“Um…Cole did…”Cheza says quietly. I always find her taciturnity towards people she doesn’t know well to be endearingly cute.
“Ah, I see!” Archer says with a broad smile. “So what brings you two here today?”
“It’s actually about my G20. I need to have the barrel modified for a silencer.” I say.
“That is certainly doable. Here, let’s go into the back.” Archer says. We follow him through an ‘employees only’ door, back into an armory that is not unlike the one at home.
“You have the gun with you I presume?” Archer asks. I nod and pull my gun from one of my cargo shorts’ pockets. “You made modifications to make it a melee combat weapon as well? What is this material made of?”
“Silicon carbide.” I reply.
“The same material that they make expensive armor plating out of?” Archer asks incredulously; I nod. “Is this what Tia was referring to as ‘seeing something you won’t believe, in return for payment’?”
“No, actually I think she is talking about the silencer. Speaking of which, do you have one that will fit a 10mm barrel?” I ask.
“They are usually custom order. I have one in my private collection; however, it is not for sale.” Archer says.
“That’s fine; all I need to do is examine it. Then you will get to see something interesting.” I tell him.
“Okay, but let us modify the barrel first.” Archer says.
I dismantle my gun on a nearby workbench and hand him the barrel. He walks over to some sort of drill and creates the grooves on the outside of the muzzle. He walks back over and hands it to me so I can reassemble the weapon. I realize that I am really thankful for that extra inch of barrel otherwise this would have been a giant pain in the ass. Archer walks over to a portion of his Armory and pulls a cylinder out of a drawer, comes back and hands it to me. I screw it on to make sure it’s a perfect fit, and then I take it off when I see that it is. I’m about to grab my knife when I realize that, while Tia explained how one works, I have no idea what it’s like on the inside.
“Do you have a diagram of the inside of one of these?” I ask.
“No, but,” Archer says while taking the silencer from my hand, unscrewing the tip, and taking out the contents. It looks like a dozen, half inch cones all stacked together. “Will this work?”
“Yeah this should work just fine. Hypothetically speaking, if this conic system was to be permanent in the silencer, would it still work?”
“Hypothetically, yes it would. However, you would be unable to clean it easily, if at all.” Archer informs me.
“Oh, that’s no problem; when it gets dirty, I’ll just make a new one.” I say as I pull out my switchblade. I slice open my left forearm while Archer gives me this curious look.
“I hate it when he does this…” Cheza grumbles.
I hold the picture in my mind and start the drain. The silencer forms in my right hand and I solidify it. (5.3 Liters)
“Well, let’s test it out!” I say to a wide eyed Archer.
We walk over to the firing range. My gun making a kind of ‘pyu’ sound instead of the usual bang tells me that I’m successful. It isn’t completely silent though so I’ll need to figure something else out for situations in which I need to dispatch enemies without alerting their friends that are in the immediate vicinity.
“Consider me paid in full.” Archer says, still shocked.
“Are you sure? That only took half a liter to make so I can definitely make another.” I tell him.
“Truly!?” Archer asks. His face is almost identical to the one that Sara made when she saw Sephiroth’s katana, but his is much more weathered.
“Sure! Cheza’s ring drained me of seven times that amount!” I say as I start a draw for a second silencer.
“So you created that gun?” Archer asks curiously.
“Yeah, well, except for the springs and barrel. I didn’t want to take the chance of a silicon carbide barrel tweaking the ballistics of the bullets and springs are impossible.” I tell him while finishing the silencer. “Here you go, just don’t tell anyone where you got it and don’t tell anyone that I can do this. It will most likely lead to death in some fashion; probably not yours, but mine and the first waves of people that they send after me.”
“I am unsure if I want something like that…I’ll be careful. After all, how many chances am I going to have to obtain an item like this?” Archer asks rhetorically.
“Not many! Anyway, we need to get back so Cheza can start training again. Thanks for everything Archer!” I say.
“No, thank you Cole! If you need anything else, just stop by.” Archer replies while shaking my hand.
