Steel Trim
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Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 55
🕑 Added 2025-11-12 01:27:12 +0000 UTCIt wasn't hard to hear the frantic whisper-shouts emerging from the buildings as lights started flickering on through the windows. The first actual human they saw, though, was a single man who poked his head out the door, all bleary-eyed and half-asleep, only to see the two of them before shrieking and hustling back inside, followed by the sound of him tripping over something and hitting the ground. John wasn't sure what he said after that, but he was sure it was rather colourful and unsuitable for polite company.
He was also unsure whether that man was wearing pants.
"We'll give them three more minutes, then I will start going in and throwing them out into the rain myself," muttered Yuki.
John snorted, shaking his head as he checked his magic supplies. Seems like he was getting a bit low on air aspected mana. Oh, on some level, he was still terrified, and he was damn sure that they were going to pour out of the doors in hordes and then he would have to flee, but he couldn't because they'd be behind him, and then he and Yuki would have to—
Still, seeing one of the men who had driven him to the fringes so long ago terrified and half-awake had demystified them. They're probably not monsters, just assholes, even if he'd prefer never to see any of them again. Strangely, what most people would call 'monsters' seemed to make better company.
Hmm.
Wasn't that a thought? Yuki and Yosuke were both oddities by the standards of the world at large, and they were both good to hang around with, in their own ways. Rin… well, she was less of an outsider, given she was almost certainly part of a noble house, and he had a fair bit more he had to hide from her, as Yuki so kindly reminded him.
"Isn't that a bit harsh? They might not have time to get dressed and will get sick from the cold," John said, listening carefully as frantic shouting started echoing through the strange man's building, several other voices slowly rousing.
Yuki chuckled lowly, her golden gaze landing on him, although she didn't turn her head. "Perhaps some will. They hurt you, John. Do you truly care about them so much that you can't bear for them to experience any discomfort? Look around you. They're well off and will not perish due to it."
John broke first, looking forward once more. "I don't know, it just seems wrong," he admitted. "Perhaps I'm getting soft."
Yuki didn't respond, letting the silence sit between them, although it was not an uncomfortable silence by any means. "I know this gauntlet is weaker, but can you do any more lightning bolts?" she finally asked, after a minute or two more of waiting.
John checked the gauges to confirm before nodding. It wasn't as if these were anywhere near as big as what he levelled against the Nameless, or that Unbound, so they were passably power efficient.
"Would you mind?" she asked, pointing to the sky again.
John shrugged, pointing to the sky. It was nice that his warding mostly dampened the noise and light; otherwise, he'd have long since gone deaf. Thankfully, it was quite a bit dimmer than a full-power one, too, so he didn't need to close his eyes to not stun himself, even with the warding dimming it.
BOOM!
"Time's up!" Yuki shouted, the palpable menace in the air intensifying until it was like a thick blanket lying over everything. "Get out here now before I come in and get all of you!"
"How do we know we'll have all the priests?" John asked. "We don't know how many there are. Surely some could just stay bunkered down and do something?"
Yuki only smiled, and John instantly caught on to her plan. Clever. They certainly protected the buildings with more classical Ofuda, but if they weren't much of a threat to Yuki, there was no reason she couldn't use the excuse to stomp around looking for hints.
Besides, an angry yokai stomping around without hurting anyone was certainly scary, but probably wouldn't be sufficient to justify the deployment of those Unbound lurking on the fringes. Still, something bugged him, almost like a splinter digging into his finger.
Why did she need justification to deploy? She must have been worried about him or others escaping and trying to take her down with them, but the Nameless cordon seemed damn effective with how efficiently they choked supplies from the region. This plan seemed to have an overabundance of caution woven into it, even to his paranoid mind.
By the time he got anywhere of note, she could have easily snagged important figures and used her magic to make them spew any story she wanted, creating retroactive justification. Did the technique have limitations he was unaware of?
A steady stream of men began to emerge from six of the buildings like a leaky pipe after a few drunkenly stumbled forth, most still half-asleep with their clothing improperly put on, if they were even dressed. Thankfully, they seemed to actually use sleeping garments around these parts, doing his eyes a great mercy as he didn't want to see… ten, no, twenty men of various builds nude today.
It was hard to tell if he had seen any of them before. Most of the times that he had run into them, John was not paying the most attention to what they looked like so much as just frantically fleeing from impending pain.
Iron arrows stuck in his leg. The shafts were broken, but the heads lodged deep inside. He just had to reach down and pull—
The fingers on his gauntlet twitched as his arm fought to rise, but he stopped it, and he fiddled with his warding necklace with his other spare hand, making sure that it was well in place and working with a few hard taps against his chest.
The brief flicker of shielding as it protected both his hand and his ribs was enough to ease some of the knot in his chest. Still, he shuffled over to a building and leaned against it, immediately feeling far more comfortable without his back exposed.
It was good they weren't in their priestly vestments. John wasn't sure what he'd do with himself if they were.
"Is this everyone? Who is the head priest?" Yuki asked, eyes scanning over the huddled mass of humanity. They stood tall, but they were close to each other. Too close, like sheep in the face of a predator. John scanned his light over the crowd, the bright flashlight illuminating the men more clearly through the gloom.
