Kill the Sound
Act 2: Memories
Act 2: Memories
Otome infiltrated the dilapidated Takayama estate under the full moon's light, making her way past the shriveled gardens and barren fountains that surely would be a sight to behold had they been maintained properly. Not a single staff member was awake at this odd hour, and surely only a few if any were still present to hear her quiet footsteps as she made her way to the mansion itself. Once there she quickly ascended its exterior and onto the sloped rooftop itself before pressing on; her last client, Takayama Hinote, must have known something about this 'Zansatsu' that his cousin spoke about.
But before she could further her own progress, the buzzing of flies and the foul stench of rotting flesh alerted her to the presence of another intruder.
"Well, well, well," the much older man spoke as her hand hovered over her bloodthirsty blade's hilt. "I've been watching you, you bitch!"
Otome stifled a bored yawn as the ever popular jab was made, stunning the hostile long enough for her to retort.
"I should think by now you bastards would learn calling me 'bitch' doesn't stop me from running you through!"
The man cackled loudly as he sent a small swarm of flies to attack Otome, only for her to dispatch them with a few slashes of her sword.
"Now that's just mean!" he exclaimed. "We--the last of the Sentama clan--may be 'bastards', but we are all that stand between this world and a godlike demon who wants to make it his own!
"But I guess that you already knew that when you, to use your words, ran my cousin through?"
Realization dawned on Otome as she readied her blade and steadied her stance.
"Hold on!" she pleaded. "Just how many cousins did Shin have?"
The man's eyes narrowed as he scoffed at the girl's inquiry.
"You're a piece of shit, you know that?" he bluntly informed her. "You just won't be happy until every last Sentama is dead, will you?"
"No, I m--"
"You won't be content until that money hits your hands and you can live the rest of the apocalypse out in safety, is that it? Or are you working directly for those Makaibatsu fools in hopes that they'll just might save you from Zansatsu?"
"Just w--"
"In any case, you will die before you hurt anyone else!"
Otome's eyes widened as the man's flies overwhelmed her attempts to cut through them; the insects crawled into her open wounds and began draining the chakra and blood rapidly. Yet, before she lost consciousness, she heard the faint sound of someone familiar shouting nearby:
"Jesus Saito, Hizoku! Stop!"
The kunoichi stirred awake, instinctively checking her condition before taking note of her surroundings; the man who attacked her and Hinote were sitting at a nearby table. They looked at each other before Hinote nodded, signaling the other Sentama to make amends.
"Eh, sorry 'bout that, Otome," he confessed before scratching the dead skin off the back of his bald head. "Sometimes I can't help but assume the worst, especially when it concerns the end of the world."
Otome blinked as her eyes darted from her former assailant to her last client.
"Uh . . . no worries," she fibbed, grateful to just be alive. "Like I was trying to tell you before. . . . "
"Got that covered, already," the man with leprosy informed her as he he tilted his head towards his cousin. "Little Hinote here told me why he had you kill Shin."
"Yes, and, as you could tell, Hizoku has confirmed that the deed has been done," Hinote spoke. "All that remains is to find Zansatsu himself and purge him from this world once and for all!"
"Settle down, hotshot," Hizoku teased his cousin. "We need to find out what happened to that little worm first."
"I . . . may know where Zansatsu is . . . " Otome hesitated to reveal her hunch, but only for a moment. "I can sense the spirits of those I've slain writhing within my blade . . . including something that is just not human."
The other looked at each other before they turned towards the kunoichi.
"No doubt one of the Makaibatsu's earlier attempts to help Zansatsu," Hinote stated.
"No shit . . . " Hizoku said, stunned by the revelation. "Otome, you need to go to Sunagakure-no-Sato. One of our cousins is there, and she may know of a way to finally end this battle."
[WC: 754] [Potentially MFT]