(New Leaf) Canicular 13 (Patreon)

AN: I have in fact decided Tuesdays are my new upload day, but damn, 8:30 PM eastern time is still late for me... Here it is tho. Also, there's some google translate Italian in this one, but since Naruto doesn't understand Italian, the translations are at the bottom of the chapter instead of, I don't know, in parentheses or something?

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Naruto

I invisibly ran across the rooftops back towards the target building from the opposite side of the street, using the angle to try and spot any weak points in the front of the building I could use to gain entry without alerting anyone…

That is to say, any open windows or doors. The obvious stuff. Any basic electronic security system made breaking into buildings without notifying anyone a lot harder if you weren’t prepared ahead of time. An open window or door left ajar would instantly make my options much simpler.

I had a bunch of kunai, a pair of smoke bomb pellets, steel wire, and a single lockpick on me right now, but with basically no idea what to do if they had a security system tied to the doors and windows.

There weren’t any signs of activity through the windows at least, though that didn’t mean much. It could just be that anyone in the building this late at night (early in the morning?) were deeper in, away from the windows. Hell, the place even had two or three sub levels they could be hiding out in with the Excalibur.

The roof was flat, not even an access door for maintenance, just a looped pair of metal railings barely peeking out from the lip of the other side of the building, implying a simple ladder filled that role. My look around at the other rooftops didn’t reveal any lookouts to me, and glancing at the sky didn’t tell me anything other than the fact that the light pollution made it impossible for me to see anything other than darkness.

“See any movement?” Himitsu’s voice came in an electronic whisper in my left ear, even though she was speaking normally on her end.

“None.” I muttered under my breath into the mic I'd been provided. A dark form flickered at the lower edge of my vision while I was looking up, immediately disappearing into the dark sky as a blur before my eyes locked on. “Wait- I think I just saw something.” I slowed down and squinted, but I didn’t have Koneko’s double-night vision to catch sight of it, so it was already too late for me to make it out as anything more than a vaguely winged blob that disappeared entirely within a second. I glanced down at where I first registered the shape move, and saw the same ledge with the ladder railings peeking over from moments before. “I didn’t get a good look. It could’ve just been a bird, but it looked like it came from the back of the building, so….”

I banked right and ran to the edge, picking up speed and kicking off the ledge to leap across the gap between buildings to the other side of the street.

“So it’s worth considering.” Himitsu finished for me as I landed silently and bled momentum, two rooftops away from the target. “Makes sense. There’s a lower-level roof nestled between the surrounding buildings and alleys with an access door out from the fourth floor. There should be a maintenance ladder down from the main roof right next to it.”

“I see it.”

As a trusted and highly trained government operative, she apparently had access to a bunch of different databases on her phone on the fly, and had pulled up anything relevant she could find.

“The blueprints show that it was originally intended as an apartment building to replace the previous demolished one back in the eighties, but the city records show that plan fell apart when the red-light district grew all around it, and most people didn’t want to live in the area. They tried renovating it into a hotel, but it was already too late and finally foreclosed a couple years ago,” she relayed while I circled around on the other buildings, checking out the target from all angles. What I saw when the lower access door came into sight made me smirk. It was the work of a few light steps over a period of seconds to close the distance and drop down to the lower-floor roof next to the ladder

“The blueprints only list one standard-depth basement level, so it’s already not totally reliable, but it should still be close enough to be helpful. It might be too risky if there are any Fallen in there though, so it might be better to call in the others for a straightforward-”

“I’m in,” I deadpanned with a grin as I slipped inside, stepping over the cinderblock that was propping open the metal door. Proof that the biggest weakness in any security system was always people. “Easy-shmeasy.”

“Don’t get careless.”

“Right.” If that blur a bit ago really was a Fallen, they were probably going to be coming back at some point, and were too lazy to bother using a key or activating an alarm system. After all, the door was three stories above ground, completely hidden from street-level, and only accessed the roof, so no random homeless dude was ever finding their way up there.

