The Six Guns - 24 Chapter Twenty Four

“I’ve heard about what happened from Rose” Mikoto says, still sitting up on her bed in the hospital room. “The doctors were already in here earlier too when I woke up”.

As Holly sat down in a chair next to them, she says “That’s good, then there won’t be too much to catch up on”.

Mikoto, crossing her arms, replies “Well- I mean… It was rather hard, understanding anything Rose was saying, and Satomi only added to the confusion with her sudden and extremely tight hugging…”.

“Sorry” Satomi says while lightly laughing and scratching the back of her head.

Mikoto tilts her head slightly to her right and thinks to herself before she asks “How long was I out anyways?”.

Holly, crossing her legs as she gets more comfortable in her chair, says “It’s now been about a week and a half”.

Mikoto’s eyes shoot wide open in disbelief and shock as Holly says “What? You wanted to know. Don’t tell me you’d ask a question you weren’t prepared to hear the answer for…”.

Zia jumps into the conversation by saying “The important part is that we’re all still alive. Also, what are we going to do from here?”.

“I’d like to know as well” Siran adds. “Sure the hard part is over, but there’s still more to do. I can come up with a plan, if you can think of anything we would need to do-“.

“Actually” Satomi interrupts, “I was thinking. Your help was more than vital, and we’re more than convinced that you’re not just international criminals, but more like miracle workers”.

Giving off a short laugh, Alex then retorts “That’s the worst explanation of us that I’ve ever heard. I think international criminals fits us better, actually”.

“Anyways” Satomi continues, “I’m thinking the most productive thing we can do as a team right now is go our separate ways”.

Everyone in the room nearly jumps in surprise at Satomi’s proposal as Rose asks “Wait, why?”.

Crossing her arms and thinking to herself, Satomi replies “You’ve already done more than your part. I mean, you guys didn’t even have to help Japan to begin with but you did anyways. That’s more than enough. The people here have all already discovered who you are and you’re all over the news, so it’s only a matter of time before The Ly’Lum try to retaliate against you. On the other hand, you’ve also convinced the whole nation that you’re on our side. So it’s more than likely that our nation will not only continue to fight for themselves, but they’ll also fight for you”.

“And why does this mean we need to part ways?” Finn asks. “You know you can come with us, right?”.

“Someone has to stay and fight” Satomi says. “They’ll want The Six Guns here to help them in this national crisis, so who better to help than The Six Guns themselves?”. As Satomi says this, she holds up the card Siran gave her. “We’re still members of The Six Guns, you know, and this is our home. But this doesn’t have to be goodbye for good”. Satomi hands a business card from the hospital with her phone number written on the back, over to Siran and says “If you ever need us, just give us a shout and we’ll be there”.

Rose starts crying softly as she reaches to try to hug Satomi and Mikoto, completely missing with her reach, saying “You better promise that we’ll see each other again soon!”.

Satomi and Mikoto both lean in to hug Rose back as Rose continues to talk “Thanks again for the new clothes. I’ll never forget you guys!”.

Mikoto, patting Rose on the back, says “Come on now, you don’t have to be so worried, of course we’ll see each other again! Besides, you’re in a worse condition than we are!”.

After Rose finally stops crying and hugging, Satomi looks up at Siran and says “Remember, you’ve still got to teach us more magic some time”.

After a long goodbye, Siran, Alex, Zia, Finn, Rose and Holly all leave the hospital. Satomi stayed in the hospital room with Mikoto, who wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital for the next couple days, as she still needs to recover. Rose was given a white walking cane to use to guide her as she walks, as she had to return the hospital’s wheelchair. Finn and Holly were trying to help guide her out of the hospital. As they make their way down the steps outside of the front of the building, Finn kept cracking jokes to try to cheer Rose up. “LOOK at the bright side” Finn says, “it could’ve been worse”.

“Please stop it” Rose responds.

“At least you still have your LOOKS” Finn jokes.

“UUUGH!” Rose grunts.

“It doesn’t LOOK too bad-” Finn jokes.

Rose interrupts Finn’s next joke by hitting him swiftly on the ankles with her cane. Finn grunts in pain, then looks up and says “Just trying to lighten the mood”.

