Chapter 38: Pasithea
Mulling over her time last night with Yuruko, Serena felt embarrassed that Mia likely wouldn't allow them alone for the rest of the trip. She was beginning to feel an attraction to Yuruko: this was not something she enjoyed. She tried to suppress this feeling, worrying it would be too much like a man to think romantically too soon.
Still, it was consistent with how she felt around lesbian women. She would comb over her reactions & feelings, searching for anything that matched with the stereotypes of bisexual women she read online, hoping that enough self-suppression would dull the persistence with which she felt like an imposter of a woman. This was likely the deepest Serena analyzed anything: she had no other philosophy than life as a constant state of entertainment. That would later make her one of Urasaria's most creative students, and one with a fanbase devoted to her for much the same reason that draws readers to violent stories like this.
The six rested in Sky Creek the next day, a small town with no grocery stores but a gas station. It was the only building on its lot as Mia & Serena came past the tanks of petrol and inside. Shelves were left & right, counter was up ahead. They went down the aisle right to the products of dead cows & milked ones, needing to pick up beef, milk and a cooler.
"Um, do we need to buy milk?" said Serena. "I can probably do that."
"I want you to conserve your energy." muttered Mia, picking a jug off the shelf.
"I guess, but-"
- an explosion erupted at the other end of the store, blasting the wall open and scattering gore in its wake; the two shot up and turned, civilians fleeing down the aisles and out the front doors -
- and a second explosion blast the front door&civilians to bits; the two winced at the brutality again, but had no time to mourn. A woman stepped out of the rubble at the other end of the store, purple hair & laughing at the corpses.
"Pasithea - what an explosive Revenant!" she shouted, and in the next instant -
- a series of explosion erupted at her feet, shooting down the aisle with the speed of bombs at the two; the shockwaves threw them back and against the wall, and as another explosion singed their eyes -
" - Worldwide!"
- her gleaming white sword pierced through the wall and melted a fiery exit behind. With no time to waste, the women swept through and ran out to the lot beside, and as Serena's fog flew in to the hole behind -
" - conserve your fog." said Mia, and a wall of ice filled the hole -
- but was just as suddenly blast open by another explosion, shattering and scattering shards of ice around, and as one pierced Serena's throat -
- a fire scarab melted the ice to water, leaving her safe, if for the wound. Mia asked her if she was alright as they rushed out of the gas station; Serena winced nodding, and Mia ordered her to heal herself as a stream of black dog filled Serena's wound -
- with salt, and the woman screamed as of one in agony, clutching the wound ferociously - but they had no time to rest.
Ahead, their foe stepped out of the gas station, and a line of explosions behind blast what civilians were left.
"The range, the range..." nervously muttered Mia, stepping back over the asphalt, Serena at her side.
Another line of explosions tore through the ground, shooting again towards the two, and as they swept back&away -
- the explosions stopped only a dozen feet away. Mia nodded with satisfaction, her scarabs readying to fill the fissure below with water. "Maintain this range, and -"
"Aha - do you think that's really Pasithea's true range?" laughed the woman, whose name was Reciri, pulling a grenade from her back. "I think the secondary'll work just fine to reach your little protégé, there!" she shouted, and as she threw it forward -
- a line of explosions blast them back and away, the wind catching their hair as they flew, asphalt skidding their backs as they landed, foe rushing in pursuit.
"Let - let me heal that, c'mon -" winced Serena as the two stood, wounds carved clear through Mia's back -
"No - no." said Mia, ice scarabs chilling her wounds, a hundred feet separating them and their foe now - "Conserve your -"
" - come on! You're being -"
" - and the best part about Pasithea, Mia Schultz?" laughed Recetti, pulling another grenade from her back. "If one of -these- hits you - you're dead!"
She threw it again, and the missile homed in on Mia as if it were live -
" - Worldwide!"
- an ice scarab froze the explosive, and threw it back with insectile speed -
" - they're a much larger radius than you think, Mia Schultz! Your scarabs can't keep it frozen for long!"
- and as if by magic, the ice around the explosive melted. It flew back to Mia, sticking deep to her hair, and Receri laughed again -
" - three - two -"
" - Mia - breathe deep!" shouted Serena, and in the next instant -
- a stream of black fog filled Mia's nostrils; she breathed involuntarily deep, and unconsciousness claimed her.
++++++
When she awoke, Serena was standing over her, grinning at Reciri's corpse with a mouthful of scissors.
"Got the bitch." chimed Serena. "No worries."
Mia nodded, confused to find herself on the same spot. "What happened?"
"…um. So - super risky, but I was pretty sure, and you were gonna die if I didn't do that, if I was right. I filled your nostrils up with sleeping gas to make you unconscious - 'cuz I realized what her ability actually was."
"What was it?" said Mia, pressing to her feet.
"It's -- sorry. Gotta do this." Serena spread her hands and drew a rainbow. "Whaaaatever you imagine it to be. The ability is whatever you think it is - uh. I kinda guessed it when she said Pasithea, since that's the Greek god of hallucinations. Guess that's why she kept shouting stuff - but when you passed out, I figured it was really nothing."
"…thank you, Serena." muttered Mia, a little ashamed. "I'm sorry I didn't realize that."
Serena's eyes went down. "I- hey, it's cool. One of us did. Um, that's what matters, right?" She pat Mia's back, and the mentor felt like a consolation prize.
++++++
In their hotel room, Jeanne was texting Nuiko when she heard Aimee's tablet vibrate on the other bed. Thinking if it'd be too intrusive to check it, she was reaching over to it when she heard the bathroom door open, and quickly pulled her hand back. "Your tablet vibrated."
"You didn't check it?" said Aimee, picking it up.
"No, I thought it'd be rude."
Aimee smiled a little before reading what Mia had sent her. As she sat on her bed, her grip on her tablet seemed to thin, her fingers tensing. "…twenty dead civilians. Christ." She rubbed her eyes, setting her tablet aside. "…fuck."
Jeanne shrugged and kept texting Nuiko. "Uh, you don't have to fake it in front of me, you know. We're hosts."
A moment later, Aimee's posture reverted.
Jeanne continued. "I mean, you didn't know any of them. It might as well have been people starving in Africa or dying in, uh, Russia or something."
Aimee frowned. "You know I don't wanna say you're right."
Jeanne grinned. "I mean, most people would say they'd be angry or cry over it, but that's not true. They'd just act like you."
"I just don't even get what they're after." said Aimee. "I've never even seen hosts just - they're deliberately trying to kill as many civilians as possible with this shit."
"You think it's a group?"
"Maybe. God, you know, if I had one of them here, I'd..." She trailed off. "Wouldn't even matter if they talked."
"I guess, but you're just kinda torturing them for you at that point." said Jeanne. "I'm not saying it's selfish or anything, it's just that I don't think a person really matters unless you have some connection to them. I used to read articles about, uh, people who commit suicide and stuff like that. Everybody would say it was a tragedy, and then I'd see them on another post telling someone they're hideous."
"Sounds like people." muttered Aimee. "Dunno. Still, next town we go to - need to try to minimize this. Stay somewhere less crowded, I'll do all the shopping, something." She looked over and saw Jeanne's thumbs moving. "Still talking with Nuiko?"
"Yeah, I'm probably gonna call her later and check on Maria." said Jeanne, referring to her new protege. "But, you know, that's what I mean about connections. Nuiko bought me Mario Kart for my birthday, and it's not like I even like it that much, but she's been forcing me to play it with her."
"It's a good game."
"I was pretty surprised how much funner it was after a few months."
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