Who could possibly manage to take advantage of this temporary lapse in security to sneak in? That was probably the mentality the Fallen had when leaving.

‘Gee, I don’t know, maybe the only people in town that are actively searching for your base, who can easily travel above street level, idiot?’ I snickered to myself.

I found myself in a short side-hallway that split off to the left and right after a few meters. Stepping into the intersection showed me that it was one long, dim hallway, with nothing but the glow of the green exit signs hanging from the ceiling to light it. It led from one side of the building to the other, with thick carpeting and door after door lining the walls, the steady pattern only broken up by a couple other branching hallways part way through. I was near the left-most side of the building already, the hall in that direction ending a dozen meters away at an empty, broken-glass vending machine, tucked into the corner by an emergency exit stairwell.

“Down the hall on your right should be an elevator closer to the center of the building that can go down to the basement, with a staircase right next to it. If you can get it open, you should be able to get through the top hatch and climb down the shaft directly. If not, there’s a first-floor staircase in the back of the lobby that leads down there as well.

“Got it,” I muttered, taking the right and making my way over.

I came up on the next intersection half a minute later and spotted the elevator. Well, what used to be the elevator. The doors were visibly bent and melted at the edges like they’d been welded, forced to remain permanently open. The elevator box thing that you stand in was missing, leaving just a dark, empty space. I carefully walked up to the opening and leaned in, steadying myself with a hand on the wall.

All the way at the bottom, dozens of meters down, the soft glow of regular indoor-lighting shone through another opening where the door should be.

‘Perfect.’

“Found it, heading down now…” I whispered, covering my mouth with my hand to block the sound from echoing out into the depths.

“Good luck.”

I felt around on the insides of the wall for a ladder or something to climb down with. If I just dropped down the whole five stories, it wouldn’t matter how good I was at moving sneakily, the impact would make a sound without using chakra as a buffer.

I didn’t find any ladders, but there were a lot of metal railings and poles that I assumed the elevator rode along before it was removed. It was too dark to see if they were in one piece or in decent condition against things like rust, so I picked one pipe at random based on the cool, smooth feel of its surface, swung myself around into the shaft, and began shimmying my way down very slowly and very carefully.

If any Fallen were still around, even the slightest tap of Transparency’s blade against any of the metal surfaces around me would probably be enough to throw them into high alert. I didn’t have a sheath for the thing, so for now it hung swaying from my waist, thanks to a spare leather belt I had borrowed from Special Agent Tarou’s stash of extra clothes in his trunk.

It took about a minute to make it most of the way down and into the light, and I paused about a meter above the very bottom to take a look through the wide opening where the door was supposed to be.

There was no floor immediately out of the elevator shaft, just a straight drop two more stories down. Instead of a dusty, cluttered, forgotten basement, it was like looking out over a giant warehouse mixed with a military camp. The basement had been dug out until it was thirty feet deep and turned into a bunker, a concrete-walled bunker filled with cheap yellow lighting and catwalks, criss-crossing the wide open space between separate closed off sections.

It looked massive, stretching significantly farther than the property of the building above.

I silently hopped onto the ledge and got a wider angle to peek around.

I immediately ducked back inside and out of the way, as a six-winged, masked Fallen flew just past me through the opening, banking to rise straight up and out at the fifth floor opening within two seconds.

A small gust of wind followed in his wake and blew my hair around for a moment.

After waiting for like a minute to make sure it was clear, I stepped out again, taking a look into the basement.

A big chunk of the mostly-open floor space was just empty, parts of the concrete floor pockmarked with deep gouges and shallow craters with a bunch of concrete support pillars spread around evenly to hold up the ceiling and the structures up on the surface. There were probably a dozen smaller buildings in the underground, most of them looking like they were carved directly out of the bedrock. Off to the side, a metal door from a wide barracks-like structure swung open, and a man stepped out with a yawn, a face mask clipped to his belt and the same black top with an eight-pointed star design as that invisible Fallen assassin that attacked me. 