“Actually, now that you mention it, I need six more 25 round magazines. Do you have any?” I ask.
“I have four currently; I ordered them thinking that you may require more.” Archer says, walks over to a drawer, and pulls them out. “Here, in return for the silencer.”
Archer walks us to the front of the store. “Goodbye you two, and do let me know when the wedding is!”
The short walk to the car is an awkward one; the ride home even more so. I pull into the garage.
“Cole…” Oh, here it comes. Next she’ll be asking when we are getting married, followed by the ridiculous tons of planning that goes into a wedding, followed by a huge argument about cake.
“Fuck the flowers honey! We need to move on to the important issue: Are we even allowed to have an ice cream wedding cake or is that a ‘birthday only’ type of cake?” My inner monologue dictates.
“Do you even want to get married?” Cheza asks.
That is not a question I was expecting.
“I know now that this ring was most likely a graduation present or something and not you proposing, but I’m happy that you let me think that for a while.” Cheza says quietly while not sounding happy at all.
“That isn’t a question I can answer right now, Cheza.” I say as I open my door. I get out, shut the door, and go around to the trunk for the shopping bags.
“Alright, at least it’s better than a no.” Cheza whispers, thinking that I can’t hear her.
Chapter 11: In actuality, this has nothing to do with Emo Rock or Masochism
I walk inside the house (while carrying all the bags) behind Cheza.
“So how did it go?” Tia asks. I pull out the silencer and four magazines. “Nice! Archer was so surprised that he even gave you magazines?”
“No, those were as thanks for making him a silencer. They only take half a liter so I figured, why not?” I reply.
“That might not have been the best idea…with Archer it should be okay, but don’t give Sic things to anyone else.” Tia warns me.
“Don’t worry Tia, I won’t. I wouldn’t have even made the second silencer if you hadn’t said that I could trust Archer’s discretion.” I tell her.
“Good. Alright, you two go change and meet me downstairs; we should be able to get in about three hours of training before dinner.” Tia says. I grab the magazines, silencer, my gun, and the grey jacket that Cheza picked out, and I bring them to Sara.
“Here, these are for measurements. Will you be able to armor a jacket like this?” I ask.
“Yeah, I should be able to easily. Getting it to look cute once it’s armored? Now that’s the real challenge.” Sara replies.
“Well, do your best. Cheza is going to use it as an undercoat while we are in Greenland anyway, but giving her inclination to wear it here would be nice. Thanks Sara!” I say and then I start to head out the door when Sara stops me.
“Cole…I’m concerned about your mental wellbeing. Tell me honestly, what do you think about the pleasure you’ve been getting from killing?” Sara asks while slipping into concerned older sister/psychiatrist mode.
“I…feel guilty I guess…I know that it’s terrible to gain so much pleasure from dealing destruction and agonizing death, but when I’m in the act itself, I just don’t care…” I explain.
“Does Airi’s in
fluence have anything to do with this?” Sara inquires.
“I’m not sure…” I answer without explaining that I’m positive it isn’t just Airi based on my reaction from last night. “The girls are waiting for me so I need to go.”
“Alright Cole, just know that I’m always here if you need to talk.” Sara says with a warm smile as I exit her room. I go to my room to get changed, head downstairs, and find Tia and Cheza waiting.
“Alright, let’s get started.” I say.
“Before we start, I want you to give Chezarei more of your blood.” Tia says.
“No! I’m not draining Cheza again!” I shout.
“Don’t worry Cole; we came up with a better way than yesterday. I just sit with both my wrists open and you replace my blood in one wrist as it is drained from the other.” Cheza says.
“Alright, but I’m only doing half a liter today, just in case.” I tell them.
Cheza and I go over by the bucket and I transfer half a liter over.
(Chezarei now has 2.5 Liters of your blood, which now exceeds the amount of her own by 0.1 Liters)
“Hey Tia, I don’t think I should transfer over anymore blood. I am over half of what’s in Cheza.” I shout from across the room.
