Platinum Storm

by N X Hunter

  "Fuck, Soren, I'm so glad you're OK," she whispered, seeing no need to make any further loud noises now they had been united.

  "Kitsuna," he said softly, the relief he felt evident in his voice, "I've never been so pleased to see someone in my life... I know it's not very manly of me to say this to you, but I've been fucking terrified standing here! I have no idea what's going on. I mean, I guess this is a storm domain - well, obviously it is - and I seem to have transformed, or at least, my clothes have, and I've got this massive sword thing, and I feel somehow... better. But none of it is like it's supposed to be. I didn't have a color or a gem or a wand, I mean, what would you even call the color of this armor? It's like all the colors at once. I don't think I've turned into a mahou shoujo, or, a mahou... I don't know the Japanese for guy... I... I think I'm something different."

  "You're taking this pretty well, to be honest, already trying to analyze all that shit," Kitsuna said, chuckling wryly.

  But she knew that this was what Soren did. He tried to rationalize things and find ways to take things apart and see how they worked. He was a nerd, really, it was how he got himself to feel in control.

  His expression changed from relief, to a kind of serious sadness.

  "I feel like I failed you. I was always trying to explain stuff to you like I understood it, but I know now, all my research, all the stuff I imagined based on what Rayna told me, I didn't know anything at all. If I had... that time you were scared, when we were in the Volocopter... I wouldn't have tried to make you think everything would be alright because of me. I thought I knew how you'd feel and what you were going through, but I didn't know shit about this."

  "You wouldn't have tried to cheer me up?" she said, joking, trying to pull him out of whatever introspective hole he'd gone into.

  She didn't think he'd done anything wrong, all things considered. He'd done his best. And now, here, she was the one who needed to help him cope with strange changes neither of them really understood. She knew exactly why he'd wanted to be able to make her feel safe that day. She felt the same now.

  "I would, just, not by telling you you could rely on me... I was useless to you, I know that now," he said, looking down into her eyes.

  For a moment, there in a strange dimension where they were the only humans, where untold, unfathomable things were trying to breach their own universe, where a sea that nobody else would ever see raged beneath them and lightning tore through the alien sky, Kitsuna felt a power and certainty that she never had before. She closed her eyes, and slowly, deeply, kissed Soren.

  "I... wanted to do that for a while," she confessed.

  "Well, you picked a great moment. I won't ever forget that..." he replied, smiling tenderly at her.

  It might have seemed odd, if she'd later tried to explain it to somebody else. Why she'd felt she needed to do that then, to cement her bond with him, to dissipate all the sexual tension between them. But even where they were, with the challenge of somehow getting out of this place, with the monsters that were no doubt waiting just out of sight to engage them, it just felt like the most natural thing in the world to kiss him, to show him that she was here with him, that she wanted him, and she'd fight for him.

  Maybe that's why James chose a weird time to kiss me, too. Maybe whatever Soren has turned into needs love too.

  They smiled silently at each other for a few seconds, Soren stroking back Kitsuna's hair as the wind continued to ravage it.

  "So..." she said.

  "So."

  "We've got to find the core."

  "Yes. Yes we do."

  "Can you jump to other platforms? It's annoying that you don't have space to test out what your transformed body can do..."

  "I don't know. This armor is super light and somehow I feel more agile than I would in just sports clothes, normally, but I don't know if that means I won't still sink like a stone in the water if I fall in there. I tried jumping before you got here and I can go very high, but I don't know if I can reach another platform or not - I was just trying to summon up the bravery to try it when you appeared."

  "What about this sword? With our weapons, we feel like we can use them easily straight away, do you feel like that about this huge thing?" she asked, indicating the hulking sword, whose metal matched the oily color of his body armor, on the ground between their feet.

  "Yes. I can swing it around no problem, for the size of it, and I feel, yeah, kinda like it's an extension of myself, just like Rayna told me her ruby sword feels. I just put it down there to practice jumping, and because there was nothing to fight anyway."

  "So, we know you should be able to fight, but not your other physical limits, and we also don't know if you have the same healing factor mahou shoujo do. We're going to need to be quite conservative about keeping you safe, I think, with all these unknowns..."

  "Wait, about the healing factor - we can test it!"

  "No, I'm not going to hurt you just to find out if you heal..."

  "Well, that would be another way to do it, but actually, I already had a wound before we came in here, didn't I?"

  "The tattoo! Can you still feel it?" she asked, looking down at his armored leg.

  "No, I can't, but then, that could just mean I don't feel pain or irritation as much, not that it has healed. Can you maybe try and remove the armor on that part of my leg and look?"

  But it was impossible. There seemed to be no fastenings on any of the armor pieces, as if they had spawned on him as a perfect fit. Which of course, they had. There was no need for whatever supernatural equipment they had to have such practical details as a means of removal. She did notice while she was inspecting it though, that the armor was embossed all over with intricate designs that all appeared to be made up of a symbol she was sure she'd seen somewhere before, but couldn't place.