The Fallen wasted no time releasing his wings with a stretch, just a single pair, before flapping them once as he jumped up to one of the catwalks and strolled into one of the larger “second floor” rooms.

“Where was the sword again?” I whispered over the radio after a moment of looking for any other signs of movement.

“The far right corner from the street, so… behind you and to the right if you’re facing out of the elevator.”

So basically, almost directly below the access door I used to get into the building.

I leaned forward, looking down.

The space around me was totally empty, aside from the giant concrete pillar supporting the exposed elevator shaft beneath my feet.

With nothing around for a sneaky parkour path, I shrugged and pulled Transparency from my waist so it wouldn’t bang against the ground on landing. I stepped forward, letting myself drop a few feet before catching the lip of the opening above me with my free hand to reset my momentum, then I let go and dropped the last fifteen or so feet into a deep crouch to silently absorb the impact. I slid the sword back into my belt as I stood, turning right to walk around the wide pillar and make my way to the back of the massive underground space.

I paused, my eyes tracking a figure up on one of the catwalks stretching from the area I was headed to the area that Fallen had entered a moment ago.

Tall stature, form-fitting red dress suit with a short pencil-skirt, and super long dark blue hair.

‘The Kalawarner chick?’

She was walking in the direction I needed to go, carrying a metal tray stacked with enough food for a Koneko-portioned appetizer.

It was a lot of food.

“The cafeteria food ain’t great, but what the fuck does Sachiel think is even open at this time of night?”

“I don’t know man, this country’s got some pretty great convenience store food; some of these people pay to eat that shit every day. Hey, how much do you want to bet he left the door open again?”

I glanced back as two cloaked men noisily walked out of that same second-level structure she was walking away from– a cafeteria if I was putting the context together right– chatting with half-eaten burgers in their hands. 

“No bet, I don’t think even half of us follow protocol for that, hahah! The real bet is how much trouble we’ll be in when Commander decides he doesn’t care to figure out who did it!”

“You bastards! Why do I have to run drills because of you lazy fucks!? I just want to train like normal!”

The two continued arguing out of earshot as they walked down another catwalk to a much further area…

‘Now that I think about it, isn’t this place way bigger than the building above it?’ It almost felt like I was in the center of a giant cave or something, ignoring the smooth walls and rectangular shape.

I shrugged. If the Devils had contractors and magic that could cover-up and fix all the damage our fights have already caused in the past, it really shouldn’t surprise me that the Fallen have access to the same sort of absurd construction abilities.

I continued around the pillar, spotting the corner “building” I needed to get to, a blocky two-story structure that was a lot more sturdy and secure-looking than any of the other sections that were probably carved directly out of the bedrock. It was covered in dull metal panels with no windows, and a golden-glowing, cross-like inscription seemed to be overlaid on a large metal door that blocked access from the catwalk Kalawarner was still moving across.

Leaning forward, I silently sprinted across the open space for a handful of seconds, closing the distance to the building before jumping up to settle on the walkway’s railing, perched right next to the secure metal door. I looked back, waiting for a handful of seconds as she approached with narrowed eyes and a vaguely disgusted sneer on her lips.

She shifted the tray of food to one hand like a waitress and pressed her newly freed palm to the glowing cross. It glowed brightly before going dim, and she took hold of the handle, turning it and—

It was locked, physically.

Her expression twisted, a vein pulsing on her brow. 

“Fucking…”

The metal rang out as she rapped her knuckles loudly on the door three times, muttering under her breath.

We waited next to each other (not that she knew that) for half a minute, and got no response

Just as I was starting to get bored, she suddenly reared her leg back.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

“VALPERRRR! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR ALREADY YOU FAT! FUCKING! CREEP!”

I watched awkwardly from barely an arm’s length away as she screamed in frustration, her foot slamming into the door over and over again.

‘Geez, someone’s had a rough day,’ I sweat-dropped.