Holly, not bothering to turn towards Finn, responds “It’s obviously not working”.

The team slowly arrives at the airport near Shibuya, and gets back on a plane heading back towards Balphor. From Balphor, they were to walk back to Seeira. As they sit on the plane, they discuss several things.

“Is anyone else alarmed that Zia learns magic way too fast?” Finn asks. “I mean, she barely even practices any illusion magic but she is already able to use Shadow Step in combat!”.

Alex, trying his best to relax but failing because of Finn’s complaining, responds “No one else is as bothered by it as you are, I can assure you”.

“Yeah” Siran says, “it’s not surprising to me at all”.

Confused, Zia simply replies “I’ve always just been good with learning magic. Besides, once you know enough about illusion magic, the Shadow Step spell isn’t THAT hard”.

“That just sounds like boasting” Alex argues. “It takes me a long time to learn simple elemental magic”.

“Really?” Zia asks, “sometimes all I need is to see a spell to learn it”.

Crossing his arms in a pouting manner, Finn says “That’s because you’re just strange. You and Siran both… speaking of strange, what the hell kind of magic were you and Satomi using during that fight with Amelia? I’ve never seen that before”.

Raising an eyebrow in disbelief, Siran asks “Really? You’ve never heard of Armament magic?”.

The entire team, Zia included, all shook their heads. Siran lets out a sigh and says “I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t learn about it before you got a boost in magic. Armament magic usually uses most of your magic to use and is pretty reckless. You don’t focus the magic into a spell or effect, you simply pour your magic into an object. It’s similar to digital magic in the sense that it forms magic into an actual mass. But instead of a solid mass, like a shield, it appears gaseous but has the same visual properties as light… or rather photon particles. The effect it gives off though, isn’t a source of energy, but rather it increases the energy of the object you put the power into. For instance, when we poured our magic into the bat, it increased its momentous force. Depending on how much magic you use, or how much you CAN use at one time, the force is multiplied by that amount. So it-“

“Neeeeerd” Finn shouts.

Siran sighs and says “Long story short, it makes the force of objects stronger. Like when we hit Amelia with the bat, we hit her with approximately the force of a semi-truck moving at about 130 kilometers per hour”.

The crew just stared at Siran in both amazement and disappointment. “Why would we not want to know about that kind of magic?” Finn asks.

Siran, giving off a long sigh of irritation, then says “Like I said. It’s reckless and the fact that Satomi learned it is worrying to say in the least. However, I guess learning it won’t be too bad, since Armament magic is a gateway of sorts to learning a secret art”.

“Secret art?” Rose asks.

“No one else knows about this but me” Siran says, “but you can alternate Endoindustria into a reactive state. It’s kinda an art I created and never thought to anyone”.

Holly, suddenly sitting up in extreme interest, asks “What do you mean by reactive state?”.

“I mean” Siran continues, “that the endo itself becomes reactive to a source of stimulus. The stimuli including other objects and your focus. You can focus the endo on one specific object to change its properties or focus the endo itself into a new object entirely. For example, you can make something like a sword out of pure Endoindustria, but to do it, you’d have to understand the anatomy of said object on a near molecular level. So it’d be pointless to try and teach some of you this type of magic”. As Siran finishes, he looks over at Finn.

“Well” Finn says, “I don’t understand the science behind it, but if I can, I’d still be interested in learning to make reactive endo”.

Siran crosses his arms and says “Guess I can try, but try not to hurt yourself”.

Holly then giggles and says “Do you mean he would hurt himself trying to use the magic, or from thinking too hard?”.

“HEY!” Finn pouts.

Zia gets more comfortable in her seat as she asks “So what are we doing next in Seeira?”.

“We need to find out if we can get any information on someone who might be able to fix Rose’s condition” Siran replies.

“And you’re hoping Vivi might know someone?” Holly asks. Siran just laughs a little and shrugs his shoulders. Holly lets out a sigh and says “I can’t tell if you’re a genius or an idiot anymore”.

After a long trip, the crew arrives at Balphor, makes their way to Seeira and asks Vivi if she may know anyone who can help Rose.

