Chapter 25

Wizard Corps Installation 17B, Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Friday, December 23rd, 2050

The next week went smoothly, which seemed suspect in itself. I was so used to drama and strife that ordinary military training felt humdrum.

I was thankful for that night with Mariko, on every possible level. As I’ve spelled out in these confessions, a devil has needs, and having my itch scratched made it so much easier to focus on the lessons at hand.

The days bled together. A run through The Gauntlet, combat training with whoever I was assigned to, having new spells drilled into my head, and nighttime study, usually Japanese. Sadly, I didn’t get time alone with my lady love again, but that was to be expected.

Hell, there was barely any downtime for anybody. I could see waists narrow and muscles bulk under the training regime, and even Mariko seemed to know where to point her sword by the end of the week. Funny how not fighting a lesson allows one to actually learn it.

Still, it wasn’t a bad life. I’ve mentioned before that the Enemy’s greatest trick was to make humans desire leisure, but actually enjoy exertion. At the very least, it left little time for trouble.

The Enemy would cause a break in the routine… or more specifically, a certain birthday.

“A pass for… the holiday?” I asked, looking at the laminated card in my hand with some suspicion. I’d been called back into Sergeant Lakhdar’s spartan office, which had raised my alarm bells. I’d wondered what I could have done to set off my instructor.

“Christmas Eve and Christmas, specifically,” said Sergeant Lakhdar.

“What a pleasant surprise,” I said. “Did everybody get a special invitation to see you alone?”

“No, but your situation is different than the rest,” she said, “seeing as you don’t have any family to visit.”

Such tact. “Can I stay here?”

“Not unsupervised,” she said. “Moulham and I won’t be around.”

“He won’t?” I finally looked up from my pass. “He’s a Muslim, isn’t he? Why would he be bothered about… that holiday?”

“He isn’t, though he does like to debate me,” she said, smirking to herself. “However, he’s been working himself like a slave analyzing that Mol monster you slew.”

“Is that where he’s been?” I’d barely exchanged a word with the man in weeks. “What, did they ship the corpse up to that trailer he holes up in?”

That earned me a chuckle. “No, but he’s going over all the data they’ll provide. I checked on him yesterday; the walls look like a conspiracy theorist’s charts. That’s part of why I wanted to speak with you alone. I’ve been keeping him off your back since you got here.”

“Oh, really? I thought he’d lost interest on his own. He wanted to get into the weeds on fabricata theory; questions I couldn’t answer since I was busy avoiding his claws.”

“That’s what he said, but within a week, he kept wanting to pull you, Yamada, and Kowalski out of training for a round of heavy interviews. I told him absolutely not.”

“Oh?”

She shook her head. “He owes me; he’s barely done his teaching duties. I cover for him, but there’s limits. So many of you are behind on your training. Even now, we still haven’t gotten to any actual tactics or procedures yet.”

“I imagine he wasn’t too pleased that the King could summon me when he couldn’t,” I said.

“Not at all,” she said. “Now, though, you’re getting a couple of days off. He’s going to ask you to ride a train down to Tokyo to see the body in person.”

“Should I?” I asked.

“That depends,” she said. “Do you want to enjoy yourself for Christmas, or spend the whole time in a research bunker poking at a mutant demon’s body?”

“When you put it like that…” I’d never really had a Christmas before, naturally, but whatever it entailed sounded better than that. Especially Mulciber, the way I’d done him wrong. “What do you suggest?”

“Have plans when he asks you,” she replied. “He can’t order you to go, so either you dodge the duty for now, or he has to bargain with you.”

There was an obvious person to ask, and Mariko was quite receptive when I brought it up during our lunch break.

“Mother and Father will love you,” she said, beaming up at me.

“Huh. I’ve never gone home to meet a lady’s parents before,” I said. Girdan didn’t count, by my reckoning, since I’d been living at his estate before I even met Fera.

“You’re lucky about that,” said Kiyo, emerging from the shadows. I couldn’t be sure if she’d been using her affinity or not; she might have simply been overlooked. “Dad would’ve shot you after what you pulled. For starters.”

“Ara.” Mariko had the good graces to look horrified.

At least she was willing to talk to us again. “It would have been well deserved.”