She lowered her foot a couple moments later, blowing a strand of blue hair away from her face with a huff as she wound down. I pretended I didn’t see the wince she made when she gingerly put weight on said foot.

Just because she didn’t know I was there, didn’t mean I couldn’t let her keep some of her dignity after doing something as stupid as violently kicking a solid metal door in high-heels.

… Nah, who was I kidding? I just had to look away so I could stop from giving myself away by cracking.

There was a click and the door began swinging open, revealing… ‘The hell is a priest doing down here?’

The old man who answered the door had totally gray hair puffing out from under the sides of a weird white cap he wore on his head, along with a pair of glasses, and flowing white church robes that were definitely not all that flowing around his wide body. He had a friendly smile on his face that crinkled his eyes, and one of his hands was patting his stomach in anticipation.

“Oh? Signorina Kalawarner, che piacevole sorpresa!” The priest said with good cheer. “È per me?”

I had no clue what he said, but with the way he hungrily looked at the tray as I slipped by, it probably had to do with the food. I was careful moving past him and into the room, his wide body not leaving a lot of space between him and the doorway.

There was a large desk with a computer set up on the left side of the room with three screens mounted up on said wall, all placed next to a staircase heading down. On the other side of the room was a row of desks with a couple of laptops and dozens of papers, the sheets covered in what looked like sketches of magic circles and symbols, with scribbled notes taken underneath. On the far side of the room was a bunch of high-tech looking servers that took up most of the wall, with cables snaking up and across the ceiling towards the computer and screens.

“Don’t speak like we’re on friendly terms, and take the damn tray already you sword-obsessed freak,” Kalawarner said impatiently.

One of the screens had a map of Kuoh pulled up with this base highlighted and labeled, as well as four colored and labeled dots marked. Two were unmoving, one yellow and one green. The green one was here on the base, while the yellow one was on the border of the town center and west side. One circle was red with the number 2 in the center of it, and was shifting around a bit within the space of a block near the center-north of town. The last circle was gray, and was… right on the Gremory mansion’s property.

‘The Excaliburs!’ I realized what the map was tracking.

“Non c'è bisogno di essere così scortese, ragazza.” The man’s voice turned dry, sounding the tiniest bit amused. Something about the way he spoke, or maybe the way she spoke to him, gave me the sense that the guy wasn’t the kindly old priest he looked like. “E pensare che avrei invitato una giovane donna come te a condividere tutto questo con me…”

The center of the room was open, a wide, round hole in the floor showing the room below with only a cheap metal guard rail circling it to stop anyone from falling down. I looked over the edge.

Down in the middle of the lower floor, was a sword held upright by a thin, two-pronged weapon stand. There were five similar stands mounted to the wall, just barely visible at the back of the lower floor and all empty. The weapon itself was a long, western-style sword that had a mostly blue blade with a silver edge. The hilt was a dark brown-almost-black, with a golden pommel, and a crescent-shape hand-guard that had a blue jewel in the center. Surrounding the stand was a mix of high-tech sensor thingies pointed at it, and blatantly magical objects and markings doing the same, including a large golden magic circle on the floor itself.

“I’m older than you, human. And not a chance in Hell,” Kalawarner scoffed, with an angry bitterness. “I’m only here because I don’t have a choice. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t spend my time with the sort of people who keep you as company. I’m going to let go of this tray now. You have three seconds to take it from me, or it’s going on the floor.”

‘Huh? What does she mean she ‘doesn’t have a choice’?’

I glanced back at the two in the doorway. Now that I had the sword in sight, I wasn’t sure what to do. If I’m quick, I can get down, grab it, get back up and out the door before this place is locked back up and I’m stuck waiting for the old man to leave. On the other hand, that would probably give away my presence pretty damn quickly, and Himitsu was proof that there were ways to detect people through Transparency’s invisibility. It might be better to hold cover and wait for a better opportunity.

