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“So how does this work exactly?” Yoruichi asked as the two entered the Pactio chambers of Mahora Academy, along with Chachamaru and Eva, who were along to officiate and observe respectively.
“It’s rather simple. The two of you will stand in the magic formation and initiate physical contact. Kiss is the common method, albeit not necessary. A hug, or even a handshake is enough, though that can influence the result.” Chachamaru explained.
"In what way? What kind of result are we expecting?" Yoruichi questioned while looking at the church-like building. It felt a bit like a wedding all things considered, without all the guests and partying.
"The Pactio has two results when initiated between what we'd call two Knights." Eva took over the explanation. "The first one is that the both of you will gain an artifact of some sort. The artifact is quite random, but generally, it reflects the user in some way. It's rarely entirely useless, though that has happened as well. Additionally, both of you gain the ability to lend some of your power to your partner in the form of a buff to their stats. How much power and how large of a buff depends. For both, the strength of the connection between two people is a major factor, as is compatibility, and the emotions you put into the Pactio during the process.”
"O…K…sounds weird but let's get to it," Yoruichi stated while practically skipping towards a magical circle drawn on the ground. "Done this before?" She asked Seraphiel.
“No, though I’ve seen it done many, many times. Negi got into too many Pactios especially considering his age.” She explained.
Chachamaru channeled some mana into the circle and nodded towards them. “You may initiate whenever ready.”
There was no hesitation as Yoruichi pulled her into a heated kiss. The circle glowed brightly as the two channeled their feelings towards each other. The feelings between the two were complicated, to say the least. They’d been lovers for hundreds of years, though they had not been a very traditional couple. Exclusive and monogamous were words not really associated with what they’d had. They had loved each other, and still did on many levels. But describing the feelings formed over centuries of care and all the shared experiences with the simple word love was not quite fair. Desire, comfort, trust, playfulness, hope, pleasure, reliance, faith, amusement, laughs, teasing, and many others were twined into this rope of emotions. There was also exasperation, anger, frustration, longing, fear, loss, regret, and many more negative feelings in the mix, but those were in the minority.
They had faced unbelievable danger and the weight of years together. The weight of those emotions and all those years was much more than the fresh budding feelings of most new couples that performed the Pactio ritual, and the result showed. Both were surrounded by vast quantities of mana as the formation drew on the surroundings. As the ritual came to an end, they were both holding their artifacts.
Yoruichi had a pair of gloves. “What’s this?” She asked a little confused. The gloves looked like simple black velvet.
"I'll identify them now," Chachamaru stated, casting a stronger identification spell than the basic Skill that most everyone had. "Ah, they're a sort of weapon. The Assassin's Hands. They draw on the shadow realm and allow your physical attacks to ignore a portion of the target's defenses. They can also extend to the rest of your body and can even shape weapons if you want. It seems the longer the Pactio exists, the better the gloves become at ignoring defenses.”
“Ooh, that has always been a bit of an issue for me since I don’t use my Zanpakutō in battle. Nice!” She cheered a bit. She’d always been a great martial artist and very fast, but she lacked some striking power against heavily defensive opponents.
“What about you? Where’s your artifact?” Eva asked Seraphiel.
“You can’t see it?” She asked in confusion. She had a long red string in her hands. “I’m holding it right now.”
“No. I can’t see anything either.” Chachamaru confirmed.
"Interesting," Seraphiel muttered and used her [Gift of Knowledge] instead. What she saw suddenly made her grin widely.
“Oh, someone is happy. Something good obviously.” Yoruichi noted.
“Oh, yes.” Seraphiel practically purred. “It can help me find things and people. No matter the distance and the dimensions between us. It’s called the Red String of Fate.” She tested it by thinking of Rangiku, and the string suddenly seemed to stretch infinitely into the sky. She got a feel of the general distance, and where her target was, as well as their current condition. Rangiku was sleeping of course. She also knew she would be able to find her target, even with her eyes closed. “This is going to be very, very useful, even if it’s not something for battle.”
“I can think of a dozen applications right away, and that’s without understanding the exact function.” Eva nodded in agreement. “Can you find anyone and everything?”
“I get the sense there are limitations, but that those limitations will grow less strenuous and restricting as time passes, just like Yoruichi’s artifact. The most obvious limitation for now seems to be that if I want to find someone I haven’t met, it’s going to take a lot more power to maintain the effect. Although, that means I can still find anyone, just that I might need to do it in short spurts, resting between uses.”
“That sounds extremely handy, indeed.” Yoruichi nodded. “There are countless bounties we could collect, just to name the most obvious use. I’m sensing our mercenary band will become famous for finding people and stuff pretty quickly.”
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Seraphiel extended her hand, palm upwards, in front of her and focused. She could sense the target of the thread not far from her, and a little bit above, which meant the building in front of them. "He's inside." She stated, slumping slightly from the effort of using her artifact. Her words caused Yoruichi and Wrex to rush inside, while Tatsumiya remained on overwatch and Kaede disappeared into the shadows. The sound of shots being fired quickly started echoing through the doors and windows, as multiple people fought back, unsuccessfully.
