Thundering Blade: Adventuring Heroine In Another World

The bullet fired before her eye could even make sense of its trajectory. The panic building up in her chest burst quite literally, as the shot tore through her clothing and pricked into her skin.

Her heart stopped—once again, quite literally. Her entire body froze, and the still image of the detective who fired the gun had it still aimed at her chest—yet without a single moment of shock or immediate remorse on in her eyes.

The blonde did not go limp; rather, every limb and every muscle went taut. And the excruciating pain of regaining all that sensation at once made her whimper and gasp a second or two later.

Light was not gone; she realized the world was still moving around her and her voice was her own, as well as the torrent of tears down her face.

She checked her chest in a panic, panting as she realized the bullet was nowhere to be found, and all that was left was a tinge of quickly-fading purple that webbed across her skin.

Fumeko lowered the gun as the light indicated that the next bullet was ready in the chamber. She looked her dead in the eye, then turned, and stuffed the gun back into the waistband of her skirt, where she hid it behind her arm.

"W-w-w-what just..." she stuttered to form garbled words.

Fumeko continued to face away and check a few files idly, "You know what’s gonna happen if the authorities find out."

"Y-you d-dh-didn’t- I’m still alive?" her voice was as high as a whistle.

"You didn’t scream."

"Hhuh?"

"Get up and help me find what we need."

Tiffany lifted her eyepatch to hold her own face while her heart-rate refused to settle. "You’re letting me l-live?"

Fumeko flipped through a few pages.

"...You, you trust me?"

The brunette side-eyed her. "I do. But I don’t trust you. You had me in a closed room at point blank range where you felt threatened; judging by the last time that happened, I should’ve been deaf or dead. Like I said, you didn’t scream.

Which means you either felt so guilty as to not do it, or the guilt itself shut down your affinity—because you felt like you deserved it.

And the way you’ve been acting ever since Jotou and Kineko got kidnapped, maybe even before that; always acting like you owed us something, or like a stranger looking in—but you weren’t a stranger. You were a traitor who was wrestling with the fact that we kept trying to include and help you, but you knew what you did.

So, I trust you because evidence suggests that you wouldn’t betray me—it’s just the objective truth. Unless you had something to do with their kidnapping..."

The blonde’s eyes shot open wide, "N-n-no! I didn’t have anything to do with that!"

Fumeko scanned the documents in her hands, "I figured as much."

Tiffany finally caught her breath and the purple mark faded. She put her eyepatch back down and sniffled, wiping her face clean, and realized some of her makeup got smudged. She looked up at the brunette’s back... "I c-could’ve killed you..."

"But you didn’t."

"It still could’ve been an accident, there’s no way you could’ve foreseen that."

"Could’ve guessed it and I did," she put the folder back and sighed, before reading the other spines.

"Y-you want me to j-just... You have nothing to ask me or... anything?" she whimpered.

"I’m the only you can talk to about the things you did; must be quite the weight. Whether I ask or not, I’m sure you’ll confess your sins," she mocked.

Tiffany gulped and decided to stay on the floor. "I was approached by them well before I met you... Tilly was already involved; I didn’t know until the last minute. I knew she was going to be killed, and then staged. I-I-I didn’t know anything about the other murders I swear!!"

"..."

"...I know that she was working with them for that—no other details. I was just tasked with keeping an eye on you... All of you. Ever since you all entered Burnetrout they were concerned.

But you were the daughter of... well him. So, they wanted me to keep you close and distracted. B-but that’s it. They were watching everyone until we left Dolpool and headed for South End. After that I don’t know.

I was only approached by one of them twice. I don’t even know her; it could have been the shapeshifter for all I know. They gave me enough money to live comfortably for the next few years..."

"So they bought you out like a cheap whore, and you gladly went along."

"You-! Mh. I lied a little when we talked on the roof. They cut off my benefits since last year... I survived on orphanage food, handouts and copper pieces for a long time. I spent my weekends fishing out of fountains, lucky to find a bloody silver!