“Tutti hanno una scelta, stupida ragazzina.” The old man reached forward to grab the tray of food from her in a hurry, even as he responded, the grandfatherly tone completely missing. In its place was unhidden derision, like he saw her as insignificant. “Tu, semplicemente, non hai la volontà di opporti a chi ti soffoca– troppo spaventato per correre un rischio per i tuoi desideri.”

He then snorted as he turned, his creepy grin full of bad vibes. “E non fare come se fossi migliore di me. Sono ben consapevole del tuo coinvolgimento nel tentato sacrificio di Asia Argento. Io, almeno-”

I didn’t bother thinking any more deeply, I just moved. Screw the consequences.

I didn’t know what was being said, but one of my friends was just name-dropped by a man who was working with hostile Fallen Angels, someone who even put one of Asia’s original captors on edge.

Dashing back past the priest, I grabbed Kalawarner. I almost missed– whatever he’d said made her take a half-step back as if she’d smelled something awful– but I managed to catch her wrist, spinning and throwing her into the old man’s back, sending both of them sprawling with short, surprised shouts. Swinging the heavy door shut behind me, I went straight for the creepy downed priest as Kalawarner was pushing herself back up and away with her wings reflexively extended, and I bodily lifted the stunned man from the mess of ruined food by the armpits, before putting him in a sleeper hold.

The Fallen woman stared with wide eyes for a moment, watching the old man struggling to breathe while his legs kicked and hands tried grappling with thin air. Her eyes darted to the exit, and I let my invisibility drop.

Her head jerked back. “You?!”

“Don’t try to leave or get anyone’s attention, I’ll stop you before you can.” I didn’t waste time, and immediately began laying out what I wanted as the priest’s struggles and gurgling began slowing down. “I’ve got a couple questions, and I don’t speak this man’s language, so it would be helpful if you could answer them for me. First, I heard him mention Asia; Who is this man, and what’s his involvement with her?”

The man fell limp, and I released the blood-based choke hold a second later to lower the man to the floor, eyes never leaving Kalawarner as she looked on with shock.

“What the- his what? His involvement with-?” She palmed her face with a stressed expression and shook her head. “No, I, he-” She took a deep breath, and released it slowly through her nose, composing her expression and looking up to meet my stare with annoyed defensiveness. “Alright. Valper Galilei is a former priest and scientist of the church, wanted for his crimes against humanity and nicknamed the Genocide Archbishop for the amount of orphans he experimented on and killed in his Holy Sword Project,” Kalawarner described clinically. “He’s a vile human, but he only referenced Argento-san to compare my actions under Raynare-sama to his, implying I’m no better than him.”

‘So he was making a ‘not-so-different’ speech?’ I fought down my rising anger with every word and resisted the urge to glare down at the apparently Orochimaru-like man. ‘It doesn’t seem like she’s lying. That basically guarantees he’s up to no good, no matter what his motivations are. And with a nickname like that?’ My frown deepened.

“I’m surprised you’re cooperating so easily,” I commented, digging for her motive.

“I’ve already been at your mercy twice in the past, boy, a third time won’t make a difference. I’m already a laughingstock who isn’t told anything important.” she said, glaring down at me like it was my fault for reminding her of our shared history. “Whether I get hurt while trying and failing to resist you, or walk away unharmed after answering some inconsequential questions, no one will care. I’d rather just get this over with and get some damn sleep.”

‘... I’m kinda starting to feel bad for her.’ I carefully kept my face straight and nodded at the straightforward logic instead of voicing the awkward pity. “...Alright, next question. Why did you choose to come back here, working with this group if you hate it?”

She crossed her arms under her breasts. “Don’t be a fool. Who would want to be here, working as a glorified maid for men like this? Please. I’m weak among my kind, not a masochist. I didn’t get the option to refuse.” She turned her head and scoffed, her fingers tightening around her elbows while she glared to the side. “It’s not even as though they actually need me for anything, I’m just kept around for their amusement after they realized how little use I was able to provide for their goals.”

