Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Six: Trail Of Blood

I woke up on my back. I cut myself on the edges of both blades, which lay on my chest.

“What the fuck,” I said, touching the blood and moving my blades to the ground. They did not clink as I thought they would against a metal surface. I felt underneath, unable to see clearly, and there were my leather gloves and Shun’s Sachigloves. Just past these were Hinote’s endorphinguns. There were five gems, and next to these was a bag with powder in it. As I found my spinals and put them on, my left hand hit the smooth surface of another gem.

Someone had brought me all of our weapons and opened my door. And this gem was Ai’s summon Sachi, I knew it. I picked up my hand terminal and hit the button to activate its light. It glowed a faint blue, and I saw the black swirl of Ai’s Sachi gem. It was Caelziax, after all. Then, my light caught the trail of blood leading out of my cell. I looked behind me, but there was not enough space for someone to have killed and dragged a body out. It must have been dragged in and—as I looked closer—back out again.

I put all of the Sachi except one lightning gem into my suit, took a snort of the lightning Sachi powder, and then slowly crept out of the cell, knives at the ready. I kicked Hinote and Shun’s stuff into the hallway in case my door decided to shut while I was checking for guards. There was no one, at least in my direct line of vision. The elevator glowed faintly, allowing me to see at least the first six doors before my own. They all stood open. There was a dead guard up ahead.

“Ningyo?” Ai’s voice came from inside one of the cells.

I looked into the first cell to my right. A man sat there in a black cloak, and he twitched on the ground. I shone my terminal screen on him and saw that the number thirty-three was tattooed on his forehead. I continued on, and the next cell had a squinting Ai in it. She still wore the lab coat she got from the scientist. I hugged her, but not for long, stepping back out of the cell with her into the faint glow of the hallway. Hinote was out by the pile of stuff, and he raised his gun at me.

“Nin? What the fuck? My shit was just lyin’ here?”

“No. It was in my cell,” I said.

“What?”

“I don’t know. Where are the others?” I asked, jerking my head around, knowing that something had killed the guards and could still be down there with us.

“I am here,” said Rin in his baritone.

“I saw ’em put Shun in there,” Hinote said, pointing to cell number four. I walked over and saw that Shun was there, still in her maintenance jumper, sleeping.

“Shun. Shun!” She stirred. “SHUN!” I yelled it. She shot up and nearly kicked me in the face. “Cell door’s open,” I said, catching her foot.

Realization dawned on her face, and there was a flicker of anger in her eyes as they settled on me. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. Someone opened the doors and brought all our shit.”

“Probably whoever stabbed Stan,” she said.

I nodded my head. “Come on. Your gloves are out here.”

She followed me into the dark hallway and put her gloves on.

“I still have the scientist’s keycard. Let’s get the fuck out of here,” I said, heading to the elevator.

“Um, Nin?” Ai said. I turned to her. “I have to … go back up. To get it out. I have to try.”

“What?” I said, a bit cross. “Ai, we came here to save you. We promised your father—”

“I don’t care what you promised, and I didn’t ask for saving,” Ai said, matching my shitty tone. I backed down. It was true, she hadn’t asked. She looked away. “Sorry. I … Look, I don’t expect you guys to come. I think that the—the Dead God?—I think it’s alive, and I think it is in pain. I could … feel it. And they want to use it, this beautiful thing—”

“Looked fuckin’ ugly as shit to me,” Hinote said.

“You didn’t feel it, Hinote,” Ai said.

“I did,” I said, sighing. “Goddammit. What do we even do with something that big, Ai? I mean—”

“I know. That’s why I’d rather you guys just go. Don’t have a plan, just a … feeling. The kind that I can’t just walk away from.” Ai locked eyes with me as she said it, and it broke any resistance I had. I’d felt it, pulling me like twenty Ais, all telling me I needed them safe and had to keep them alive. After worrying about killing Morfran, training to do it, seeding myself into the Under-City crime world, killing for a living, and finally deciding to kill the ancient beasts in the drill towers, Ai, and now the Dead God, were the first things I’d felt I needed to nourish and care for … since Asahi. All else had been death. All of it.

