Two mornings after, Aimee called for Mia & Marisa & Makoto, along with her two male squadron members of Atori & Dmitri, to meet her in her office. Atori was a man with no face and less personality; Dmitri a man with two heads, a large personality of some fame with male students and absolutely none with female students.
Mia had her head on Aimee's shoulder, occasionally kissing her on the cheek to preemptively answer any questions about her new relationship status. Over the next few weeks, many female students would approach her to congratulate the two, but few male students would; part of Urasaria's de facto gender segregation, passed down from the academy's historical origins where male students hunted female rogues, and now sustained by its own intensely lesbian culture.
"I got a request a few days ago from the city. They're asking us to clear out a waterborne host in the sewer." said Aimee. "Something's been clogging it lately. Last time they sent maintenance workers down for it, only thing that came back up were their bodies."
"Another instance of civilians seeing something that's obviously a host and not calling Urasaria." said Mia. This was not entirely untrue; she had learned sitting with Aimee during presidential duties that the time from a host appearing to a host actually being reported generally took six months, depending on the ego of the local police.
"Already got a feeling who it is, but just to check, I sent Matoi and Samuel down there this morning." said Aimee. "Didn't find anyone. Guessing it's Rayaka waiting for Mia. Atori and Dmitri, I want you to stay back from us just in case there's ambushes, but otherwise, it'll be me, Mia, Marisa, Makoto. First thing, though."
Aimee handed Mia something: a spare student tablet, typically only given to second-years. It was a bulky device that relied on the protection of a host aura to not shatter in fights, and offered several features; encrypted messaging of other students, receipt and response to Revenant calls, location tracking and sharing, and scanning of Revenants to determine ability. "Can't keep this one, but I want it on you for the fight. Just in case. And... Makoto, demonstrate Symphony for her."
"Yeah-yeah, whatever." Why Makoto took any order as an act of war upon herself, one wonders. "Symphony: Forte." A trumpet appeared in her hands and she blared it, blasting a small hole in the wall. "Obviously, that can be much bigger. Symphony: Hymn." A harp appeared in her hands; she played and the wall repaired itself. "Word of advice: if I ever repair something and it does shit it shouldn't actually do, don't tell me. I'm still pissed at Atori for telling me cars don't actually explode when shot."
"Hymn works by repairing the object to what Makoto genuinely believes it was supposed to have been." offered Aimee. "One benefit to her incredibly low intelligence and general gullibility."
"Someone who believes in God is calling me gullible, by the way. Symphony: Major." Cymbals appeared in her hands, their form shimmering in & out of existence. "...can't do it yet. Anyway, Symphony absorbs sound. Major and Minor spends it to make shit look bigger or smaller."
"You can't prepare it pre-fight?" said Mia.
"It's a Symbiosis, you can't prep it pre-fight."
Mia frowned - that was one Urasaria term she surprisingly did not know.
She traveled with Aimee and Marisa and Makoto down to an older set of maintenance tunnels; a more spacious sewer system than most, still flanked by concrete walkways with a river of sewage running between & below, a system of pipes running overhead. Marisa had gradually unspooled a flaming string of Boudoir behind themselves to keep their sight lit, and occasionally she shot a rope from one walkway to the other ten feet away, though leaping from one to the other was of no difficulty to a host regardless.
They continued deeper within for a few minutes more,
until in the next instant Aimee's tendrils shot into Mia's veins and the world slowed as if a disturbed pond; she turned to see Mizuchi's enormous maw breaching from the water below and shooting towards her, but she shot left and it slammed into the wall beside, crashing rubble in its wake as the world resumed its pace. The serpent has taken upon the full size that its vast liquid foundation allowed; its head rising again, it leered to Mia and swept down upon her, but a set of Boudoir strands shot around its fangs and yanked it away, until a flood of acid rushed from the roof of its mouth and corroded its reins away.
Centered in the midst of the four women, the serpent swayed, turning to Mia & Makoto & Aimee and hocking an enormous globe of acid at Mia, but the next scene was instant.
Makoto's hand swept down and Rider's tendrils burrowed into her veins; a blare of her trumpet blasted a chunk of rubble out of the ceiling that fell into the advancing spew of acid and absorbed its corrosion, a cradle of Rider's tendrils slowing its decay; Mia rushed and leapt over the river to the walkway to the other side, turning to see Aimee & Makoto dodge what acid was left but now separated from her.
Mizuchi swayed upright in the middle of the four, its tail extending for miles in the river below; Marisa was at Mia's across-left and Aimee & Makoto directly across from her. Its sight swept to Mia as it rushed at her again - but a swarm of ice scarabs froze its watery base solid and halted it like a leashed dog; thrashing against its sudden restraints, Mia saw a familiar strand of black hair bobbing within the water below, and as Mizuchi broke apart its collar of ice, it shot for her again; she swept right and hit the spot of Rayaka's hair with a cut of fire that forced a geyser of steam out from the river and a pained "FUCK!" from Rayaka's lips, and Mizuchi's maw crashed drunkenly into the wall beside as his flaming head rose from the drink; before his mouth could move again, a blast from Makoto's trumpet blew a bloody chunk out of his skull and a barrage of Boudoir bullets sliced his left shoulder in half; Mizuchi swept rapidly back and swallowed him whole, then retreated into the water and withdrew from sight entirely, if not in presence.
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"You okay, Mia-Mia?!" shouted Marisa from her across-left.