“So leave if you don’t want to work with this splinter cell,” I said bluntly to the tall woman. “It’s really not that hard to disappear if you aren’t being held captive.”

“And risk my punishment for desertion falling on Raynare-sama upon it being discovered? Not a chance, boy.”

And that confirmed things for me. We already figured she’d been pressured into joining up somehow, but if the woman she was obsessed with was effectively being held hostage to secure her cooperation, then that settled it.

“Last question then,” I decided. “A two-parter. If I were to grab that Excalibur down there and run for it, how long would I have before an alarm went off if I leave this man here, versus if I take him with me?”

“Leave him,” she rolled her eyes, gaze landing on the priest intently. “If he leaves this room without turning off the security system, it’ll alert the whole base.”

I grinned up at her, and she frowned after seeing it. “Next time, try to pick a better lie, not that it would help. That one didn’t even make sense, ya’know!” Why would a security system be turned off when everyone was leaving for the day? She was just trying to get me to leave the orphan-killing priest here. “The truth this time, please.”

“Tch.” She clicked her teeth. “I don’t know, you annoying brat.” she grudgingly admitted. “It’ll probably go off the moment you take the sword.”

“Sounds about right.” I nodded in satisfaction. Now came the final issue I definitely couldn’t just leave the guy here to continue being evil as hell, I wasn’t letting another Orochimaru get away with that shit, but taking him or killing him would put Kalawarner and possibly Raynare in an even tighter spot, and they were already in the process of paying for their crimes, so putting more onto their shoulders just wouldn’t be right.

I cupped my chin in thought, and Kalawarner shifted awkwardly as she watched.

‘I could take both of them…’ wait, no, that might make them think desertion, and Raynare would take the fall. ‘I can’t just take him and injure Kalawarner to show she tried to “fight” me, these guys are probably the type to punish someone for failing too much even if they did their best…’

… Wait. What if…?

I decided.

My hand settled on an invisible hilt, drawing her attention with widening eyes, though she was too slow to react otherwise. 

I blurred forward and swung, sending blood and split feathers scattering in a wide arc as I slid past the Fallen woman who was now howling in pain, sporting a long but relatively shallow cut across one of her wings. I spun around, and the pained shouting cut off when the flat of transparency crashed into her temple, sending her to the floor.

While she laid groaning a good ten feet away from Valper and the overturned dinner tray mess, bleeding onto the floor surrounded by loose feathers, I moved to the center of the room and vaulted the railing with my sword held in two hands above my head, falling in a strong downwards chop that tore a jagged, sparking groove in the largest of the devices surrounding the second Excalibur.

Red lights immediately began flashing all over and an insistent beeping sound began ringing out from all the computers on the walls around me.

I hurriedly grabbed the hilt of the new sword– Excalibur Destruction I realized, when I unconsciously understood how it wanted to be wielded– and jumped back up through the open floor to vault the railing again, ignoring the stairs to the side.

I strolled forward as I slid the two Excaliburs through my belt for safe-keeping, watching Kalawarner groggily trying to push herself up with a hand to her head, and tapped my ear piece.

“Got the sword, but there was no way to get it without setting off an alarm. Let the others know I’ll be out in a minute, and be ready to either evac two prisoners, or hunker down and wait things out, depending on how it goes.”

“Got it.”

I bent down and hefted up the struggling woman, getting underneath her for a piggyback ride. It was pretty awkward with her chest pressing into my head and her wings flopping around behind us, and probably really dangerous to trust her not to try and kill me, but was the easiest way to free up my arms, and she genuinely hated this place, I could tell.

“Hey, hide your wings for me please,” I instructed her.

“W-why shhhhould I?” She slurred with a spiteful tone. 

‘Oof.’ Maybe I hit her a little harder than I meant to, even if I was gonna ask one of the girls to heal her anyway.

“I’m taking you with me. You don’t want to get blamed for failing to stop me, right? So, it would be best for both of us if I’m not caught because of little blood trail blood,” I told her truthfully.