I wasn’t cured of my need to avenge my son by any means, but I was cured, for the time, of my own need to die after.

“Alright. I’m coming with you.”

“Well, if it’s something Andalaf is gonna need more Sachi for, we got to. We are already here. Might as well finish what we started at the towers,” Hinote said, looking to each of us in turn with a challenge in his tone.

Shun did not speak but nodded her head curtly.

“I would like to help you as well,” said Rin. “I have no friends in the Meeks, and Nejirita will try to get me back. I’m afraid I’m quite vulnerable on my own.”

“I guess that settles it then. We will go upstairs and roll a quarter-mile-long giant right out the front doors. And then die,” I said, walking to the elevator, the trail of blood leading to it becoming more crimson as I got closer to the light. It was insane. Or, it would have been if I hadn’t felt the power of the Dead God. What Ai said had been true. She’d almost … opened it, and I believed to my core that no amount of Chudo could have stopped her then. She had the power to destroy the world with that giant by her side. I was the only thing that had stopped her before. I would have gone with her either way, but knowing this … it at least gave me some comfort.

I let the others pass me, entering the elevator before me, but I grabbed Hinote’s bicep and pulled him to the side.

“Hinote,” I whispered, getting close.

The man grunted.

“If we get that giant thing, and I try to …”

“Get naked and act crazy?”

“Yeah.”

“Mhm. What?”

“Stop me from touching it. Let Ai do … whatever it is she needs to. Otherwise, I don’t know if we stand a chance.”

He looked at me for a long moment.

“We ain’t stood a chance this whole damn time, but here we are. I got you.”

I glanced at the blood on the floor, thinking we’d had a lot of help standing a chance, but nodded and patted Hinote on his bulky shoulder before stepping onto the elevator platform.

The small panel was confusing to me—I was used to elevators that had many buttons with the floor number on them, but this was a green-glowing touch screen without any numbers, just a picture of the Andalaf Tower.

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“I am … familiar with this contraption,” Rin said. I noticed a scar on his left cheek and did not ask how it was he knew this. I wondered how long the cat-man had been there. The … Audur, as Nejirita had called him. He slid his red-furred hand up from the bottom, and as his hand went up the screen, ascending numbers appeared to the right until he came to the number ‘69’. As we moved upward, the elevator made a small whirring noise. On the way up, I took out two of the lightning Sachi gems in my suit and then handed them to Rin and Hinote. Then I took out Caelziax’s summon Sachi gem and offered it to Ai. She shook her head at me and smiled sadly.

“I think he will come for you if you call him,” Ai said. “He’s been around you enough now. I’ll need to conserve my energy. Only use him if you really have to, though, ok?”

I nodded my head. I agreed with her. If we needed healing, or if we needed her to do something with the Dead God, the intense fatigue of using summon Sachi would be extremely counterproductive.

The doors opened into the dimly lit room where the Dead God was. We all ran out of the elevator, our weapons at the ready. The tank was empty. The Dead God was gone.

“It’s… above us,” Ai said. We all looked up at the ceiling stupidly. “No. Above. I don’t know how many floors, but it’s there.”

“You know if this badge will get us up to Andalaf?” I said, looking at Rin.

“It should get you to at least the floor below,” Rin said. “If it can get you here, considering Andy Andalaf’s special interest in the 69th floor, I would assume.”

“He told us all about it,” I said.

“Yeah. Fuckin’ shithead,” Hinote said. “Didn’t cause enough damage on this fuckin’ planet, so gotta go take shit from a make-believe one.” He grunted a laugh.

I noticed a trail of blood leading from the doors of an elevator that was not on this floor currently.

“If I had to guess, that’s where this thing is. Do you think it … woke up? Ai?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I just know it’s up above.” There was a far-off look in her eyes, and her voice was airy, her attention elsewhere.