  "I guess we won't be able to tell until we get out of here. Shame, it rules out any potential for nudity in a storm domain," Soren said, his playful tone doing very little to mask how embarrassed he was that because they couldn't tell what his abilities were, he was going to have to be the one being protected.

  Kitsuna got it. How long he must have wished he could go into the storms and protect his sister, and now here he was, with another girl he cared about, and he couldn't really do much at all without inviting risk. She had a strategy now, but it wouldn't do much to make him feel better about that.

  "Well, then, I think as plans go, it is best if I jump over to the other platforms by myself since we know I can do it, and since you have a way to defend yourself here if something attacks. I also should be able to shoot the core from a distance once I know where it is, so I can destroy it from range even if it's a few platforms away or just under the surface. My weapon is better suited here than yours is."

  "OK, but what if you don't find the core? What if you check hundreds of these platforms and it's not on any of them? I won't be able to see you once you get a couple of platforms away in the mist, so I won't know if you've fallen in and need help or if you're under attack and it's better for me to try and reach you..."

  "That's a good point. OK, how about this..."

  She closed her eyes and willed her gun to return to its assault rifle form. She pointed it up into the sky, and fired out a burst of bullets for two seconds. Just like in its previous forms, the gun had unlimited bullets, and each one left a glowing pink trail behind it.

  It was a risk to fire it. She knew that the world they were in may see this as aggression, and begin its attack. But it was impossible for her to signal anything to Soren once she'd moved away from him without noise and light, and the platinum gun was the only thing she had, that she knew of at least, that fit the bill. Besides, the monsters in this domain had left her alone for so long now that it was becoming unsettling - she almost wanted them to attack so she could at least know what was here.

  Nothing seemed to change however, as the streaks of pink blossomed into the misty air, and Soren nodded his assent that this would work as a sig
nal.

  "I'll fire into the air for two seconds on each platform. I'll fire for four seconds when I've seen the core and am about to try and destroy it. If you hear or see me using the gun in any other way, it'll mean I've had to fight, but that shouldn't be the signal for you to try and reach me, I might be able to handle the monsters on my own like I could in the last domain, so that would be an unnecessary risk..."

  "Right, so maybe, do a really long, continuous burst of fire if you need help, but I'll also try and come if you don't shoot at all for over a minute? That would mean you ended up in the water, and couldn't shoot, so at that point it probably wouldn't matter if I can't jump across anyway, since I'd be going in after you either way."

  "OK, I guess that makes sense, although please be careful - I can heal, I can practically not die, so don't risk your life to save me."

  "It's not like that though, is it? If you can't die, but we can't get out either, you'll just be stuck healing and hurting over and over again for... well, until you lose your mind. I'll prioritize finding the core of course, just like Rayna would do, but I will not let that happen to you, no matter what risks I have to take or whether I can die here or not. I've spent my life trying to support mahou shoujo, and whatever I have to do here, I will support you with everything I have, I promise you that."

  He was right, but it terrified her to be reminded of it. That feeling in the first domain as despair had begun to kick in, and her mind had begun to come undone. She couldn't say anything brave that would turn down his promise to save her from that.

  "Thank you," she said, simply.

  He took her in his arms and kissed her gently once more, and it felt like a kiss for luck, a kiss for strength, definitely not a kiss goodbye.

  "I'll come back if I don't find the core once I've explored the platforms. We'll need a new plan, then."

  "Well, I'll work on that while I'm counting the seconds between your signals. Good luck. Hopefully next time we can see each other we'll be back at the Academy."

  She nodded, taking one last look at him in his beautiful armor under that stormy sky, and sprang away onto the next outcrop of black rock.

  Chapter 26

  A platform, a volley of gunfire. A platform, gunfire.

  She had continued like this for eighteen of the black, rocky platforms now, and Soren was far out of sight. She wished there was a way that he could signal back to her that he was still OK, but she just had to hope he was still there somewhere, looking out for her bullet trails. She'd headed out in a straight line from where they were, but after she'd jumped to eight more of the platforms without any sign of core or adversaries, she'd reached a point where there was only open water ahead of her, and so had switched to moving clockwise around what looked to be the perimeter of the area with the platforms. It was easier to keep her bearings than she would have expected, considering how little she could see and the fact the surroundings were so bizarre. Once more, she wondered at the instincts that her transformation seemed to have awakened in her, this time her own sense of direction and equilibrium being the source of her awe.

  At the eighteenth platform, she fired off her two-second signal, and was just about to push off to the nineteenth, when suddenly she heard a new sound. It was the sound of whale song, mournful and haunting, just as real whales sounded in the real world. There were several different sounds at once, or so it seemed, like a group of whales in a discordant, strange chorus. Squinting against the wind, she looked for the source of it, but could see only waves out in the open sea. Perhaps there were creatures breaching the surface, but it was impossible to tell.

  Are they the monsters here? Whale song is supposed to be a relaxing sound, but it's just creepy out here.

  She stood and listened for a moment, trying to place where the sound was coming from, but she couldn't. It was as if it was inside her head. She couldn't see anything out in the water that might be a whale either, but then, who was to say that whale sounds actually came from whale-like beasts, in this strange domain.