“Ffffucking… brat.” She did it anyway, the weight of her wings disappearing to nothing in a flash of light as I started walking. She also put a little bit of effort into wrapping her limbs around me instead of just acting like a limp cape hanging from my shoulders.

I grabbed the fat priest by the collar as I moved past, dragging him across the floor to the door.

I extended Transparency’s power to all of us and pushed the door open with a foot. I didn’t see a rush of movement or flashing lights, or hear any alarm-like sounds other than the one behind me.

‘No one’s reacting?’ I thought, looking around. ‘If there’s a delay on the one behind me, I might have a minute or two before-’

I took a couple steps through the doorway and out onto the catwalk, and a loud siren immediately began blaring across the huge underground space with an echo.

‘... Nevermind.’

I tugged on Valper’s surprisingly durable robes while eyeing the big pillar entrance, where I knew the opening to the elevator shaft sat over twenty feet above the ground, and judged the distances.

If I moved fast enough to get there before any fallen got smart and blocked it off, there was a good chance Valper would wake up and ruin our stealth anyway, and that was without taking into account the rest of the floors I’d have to parkour up to reach the actual exit at the top floor. I could already see Fallen soldiers rushing out of the barracks’.

So if my original way out was a bust, and total stealth out the window with it–

I hefted Valper and made sure Kalawarner was secure, turned, then jumped the dozen feet to the top of the research building ignoring the fact that Valper began waking up from even that little jostling. Kalawarner grunted, but just resigned herself to lying limp across my shoulders instead of complaining about the ride.

–I’d just use my new ‘key’ to open a second exit.

I pulled Destruction, and swung up.

If the sword lab being breached didn’t have the Fallen’s attention before, the sound of an explosion and shattering stone echoing throughout the base did as I blew a hole in the ceiling.

“Ack-! Hrrmgghrmhrm?!?!”

The sound woke the ex-priest who immediately began coughing and gurgling, his collar choking him as I pulled him along with my jump, up into the first floor of the hotel. I didn’t waste any time, and sprinted through the dark hallway we found ourselves in. I reached the other end of the hall and took a turn, seeing a nearly pitch-black space ahead.

Just then, a dark blur sped past us, a gust of wind filling the hall as it went by. A golden Light spear was drawn from out of thin air a split second later, lighting up the whole hallway and what looked like a front lobby, while also revealing an annoyed-looking Fallen Angel with shiny black hair and glowing red eyes.

One with eight wings.

“Well, well, well. It seems we’ve been discovered. Tell me little thief, how did you find our base?”

Kalawarner was as stiff as a rock on my back, her arms and legs tightening painfully around my neck and waist.

‘How the fuck did he even pinpoint us that fast?’

“Puh-” Valper rasped from where he’d fallen to his knees when I’d stopped.

The thing about using transparency, especially extending it to others, is that you can still “see” everyone under its power. It’s just, you also see what’s being turned invisible. Those two things together kinda just makes everything and everyone affected look like see-through holograms.

So when I looked down at Valper, and saw a drip of tomato sauce fall from him and become visible as it stained the carpet below, and the tiny trail of various food stains just behind us from how I was dragging him, I realized that I might have made a really dumb mistake.

In my defense, I’ve never had real invisibility as a part of my kit before, so I was still learning. That was my excuse and I was sticking with it.

“Pro… cyon-” Valper coughed out. “D-Distruzione!”

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Italian translations:

1. "Oh? Miss Kalawarner, what a pleasant surprise! Is that for me?"

2. "There's no need to be so rude, girl. And to think that I would have invited a young woman like you to share all this with me..."

3. "Everyone has a choice, you stupid little girl. You simply lack the will to stand up to those who are suffocating you—too scared to take a risk for your own desires."

4. "And don't act like you're better than me. I'm well aware of your involvement in the attempted sacrifice of Asia Argento. I, at least-"

5. "D-Destruction!"