We got back onto the glass elevator. I noticed I couldn’t see the neighboring elevators once inside because a metal covering came over the elevator when it was in motion. Great. Wouldn’t be able to see if it passed us. I supposed that’s what Ai was for, though. She could sense where it was.

We got out to the top level where Andalaf’s office was. The blood had trailed through the reception area, and there were several guards lying dead on the red carpet, along with a few secretaries.

Shun saw it first, gasping. I walked around the large, white, half-square desk and approached Andy Andalaf’s corpse from behind. He sat in the same chair he was in before when he filled us in on his plans. His eyebrows were raised, though not with confidence now, but horror. His eyes bulged from his head, looking up at the ceiling. His mouth still held a soundless scream, and his face was purple. Out from the middle of his stomach, a long, curved Sachiblade stuck out, the handle up in the air.

“Morfran’s blade …” I said. I knew it was. He’s the only one who used a one-sided blade, the only one who could do it right. Why did he leave it? I thought. Why? Was he the one who released me? What is happening? Did I finally draw him out?

The familiar hum of endorphincopter blades sounded just outside the window walls of Andalaf’s office. It descended outside on the rooftop, then landed and cut the power to the receptors. The door opened, and the first to step out was a Chudo with a suit and blade, then a Jonny, and then … Robert Andalaf, the heir to the company. He had red hair and wore a suit like the Jonnys, a black jacket and pants, a white shirt underneath, and a black tie. The three walked around the rooftop to a pair of glass doors, and Robert used a keycard to get them inside.

“Well, things have changed significantly since I was here, oh”—Robert looked at a wristwatch—“twenty minutes ago. Morfran kept his word. Jonny. No, I don’t remember your actual name. Get your hand terminal out and take a video of this scene. Might need this footage later. Mainly the ex-Chudo standing next to my father with the sword sticking out of his chest.”

Keeping my eyes on the new arrivals, I said, “Hinote? Rin? Take Ai and get to the elevator when I say go. I’ll meet you downstairs. Shun? Watch my back.”

“You don’t think we’ll allow the Sallis-Faint—”

“No. I don’t think you will,” I said. I thought of Morfran being somewhere in the building still—especially if Robert was just here twenty minutes ago—and these three who would try to take Ai at any cost. I couldn’t afford the drain that Caelziax would put on me, not if Morfran was here and not in this fight. I remembered something Morfran did in situations like this. Even Chudo had a limited supply of summon Sachi; it’s more difficult to find it than healing Sachi, but Morfran had pretty steady access to the stuff, even though he was apt to destroy it. I didn’t want to do it to Caelziax, but I saw no other option.

I pulled out the swirling black ball of summon Sachi, dropped it to the ground, and as it fell, I dropped with it, disappearing from the view of the others behind the desk. I brought the butt of my knife down on top of the summoning gem twice, crushing off a few bits of it. I dropped my face down to the floor and snorted.

I coughed, and for a moment, it was hard to see, but then it kicked in, as fast as shooting the shit, faster than any Sachi I’d snorted before. I popped back up, flipping over the desk and heading straight for the Chudo soldier first. Everything moved faster, my muscles propelling me forward as if gravity were reacting to their will alone.

“GO!” I yelled, not even looking to see if the others had listened.

The Chudo attempted a cut at me with his long Sachiblade, but I ducked and lodged both knives in his neck. During the filming, Jonny had dropped his terminal and put himself between Robert Andalaf and me, between the door and me. Like ten times what a fire Sachi could do, in a fit of rage, I felt as though I could froth at the mouth with the mania. I was not angry. I was catatonic, sitting somewhere behind a body that moved of its own volition, at its own speed, not of this world. I ran up to the Jonny who cowered behind a firing endorphingun, shells on the ground from bullets that I didn’t even remember evading. Face to face with the terrified Jonny, who dropped his gun in his fear, I collapsed. I did not lose consciousness, but I felt fatigue worse than I ever had in my life. Short half-life, hard, hard crash. If I could help it, I wouldn’t ever snort the black shit again. Right then, it was the only thing that would get me back up.

