of some cotton-like material covered by what must be hundreds of glowing letters written in a circular manner, were acting like someone was whispering something into their ears. And it was visibly annoying them, judging by their body language.
“Slowly put your hands behind your heads. No funny actions or we’ll kill you,” one of the soldiers suddenly said in strangely accented Japanese, something that brought equal parts surprise and relief to me.
‘I would really hate to find out they’re jumpy enough to shoot me for trying to communicate via sign language.’
The moment I thought that to myself was the moment all the annoyed soldiers started looking around the room. Some of them even sent suspicious looks at me and my family.
“Put your hands behind your heads,” the soldier who spoke earlier repeated.
As I started praying again, I slowly exchanged glances with my boyfriend to wordlessly ask him what I should do.
"Do it," he whispered. He then slowly turned his face towards the soldiers and put his hands behind his head. A moment later I followed suit.
When our hands were finally behind our heads, the one who spoke Japanese to us muttered something while giving me a suspicious stare. The very moment his lips stopped moving something bounded our hands, as if in an instant there was a cast made of steel on our hands.
As the Japanese speaker stepped away from us and started talking to what appeared to be a small metal bracelet on his wrist, Ichigo asked me if I was hurt.
“No. You?”
“The same.”
I felt some relief after receiving that reply. Some, because I'm finally starting to feel fear from...everything that happened and is still happening this night. After a few moments I asked him about what he thinks would happen to us next.
“Kurumi…I don’t think you want to know the answer to that” My boyfriend answered with a very serious tone, as he stared at the magical soldiers.
I can't help but shiver at my boyfriend's words. So I went back to silently praying the prayer for Peace.
A terrible howl of pain suddenly came from downstairs.
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I can't help but start feeling disheartened at this point in time. My prayers...
Ran and Moe had just been captured and were at the other side of the room from us.
Ran was gagged and her limbs were bound with several glowing magic rings. She was constantly alternating between murderous glares at the magical soldiers in the room and worried glances at her sister, who laid unconscious beside her.
Moe’s arms were also bound to her waist by rings, while her legs and mid calf skirt…simply ended at the knees. The only reason Moe wasn’t bleeding out from the amputation was because they were cauterized from some kind of attack from earlier.
And as for all the other inari who went outside our house...the fighting outside the house was dying down, judging by the decrease in explosions and clanging sounds and the number of soldiers in our bedroom...there were eight of them before, but now there were fifteen.
As a result…I was getting scared. For Ichigo, for Ao, and for myself. The things that started to run in my mind at that moment, about what could happen next…
No. No. My prayers might have worked. I don't know about the status of the other inari, but Moe and Ran might still be alive because I prayed for peace. And I was now sure that it was my prayer that was affecting the soldiers since earlier.
Whenever I prayed, their body language told me they are trying to stop themselves from clapping their hands over their ears. Whenever I stopped praying, their eyes would wander everywhere. To me and my family, to the two immobile inari, and even each other, all searching for whoever was doing what I was doing.
So...I just need to pray harder.
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Matsumoto, Nagano
May 3, 2013
8:30 P.M.
Ohta Ichigo
My wife’s eyes were closed, presumably because she was praying. That was why she didn’t notice when two more enemy soldiers jumped into our room through the window opening.
One was dressed like the all the other soldiers here in our bedroom: A black...zentai suit, I think it’s called, full of all these non-interlocking, glowing circles made from what appears to be letters stitched into the suits, along with a belt that contained a scabbard and holster for a sword and revolver.
The other one was dressed in attire reminiscent of some military uniforms in Europe during the Pacific War: A cap of some sort, a long sleeved collared tunic and long pants that were tucked into shin high black boots. The only difference was that the uniform wasn’t grey; it was colored in black and white patterns that were so painful to see that I almost didn’t notice the carbine slung over its shoulder or the thigh holsters that contained the alien’s pistol and knife.
But thanks to the atrocious uniform, I finally saw the face of one of these aliens. It was a human one, if one changed the skin tone from a single color to all the colors of a rainbow. And...