My parents died at sea protecting the country and that gave me some welfare, some benefit," her brows furrowed. "How could you ever understand?

You want to insult me, judge me, kill me, go ahead! I don’t care anymore. Because when your parents died, you got saved by someone who actually cared about you—a hero no less!

You had as much as food as you could chew, and anything you wanted to your heart’s content—fuck had, you still have. You lived like a princess in a tower and you still had the gall to complain about it, while I had to live through mud and charity.

So how dare you act like I had your privilege to refuse a life set out for me!"

’...’ "Yeah, what a heartless monster I am," the detective responded while she thumbed through some pages. "For whatever it’s worth, you had me wrapped around your finger—first kiss, first romance, first everything. You’re such a good actress it puts Sobi’s lies to shame."

"No," she breathed out. "No, no, no, no, no! I omitted working with the cult, but everything else was real," she snarled. "That wasn’t an act! You don’t know what it’s like.

Everyone blaming you for something you did, that you had barely any control over or even was aware of doing or to what extent the consequences that followed would be.

Blaming you for years on end, no family, no friends and shunned into a corner of my own! It was always my fault for how I ended up, cause how could it be anyone else’s?

But even then, despite it all... I didn’t think someone like you, would ever care for someone like me. You think that was all fake!? All to pull the wool over your eyes!? Are you mad!? I fell in love Fumeko! With you!

And not a second went by where I wasn’t thinking about the shitty choice I made! But it was worth it for you! I finally had someone for me and I was not going to let that slip by.

I didn’t know whether you would figure it out, or the cult would reveal it and use it against me, but you did it. Congratulations detective," her body slumped against the shelves while she glared with tears.

’...I know. I know you love me. That’s what makes this all worse.’ Fumeko finally turned and lowered the folder she held. "If you wanna go confess everything to the police, I’ll be there. I’ll try to speak on your behalf, but I can’t promise anything.

Either way, I’m not gonna say a word to anyone. It’s not my truth to share."

Tiffany stared up. Her makeup was smudged and her eyes had gone dark.

"It’s your choice Tiffany." Fumeko went back to looking for what she needed.

...

Several minutes passed by without a word. The sound of Fumeko’s annoyance at every folder that did not contain what she needed filled the emptiness while the blonde dealt with her own mind.

"You look like a poodle left out in the rain. If you’re gonna sulk in front of me this whole time at least look good."

Tiffany pushed herself up with the same pout and stood. "I’m not some ornament," she muttered under her breath. She eventually dug through some files on her side, however, not allowing for the silence continue, "You’ve had your father’s pistol the whole time?"

"Since the day he was gone. He knew that the cult was already in possession of mana-technology, but the special devices the detectives have would’ve made them advance by leaps and bounds.

So, he most likely threw it under something before he got taken or went unconscious, knowing Forallei wouldn’t’ve made it her main priority. Lucky me, I found it under a cave made by broken shelves. Still," she pulled out the pistol in question.

"The cartridge is half empty and the barrel’s cracked," Tiffany stated what she displayed.

Fumeko’s thumb grazed over the crack on the side, "I’m surprised it even fired. You’re lucky it fired correctly to the stun function I set it to and didn’t just shoot an actual bullet."

"It was still painful..." Tiffany rubbed her chest. "All the sudden having all your nerves paralyzed and then your affinity blacking out for a second as if my life just took a pause."

’...! Affinity? It stops an affinity for a split-second?’ Fumeko holstered the gun back. ’Good to know.’

"Were you not worried when you fired that off that people wouldn’t come running?"

"Well, you took care of that when we got here."

"It was still a firearm, and it was not exactly silent..."

"It’s an orphanage full of chaos, a random bang isn’t gonna get all the attention in the world," the detective brushed aside.

Tiffany stared back at her, almost frightened.