“Don’t worry Cole, this is easy to fix. Just pull it out a little bit and then push it back in. You should be able to fit more of yourself inside her this time!” Tia says while barely holding it together long enough to finish the joke before she laughs. “I was torn between that and saying ‘whose is the other half?’”
“Hey Cheza, try sealing your wrists,” I say while ignoring Tia.
“All you have to do is envision your wrists sealing and my blood should do it automatically.” She tries and it works.
“Just remember that in case there is a time that my blood doesn’t automatically stop blood from flowing from your body.” I tell her.
Stop blood from flowing…“Hey Tia, have there ever been any female Shorn Ones?”
“No there haven’t, and no it shouldn’t affect that Cole, don’t worry.” Tia says while reading my face. Thankfully, Cheza doesn’t seem to get it.
“Okay, we should get started already!” I say.
“Actually Cole, you are going to sit out today. Chezarei is going to use the two Sic blades and I will use the kukri blades.” Tia says. I shrug and go sit on the benches to watch Tia’s lesson. “We are going to focus mainly in defense so just try to block my attacks as they come.”
The lesson is slow going for the first hour and then I get a brilliant idea: I wonder if the images I can send Cheza will work with muscle memory. I establish our link and send Cheza an image of the counter for the cross slash that Tia is moving in for. Cheza responds by fluidly blocking with the left Sic blade before following up with the right. She is moving at speeds above normal for her fastest pace, and closer to mine. Tia wasn’t expecting this so she ends up taking a slash to her right wrist.
Tia gets excited, kicks things up a notch, and slashes Cheza back.
“Don’t Cole! It’s shallow and it won’t leave a scar or anything so let me continue.” Cheza says through the connection. I still want to stop it but I don’t; I send Cheza images instead.
Cheza gives Tia four more hits but takes three to her person. I can’t take this anymore.
“Airi! Is there any way for you to transfer her pain to me through the link?”
(It can be done but it is ill-advised)
“Will it block her pain?”
(Yes, but it will transf—
“Do it.”
I keep sending images to Cheza while taking her pain; it’s almost as if I’m fighting for her, which is just the way I like it. Her body takes on four more hits while dealing seven to Tia, but Tia is careful to make all the blows shallow. I take the pain for Cheza, but it stings a bit more than it would if I were the one being cut.
I stop sending images and see if any of it has transferred into her memory. Cheza continues fighting and her scratches are healing almost instantly, even faster than mine normally can. She continues fighting and I finally see the right position to send her a finishing move. Cheza creates some distance between herself and Tia, forcing Tia to chase her. Cheza suddenly changes momentum, charges at Tia, and slides through Tia’s legs while hooking Tia’s ankles with her arms. Tia falls on her face as Cheza flips herself backward, over her head, and turns around. She lands on Tia’s back while driving a blade into the mat on each side of Tia’s neck.
“Haha! Nice finisher, Cheza!” Tia exclaims while laughing into the mat. “What have you been teaching to her Cole?”
“Well, I guess you could call it teaching. Throughout the match, I was sending her images of moves that I’ve learned or thought of.” Tia looks over at me and her eyes go wide.
“I stopped about halfway through to see if she was learning anything from it and she kept on fighting. The finisher was an image I sent her though. It was an idea I had from when I fought one of Illapa’s vampires, in which I slid to clip off his knee.” I explain. Cheza looks over at me.
“COLE! WHAT DID YOU DO!?” Cheza screams as she jumps to her feet.
“What? You knew I was sending you images.” I say, puzzled.
“COLE! YOU’RE BLEEDING!” Tia screams while rolling over and sitting up. I look at the blood dripping from each of the dozen cuts on my body.
“What the hell are you guys doing!?” I shout at my blood, which instantly stops, shivers, and then goes back into the cuts and closes the door. It’s like my blood was a pet dog getting yelled at for piddling on the carpet.
“Cole, why were you bleeding!?” Cheza asks. I look at her immaculate arms and everything clicks: What Airi was trying to say is that the slashes would transfer to me. I don’t know how they did that, but they did. I can’t let Cheza know about this.