Kiyo frowned. “It’s no fun when you agree.”

Mariko coughed into her hand, cutting us off. She looked a tad miffed at the interruption. She and I had gone off to a quiet corner of the facilities once we’d finished eating. “Is that what brings you over, Kiyo?”

Kiyo bristled at that. “No. Just wondering if you had room for a third.”

That threw us both for a loop. “Come again?”

“D-did I stutter?” Kiyo was always cute, in my estimation, but the way she fidgeted then was especially adorable.

Mariko switched to Japanese, and I found I was able to mostly follow along. “Shouldn’t you go see your family?” There was a touch of rebuke in the statement.

“Mom followed Dad to Okinawa on his last deployment,” she said, sounding testy in her own right. “Last I checked, the trains don’t run there, and I don’t have the money for a flight. I’m kinda alone for Christmas.”

Mariko bit her lip, clearly torn. “I… Kasasagi? What do you think?”

The dilemma was obvious. There was nothing to spoil a romantic interlude quite like having my bitter ex along. Is that why she’d invited herself? It was an awfully devious scheme, if she had.

However, there also wasn’t an artful way to avoid the request. There was something in her eyes that made me think she was sincere.

“Mariko, do your parents have room?” I asked.

“They do,” she said, “though two of us might have to… share a bed.”

Kiyo brightened up at that. “Wouldn’t be the first time you and me had to double up. Remember Taiwan?”

“Every day,” said Mariko, a shudder passing through her.

Kiyo winced. “Crap. Sorry, didn’t mean to—”

“No, it’s alright,” said Mariko. “Kiyo, are you sure? You know Kasasagi and I are…”

“Hooking up? Yeah. I caught you two together, remember?”

“And you wouldn’t mind being along for that?” I asked.

“What, are you planning to do it in front of me? Again, I mean.”

Mariko’s hand shot to cover her mouth. “Ara!”

“Sorry, low blow.” Kiyo’s fidgeting increased. “Look, I get it, I’d be a third wheel. I just looked at my options and it’s either you two, rent a hotel room and game through Christmas, or deal with whatever rich person crap Yukiko and Hiro are up to. A-and I really don’t want to be alone.”

Those last words cut deep into my heart. Kiyo wasn’t my Angel anymore, but I couldn’t stand to see her miserable.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” I said. “We’d be glad to have you.”

Mariko looked disappointed for a brief moment before pasting a polite smile on her face. “Yes, it would be lovely. I will let my parents know to expect a third.”

Kiyo’s expression brightened up. “This is… nice. I… well…” Her words failed her, and the beginnings of tears started at the corners of Kiyo’s eyes. “I don’t…”

Mariko’s motherly smile became real as she hugged Kiyo close, stroking her black hair. “We understand; we are ready to let bygones by bygones, too. We have missed you.”

I wasn’t sure if Mariko had quite read Kiyo’s meaning. I had taken a crash course in understanding her silences, and I wasn’t sure I read forgiveness in this one. She tensed up when Mariko embraced her, and she didn’t move to return it. We might have simply been the least depressing option available to her.

“Care to join us for magical training tonight?” I asked. “It’ll be like old times.”

“I, uh, already have a study group set up,” she replied. “W-we’re getting on pretty well. Just not, like, Christmas visit close.”

A lie, and not a well-told one. Mariko didn’t seem to catch on, as she was occupied with hugging the shorter girl to her bosom. This was meant to be a comforting gesture, but reminding Kiyo of her so-called deficiencies didn’t seem like the wisest idea. My former Angel had a bit of a complex.

Which meant that Kiyo hadn’t quite buried the hatchet. I’d have to be on my guard, since I wasn’t sure what her game was yet.

Chapter 26

Wizard Corps Installation 17B, Niigata Prefecture, Japan

Saturday, December 24th, 2050

We were up bright and early the next morning. Mind you, we were up bright and early every morning to run The Gauntlet, but this time, we were actually enthusiastic. We still had to run it, but that was, to quote our beloved Sergeant Lakhdar, ‘to keep us from going soft’. Never mind that it had snowed all night and was still snowing that morning. The entire course was covered in a foot of snow. We’d simply been told to figure it out.

