Anthony felt both the moment the bond was established and also the moment Sasha passed out. He looked at the normally strong woman to find her eyes rolled into the back of her head as drool linked down her mouth. With a slight smile, he leaned her down so she was more comfortable and placed the blanket over her.
“Wow. You literally fucked her into unconsciousness. Way to go, nerd.”
Anthony turned to look at Secilia as she walked out of the bedroom. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed her limp.
“I don’t think you have room to talk.”
Secilia blushed but fired back. “I didn’t pass out. I was just tired and fell asleep.”
“Do you want me to call you the pot or the kettle?”
“Neither.”
“Kettle it is then.”
“Whatever.” She walked over to the free couch, sat down, and then stared at him. “You gonna get dressed?”
“Are you saying you don’t wanna free show?”
“I love free shows, but you’re old news.”
“Harsh. In the case, I guess I’ll have sex with Sasha instead of you. I have a feeling she’ll appreciate me more.”
‘Woah now. There’s no need to go that far.”
Anthony would have bantered with Secilia more, but Alice interrupted them.
“We will be heading into Japanese airspace soon. Mr. President, I too enjoy a good show, but you should get dressed now.”
“You heard the AI,” Secilia said.
Anthony didn’t argue as he picked up his clothes. He started slipping on his boxers--
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
--When the entire airplane shook as explosions rocked it. The plane suddenly lurched, and Anthony, with one foot raised and his boxers halfway up his leg, was knocked to the ground.
The sudden attack was enough that Sasha woke up and jumped off the couch, heedless of her own nudity.
“What’s going on?!” she demanded.
“It seems we are under attack from Japan’s anti-air defenses,” Alice commented idly as if talking about the whether.
“Why is Japan’s air defenses attacking us?!” asked Anthony.
“I do not know. However, I am activating stealth mode,” said Alice.
More explosions rocked the Aetherwing. Anthony barely managed to slip on his boxers, but he was unable to do anything else when something penetrated the airplane on his left. It looked almost like a harpoon, but it was beeping.
“Oh fuck,” Secilia mumbled.
Anthony didn’t even need to know what this was to act. He grabbed Sasha and Secilia, ran to the far end of the airplane, cutting through it with a spatial blade, and leaping out just as the thing lit up. The explosion pushed against his back as he found himself in open air. Secilia was screaming into his ear, but he tried to block it out as he turned his head to look up. The Aetherwing was done for. The explosion had torn it apart and turned it into shrapnel. He’d heard of missiles that were designed to penetrate large naval vessels, and this was clearly something similar.
It was complete overkill.
The wind whipped around them as Anthony tried to orient himself and look around. He saw the land below him. Japan was an island nation. The amount of land they had was small, but the buildings were so large they towered over everything. It was a nation that had built up instead of out.
With narrowed eyes, Anthony saw something coming toward them--more missiles. He grimaced. Then he blinked out of existence before the missiles struck them. He reappeared far away from the missiles and closer to the ground. However, more were coming. Drawing deeply upon his mana, Anthony activated Teleportation several times, appearing and disappearing every few seconds, moving ever closer to the city’s skyline.
“On our left!” Sasha shouted.
“And behind us!!!” screeched Secilia.
Anthony continued to teleport them over and over, just narrowly avoiding the missiles. However, just as he reached the skyline, his entire body became frozen in place. It was different from being locked in space. It was like he was moving through molasses. The entire space around him felt thick.
Oh shit. This is time magic.
Anthony’s brain was working fast, but the rest of his body worked slowly, and he was unable to move in time to avoid the missile from striking them. The only thing he was able to do was erect a barrier that shattered during the explosion. It protected them from the blast, but not the shrapnel. At least the time lock had been destroyed, but now they were hurtling toward the ground at unprecedented speed. Pain wracked Anthony’s body as several shrapnel shards penetrated his flesh when he used his body to shield Sasha and Secilia.
“Anthony, do something!” Secilia shouted.
“I’m… trying!” he grunted.
It was hard to focus with the shard stuck in his side, but he also couldn’t remove it. Fortunately, Sasha saw it and removed it for him. He grunted at the pain and sensation of blood flowing from the wound, but he healed quickly and focused once more.
They were already past the skyline. Tall skyscrapers towered over them. It wasn’t long before they were cast into shadows. Anthony blinked the sweat from his eyes as he focused on finding a place they could teleport to. He also needed to halt their downward momentum. Teleporting didn’t stop that, and they would go splat eventually.
He soon found several catwalks slightly below them. Reaching deeper into his mana reserves, Anthony locked them all into space, then forced the space between him and one of the catwalks to close. They were soon standing on a crowded catwalk with a bunch of people gawking at them.
“We made it,” Anthony muttered.
“But our plane is gone,” Sasha said. “What are we going to do now?”
“We should get out of here first. Whoever attacked us will be tracking us. They will know where we are. We need to disappear,” Anthony said.
“We also need to find clothes,” Secilia said, looking pointedly at Anthony and Sasha.
