Eroge? Bad Ends? Betrayal? I’m Just Here to Suplex Monsters through Buildings.

Lariats Are Heroic (2.1)

…

Neo San Kyoto, 12th Ave, at 11PM PST.

…

Asakura’s plan was honestly much better than I expected.

Scope out all possible locations, hit the ones that hold captives asap, but leave the big targets for a rush at the end. If possible, get information and resources from people in either Neo San Kyoto or Trespass while preparing for the final stretch. The plan kept the pressure on our opponents and took product away from them, and we didn’t waste time while the heat died down after every raid.

People wanted work done in Trespass and in NSK, and that work included everything from simple retrieval of artifacts to silently killing off someone who pissed off enough people to get a bounty on their head.

Honestly, my only complaint was that Asakura had a bit of a bleeding heart after her betrayal.

“You don’t need to fight with us.”

“I want to. I need to. I can’t just… do nothing after everything they’ve done to me.”

Tonight was a good example.

We hit another storage spot for people in stasis pods. Since their submarine pen was destroyed, they were working to smuggle people out in various ways. Trucks going out of the city, to small airports, and in shipping containers. Their spoofing of information got around regular, mortal eyes, but apparently the Hiyo Clan had electronic warfare specialists too, and they had eyes out for any sudden delays or changes in planned cargo deliveries.

Given the amount of information that would be for a city like NSK with over twenty million people and its international ports?

I was sure that they had an AI or some electronic spirit at their beck and call.

Probably just hide bits of black bar codes to cover her bits and bobs while the rest of her was blue, or something along those lines.

Anyway, we were hitting their bottom line by snatching their products away, and typically it was just that. Find a storage site, bring it down, and call in the Hiyo Clan or some third party hired to do the work and get the people we rescued out.

But, then, the massive, evil organization had a lot of people who wanted revenge on them, especially after what they did.

In point, the current case.

Leona Rodriguez, a young woman modified to be a bodyguard and pet, with detachable limbs and robotic dog ears on the top of her skull.

She was activated to try and protect the facility; we beat her down, Asakura called in a favor to get her unbound, and now she wanted to join us.

Yeah, sure, let’s have a woman wired to protect against us fight with us. It’s not like there could be backup codes or hidden phrases that can turn her back into a hostile terminator or a useless pet during combat.

Whatever.

Boss wanted to give her a chance, so what boss says goes.

“You won’t regret this. I’ll do everything I can to help.” Leona stated while I checked the perimeter. The fight that took place wasn’t much of one. I blew open the ceiling and put in some explosives. The enemy broke what little formation that they had after the opening barrage. Asakura and Alecia killed the rest. We were overqualified for these targets, but I was getting paid and doing my own training outside of it, so I wasn’t about to complain. “This new body is strange, but I’m going to make them pay for what they did to my parents and sister.”

“You’ll get your chance after we’ve ascertained that you’re capable of fighting against them.” Thankfully, Asakura had some sense. Alecia, though, was already looking at the suit-clad cyborg like a kindred spirit. “If you wish to aid us now, please tell us what you know of this facility. Is there anything here that we might have missed?”

One of the bigger, tougher-looking guys had a nice watch, and I pilfered it. I was also taking all their phones to hand over to the Hiyo cleanupteam. Everything went to the Hiyo Clan’s cleanup team first, but my share of the loot was identified and scanned for curses and tracking devices.

Was I tempted to take stuff for myself and get it verified without them?

Yeah, but that’s arrogance and pride talking. That’s me wanting to get all that I earn without paying a ‘tax’ towards the Hiyo clan for it.

That’s me wanting to move away from a clan with established expertise and fundamental understanding of the salvage I’m getting for a slightly bigger paycheck.

In other words, that temptation was a form of stupidity, and being stupid in this world meant getting absolutely fucked.

Yeah, I’m going to just keep sending everything to the Hiyo Clan and let their experts deal with the stuff.