“I’ve started cutting myself to escape the pain of living. I’m going to go upstairs to my room to listen to Emo Rock now.” I say while standing up.
(That won’t work)
“I mean, I’ve turned into a hardcore masochist that gets extreme pleasure from pain. Please excuse me while I go upstairs to change my semen covered pants.” I say while walking towards the door.
(No, that won’t work because she already knows)
“DAMNIT AIRI! TELL ME THAT FIRST NEXT TIME!” I shout out loud.
“Cole! Why!?” Cheza asks with tears in her eyes.
“Because I couldn’t stand feeling you in pain…” I say, knowing that it’s completely hypocritical.
“You’re always taking the blows for me! Do you have any idea how it makes me feel!? How I feel every time you get shot or stabbed or beaten!? Watching you nearly get beaten to death by Illapa while I sat there, unable to do anything to help, was one of the most painful experiences of my life!” Cheza cries. I walk over to her and gently hold her.
“Cheza, I’m sorry; I’m just not strong enough to cope with you being in pain…I’m sorry that I force you to bear that burden every time but, something tells me that if anything were to happen to you…I would cause something much worse.” I whisper, thinking back to Tia’s story about the Aztec blood warrior that made himself explode and took a city with him. I also think back to when I felt Cheza’s heart stop and the reaction my body took.
“I understand your concern Cole. It seems that I also made you go through something painful with Illapa…” Cheza says while slightly muffled from my shirt.
“Not to interrupt, but Cole? How did you do that? Chezarei’s cuts were healing at an incredibly fast rate for somebody who isn’t a god.” Tia asks.
“I’m not entirely sure. I asked Airi if there was any way to transfer Cheza’s pain to me, she said it was ill-advised, then I asked her if it would take away Cheza’s pain, she said ‘yes but—’. I interrupted her and started feeling the pain of where Cheza was getting cut. When I opened my eyes, I saw that her cuts were healing rapidly.” I recapitulate.
“I think that when Airi transferred the pain
, she also transferred my healing ability to Cheza and it sort of stacked on with hers.” I theorize.
“Chezarei, let’s go one more time. I want to see how much she can do on her own so Cole, no link.” Tia says.
They start up again and Cheza has retained the majority of her fighting skill, but she is only at about three quarters of my speed or Tia’s.
“Okay, that’s good enough. I think you can competently defend yourself against anything besides a god so tomorrow we will move on to trying to use your power. Chezarei, go see if you can help Sara with dinner; it might be a good idea for you to learn to cook for Cole! Cole, show me the silencer.” Tia says.
Cheza and I both head up the stairs, but we split off at the top: Cheza to her room, and me to Sara’s to fetch my gun and the silencer. Cheza passes me in the kitchen with a smile as I head for the stairs. I go down the stairs while screwing the silencer on. I find Tia in the gun range.
“Here it is.” I say.
“Good, but that isn’t really why I called you here.” Tia replies.
“Why go through all this? Does it have something to do with Cheza?” I ask.
“Yes. So far, the only time she has used her icy powers is when she was in a Drive state, one which was activated by you getting shot in the neck.” Tia says.
I am really not liking where this is headed.
“Tomorrow, when we come down for training, I want you to keep your side to me at all times. I’ll have Chezarei explain how she entered the Drive state, and then I’m going to take this knife and throw it into your neck. The reason I’m telling you this is because if you even flinch, there’s a chance I will end up severing your spinal cord, thus killing you. How quickly can you regenerate a severed trachea?”
(About 6 minutes; during which, your blood will enter the type of stasis that occurs when you are critically injured)
“Airi says about six minutes. My blood will go into that strange hibernation mode like it did after I got shot on the plane.” I tell her.
I knew I wasn’t going to like this, but at least this way Cheza won’t have to get physically injured to use her powers.
“Good. This should be enough of a fatal feeling to force her into it. Just make sure you pull the knife from your throat before you pass out so it doesn’t become truly fatal.” Tia says.
Mania and the Executioner Page 10