“Ah. Took a pointer from the psychotic, eh? I suppose he never told you to keep snorting,” Robert Andalaf said, smirking. Shun took the unexpecting Jonny down, pinning him to the ground with her legs. Still smirking, Robert Andalaf hit a button cueing a loud, pulsing alarm with red, flashing lights, then ran back out the doors to his endorphincopter. President now, I supposed. There was nothing I could do. No, I did not know it would go by that fast. I’d have to bump the summon Sachi powder the rest of the night to keep myself going. Shun hit the Jonny with her palm in a quick, small movement right in the nose. I heard the quiet, whirring mechanics within the half-man shut down as his brain died, yellow liquid oozing out of his nostrils and ears.

Shun looked to the escaping Robert Andalaf, then to me, then back again. I knew she wanted to go after him, but instead, she said, “What do you need, Nin?” It was a comrade kind of inquiry, the kind of tone the Chudo would use with one another in the field.

“Behind … the desk,” I said through a slack mouth. All muscles had gone limp; any juice within them expended. I felt the need to sleep again, a morose sadness sinking in, the kind that whispers to your brain that maybe it should stop working. It’s an illusion, I tried to tell myself repeatedly, though the thoughts were difficult to formulate. It’s an illusion, and you’re having a comedown. This was one of the methods we were taught in Chudo, considering the high level of Sachi we were paid to ingest. Whenever dread gripped you in the heart of a Sachi comedown, there were little tricks like this one, along with some more intensive ones like biting the inside of your cheek.

Shun dragged me across the floor back behind the white desk, the red light flashing from little spinning cones on the ceiling. I could see Morfran’s sword sticking up out of Andy Andalaf’s fat corpse. Shun took me to the pile and, using the tip of one of my Sachiknives, poured a bump of the powder into my nostril. I sniffed and shot to my feet immediately. Shun handed me my knives. I had to work quickly before I was incapacitated again. Every twenty seconds or so, I’d have to take a bump, and there would be no more big snorts unless I needed a bigger boost. I needed to conserve while also maintaining enough of a high to keep me standing. I decided to put one of my knives inside my suit, keeping the other one in my right hand. I poured out my lightning Sachi powder, crushed up the rest of the summoning gem, snorted another bump, and then scraped the rest into the bag. I’d keep the bag in my left hand. I considered taking the Chudo soldier’s blade but thought it would be too bulky for one-handed combat. I had to keep the summon Sachi powder with me.

“What the fuck did you do?” Shun said as we ran to the elevator. My vision was hyper-focused, and the light was brighter. Shun’s strawberry hair filled my nostrils, mixing wickedly with the boiling plastic smell of the summon Sachi.

“Saw Morfran do it once,” I said. The giant glass elevator doors opened. “It’s Ai’s summon Sachi. I’ll have to keep snorting it until I can go to sleep. Any other Sachi powder won’t work. I’ll be stronger, any Sachi gems I tap will be more powerful, I’ll be faster …” I slid my finger down the green screen with the picture of Andalaf Tower, as Rin did earlier, all the way down to the ground floor. “And it seems I’ll collapse if I don’t keep it going.” I slid a finger across my knife, and a little bead of blood trickled out from the split leather.

“Nin, stop!” Shun said.

“What?” I said, turning to her.

Her eyes were wide, her face horrified, and she was looking at my hand. I looked back down. “What’s wrong with you?” she said.

“Fuck. I … don’t know.”

Who—the fuck—are you?

She turned her head away, and I saw another tear streaming down her cheek just before she turned away from me.

“If I fall down,” I said, “will you give me more of the summon Sachi powder?”

She said, “M-hm,” with a groan in her throat. I felt the urge to destroy the elevator, believing I could do it right then, but I willed myself to resist, clenching my fist around the bag of powder and the knife.

On the ground floor, the elevator doors opened to the vast entry hall of Andalaf Tower, and between the front doors and us was a sea of red infantrymen, black suited captains, and Chudo soldiers waiting for us, endorphinguns and blades drawn.