‘Why is he looking at Kurumi with a surprised expression?’
I had barely thought of any possible reason when the other latecomer suddenly appeared in front of Kurumi with a loud pop and kicked her in the stomach.
I was about to move when my face suddenly slammed down on the floor, pressed from behind by something flat and cold pushing against my hands behind my head.
Unable to even shout anything because my lips were kissing the floor, or even look because of the same reason, I was forced to listen to the zentai wearing bastard scream at my wife in Japanese.
“Stop praying, you pathetic fungi! Your babble is annoying!”
I heard another kick, a gasp that sounded like Kurumi’s voice, the sounds of footsteps walking away, and then the bastard that kicked Kurumi started shouting in his foreign language.
All of a sudden my hands and head dragged my body back to the wall. And thankfully I had bought a glasses strap last week for my eyeglasses, otherwise the only clear objects I would see are those that are not close or next to me.
I turned to my wife to see her using the Lamaze breathing techniques she learned when she was pregnant, to alleviate the pain from the two kicks she had just received.
I waited until Kurumi has recovered from the kicks before I said something to my wife.
“Do you need anything for the pain?”
My eyes quickly flicked to our captors, to see if they think conversations were a threatening action. In case they did, I would regrettably silence myself for the sake of my family.
Worry turned to relief as those who were watching us stayed watching us. Those who guarded the inari stayed guarding the inari. But the rest...I watched the zentai suit wearing bastard who kicked Kurumi harangue the rest of the soldiers who dressed like him, while the soldier who was wearing the Pacific War style military uniform sent disgusted and disbelieving looks at the back of the haranguing bastard.
“No. Lamaze still works now as it did when I was pregnant.”
“Thank heavens.”
The conversation stopped there for some time, because I was trying to...pick the right words. But it turns out I didn’t need to bother, because Kurumi resumed the conversation.
“So, that’s a new experience.”
It took me a few seconds before figuring out her statement was about the reaction to her praying. And then it took a few additional seconds for me to answer, because I’m in the dark about how she’s going to react.
“Kurumi, are you alright with being told to stop praying?”
I was feeling worried, because my wife is one of the most religious people I know of. And my frames of reference for how a devoutly religious person would act under religious persecution are the violent Muslim one and the suicidally stubborn Christian and Buddhist one.
“Frankly speaking, I’m hurt and somewhat angry horrified by what happened earlier,” Kurumi said in a genuinely sad tone that made me grit my teeth in anger.
‘I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but I will take revenge on that bastard for hurting my wife.’
“I understand the hurt and anger, but why are you also horrified?” I asked in a bid to start moving the conversation away from painful memories.
“Because if he heard me praying, and he could speak Japanese, then he knows I’m praying for peace. Tell me, if someone does not only consider praying for peace an annoyance but also a reason to hurt the person doing the prayer, then what kind of person are they?”
I didn’t say anything, because the answer is obvious. The person is a war hawk, of a kind that Japan last saw during the Pacific War.
“And worst of all, is it only him who is like that? Or is it everyone from where he came from?”
My eyes instantly looked to the soldiers who were aiming guns at us.
It was subtle, very subtle, but they felt like they were discomforted by what they were hearing but don't care enough to do anything about it.
“Ichigo, what’s going to happen to us now?” she asked with a worried whisper.
“…I don’t know,” I admitted. "But I can't think of any reason for us to...uh, remain in custody."
“Tell that to Mama’s side of the family during the Pacific war.”
I strangled the groan that almost came out right in the cradle.
Kurumi's mother is Ikeda Magdalena, nee Magdalena Dimasupil, a Permanent Resident here in Japan from the island nation of the Philippines. And through Magdalena, Kurumi is related to the Dimasupil family in the Philippines, who I meet via webcam every Spring Break at Kurumi's house.
"That's...your grandfather Enrico was a member of the Philippine Army during the Pacific War. It's not exactly applicable, you know?"
The eyebrow waggle that Kurumi instantly performed after I said that confused me for a moment, before I understood what she was trying to point out.