“First off” Vivi says as she’s visibly losing her temper, “hell no I don’t know anyone like that! And secondly, how the hell did you get yourselves into this mess!?”.

Siran raises one hand in the air and was prepared to answer Vivi’s question, but Vivi interrupted by saying “Actually, never mind, I don’t want to know”. Siran puts his hand back down in disappointment. “Why would you think I just know people who can cure the blind!?” Vivi continues, “Who the hell do you think I am!?”.

“Well I thought you were a good person” Siran replies, “but clearly I was wrong”.

Vivi grabs Siran by his left cheek and says “Take it back you little brat!”.

Siran slurs his words through his pinched cheek “Wou can’th hide flom duh twuth! (You can’t hide from the truth!)”.

After a little bit of arguing and fighting between Siran and Vivi, and the awkward silence from the rest of the crew, they all eventually went inside Vivi’s house. As Vivi sits down in her chair, she says “I think your best bet might be a cyberneticist”.

Sitting up on the couch, Alex asks “You know of any?”.

Vivi picks up a wrench, points it at Alex and says “You’re next”. Alex unenthusiastically puts his hands in the air in surrender as Vivi continues to say “No I don’t know of any. I do know that there are a few of them around the world, and that there’s a controversy about using cybernetic enhancements on humans, but if you’re willing, you can try to find one on your own. Chances are, The Ly’Lum might have one or at least know about one. That’s about all I can tell you”.

“That’s actually a lot of help” Siran says, “thanks. Guess you are a good person after all”.

“Look” Vivi says, now pointing the wrench at Siran, “I’ll kill you”.

Holly, with her laptop out and looking around on the internet, says “I’ve been looking around for information about a cyberneticist, but so far the only one that seems… mildly approachable is already an outlaw. The rest work under either The Ly’Lum or a military that is now under the control of The Ly’Lum. His name is Demetri Ivanov, exiled from Russia, outlawed for developing… explosives?”.

“Is that what you’d call approachable?” Finn asks. “Last time I checked, explosives were outlawed in an agreement between the leading nations because magic was more efficient and less of a pollutant”.

Still tapping away on her computer, Holly says “It seems like the only contact we could make without having to dig through a Ly’Lum base. I’m honestly tired of the raiding and want a break so I’d suggest we get some info on Demetri”.

“Any leads?” Alex asks.

“None” Holly replies. “It says he’s wanted but his last point of contact was actually in Omnia, near Pilloa… isn’t that where Zia is from?”.

Zia, suddenly seeming slightly alarmed, says “Yeah, that is”.

Vivi, now relaxing with a cup of coffee in her hand, says “Then I guess you just have to go there and find out who last spotted them, and figure out where he went. Unless you can find another way”.

Siran sits up in his chair and says “Seems like our safest bet. We can’t risk getting Rose into any major trouble while in this state, so we’ll get started on that tomorrow. For today, I’m going to sleep. Jet lag is still getting to me”.

“Make sure you shower before you sleep” Vivi says to Siran, “I don’t want your smell sticking to my couch and scaring away my customers”.

The next day, the crew leave Vivi’s house. Vivi stayed behind like usual, and the rest head out to Omnia again. They spent a long time walking and helping Rose get used to her walking cane. Eventually, Rose got the hang of using her cane to guide herself as she walks with the rest of the crew. Rose and Zia still wore the dresses they were given by the Ueda sisters, and the rest wore their usual clothing. Trying their best to not stick out enough to be reported by civilians, while also remaining just hidden enough to avoid running into soldiers on the way. As they approached a town called Pythol, a town northeast of Farnhardt where Alex is from, they walked alongside a road that was quiet and didn’t have many people driving past. The scene and quietness was a relaxing change for them. With so much going on lately, it made enjoying the little things in life that much more important for them. However, a familiar black car drove up from behind them and slowed down as it approached. When the car arrived to the side of the crew, the car came to a completely stop. The crew stopped walking in alarm. As they all stared, the window of the car slowly rolls down. A familiar face with a friendly smile was behind the wheel of the car, paired with a familiar voice asking “Don’t I know you guys?”.

Siran and Alex’s eyes shoot open in shock as Siran asks “T-Tanya!?”.
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