The two of them were still naked.
***
Two men stood side by side inside of a room that was quite clearly a laboratory. Blinking lights played over their faces as holographic screens flickered to reveal new information. They were staring at a screen that showed three people running through the streets. Only one of them was clothed. Two of them were naked, though the woman had a blanket wrapped around her.
“You were unable to kill them,” said one of the men. His name was Toki Eito. He looked like a young teenager, but he was in fact far older. Between the two of them, he was the oldest person present.
“Do not try to pin what happened on me. If you had been able to completely lock them in time like you said you could, they would not have survived.” The other man scowled. He had bright silver hair, vibrant blue eyes, and looked less Japanese and more European. Despite this, he was in fact pureblooded Japanese.
“Manipulating time from across such a vast distance is not something a normal human mage can do. Even my dear teacher would have trouble doing what I did.”
At the mention of his teacher, Toki looked at a tank in the center of the lab, where a young-looking woman with blonde hair and a very petite build floated. She was completely naked. Her legs were curled into her chest and all kinds of tubes were hooked up to her.
“Any luck penetrating her mind?” he asked at last.
The other man shook his head. “Not a one. Her mind is locked tight. Maybe you should try going inside again?”
“No thanks. I nearly got my brain scrambled last time. Still…” He glanced at the woman again, admiration, longing, and obsession shining deep within his eyes. “… to think my teacher can continue to defend her mind despite our best efforts. She really is amazing.”
“What she is, is annoying,” the other man grunted.
“Let’s just focus on capturing those three,” Toki said. “Once we have them, we can use them as leverage. That young man is Anthony Amasius, and I have it on good authority that he is close to my teacher.”
“And once we have them and crack open your teacher’s techniques, we can finally capture that blasted Gitsune.” The silver-haired man thought for a moment, then made a decision. “We’re releasing the ghouls.”
Toki raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure that is a good idea?”
The other man shrugged. “Yes. Thanks to the new microchips, we can control them just fine. I see no reason not to use them.”
Toki shrugged. “I don’t trust anything that Kane has given us, but it’s your choice.”
“Yes, it is,” the other man said as he walked over to a control console and began inputting commands.
Toki turned as one of the holographic monitors revealed nearly a thousand ghouls all dressed in the uniforms of corporate security. The average person would probably not even realize what these creatures were. Outside of their corpse-like skin, which was mostly covered by facemasks and clothing, they looked like regular people.
The moment the gates opened, the ghouls raced outside, but then they stopped when Toki’s companion input several more commands into them. They only paused for a moment. Then they walked over to the wracks, grabbed their weapons, and filed out.
“There,” he said, standing back up. “They will track down and apprehend Anthony Amasius and his companions.”
Toki wasn’t sure they would be enough. Anthony had proven to be incredibly strong, and while he didn’t recognize the brunette, he did recognize Sasha. A thousand ghouls would not be enough to take them out, but perhaps they could lure the group into a trap? Yes, that sounded like a plan. While his companion tried to simply squash them with power, Toki would quietly work in the shadows to apprehend them.
And maybe once he had them in his grasp, his teacher would finally capitulate to him.
***
Anthony and Sasha eventually found a shop selling clothes. The store clerk was quite shocked to see a pair of naked people entering his store, but he sold them some clothes once Secilia flashed him a card containing an almost limitless credit limit.
Anthony had chosen mostly black clothing. Black pants, black shirt, and gray boots. On the other hand, Sasha wore gray pants and a white shirt that showed off her midriff. The shirt was sleeveless, revealing her powerful arms. She also wore boots like his, but they were red instead of gray.
Japan was truly massive in a way few cities were. Because it was built up instead of out, all of the buildings were so tall they blotted out the sky. Numerous catwalks above and below created an interconnecting network between the buildings. Anthony glanced down and couldn’t see the bottom. Then he looked up, but more catwalks prevented him from seeing the tops of the buildings. To make the aesthetic even more dizzying, a large number of flying vehicles darted through the space between one catwalk and another.
So this is Japan…
“What’s our plan?” asked Secilia.
Sasha glanced at Anthony.
“We should try and get in contact with Gitsune Hagoromo… unfortunately, I have no idea where we would even start to do that. What I do know is that we cannot just wander around and hope for the best.”
“We should find a place I can jack in,” said Secilia.
“I assume any old jack will do?” asked Anthony.
“Well, we’ll need to test that. It doesn’t look like the network was completely brought down. If it was, those flying cars would not be able to fly without crashing. My best guess is the network was disconnected from the world wide web but not the local net. If we can find a jack, I’ll try and get in. If it works, great. If not, we’ll need to work harder.”
“I don’t mean to change the subject,” Sasha said suddenly, “but I think we might be in trouble.”
Anthony didn’t know what she meant at first, but he looked over and saw several people dressed in corporate uniforms running toward them.
Oh, hell, he thought, realizing this was not going to be easy.
Because when was anything ever simple?