‘Figuring it out’ involved a lot of fire magic, near misses with lighting the forest on fire, and an assist from Yukiko’s Gravity Shift affinity. As slick as the climbing walls were, it was manageable when you only weighed a few kilograms. We hardly made record time, but it was enough that we simply made it.

“Ah, Yukikins,” said Hiro, shifting the half-conscious heiress on his back as the class walked back to Installation 17B, “you overdid it!”

“Nobody left behind,” slurred Yukiko, her arms wrapped around Hiro’s neck.

“Huh,” said Kiyo. “Kinda surprising to hear you say that.”

Yukiko’s glare wasn’t so much withering as pathetic. “If I wasn’t in low-grade Wizard’s Desolation, I’d make you walk back at five hundred kilos.”

“Then thank God you are,” said Kiyo, enjoying her frenemy’s pathetic state. As tired as she was, I noticed her put an extra spring in her step for emphasis.

With the five of us walking behind the main group, it really did feel like the old days. Hiro didn’t necessarily need to take it at a slower pace, given Yukiko’s light weight and his strength, but he wasn’t about to jostle his girlfriend.

“I miss you being sullen and quiet,” muttered Yukiko, shifting to bury her face in Hiro’s neck.

I don’t think Kiyo heard, or alternately, I don’t know that Kiyo cared much. That little display didn’t have me any less suspicious of her motives for tagging along with Mariko and I. Yukiko hadn’t done anything to her since my first term at the school and she still bore a grudge.

“Oh, you know you’re enjoying yourself,” I said. “There’s a reason Hiro’s carrying you.”

Yukiko surprised me by staying quiet. Instead, she looked up and gave me a knowing smirk before hiding her face in the nape of his neck again.

“I do not mind being her horse,” said Hiro. “There are perks.” Was that a… lascivious grin of his own? On Hiro Takehara’s face, of all faces? It was gone in a moment, so I almost wondered if it was my imagination.

No, I knew what I’d seen. But… those two?

He couldn’t have… they couldn’t have. When? In Australia? No. Those two?

No, I refused to believe it. Those chaste stick-in-the-muds must have discovered new forms of handholding or Eskimo kisses that they thought were outré. That’s all that my psyche could handle right then.

I decided to turn my attention to my own lady. “How go your experiments with Bike Remover?”

Mariko didn’t look up from the tree branch she’d been transmuting as we trudged through the snow. “Kasasagi, you bullied me into naming my talent. Use the proper title, please.”

“Bully is such a harsh word,” I said. “I prefer ‘teased’.”

She grinned at that, still transfixed by the glowing branch. “I do, too.” Kiyo had vanished at some point, probably not enjoying all of the lovey-dovey nonsense we were spewing into the air. “To answer your question, Lovely Alchemy is coming along nicely. Though, do you remember what you told me about the demonic transmutation? How it made the item hot?”

“Where did you hear about that?” asked Hiro, who had stepped over to watch Mariko’s work.

There was no harm in a little truth, since Hiro thought I was a reformed demonkin. “I haven’t seen it performed, but I saw a spell scroll for it once. Devils use it to con each other; you can turn most anything into something like gold for a moment, but it’s red hot until it changes back.”

“Look carefully,” said Mariko. There was a powerful scent of mint that overwhelmed the pine of the forest. That nearly distracted me from the fate of the snowflakes that ventured too close to her hands. They turned into water droplets that vanished into the snowdrifts at our feet.

“Your magic generates heat, too?” I asked.

Yukiko shot up, nearly unbalancing Hiro. “You told me your magic was turning everything into a flammable gas. If it makes heat, too…”

“Not enough to matter,” countered Mariko. “It needs an open flame to ignite.”

Yukiko settled back down. “There’s some military applications there.”

“Kasasagi already thought of that in Iceland,” she said, her face falling. “I think I am done with this one.” She gave me her handiwork to inspect.

“Beautiful,” said Hiro. “Like silver foil on a Christmas tree.”

“What did you make this time?” I asked.

“I am trying for copper, but it turned into something grey instead,” she said. “We do not have a good way to find out.”

Yukiko looked up again, her eyes full of fear. “Trying for? What happens if you accidentally turn something into plutonium?”