“They were moving a lot of things through a room, but nothing came back out. I think they had me help, but they just took my memories away. It was that door over there, beneath the manager’s office.” Leona pointed vaguely in my direction, and I turned to look where she was pointing. All I saw was a wall. “What? Do you guys not see it? There’s a door right there.”

“Keita. Throw a rock at that ‘wall.’”

Getting some distance from the wall, I did just that, and the wall shimmered, and I let loose a whistle.

“Optical camouflage.” After seeing the shimmer, since I had seen the outline of the illusion, I was able to dispel it. I plucked out the tiny emitters projecting the illusion and held them in my hand. They were the size of earbuds but concealed an entire door with ease. “We didn’t see it because we were only disrupting magical techniques. Keita, blow it open.”

I drew a kunai and got it ready, but the cyborg spoke up.

“Wait! There might be other people there. Let me go first.” That set off alarm bells. What if there was something on the other side that she could use to attack us? I looked over at Asakura and signed a quick question her way. The hand signal was meant to mean ‘trust’ in an inquiry that asked for yes or no. Asakura nodded but also gave the positive hand signal back. Only the hand signal mattered, in case someone noticed. “Just keep an eye on me, okay?”

The cyborg looked at her two fellow young women and flinched, looking at me, but I wasn’t about to attack her without being given a good enough reason.

I just kept my eyes on the door and switched to senbon.

She approached it carefully and opened it. The lights behind the door turned on… and a ladder in a small room greeted us.

“Hold. I’ll send a familiar down.” Asakura stepped back into the spotlight and pulled a talisman out of a pouch around her waist. It folded up on itself, turning into a crane, and it flew while a faint blue flame covered one of her eyes. It was one of the cooler tricks at the disposal of most ninja, but sadly out of my reach. I couldn’t ‘project’ my energy out very far. The tradeoffwas that it was more potent when I used it to enhance my own body. A worthwhile tradeoff, honesty. “It’s a tunnel, and it leads to the sewer system.”

“It must be an escape route. That ladder’s not exactly good for bringing cargo up and down.” There was no sign of any lift in the room with the ladder. Sure, you can carry something on your back while climbing a ladder, but stasis tubes with people in them? Those were too large and too bulky to carry up a ladder.” It’s large enough for orcs to go up through, but not much else.”

“Or, it could be an entrance point through a secure location. The underground of San Kyoto holds many secrets. Subterranean municipalities where the underbelly of society thrives.” She looked my way. “I’m surprised you don’t know of them. They have arenas where you can test your mettle against truly strong people.”

“Maybe, after this job, I’ll look into being a pit fighter for a bit.” I mused with a shrug and eased up a little. I was still ready to put a few explosives on the cyborg, but it was looking like we were calling it a night. “Are we heading in?”

“No. The underground is not a place where we can tread lightly. There are few places to hide and even less space to evade. Not to mention using potent magic underground can result in us harming ourselves. We’ll report this and move on.”

I made a mental note of an underground arena where I can fight all that I wanted, before nodding and moving on.

Since we were starting to find people like Leona, along with more pets to rescue than roided-up throwaway thugs and breeders, things were going to get hectic soon.

I was looking forward to fighting either trolls or vampires.

…

Interlude: Asakura Hiyo, the Fiery Blade

…

“Honestly, I’m impressed. Your generation has more mettle than I expected for such peaceful times.” Lady Hiyo offered me praise while wrenching me out of the wall. The training room was healing from our bout, but it was covered in gashes across the wall. Molten rock cooled and was undone by magic to be reformed into walls. “You’re certainly much tougher than your mother was.”

“Thank you.” My body cried out, even as I healed and recovered from the recent beating. Lady Hiyo stopped holding back after a few weeks. She engaged me in close quarters again, using her fists after her speed got her past my guard. Once I managed to resist her disarming me. Now, she was simply attacking me faster than I could step back and swing. “I hope to be stronger than her. Perhaps, I could even be as strong as you?”