The Imperial Japanese Army persecuted the Dimasupil family because Enrico Dimasupil was a member of the Philippine Army. By that standard these alien soldiers have reason enough to keep us in custody because Dad is a member of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces.
'But that's if they learn about it.'
“Love, don’t worry. They...look professional enough," I said, trying to comfort Kurumi and brownnose the soldiers guarding us at the same time. "We would be treated properly.”
A sudden commotion from the middle of the room suddenly demanded my attention.
The uniformed alien shouted and gesticulated at the zentai suited bastard, who talked back to the uniformed alien in a condescending manner. All of a sudden the uniformed alien started talking in strangely accented Japanese.
“You idiot! This is the world with the biggest number of religions in the Known Areas! Of course praying according to religion or philosophy is a natural thing to do in this world! So why are you screaming very stupid nonsense?!”
Except for the ones who guarded us, the words made all the other black clothed soldiers stare at the uniformed soldier. Moments later, the one who was called an idiot said something in a very pissed off tone.
“Moral decency? The Generally Accepted Rules of War in the Known Areas? Pragmatism? Facts? Do you know those terms – oh, you want to hit me?” The uniformed alien suddenly asked as the right hand of the other soldier moved closer to the hilt of its sword. The question stilled the zentai suited bastard’s hand, and upon seeing that, the uniformed alien continued.
“Go ahead Meria, hit me. Create a political incident. Remind the citizens of the Syndicalista Skinchanger Republic of all the atrocities of the Independence War that you aristocrats inflicted in the name of power.”
‘Independence War? Syndicalista Skinchanger Republic? Ok, there’s a story I want to hear.’
When the zentai suited bastard didn’t answer after several moments, the uniformed alien continued speaking.
“Remember that our nations are only allies of convenience, and the Mountain Congress almost didn't agree to cooperate with you Lighteaters because of the atrocities of the past. That means you nobles are obliged to not give us independent Skinchangers any excuse to back out of cooperating with the conquest. What you want to make happen just now? That is one good excuse Meria.”
Meria's tense posture relaxed, and then he...it also started talking in Japanese.
“Yes you’re somewhat right. We're only allies of convenience from two different nations that will be eternally at odds with each other. I belong to the World Kingdom of the Lighteaters, and you are from your commoner Republic. And that means whatever objections you raise, I'm not obliged to listen to a simple...observer.”
Meria then promptly faced us, and then snapped his fingers.
One moment I was sitting on the floor with my hands behind my head, the other I was stuck to the wall feet down a meter or so above the floor. At the same time, I heard Kurumi yelp in surprise and –
I jerked my head to the side, to see my daughter awake, stuck to the wall between me and her mother and moaning in pain in her white shirt and yellow orange pants.
"Ao?!" I yelled. That moment was when Kurumi noticed our daughter beside us.
"Ao, where does it - oh no, the chest drain."
I hissed as I saw the chest drain was dangling in mid-air from under Ao's shirt. If I remember right, the chest drain was supposed to let air out from the body. That it was in mid-air meant that air was slowly going into my daughter's body and sooner or later her lungs will collapse again.
"Leave my daughter out of this!" I roared at Meria, who was organizing the other soldiers into a single line in the middle of the room. Behind Meria I saw Ran was frantically trying to tear apart the magical circles tying her down, while the Skinchanger stood near her, looking at Meria with clenched fists and a disapproving frown.
"Please! What do you want? We'll do anything, just leave my poor daughter alone!" my wife pleaded as Meria had finished the task of organizing the other Lighteater soldiers.
“What do I want?! I want you to die for the crime of conspiring against your new owners by praying to the enemies of the Lighteaters. And I want these two with you dead to create an example of what happens when magicless slaves consort with any magical being who is not their master!”
I was stunned senseless at the Skinchanger’s words, while Kurumi...reacted badly.
“No, NO, NO! We’re civilians! We didn’t do anything to harm you! Why – “
It took a second before Kurumi noticed that her hysterical fit was suddenly muted, even though her mouth was still moving and she was starting to sob already.