Each shook like leaves in the wind as the light passed over them. Was it from the cold or fear of the kitsune? No. John certainly looked like a vengeful ghost, searching them for whoever wronged him, but he had no plans to take revenge. It wasn't useful and provided no utility, even if there weren't Unbound nearby waiting for a reason to roll in.
The mass of humanity stayed cluttered, even as Yuki's piercing gaze looked over them closely, carefully, like a farmer deciding which of their stock was next to the slaughter. "I will have my answers. Is the head priest among you?"
A chorus of half-whispered answers and shaking heads answered her, and the kitsune snarled viciously.
"Fine. I'll find him myself," Yuki growled out, and the already chill air felt like it dropped a degree before she angrily stomped off toward one of the buildings that the men had come out of. Of the buildings that housed men, John had seen that two of them held five, then two had three, and the last two had only two people apiece, although he was unsure if this was due to some hiding or if higher rank afforded more personal space.
Yuki stomped up to the first one and threw the door open before continuing inside, her tails lashing behind her like whips. Of course, she could almost certainly hear the heartbeats and breathing if there was someone inside. The priests, however, didn't know that, and it gave her ample cause to root around for anything that felt out of place. Perhaps she'd be lucky and find one of the Ofuda, like what they used around the city. Maybe she'd find something else useful.
This, of course, left John alone with the priests. His whole body tensed as he got ready to fight, thoughts of oozing wounds and terrifying chases through the brush flooding his mind.
His hand twitched, fighting to come up once more, but he forced it back home, hand gripping his leg hard enough to draw blood. He could deal with this. He knew he could.
The men flinched as he panned his light over them again, but it was only for a moment before John checked his angles to make sure nobody was sneaking up on him. He needed something. Just marinating in this silence was going to murder him… or get somebody else hurt, even if it wasn't somebody he cared much for. Why was his body screaming for him to fight?
John felt sick. There had to be some way out of this fugue. Fidgeting, he scanned the crowd once more before locking onto a face.
"Wait. I know you. You, in the middle with the top knot, come forward, please." The words tumbled out of John before he thought them through, making him wince.
The man flinched, and the surrounding crowd backed away from him like he was bearing a terrible plague. "Me… Sir Unbound?" the man hesitantly asked, stepping forward. He was fairly middling in height, perhaps five feet seven inches, but had a portly build that you more often saw on short and wide people, like somebody had upsized him in an image editor, and he had a distinctive patch of pale green scales just barely showing on both cheeks.
"Yes, you," John confirmed, narrowing his eyes. "I recognize you. When I ran into some priests along the river, you were among them. What were you doing there?" He was so angry, then. He sneered at John, almost spat at him. He wasn't the leader, though; he was just one of the supporting figures who happened to be along for the ride.
"W-what?" the man stuttered, looking to his fellows. One by one, they turned away, eyes refusing to meet his as they singled him out like a sacrifice. Disgust burned in John's throat as they all abandoned the bastard one by one. "I-I'm not sure what you mean—Wait, no! I remember! I remember!" He pitifully wailed, shuffling forward from the parting crowd and falling to his knees. "The head priest forced us to go down to the river that day, he said that he wanted to meet up with the kappa!"
This is what he was afraid of for all these years? This?
John glared dispassionately at the man, examining him from head to toe, and his quaking arm started to still.
Sighing, John shook his head. It seemed like the man's story was consistent, at least. "Really? You went down there to talk to the kappa, and nothing else? He didn't seem very happy with the local priests when I last talked to him," John murmured, scratching his chin. "He thought you were all too busy… scratching your asses to do anything. He's not too happy about the Nameless situation."
The man sputtered inarticulately for a few moments, momentarily choking on his spit before finally replying, "That's what Head Priest Iwao told us! We got a fancy letter from the Celestial Court saying that they were going to deal with things soon, so it's best to hunker down and wait it out. A kitsune delivered by hand!"
Iwao, huh? He had no doubt that Kiku penned the letter, and that'd be a perfect way to snag their support. Kitsune were supposed to be divine messengers, he believed. To have all these men be in on some sort of conspiracy with her at the head was a big ask, but if she only needed the head priest in on it, while the rest were willing dupes? Well, that was a lot more manageable. Of course, from the sounds of things, they weren't exactly doing their job before the Nameless, either. The kappa didn't rant about how they changed or anything like that.
"And that was… Iwao with you, when you showed up?" he inquired, raising his gauntlet. It was a scare tactic, of course, but could the priest afford to call him on it?
The man flinched, shuffling back. "Yes, sir!" he called before vigorously nodding. "He's the head priest of our shrine."
John took a deep breath and twitched his fingers, activating the heat focus in his caster-glove. Invisible heat shot out towards the huddled mass, which stumbled backwards and shouted as they felt the temperature change… Yet, they were only warmed. John made sure to modulate the temperature carefully, afraid of cooking their organs or otherwise overheating them. The process was still quick, though, as their lack of Aegis meant that the accelerated heat transfer made it equalize very quickly.
