Burn In Violet

10: AB

Chapter 10: AB

“Do not lightly make mistakes. Fate would probably exaggerate it.” – Nohara Akemi

*

“Mimi, you stay with her,” Evan commanded. “I’ll handle the madman.” He pulled out his sword from the portal reappearing by his side.

Deciding to obey, Mimi was quick to flip Holly on her back, pressing her hand on the wound. She could feel the warm blood spurting.

Holly’s eyes closed.

Mimi turned as pale as Holly was. She was afraid; the shot hit the girl squarely where her heart should be. “Instant Coagulation!” she summoned a magic spell before enhancing it with incantations muttered under her breath. It took three seconds before the blood froze effectively.

An odd shimmering permeated the air in front of her.

*

Evan rushed past the vacant gas pumps, ever alert to the slightest signs of movement. He was fairly sure of where the shot came from. His sword by his side, he made sure to not touch anything with it, yet.

The carcass of a beast blocked the way to the counter. Pitch-black, it looked reptilian, like something out of the dinosaur age. It was smoking.

The click of a gun. Evan swung his blade with lightning reflexes.

*

The rain continued to fall. A twintailed girl was crouching by Holly’s prone form. “I’m Lucy, that construct you saw last night. I need your help!”

“Yes? Yes-yes-yes?” Mimi muttered, teeth chattering, her arms hugging he knees, relief mixing with anxiety. The rain washed away her tears.

“I need to search for the bullet’s location inside her body,” Lucy explained. For some reason, this time she was garbed in a white lab coat. “Lend me some of your power!”

Mimi realized that she looked less solid than the last time she saw her, the night before. Tamaki was pacing to and fro, head attached, at loss on how to make herself useful in the situation.

“Tamaki already lent me a lot, I doubt she can cast anything useful,” Lucy added.

“I, I will. You’re her friend, aren’t you?” Mimi asked, almost incredulous.

“Yes and I know you are,” Lucy answered.

Mimi bit her lip before nodding in silent resolve. Lucy held her hand. Mimi found Lucy’s warmer than she expected and surprisingly solid.

Lucy shut her eyes and held out her free hand before her, muttering her incantation, “O Heavens above, be thou and all below none but space and time sewn as one…”

Mimi only watched expectantly, wonder on her face. For a magical construct, Lucy seemed genuinely sentient and well-versed with magic. Her heart thumping madly, Mimi inwardly cursed her own helplessness. Her experience in the battlefield told her that shots in the heart are fatal. The victim would lose consciousness immediately, and brain death would follow in less than two minutes. Even if the victim received instant magical attention, there were the matters of getting the bullet out, stopping the bleeding, and then replacing the blood loss. Surviving just one of those steps was a feat.

The rain did not lighten. It poured down noisily, indifferent to whatever that had befallen the mortals kneeling on the river of asphalt.

Mimi felt some strength leaving her body. There was a soft pop and a light splatter of blood. She winced. But in seconds, the rain washed everything away. She shivered, both from the cold and from dread.