Thicker Than Blood (1)

Dumping mana into a barrier against the blast had been the right call.

An ability built for killing didn't disappoint: the explosion packed enough force to vaporize even a respectable mid-tier awakener. If I'd taken that hit unprotected, I'd already be on the other side.

I still couldn't swallow the full shock, so I went flying a few dozen meters. At least the snowfield made the landing easier than it might have been.

There was another problem, though.

"You're done for, aren't you? Ah... if you'd just die already, it wouldn't hurt so much."

"...Yeah. The fact you aren't dead already is the real surprise."

The hole in Ethylene's body was beyond anything I could do. It wasn't a simple puncture. Lilac's searing heat had spread through his entire system; recovery was impossible. Even if an S-Rank healer from Hero City showed up, his odds of surviving would be next to zero. He was only still hanging on thanks to that astonishing vitality of his.

He'd probably reinforced his own body through countless experiments. A Mana Incompatible who wanted to walk around in one piece wouldn't have had much choice.

"...Hey."

Ethylene opened his mouth, his face deathly pale. This was it. The end.

"Think you can run? I don't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠know how you know, but that kid's my little sister, and she's stronger than she looks..."

I couldn't give him a straight answer. I'd already burned through most of my mana, and my body wasn't answering me in more places than I cared to count. Whether I could even flee was an open question. At full strength, my odds against her were maybe fifty-fifty. In this condition, worse.

"Back then... I should've held on. I never thought that child could save me. I never even tried to. But somewhere, just a little, I was hoping..."

In his youth, a brilliant mind and a string of research breakthroughs had made him the world's darling — until the Federation's witch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hunt swallowed him whole. Branded a Mana Incompatible, he was condemned to a wretched life. The only reason he survived at all was that his younger sister, Lilac, became a Federation agent in exchange for his life. After that, he earned the nickname Mad Scientist and threw himself into research of every kind.

He sacrificed countless children to brew his drugs. He invented weapons that worked even on awakeners. All of it, they said, was to snatch his sister back from the Federation.

"Those filthy Federation bastards promised that if I just cooperated, they'd set my sister free. They never did. Not to the very end..."

Then, one day, the Corvo Family came for him. He was a hair's breadth from being abducted when a Federation government agent arrived and barely pulled him out of Corvo's grasp.

The problem was that the agent was the sister he'd been separated from. And when they were finally driven into a corner, both of them about to die, Lilac went over to the Corvo Family in his place.

"Ah, damn it... not enough blood in the brain? I can't keep my thoughts straight. I'll just get to the point."

What came after that, I didn't really know. Even this much had only surfaced in his memories a moment ago.

"One favor. Let's say I saved your sister too. I know it's a lot to ask."

I'd never expected to get tangled up with either of them. In the original, both of them were already corpses — they barely even appeared.

"What kind of favor."

"Save my sister... I know I have no right to say this, but that kid. I just want her, of all people, to live happily..."

Ethylene took my hand, tears running down his face. From that cold, lifeless grip, his feelings bled through. They were feelings I knew too well.

Guilt. Regret. Unfinished longing. All of it aimed at his little sister, Lilac.

Guilt that he couldn't save his only sister with his own hands. Regret that he hadn't been able to save her. The lingering ache of never getting to see her again, even at the very end.

...Fair enough.

The Corvo Family's brainwashing remade a person so completely that even family couldn't recognize them. Undoing it was next to impossible. In the original, their conditioning was almost never fully broken. Genius scientist or not, he never would have been able to save her.

"So please... I'm begging you. Set that child free. Set my sister free..."

His hand slipped from mine. He didn't even have the strength left to hold on. Ethylene said nothing more, and the last flicker of life that had lingered in his eyes went out.

"..."

I had nothing particular to say. However wretched his life had been, it was still a story that didn't quite reach me.

I propped Ethylene against a tree and closed his eyes so he could sleep in peace.

"...What a cheap ability."

Then I rose slowly and looked back.