John's arm fell back down by his side as they slowly calmed back down, a few having to pick themselves back up from the ground.
He had to ask about all these years, but… would it bring him any happiness? No. He had more pressing matters. "Please. Tell me more about him," John gently ordered, a faint, glass-like smile edging its way onto his face.
The man bowed once more, scraping against the ground. "He came here ten years ago, after the last head priest moved to another shrine. Aiko was a bit grumpy about them bringing in a head priest from somewhere else, given that he has been here for twenty years, but Iwao is a good leader. He always keeps our bellies filled and our needs met. We get to spend a lot of time at the village, giving out guidance."
Whatever grip he had on the men was tight if his followers still were defending him in the face of an Unbound who was clearly going to be unhappy with him. Perhaps the man just wasn't that smart.
A scream echoed out from the background, and John glanced over as a man flew through a shoji window, landing in a deep, muddy puddle, sputtering. Yuki's head poked out the window, and she roared out, "You're lucky I don't kill you where you stand! Now, get with the rest of them!" Then, she was gone again, the terrified man slowly getting to his feet and looking around, almost as if he were going to run before he realized that John's gaze was directly on him, flashlight pointed in his direction. Morosely, he trudged over, joining the other captives.
"Do you not know, or do you not care about your other duties?" he plainly asked, sighing as he turned his attention back to the priest he was interrogating.
"O-our other duties, sir?" the man haltingly responded.
"To the yokai. We just went over how they weren't happy just a minute ago. Why did you not mention your duties to them?" John kept his gaze level as the man stuttered, working himself back up into a mess.
"We're just the shrine for a small town, brave master Unbound!" Ah. That was a new one. "We're poor and can barely afford to upkeep the shrine." John glanced around, looking at the fresh coat of rich stain on every building. "They don't cause much trouble. We stay in our areas, and they stay in theirs. We'd love to give them proper offerings, but we just can't while still making sure everything is fine for the people of Broadstream. Head Priest Iwao says they come first. Yokai were living in the woods just fine before people came along, after all, and if they really hated it here, they could just find the nearest path to the Spirit Realm and head back."
"A whole lot of justification for not doing your jobs," John muttered. "So. How long did you know about the Nameless?"
The priest's breath caught. "A year, my lord. We sent for help as soon as we heard."
Bullshit, even if John had no way of proving it.
"And the militia? Why weren't they informed? Why did the brave defenders of the townsfolk have no idea that this was happening before Lady Yuki and I started talking to them?"
The priest didn't quite fall silent, but started fumbling with his words, trying to say something, anything. Yet, nothing intelligible came out.
Red-hot, boiling anger bloomed in John's chest. How many had died because of them? How many people would never see their families again? All the while, they sat back and relaxed, letting themselves bathe in luxury. He hadn't been inside the buildings, but they were clearly doing well for themselves. It was no coincidence that they weren't targeted by the swarming, wealth-hungry Nameless.
Perhaps they had their protections… but the spiders would have found a way. The goods had to make their way here somehow. They had to know, at least on some level.
John stomped forward, footsteps landing heavily on the stone below as he closed in on the man, who only bowed and scraped lower. Behind him, all his friends retreated like they were locked in a cage with a tiger. "If you're going to keep feeding me absolute bullshit, so be it, but tell me at least one thing straight." He grabbed the priest by the little hair bun on top of his head with his gauntleted hand, forcing his head up so he met his eye whether he wanted to or not. "Why the fuck have you bastards been trying to hunt me for all these years? Why was pushing me to the edge of society worth it? What you have possibly gotten out of all my years of pain and suffering!"
The man started to stammer, whimpering inarticulately as John hefted his head higher to make sure he could look nowhere else. "You will look at me while I'm speaking to you," he growled, grip digging into his scalp.
The priest's hands went up to try to pry himself free, but he had no leverage; John's grip was too strong. "Answer. Now," he hissed.
"A-a foreigner lurking around the roads scares the merchants. Iwao said it made us look good to chase you off!" the priest finally sobbed out.
John's blood ran cold. His hands twitched.
Scorching heat burned through the man's top knot, dropping him back into the muck and filth face-first. Still alive.
"Get back to the rest of your people. I'm done with you," John growled. He didn't even look as the man scrambled away, just trudging back to the wall, where he took up his post as warden once more.
It was a good thing it was raining.
Otherwise, they might have seen his weakness.
Comments
Unwillingmainer
And they thought the angry kitsune was bad.
Trevyn Lane
Wow, what a group of lazy grifters. They are going to be in a lot of trouble when the people of the village hear that the priests knew about the Nameless and didn't warn them. Oh, they are screwed.
Vlad Cold
Well, time for John's quip like "Most primitive cultures take politeness and unwillingness of conflict for weakness... but I though these places at least minimally civilized."
Michael Halpern
Iwao is going to set off the Kiku detector hard
Areanori Aleanor
Sounds to me like they sowed much greater winds than they thought, and now five different tornadoes are closing in on them.
Rod
Iwao is gonna have a bad time I hope