  The monsters we see are formed by the strongest emotion in the party... I suppose both Soren and I felt like being here unexpectedly, without Rayna or Courtney, without knowing what is going on, was overwhelming. Too big a task for us. A whale would, I suppose, be appropriate.

  She realized she'd been standing there, trying to see, hear and think, for what must have been close to a minute. She fired off another signal.

  It was then, however, that she felt the weight of something on her leg, and looked down to see that her platform was now covered in scuttling crabs, several of them already making their way up her boots. They were black, shiny things with disproportionately large claws, the pink light from Kitsuna's bullet trails reflecting off of them and making them appear almost metallic. Slightly grossed out by them, but not too afraid, given they were fairly small and appeared only to be able to pinch as an attack, she leapt up off of the platform and over to the next one, which shook off the creatures on her legs. Just as she landed though, a huge fish, the size of a great white shark, sprang out of the sea, its long mouth, packed with saw-like teeth, snapping at where she had just been. From here too, she could see that there were all kinds of other creatures crawling up the rocks to the platform she had just left, far bigger things than the black crabs, forming a moving, scuttling mass that completely covered the rock underneath. The whale song continued to sound.

  Is the sound of those whales or whatever they are what made the creatures start to attack? It didn't begin until I reached that last platform. Does that maybe mean I am getting closer to the core, and they're starting to defend? That's not how it ever worked before with Rayna, though, they just attacked me and ignored the core. But why did they leave me alone all this way, otherwise?

  She fired off another signal for Soren, and saw in the light of her gunfire that crabs were starting to make their way onto this platform too. She jumped again. This time she was wary that something might jump up and try and snatch her from the air, so she kept her finger on her trigger. Just as predicted, the big leaping fish - though whether it was the same one or one of its brothers she had no way to tell - tore out of the water, its nightmarish jaws snapping wildly. The platinum gun knew what to do, however, and as Kitsuna flew through the air, bullets ripped apart the creature's head, causing it to vanish into mist.

  She landed, barely even out of breath from the acrobatic jumping and gunning, and fired off her signal.

  If Soren heard me shooting then, though, he'll know I've engaged the creatures. I need to make sure I keep signaling so he doesn't leave his spot - these sea monsters aren't too bad, they just mean I have to keep moving. If their attack pattern is to climb to my platform then try and get me when I jump, I can't stay in one place for long and I need to cover myself when I make a new leap, but other than that it's not that dangerous. Kinda like those birds in the cathedral. Once I'd worked out how they were moving, they were easy to defeat. Perhaps the creatures from the Big Emptiness don't have much by way of strategy or cunning, and just keep coming in waves like low level video game enemies.

  It was a calming thought. One that certainly made it easier to jump to the next platform. As she reached the peak of her jump, she was sure, too, that she saw something out towards the center from the outer circle of platforms she had been traversing. A platform higher than all the others, and at the top of it, something big and swirling with a blue-white light.

  The core! It has to be!

  Relief swelled inside her. It wasn't far - perhaps she could reach it in three jumps. It looked high, perhaps too high to jump to, but she could surely shoot it when she was a little nearer. Then that would be it, she'd be back. And she'd have saved Soren.

  Just as she was thinking about this in mid air, the water beneath her erupted. She flipped effortlessly, pointing the gun down to shoot at what would surely be another shark monster. But as the head of the thing rose higher and higher, with a speed that seemed impossible for its size, she realized that t
he bullets from the platinum gun were doing nothing to stop it. The cavernous mouth of the thing was so vast that it almost took up the whole distance between her last platform and the one she was aiming for, and her bullets didn't even seem to register with the creature as they punctured its flesh ineffectually.

  It rose higher, its mouth now all around her, and as she screamed in terror, everything around her was suddenly darkness, and heat, and water.

  Chapter 27

  It was dark inside the whale. Not the pitch blackness she might have expected inside a real creature, but a murky gloom, red as the flesh that seemed to form the walls of the strange, cavern-like structure that Kitsuna was now standing up in. She was up to her ankles in some kind of fluid, which luckily her boots were protecting her from.

  How am I even standing up? Why isn't everything moving? The creature was jumping, and then presumably swimming, and yet this place is just rocking slightly, like being on a ship. Why is there light? Where is it coming from? And air?

  She knew the answers, in a sense. The monsters were not as they appeared. They were just constructs of her own imagination, or human imagination as a whole, in the face of alien things they couldn't understand. She had been swallowed by one of the creatures of the Big Emptiness, but its biology was not that of a true whale. It perhaps didn't even have biology as Kitsuna knew it. Perhaps what had appeared as a whale was really some kind of strange, traveling dimension all of its own, a domain within a domain. Perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps she really was being digested, and she just didn't know it yet. What she did know was that it was horrible in here - an almost unbearable tropical humidity making her feel wet all over, her hair sticking to her skin and her magical clothes weighed down by it. It was hot, and it stank of decay and acridity, plus the dark redness of everything made her eyes throb. What was absent though, was the cacophonous sound there had been outside. There was just a dull thumping, like a slow heartbeat. No waves, no thunder, no whale song.