Chapter 130: A Good Interrogator (3)
Chapter 130: A Good Interrogator (3)
Mira calculated there was enough time to get there under Complete Suppression, so she gave the order to activate it. The effect of running five hundred meters in less than a minute was shouldered entirely by the two prisoners. They hung helplessly on the Holy Knight’s shoulder, obviously shaking violently as it ran.
Once they stood in front of the Fifty Bells branch of Sentopolly, Mira stepped out of Complete Suppression to knock on the door. There was the sound of a key turning, then Arlon peeked out, who had been there getting things ready to receive the prisoners.
「I really can’t see them. Or feel them, for that matter.」
He looked around, focusing mostly in the area behind Mira, being completely astonished at the fact he could not notice the two prisoners or the spirit that ought to be there. Eventually he said 「Are they even here?」 starting to doubt himself.
「Amazing, I know. Our footsteps would have stood out too much, so I cranked up the effect to the maximum.」
Mira grinned proud of herself as she entered, and when she was sure everyone else was also inside, she closed the door. Then she said 「We’re safe here,」 dispelling Complete Suppression.
「Ohh! That’s actually incredible.」
Worthramble, a Holy Knight, and two prisoners with pallid green faces appeared out of the blue. Arlon was left flabbergasted, having been unable to even notice something off in the room before they appeared, even though he had spent years training his perception.
「I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve surprised me.」
He started grinning like a child, having witnessed a power more incredible than he had imagined.
Arlon was already considered old in his line of work, and had garnered enough power to be recognized as one of the best, but seeing something he knew little about still stirred his curious mind to learn more.
「I wasn’t even trying, though.」
Mira, full of herself as always, just shrugged it off.
They passed through the secret door and descended through the underground passage. They reached the gray room with a black communications device, and inside the room there was a large iron gate Mira did not recall seeing before. Arlon walked ahead of them, opening the gate and gesturing to Mira to follow. That was where the secret restraining chamber he had mentioned was located.
「Oh right, a special delivery courier arrived earlier too.」
Holding the gate open with one hand, Arlon looked into a corner of the gray room and pointed with his free hand. Following his finger, Mira saw a red bird which she remembered seeing before, and even had a name.
「Ohh, I see. That explains the speed.」
That bird was around one meter long, the feathers covering its body of a shiny vermillion, and a glistening gold on the tail. Its head was of a translucent blue, its bird face looking oddly serene.
Its name was Piisuke, a high level shikigami used by Kagura, the wiseman of onmyoji. A Suzaku that could easily fly at speeds over two hundred kilometers per hour.
Mira also noticed a small box hanging with a string from its neck, which had a cutesy cat mark on it, as well as 「emergency delivery」 written on it. Seeing all that, Mira knew there was little that could deliver a parcel faster than that.
「It might be better if I take care of this first then.」
Seeing the bird standing there without anything to do, Mira felt bad for making it wait even longer, so she muttered that to Arlon, deciding to dispatch the documents first.
「Sure.」
Arlon nodded, and Mira left the two prisoners in his care, telling the Holy Knight to obey all of Arlon’s orders. That made the Holy Knight walk away from Mira’s side, and it did as told, going to wherever Arlon told it to.
「Somehow it feels like I’ve been left in charge of commandeering a platoon of knights.」
Arlon smiled amused, even though he only had a single knight under his command. Regardless, the two vanished further inside the corridor.
「Alright, Piisuke. Take care of this.」
Apart from Johann’s documents, Mira also included a sample of Black Mist Stones in the box. Then she wrote 「HAZARDOUS MATERIALS, DON’T OPEN NEAR SPIRITS」 in large and thick letters.
(I might as well do this while I’m here.)
Having secured everything inside the box, all that was left was to let the bird return. Her hands a bit free again, Mira decided she would report the incredible progress from the last few hours, reaching for the communications device.
「Hello, it’s me.」
Now that she knew the device automatically called the headquarters, Mira avoided saying anything stupid and instead started with that greeting.
「Ah, you’re finally here Grandpa! I was getting tired of waiting!」
Uzume aka Kagura’s voice rang loudly through the entire room. Mira was startled by that, turning a shocked look towards Piisuke.
「I’ve been waiting for more than an hour already!」
The voice sounded like the speaker was in the same room, not coming from the communications device, but from Piisuke.
「What in the world is going on?」
Piisuke was talking with Kagura’s voice, and unlike its earlier unmoving stance, it now moved with exaggerated motions as if mimicking a human. It was imitating Kagura’s movement, putting the tip of its wings around the same area where its hips would probably be, glaring at Mira.
「Am I actually going crazy?」
The shikigami Piisuke was talking in the voice of its master Kagura, and moving in a similar way too. Mira had never seen anything like that before, but she quickly figured it had to be a newly developed skill.
Placing the receiver down, Mira crouched in front of Piisuke, grabbing its body and turning him over and around with an entertained and curious look in her eyes.
「Ah, stop! Don’t be so rough! I’m getting dizzyyyy.」
Piisuke let out a helpless cry as its eyes went in circles being turned by Mira’s arms.
Having remembered that Mira/Danbulf was a maniac when it came to new techniques and developments with skills, Kagura (currently as Piisuke) somehow managed to escape from Mira’s curious grip, and after a deep sigh and many evil glares she started explaining the skill to Mira,
That skill was called Sense Sync. It was limited to familiars created with one’s own mana, but it allowed the caster to see and hear through the entity, and when mastered could be used to control the entity directly to a certain extent.
But while it was active, most of the caster’s senses were directly tied to the familiar, so if they are shaken violently like Mira did earlier, they would feel everything as if it was happening to their real body, leaving them horribly dizzy.
「Familiars summoned from one’s own mana? Does that mean I can use it on Armor Spirits too?!」
Having patiently listened to the explanation so far, in an instant she had encroached onto Piisuke’s face and spoke with an excited voice.
「Umm, probably? Necromancers had success using it before, so I guess it could work with Armor Spirits too.」