“It might be a good idea to invest in some gloves, at least,” I said. I took the opportunity to take her hand and kiss it. “Wouldn’t want you to poison yourself.” Or anybody else, for that matter.

“Oh my,” said Mariko, her eyes goggling behind her glasses. “My talent might have been less dangerous when I simply destroyed everything!”

“Perhaps, but far less interesting,” I said, not wanting to discourage her.

************

That wasn’t our only hazard that day. The snow never let up. If anything, it intensified. Where was Rose Cooper when I needed her?

Soon enough, we were rolling back towards Nagaoka proper. I wished I couldn’t see where I was going, but Mr. Lahlou had insisted I join him in in the passenger seat of our APC.

“Dark L… weather, Mr. Lahlou!” I stammered.

“Dark? We’ll get there with plenty of daylight left,” he said as he cranked the steering wheel right to get us around a tight turn.

I gulped, having made the mistake of looking down into a murky chasm. “A-aren’t we taking this curve awfully fast?”

He went quiet a moment, and I was damn glad he was focused on his work. Once the road had leveled out some, he turned to face me, his curly beard looking wilder than it had when we’d set out. Was he… enjoying himself?

“You could have skipped this all, Sir Marlowe,” he said. “You could have been warm and cozy back at the installation waiting for me to get back.”

“Surely it can wait for Chr… the holidays to be over?”

“Who knows how long Mol’s body is going to stay intact?” he asked. “It’s the strangest thing; you said he bled, ate, and spoke normally enough.”

“Well, aside from the blood being black as midnight,” I said.

He waved that off. “But it was still blood. The tests showed that. The strange thing, his flesh is wooden.”

“As in it’s hard?”

“No,” he replied as we began our descent again. “As in it’s literally wood now. From the reports I saw, it’s a bit like a rosewood.”

“I don’t understand why you’re here instead of there,” I said. “It sounds like you’re fascinated by Mol.”

“I’ll be freed up once your training platoon gets deployed,” he said. “I’m just here to help with your training.”

He had a funny way of showing it. I kept that thought to myself, since it didn’t seem politic. “And a fine job you’re doing, too.”

“No, I’m not,” he said, firmly.

“You’ve been off working on fabricata for us, right? The less dangerous version of the Hephaestus’ Anvil?”

“Off and on,” he said. “When I’m not thinking about Mol. Honestly, I’ve neglected my duties to you all.”

Back home, that would have been a trap. Should I affirm the previous lie, or agree with his plain truth? “Well… I can’t quite disagree there.”

“You have to understand, I can do more good for the Corps there than here. That thing you killed is terrifying,” he said, growing more animated as he went. “If they can make one, they can make more. And perhaps more interestingly: if they can make one, maybe we can, too.”

Had Mariko been right about them weaponizing Mulciber’s corpse after all? “What for, sir?”

“There’s a lot of disabled wizards out there,” he said. “A missing limb ends a wizard’s career immediately, and the Horde is fond of swords and pikes. One of those would be the best prosthetic possible, and even let the armless cast magic again.”

Damn. It was harder to deny him when I knew two different men who’d love new legs; not to mention a certain lady who might be in the market for a new drawing hand…

“You might be able to learn just as much poking at Kowalski’s Buddy,” I said.

Thank the Dark Lord, he didn’t look up from his driving, though the question had surprised him. “What about Buddy?”

“When I was held by the Horde, I had the ‘pleasure’ of seeing a golem in action,” I replied.

“You told me as much back in Iceland,” he said.

“But, I think I neglected to mention that Buddy might just be a natural version of the technology. He looks almost exactly like Mol did under my Mimic Vision.” That was a bit of a stretch, but I’d spent long hours in Iceland not seeming like too much of an expert on Mulciber. No sense giving away the game now.

That perked up Mr. Lahlou. “Well then. I might just have to give Rafal some special lessons.”

Had I just managed to get a struggling wizard some attention from a skilled teacher, taken the focus off of me, and gotten the absent Mr. Lahlou to do his job again? Some shriveled part of my psyche almost felt dirty to help them all out.

Well, if my demonic half didn’t care for that line, it was going to absolutely hate what followed next. That was about the last thing to go according to plan that day…