“Why did you shut her up with a spell Meria?" the Skinchanger asked in an angry tone of voice from where he leaned on the wall, right under where our pictures were hung up.
“I shut the slave up because it’s noisy,” Meria replied as if he was asked a stupid question. That answer convinced me that there was no pleading with Meria for our lives…and that everything is going to cruelly end here for our family.
As Meria started making a speech in an alien language, I looked at my family for…for the last time.
Ao was looking everywhere, from me and her mother to Ran and Moe and all the aliens in our room. Beside her, my wife was unashamedly crying her heart out, with all her personal dignity erased by snot, tears and muted sobbing.
“Kurumi,” I called out to her. Kurumi instantly looked at me, her body repeatedly jerking with sobs.
“Thank you for everything these past six years,” I said with a sad smile.
Kurumi stared. Then she slowly nodded with fresh tears in her eyes.
"There, that's good. Let's stop crying and…we'll be together, I promise."
I looked down to my daughter as my eyes started to get itchy.
"Ao, look at me. Look at me - good girl. Listen. In the next few moments you will feel more pain than you have felt before. But it will go away very, very quickly. I promise. Just...close your eyes tight and think of the happiest moments you had with me and Mama. And...when you wake up, please wait for us, ok? Mama and I will look for you."
I watched as Ao nodded and did as I said. At the same time, Meria shouted something that I presume must mean 'ready’ judging by all his soldiers bringing their rifles into the Port Arms drill position.
Kurumi and I shared then one final look at each other's faces, and then we stared at the faces of our murderers-to-be right as Meria shouted the word 'aim.'
"What are your orders regarding any mini Eth-Pampf?!" Ao suddenly shouted.
Meria and the Lighteaters only had a second to stare at my daughter in surprise and confusion, judging by their body language, before Meria dodged the forest of glowing spikes that impaled all the other Lighteater soldiers from out of mid-air.
“Treachery!” Meria roared the very moment his feet touched ground. The second after that he already had his sword in his right hand, while crackling balls of electricity started appearing all around him. “Low magic scum! Are you going traitor to your own kind out of spite?!”
“Wrong! I’m under orders to neutralize the first noble in my vicinity that decides to damage the Republic’s occupation plans with random and deliberate executions as soon as I became aware of it! Especially if they spout the same logic behind the Eth-Pampf massacre!” the Skinchanger shouted back from somewhere behind the wall of dead, impaled Lighteaters.
Meria’s body went still after the Skinchanger said that, while the balls of electricity started swirling around him.
“Surprised?!” The Skinchanger continued. “That’s what happens when courtiers are too stupid to notice that the ambassador of a foreign nation is literally standing behind them!”
“Alright! So what now?! You’re going to kill me?! No low magic peon can defeat a high magic individual on their own!”
“What kind of education did you receive?! That superstition has been proven wrong with lethal results hundreds of times during the Independence War!”
The sound of a plucked string suddenly came from the hole in our floor, instantly followed by the explosion of the balls of electricity around Meria. Unfortunately, the electricity had no effect on Meria other than a moment of surprise.
Meria’s image blurred towards the doorway when a second string pluck sounded, and then blurred to front of the impaled corpses during the third. He suddenly made a thick sheet of glowing light appear in mid-air and hopped on it as if it was for dear life, just in time for a rapid series of twangs.
I figured out why Meria was dodging when all the corpses in the middle of the room were suddenly blasted out the house at high speed, leaving behind magical spikes and wooden floor boards drenched in green colored liquid, sprinkled on top by the collapsing remnants of the roof over our room…and the sight of Ran tightly hugging her sister to her chest, while the Skinchanger was nowhere to be seen.
Moments later I heard the sound of the neighboring rooftops caving in from heavy objects dropping on them.
“Who is that?! Come out here, coward!” Meria shouted as he frantically looked everywhere while the music continued playing and his platform started rippling.
“And why should I? I’m not a kshatriya. I’m only a mere gandharva of my Lord Ganesh, god of obstacles, letters and learning among many others,” Mr. Rat yelled disdainfully through the hole with no effect on the beautiful music he was making.