Lilac was standing there. Even an A-Rank awakener shouldn't have walked away from a direct hit like that, and she hadn't had the window I did to wrap herself in mana. And yet she was almost unharmed.

"You used teleportation in that split second to dodge the direct hit? Unbelievable."

"Has the doctor died?"

"Yeah. Just now."

"Then you must be in possession of the medicine."

Not that she'd come through untouched. Proof she hadn't perfectly countered it: her left leg was shredded from the blast. Small mercies. Still, watching her stroll toward me like that — did their brainwashing even strip out the ability to feel pain?

"That medicine belongs to the Corvo Family. I would ask that you hand it over without resistance."

"And after I hand it over nice and quiet?"

"You will come with me. I was ordered to capture combat-type awakeners alive whenever possible."

"Haa. That bastard really is something. He turned a person into a machine that only follows orders."

It was almost impressive. In Ethylene's memories, Lilac had loved her older brother more than anything — had even carried a long, quiet affection for him. And this was what their brainwashing had made of her. At first she'd seemed shaken that she'd attacked Ethylene at all. Now she showed nothing. She thought of nothing but their orders. That was how you ran a mission efficiently. That was how you didn't hesitate, even in a situation like the one just now.

"Forget it. Your family drama isn't my problem. Tearful farewells, whatever — none of my business."

Thud.

An empty medicine vial dropped into the snow. The explosion hadn't done much real damage, but it had bought me enough time.

"But I owe a debt, so I can't just walk away. I was trying not to use this because of the aftereffects, but I don't have a choice."

My odds still weren't great, and the aftermath that would come later was enough to make me flinch — but I had to use it anyway. She was never going to let me leave in one piece, and to face an A-Rank awakener, I needed to be A-Rank myself.

"...Your hair color is changing?"

"This is my real hair color. I keep it suppressed most of the time because it stands out too much."

My body had already been loosened up by the fights before this. And the drug was starting to kick in.

Auditory hallucinations, and a faint headache.

"Huh. About a hundred of them? You've killed more people than I thought."

The aftereffects were already starting, but that was fine. I'd been counting on it.

"...Still fewer than me, though."

KWAANG—!

Lilac's arrow came with no warning at all. The force was deranged — it punched a small crater into the ground. At least it hadn't reached where Ethylene was lying.

"...?!"

"Oh? I thought you couldn't think about anything except orders. So you can still be surprised."

I hadn't taken a scratch, either.

"How—"

But when I dodged the arrow and went after her, she slipped away with a casual teleport. Maybe because the drug had only just taken hold — the ability still wasn't fully online. I hadn't used it in so long I wasn't even used to it yet. Then again, that teleport of hers was just broken.

"Why so shocked? I just started using my ability for real, same as you."

"Kh...!"

The bombardment kept coming. A swarm of arrows bloomed behind Lilac and screamed out faster than bullets.

I could dodge them. No matter how fast the arrows were — even at 99.9 percent accuracy — a person still had to fire them.

Even the best marksman in the world had to aim to hit. And in aiming, they naturally thought about where they were pointing.

"How in the world...!"

Even if she predicted my movement and shot accordingly, I could read that prediction too, and slip it just as easily. Crimson arrows tore through every direction — north, south, east, west — and I jumped, going over them.

"At this point I could dodge with my eyes closed. I was already getting used to your trajectories anyway."

Thuk—!

"Ugh!"

With the moonlight at my back, I threw a dagger. She hadn't even considered that I'd attack from range; she didn't dodge, and the blade punched into her shoulder.

"So your body's not entirely a lump of iron."

When I'd kicked her in the jaw earlier, she'd felt harder than steel, but still. If an attack actually landed, it worked. If Lilac went all-out, dodging wouldn't save me — I'd die anyway — but she couldn't afford to dump that much power right now.

Her orders were probably to recover Ethylene and the medicine. Ethylene was already dead, and I had the medicine, so an attack of that magnitude would destroy the drug along with me. She couldn't disobey. She couldn't win, either.