Through the files they went, for maybe the next half an hour? No windows to see, no sounds in the hallway to distract them—only then did the detective get some smidgen of useful information.

"Kineko’s in here," Fumeko said aloud, to which the blonde turned. "Year 974, sex female, hair light brown; parents unknown. Birthdate given, 18th of April?" she looked up.

Tiffany shrugged, "Kids here who don’t know where they come from tend to be given a birthday by the caretakers. I know mine’s real though."

"It would be at least from an estimation from how many months old she was," Fumeko squinted. "Everything here aligns with Kineko’s description. Except her given name was Myla Aichele; she’s been here since she was born pretty much."

"Here being relative. Anything from the past four years would be too new to be in this dusty old room," Tiffany glanced about. "She was likely dropped off at the previous location."

"And where’s that?"

"I’m not too sure detective. Where would a place called Orchid Borough Orphanage be, I do so ever wonder," her lips tightened.

"I don’t mind wasting another bullet."

"Like I said, I don’t care anymore," she crossed her arms and looked away.

’Fine, have it your way.’ "The thing that caught my eye was the fact that they couldn’t tell Kineko’s lineage or test her blood. There’s not even a type; and any magic couldn’t discern it either..."

"So?"

"Thought you were smarter. It means Kineko wasn’t just randomly adopted by a couple of cultists to stage a fire for my dad to find. It means at least one of her parents was a cultist, or is.

Whatever happened, it led to her being dropped off at the orphanage. I doubt as some kind of plant or spy, but maybe by a parent that at least cared enough to spare her. But it would also imply that she was injected by the blood of Ambrose since birth."

"Right, sorry I didn’t figure that out, my mind’s dealing with a lot at the moment," the blonde sneered.

"But that’s not really much help, other than knowing a bit more about her."

"Have you considered the possibility that the false god in question was the one who sired the child in the first place?" she rolled her eyes.

’...!’ "Huh." She held a hand to her chin. "I guess that’s a possibility, because it would be in some part his blood. But why would a new god care to have a kid?"

"It seems you never considered that you were a mistake."

Fumeko glared. "They wouldn’t hesitate to kill a baby."

"Maybe he has a heart, or at least some semblance of honour," Tiffany shrugged. "As you said, what does it matter now; it serves us no aid."

"It does give us some certainty. Kineko won’t be killed anytime soon, if ever," she pondered.

"Did you find anything about the building, or not. We can’t be in here forever."

"Because you’ve helped so much in that."

"Maybe if I wasn’t shot, I would’ve been more efficient," Tiffany kicked a file towards the brunette. "There. It doesn’t detail anything about an auction, but tis all the renovation costs in the past four years; many of which took place in the first year."

Fumeko picked it up, all the while staring at the blonde. She checked the information, and the prices, and what all were changed. "I think this pretty much confirms that this was the previous headquarters of the cult.

Anything you remember from then? Any places you weren’t meant to go to or were blocked off?"

Tiffany gave it some thought. "Sure, there were many places being renovated, but not in any immediate area, you’d have to go looking for them. Even so, it was not anything suspicious beyond brick and concrete.

Besides, I spent more time in my dormitories at Dolpool Academy than anywhere here, so someone who frequented here more would be better suited to tell you—maybe even your sister."

Fumeko reread some of the file, "There’re places her that got demolished, but some don’t?" ’...! There’s a good chance some parts of the building were just covered up or blocked entirely. That’d save expenses than renovating everything.’ "I’ll figure something out. Walls can’t stop all sound. You think you’d be able to find them?"

"...Theoretically," she let her arms fall. "But a solid wall and a wall with space behind it is not the easiest to detect. There are limits to my echolocation."

"Then try your best. I’ll figure out which places we can check." ’If we look like we belong here, we’ll be fine.’

...

"Fumeko, I ap..."

Fumeko glanced up.

Tiffany’s gaze lowered and she pouted. "I want to be out of here as soon as possible, so please hurry up."

’...’ Her eyes went back to analyzing.