Meria suddenly shrieked like a woman as balls and rods of magic continuously appeared around him and then firing through the floor, creating explosions that made the entire house creak around us and heated the air up here on the second floor. While this was happening the Indian man slowly floated through the floor behind him, seated in mid-air in a lotus position while playing his musical instrument which was inexplicably being heard not from here but from downstairs.
After a few moments Mr Rat was floating at the same level as Meria. He then stopped playing and then crossed his arms.
“Is it dead?” Meria wondered out loud in a freaked out manner as the music stopped coming from downstairs. After several moments of silence, Meria started laughing.
“I did it! I killed a member of a pantheon! The strongest known magical beings in the Known Areas! Hahahahaha!”
Mr. Rat lazily plucked one string in response to Meria’s words.
Meria suddenly blurred through the air with a high pitched scream and reappeared beside Ran, who wasn’t able to move because of Moe. A ring of magic suddenly appeared around Ran’s neck, and then Meria pulled out his revolver.
“Don’t move or do anything! Or I will kill her! I swear – “
A gunshot suddenly rang out. Meria’s head instantly tilted to the left and then green liquid started pouring through a hole in his left temple.
While Meria slowly started slumping down onto his knees, the Skinchanger phased out of thin air beside him, holding a revolver in a one handed shooting position.
To my horror, Meria suddenly gurgled something out of his throat when he was finally on his knees while his eyes were jerking around and around in panic.
“Well believe this, bastard.” the Skinchanger stated as it calmly took a step forward, pressed the revolver’s muzzle to the crook of Meria’s neck, and fired. Meria’s eyes finally stopped moving, and then he toppled face down on the floor. Dead.
The Skinchanger then calmly put the revolver back in his holster while Ran quickly put a hand on the ring around her neck and made it fade away in a few moments.
“What now, Skinchanger?” Mr. Rat asked it.
The Skinchanger looked at Mr. Rat in the eyes.
“I’m only an observer here. And I followed my orders to kill the people who wanted to mess things up for us. Therefore, I’m going back – “
A brilliant light suddenly appeared behind him, quickly faded into an open doorway, and revealed a scene of chaos as more Skinchanger soldiers scrambled, and in some cases blurred, behind concrete walls that were decorated all over with glowing patterns.
“To report everything back to my superiors.”
My eyes bulged in horror –
The Skinchanger –
The Indian Man –
The doorway –
-at realizing ‘everything’ included information about me and my family.
-blurred into the place beyond the doorway, and then blurred sideways.
-plucked the string and sent a magical ray that smashed magical spikes and flew to the doorway.
-closed behind the Skinchanger, and turned back into the wall, which promptly got destroyed.
“Chutia. He escaped,” the Mr. Rat groaned. On my part, I moaned at being able to see the skyline of Matsumoto where I shouldn’t be able to.
“Forget about the Skinchanger and free the Ohta family!” Ran said while gently carrying her sister bridal style.
Mr. Rat promptly plucked a string. I felt my hands get freed, and a moment later I started to float down slowly.
Once I got onto my feet, I looked to my left…to see my wife sitting on the floor, leaning my lightly gasping daughter against her chest.
“I think it’s happening again Ichigo,” she despaired as she tearfully looked at me.
I took a quick look between Ao, the improvised chest drain, and the bowl of water to my right. Then I gently dragged the bowl towards Ao and promptly stuck the chest drain’s end inside the water.
“There we go,” sighed in relief as Ao’s gasping slowly became deep, long and normal breaths.
“We’re not safe yet,” Ran said as she gently laid Moe in front of Ao.
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Matsumoto, Nagano
May 3, 2013
8:45 P.M.
Ikeda Kurumi
“No more,” I wailed while a fresh set of tears started gathering in my eyes. “Please, stop. Just stop already.”
By the end, the tears started flowing and I sobbed again, rendering me unable to see properly.