"...!"

That didn't mean I could promise I'd win. The instant my feet touched the ground, crimson arrows filled my vision. I dropped my stance and they hissed over my head. Cold sweat pricked at my skin. A fraction late on the dodge and I was dead. Those arrows punched clean holes even through a sturdy awakener's body. I needed to stay sharp.

"...Just what are you."

Lilac stared me down, her eyes thick with venom.

"You were the one who infiltrated from the sky by train as well, I presume. And you evade my attacks so easily... An awakener of this caliber is not someone the Corvo Family would fail to know."

Of course they wouldn't. I'd worked hard enough to stay out of their sight. The awakener rank on my ID was listed around C, and I always used forged papers when I hunted bounties. On top of that, Van Helsing buried the information. Even the Corvo Family couldn't sniff out that I existed.

"If I answer, will you just let me go?"

"..."

"Kidding. Didn't expect you to. By now you've probably figured out my ability anyway."

A-Rank awakener Capella. In the original, Capella had served as a Corvo Family executioner and put down awakeners stronger than herself. That wasn't because Capella was strong. An awakener still ran into the ceiling of their rank. What could flip that gap was matchup — the unique ability each awakener carried.

"I'm not actually a combat-type. If you're asking which side I fall on, I'm firmly mental-type."

All of this had been thanks to that ability.

"I can read other people's thoughts. Even if you don't think them. Even if you can't think them. I can still read them."

Capella's ability was Mind-Reader. In ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other words, telepathy. And the range of that telepathy was absurdly broad. Even if the target had mental-type defenses, even if they had no consciousness at all, she could still read what the soul itself was thinking.

"...There is no way a mere ability of that sort could have made everything until now possible."

There were two major problems with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it, though. The first: she read thoughts whether she wanted to or not. You learned people's ugly natures whether you asked to or not.

"It's a shabby ability, I'll give you that. I'd take yours over this junk any day."

The second: it wasn't only people she could read.

"And the side effects dwarf any advantage. Right now it feels like someone's taking a hammer to my brain."

Ghosts' thoughts, for example.

Hard to believe ghosts were real? In a world with awakeners, the existence of ghosts wasn't exactly a stretch. And most spirits stubborn enough to linger in this world were evil ones, latched onto someone they had a grudge against. Even if that someone hadn't personally killed them.

Just reading an evil spirit's thoughts shaved pieces off your mind. Keep it up long enough and you stopped knowing who you were. That experience was as ugly as it got. There was a reason the original Capella ended up a drug addict.

"That's why if I don't keep the ability suppressed, I can't even sleep. I start wanting to kill people without meaning to."

I ran at Lilac. She loosed arrows to stop me, but once I already knew where she was aiming, it didn't mean much. Of course, if she opened the distance with a teleport, I'd just be burning stamina for nothing...

Shunk—!

"...That's impossible."

I was starting to read where she'd dodge, too.

"I don't know if someone who teleports gets to say that."

I threw a dagger at the spot she'd appear and buried it in her right thigh. Pain or no pain, running on both legs was going to be hard. Which meant that to evade my attacks, Lilac would have no choice but to lean on teleportation. Which meant I'd predict where she came out. And the cycle would just keep eating itself.

"Let's settle this already. That explosion's going to bring the Federation and the Corvo Family down on us any minute. We should finish before they get here, don't you think?"

"Kh."

I pulled a few more daggers.

"I stripped plenty of weapons off your subordinates."

Better to end it fast. I'd burned too much mana; if I dragged this out, I wouldn't be able to keep the ability under control. Once was enough of that. I had no interest in a second round.

"...Don't worry. I'm not going to kill her."

"I would advise you not to get cocky over landing a few hits."

Backed into a corner, was a little of her original personality leaking through? Maybe this was about to get easier.

"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to your brother."

"I have no such thing as family."

"You might want to skip the lines you'll regret later."

Five minutes. Time was short. I'd wrap this up in five.