“You have talent and the will to work hard, but soon you won’t have the time. I only got this strong after I left the clan to my kids. You can only do so much with the time you have.” Lady Hiyo told me before glancing over her shoulder. “Unless you’re a freak that can live for fighting like that brat over there.”

Keita had noticed our bout had ended and entered the room.

He wore only the tight training clothes of a ninja his age as he began doing handstand pushups with weights tied to his legs.

His internal energy was not in use. He only used it for recovery. And, before he went to rest in the evening, he expended it all since he deemed the apartment safe.

Every day he was hitting his limit, killing monsters, doing missions with me, and accruing funds.

I was convinced that I was looking at the start of a legend.

“He’s got time, talent, diligence, a killer instinct, and no responsibilities. He can gallivant across the world, experience everything, learn, and overcome challenge after challenge. Train all you like, but you won’t grow as much as he will… but you can still be strong enough to take on most of the planet.” Lady Hiyo’s features softened, and I realized a scowl had formed on my face. Her hand reached out, and she gently tussled my hair. “Lead the clan well. Have an heir. Retire. Enjoy a few years of peace. After all of that, if you still desire strength, I’ll be here. You’ll cease being human, but you can reach your fullest potential.”

A part of me wanted to argue, but it was a childish portion of me that I could easily ignore.

My childhood ended with his betrayal.

Lady Hiyo suddenly laughed lowly, and I rolled my eyes.

Of course, Alecia chose to come in to train at the same time as him.

“Let’s give these two warriors some privacy.” Lady Hiyo stated, and I gladly followed. The Vampire Princess was acting more like a succubus by the day. If he didn’t wash his own laundry and practice his elemental control by drying it, I’m sure some of his clothes would be in her possession already. We left the room, and I did my best to not meet the young woman’s gaze. I warned her already, so her future failure was on her head. “How is she in battle?”

“A fair fighter. She prefers to stay at range and strike from the shadows. Tempted to address her foes and try to make a name for herself from time to time, but she stopped, knowing we leave no survivors.” We ascended from the basement into the square of the apartment. Many gazes turned our way. I was readily accepted, but I was sure they had watched the entrance in fear of Keita suddenly appearing once more. Many of them were recent rescues, and they suffered greatly. Some had to be kept back by the older ones, as they still reacted with little control to men. “There has been no sign of rejection from her mother’s blood. Are you sure that she was one of those vampires? Those who can match an antediluvian?”

I asked since if Alecia took in all her mother’s purported power, she would be breaking apart at the seams, struggling between mortality and immortality as little more than a beast.

“She was. I fought her enough times to know that as fact. Her daughter remains whole and hale like a young woman, because that was only one droplet of blood of seven.” I froze at Lady Hiyo’s words. If each droplet were as strong as the first, that would mean… I caught up with my new teacher, and she gave me a grin. “What? Did you think the founder of your entire clan, the first chosen of the Hou-ou, would struggle against a mere survivor of the great floods?”

She looked upward into the eternal night sky over Trespass.

“Alecia’s mother was a primogenitor. One of six. The one who reaved through the Middle Kingdom and decided to settle on our lands as an eternal empress of the land of the rising sun to showcase her lack of fear of it.” Words alone brought a single name to my mind. A name with too many syllables and foreign to the human tongue. The eternal foe of our clan… and she was dead with her daughter in our hands to inherit all her power. “You must be wondering why we don’t simply kill her.”

I shook my head at Lady Hiyo’s words.

I already knew.

There was a hidden reason why humanity has not launched a final crusade against the creatures of the night with all our power and might and technology.

As horrible and terrible as the creatures we now fought were, if they were defeated and destroyed, other more eldritch and alien creatures would arise from all around us to take their place.

Better that we know our enemy rather than invite the truly horrific and alien creatures that lurk in the edges of reality.