"Yes!" shouted Mia as Aimee & Makoto jumped across to join her.
There was no sound nor sight of their foe, but for the unnatural movements of water below. Strands of water and condensation dripped all around, but Mia suspected, childish and incompetent as Rayaka was, that the fact Mizuchi became bigger in larger pools of water was reason enough for him to always chase that size; he saw none of the obvious benefit in Mizuchi's serpentine maw emerging from a swooping droplet nor shaken drip.
"Mia, hey, um, I need you to be careful with your fire, alright?" muttered Aimee in a tone so convincing Mia almost believed her. "Sewers and methane. Not a good combination."
Before Mia spoke up, Makoto said: "I get you're trying to do a Hymn trick here, dude, but the shit didn't explode the first time when she lit it up. Sewers don't do fireball shit like in the movies."
"No shit, you fucking moron." said Aimee; for the next few sentences she was no longer Mia's sweet babygirl butch cinnamon bear, but thankfully, only for a few. "You gave the gas room to escape when you blasted half the ceiling apart back there. It wasn't as concentrated then. Now it is. I don't know how you're a third-year who doesn't know basic fucking gas pressure laws. Dumb fucking ape."
"And who dismisses basic chemistry as 'movie bullshit'." muttered Mia, smirking a bit. "I'll be more careful."
Liquid began rushing through the pipes overhead, and several holes opened within the pipes and spewed acid below; ice scarabs clogged the drains with their freezing bodies, but inch by inch, the pressure of the acid forced the frozen layers further & further down, hundreds into thousands of scarabs chattering as Mia attempted to plug every leak she could forming all above them. Grunting with exertion, she wiped her face with a flaming hand; bits of ice and melted water spewed randomly about as more ice scarabs flew to reinforce their damming brethren, Aimee's tendrils offering what they could into her veins.
The river bubbled once more below, and in the next instant, Mizuchi emerged shooting towards Mia - a set of thick rainbow strands siot around its neck and slammed its maw upward into the ceiling, then slammed it down into the river; blood and rubble shot out from it as it rose again, thrashing and flailing in Marisa's tightening grip. It slammed itself against the left wall, then the right, then the left again; Marisa gripped her reins once more, and as she pulled it up again, it broke free from her reins and slammed its head into the frozen pipes above Mia's head, shattering them and releasing their acidic contents to fall directly upon her -
- but a swift set of rainbow strands yanked Mia to Marisa; Rider's tendrils went taut and Aimee & Makoto were there a moment later.
Makoto fingered at her trumpet as if she were tuning it; likely the only action her fingers had gotten in a very long time. "Thank god this Revenant didn't go to someone who actually plays music, because otherwise they'd be making puns and shit and it would be super fucking ga-"
"Focus." groaned Mia.
Mizuchi was recovering ahead as Makoto's trumpet continued to blare, blasting pieces of skin out from its flesh; the enraged beast thrashed again towards them, slamming itself wildly about and shattering & slamming more pipes, more acid spewing from its maw wildly in all directions and beginning to splash upon the four gathered -
" - Makoto, Hymn!" shouted Aimee; at her side, Marisa swept her hands out and a tornado of strands surrounded the four, protecting them from the rains of acid as it could - yet as more continued to come, more acid began corroding away her protective strands; the four backed rapidly away as more & more pipes overhead dumped more acid upon them, a rainbow umbrella overhead attempting protection as the tunnel itself began to collapse: "-Hymn?!"
" - heard you the first time, shit-fuck-I-hate-" Makoto's harp formed and she strummed rapidly, chunks of concrete forming to repair the tunnel before it could collapse fully; overhead, another series of pipes burst open into a waterfall of acid dropping onto the four -
"Marisa, pull your strands back!" shouted Mia with a wince, and the next scene was instant.
Boudoir's strands retreated back into Marisa and a dome of ice formed over the four; a dome of flame melted the inner layer of her ice into a sphere of steam, and again she formed a globe and vaporized it; again she formed a globe and vaporized it, and again and again and again until the air was so thick with steam she could no longer see ahead of herself, and as she melted all encasing layers of ice away, a wave of hyperpressurized steam shot out that blasted every drop of acidic liquid outward & away from themselves and scorched a layer off Mizuchi's skin ahead; it staggered back within the river, flinching with burns forming all over its body-
"METHANE! HYMN! I'M ASKING FOR THE FUCKING METHANE! WILL YOU JUST FUCKING RETURN IT ALREADY?!" shouted Aimee into Makoto's ear, gripping her wrist and forcing Rider's tendrils deep into her veins; Makoto gasped out and played a melody on her harp that Mia knew would imbue the sewer with as much methane as Makoto believed it to have originally had; Mia sent out a cloud of fire scarabs and when they exploded it sent an inferno down the tunnel that consumed every last drop of water in the area, a hellacious pillar flying down the corridor that did not return sight to her for a few seconds, until it eventually cleared and there was Rayaka laying heavily burnt in a dried river, until all sound disappeared from the area; all but Mia thought it was another trick of Makoto's until Mia was standing alone in the middle of an empty street inside of the exhalation of "FTL" that seemed without a source.
She looked rapidly about herself; she was within the middle of an urban street with husks of burnt buildings lining the avenue. She breathed for a few moments, firs and ice scarabs drawn as she ensured her tablet's location was turned on, catching a glance that suggested she was far from Urasaria as she felt the presence of multiple hosts nearby.