“Mama, don’t cry,” Ao comforted me while patting my lap. Beyond her, a blurry outline I was sure was Ichigo stood up and went towards my other side.
“Ao, we…you got hit by a motorcycle, our house is ruined, and we almost died. Why shouldn’t I cry that all these bad things are happening to us?”
“I think what Ao wants to say was we should be thankful we’re alive dear,” Ichigo said while hugging me.
I blinked my tears away to clear my vision, and turned to say something when the rat man’s musical instrument suddenly started giving off a catchy tune that I could not help but like, no matter how I hated the musician.
“I’m sorry to interrupt this family moment,” the rat man said, “but a lot of Lighteaters are converging on this house right now. Right now I’m making barrier after barrier to surround this house, but they’ve got several High magic people down there. They’ll break barriers faster than I could make new ones.”
“How is that possible? Mommy and the others are still fighting out there. They shouldn’t be able to come here,” Ran worriedly said while sitting cross legged beside her unconscious sister.
The rat man looked at her, sighed, and told her to listen.
For a few moments, all was silent as we listened. Ran suddenly started shaking her head.
“No, no, no. It can’t be. It can’t be – ”
“Ms. Ran, your mother might only be unconscious,” Ichigo quickly interjected to calm the young inari who was currently starting to panic.
“Are you sure that Mommy is only unconscious? What if she’s wounded too, and bleeding to death? Or what if she is dead?”
Ichigo was rendered speechless. And I couldn’t help him since I was still reeling from this night’s emotional roller coaster.
It was at that point that Ao suddenly intervened by kicking her slipper at Ran's shoulder.
"Ms. Ran, it's bad to think that your Mama is dead when you aren't even sure that she's dead. It's like you wish that she is dead. Do you really want her to be dead?"
The only reason I didn't give a light slap at my daughter's hand, and told her that kicking a shoe at someone was wrong, was because Ran listened and replied to Ao.
"I want Mommy to be alive. But - "
"No buts! Your Mama is alive until you see that she is dead. Then you can start crying. Right now, you have to keep yourself and your sister alive because that is what every Mama in the world wants for their children!"
Ao ended her words by tightly hugging my arm, and then squeaking in pain from the movement.
As I lightly rubbed my daughter's side and murmured comforting words that kept getting cut in the middle by my sobs, the rat man suddenly spoiled the uplifting mood that Ao had created.
"That is a lot of Lighteaters out there."
"And what do you propose we do?" Ichigo asked in a surprisingly defeated tone.
As I looked at my fiance and wondered why he looked so…exhausted and defeated in his blue jogging pants and white shirt, the rat man replied.
"What I was here in the first place for."
It was at that point I realized what Ichigo was probably being down over; that the only way to save our family was for me to wear the magical trinket.
"As I said earlier," the rat continued, "she wears the ring, the quality of our enemies' magic get degraded. And that includes breaking spells like the spiteful curse barrier and the one keeping your father and his comrades asleep."
"They don't have any guns,” Ichigo quickly argued. “And they would be waking up, without any information on what's happening, within sight of armed opponents."
"Who said anything about your father and his comrades? I’m seeing a hundred...tengu, I think is the word. They’re currently flying around the barrier, waiting for it to go down.”
“And if the barrier doesn’t go down?”
“If the barrier refuses to go down… I can't do anything about the information. However, the weapons are simple. At the same moment that Kurumi here wears the ring, I'm raining down guns with attached bayonets and satchels full of magazines all over this area."
"And how are you giving them time to get armed?"
"Pardon?"
Ichigo explained that if the Lighteaters were around the house, all the soldiers who fell asleep, including Father, would be in sight of the magical aliens and would promptly get killed the moment they went for the rat man’s guns.
"How else? We get their attention on us."
Ichigo smacked his face and groaned.
"Please explain to me how getting their attention and keeping my family safe can be done at the same time. Please."
“Simple. We just don’t have any other choice.”
“Kurumi, what do you think?” Ichigo asked as he looked at me. “Should we get the magical alien’s attention?”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and made what might be the worst decision of my life.
“Yes.”