Chachamaru crossed another name off a list when the shooting came to an end. “I have to say, these last couple of weeks have been really good for our reputation. Four high-profile fugitives, and two missing people found.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Yeah, but it’s bloody exhausting, and doesn’t leave much in the tank for me to participate in the combat portion of the whole thing.” She replied. The exhaustion was more mental and draining on her power reserves, instead of physical exhaustion. The good part of being a psion was quick regeneration though, so she could give Yoruichi a boost through the Pactio as her powers recovered. Not that it was really necessary most of the time. As she naturally used her Paladin abilities to buff up her entire group, she’d been relegated to a support member, being the lowest-level person in the group anyway. Very, very useful as proper supports could be real force multipliers, but a little boring. She could also be the healer as well, though that hadn’t been necessary so far.
“Still gains you experience, doesn’t it?” Chachamaru asked rhetorically, already knowing the answer.
“Of course.” She confirmed. “And a lot of it.”
The System recognized the contributions of both non-combat and combat support Classes. When you used supportive abilities, a small portion of the experience gained by those under the effect was transferred to you. So she got credit for both supporting her friends in combat, as well as finding the target in the first place.
The den they'd raided this time was one run by surviving Batarian slavers. The Batarians as a race had been effectively wiped out after they tried to enslave the wrong person, but that didn't mean the few remaining pockets of that race changed their ways. No, in fact, they doubled down on what they knew best, unknowingly leading to the slow extinction of their race. Slow extinction that most other races were more than happy to hurry along. No one liked Batarians. Not even other Batarians.
"Is this the last job for the Council?" Seraphiel asked since Chachamaru was the one keeping record of such things.
“Aside from tracking down one last missing person, yes," Chachamaru confirmed without even checking her list.
“Can you give me the details while we wait?” She asked and was handed a sheet with a picture of a young girl and some basic information. “Hmm, a little thin on the details, but I can try.”
She focused for a bit of time, picturing the girl in her mind, activating her artifact. At first, she thought there were not enough details, or she was simply too low on power. It had already been proven that the more she knew about the person, the easier it was to use the artifact. But a less positive thought occurred to her, which got confirmed quickly. "I'm afraid we're too late." She said in a sad voice.
“How do you know?” Chachamaru asked.
"I tried finding her and got nothing. On a hunch, I tried finding her remains and got a hit. They're actually on this world.” She gave the bad news.
Chachamaru made a face. “That’s too bad. The parents were really hopeful. Though I suppose there’s nothing we can do about it.” She tapped her clipboard. “They’d likely want the remains returned at least.”
“It would at least be confirmation and closure, and considering we're already on the correct world, it would be a polite thing to do. Besides, we might stumble on her abductors. While revenge isn’t something that will bring the child back, it would still be better than knowing the perp is still out there.” She responded, just as Wrex came outside while dragging the badly mangled corpse of a particular Batarian. Enough for identification.
“We’ll need to handle another job. It’s on the same world.” Seraphiel announced.
"I think I heard the prudish one say something of a little girl," Wrex grunted, referring to Chachamaru. Funnily enough, the android was the only one not wearing clothing that could be considered racy. “I’m certainly game for saving one of the little ones.”
“Unfortunately, this isn’t a rescue. It’s recovery of remains and a potential revenge-kind of situation.” Seraphiel corrected with a shake of her head.
Wrex and Yoruichi growled both. “I’m even more game for taking out a child killer.” The Krogan stated with a dark voice.
Unfortunately for them, the site where the remains were was abandoned, and no signs remained of a possible culprit. And while Seraphiel's artifact could do many things, it couldn't find something as abstract as 'the person who killed this child'. At least for now, she still needed to know who or what she was looking for. "In that case, we're up," Kaede announced, stepping forward with Tatsumiya. Both were experts at tracking and discovering clues and information.
"It's a shame I've never had abilities related to psychometry," Seraphiel muttered as she watched the two work. The closest she’d gotten was when she’d been a Vampire. Some Vampires had those sorts of abilities, but those were mostly Malkavians, and she thanked all that was holy that she’d not been part of that Clan during her time as a Vampire.
"That one's pretty rare," Chachamaru added her two cents. "Even in the academy, we rarely saw anyone like that. Many people simply don't think of it when their Skill slots are already limited."
"If the girl's soul was still around, I could talk to it, but souls rarely linger for too long in this universe," Yoruichi added. Resurrection Skills were also possible but extremely rare. Those also tended to need the presence of the soul, limiting their use to those recently dead.
“We’ve got something!” Kaede announced suddenly. “It’s not much, but Tatsumiya might be able to use it to trace the killer.”
Tatsumiya’s eye was glowing enough to burst into flames, but she quickly followed some trace invisible to the others. The entire group followed behind, most of them capable of traversing large distances quickly. Wrex and Chachamaru were slower, so they went back to the ship to follow with that.
Tatsumiya stopped several times, as if she had to differentiate whatever it was that she was following from other traces, but the journey always continued. Eventually, they started reaching habitation. Simple prefabricated hab-blocks. This world was a remote one with limited habitation. Most of it scum, ranging from raiders to pirates, and even to slavers. This group didn’t seem to be an exception.
“This is as close as I can get us. I can’t differentiate the person we’re looking for from the rest.” Tatsumiya said regretfully.
Their ship landed behind them, drawing attention from the people inside who were all gathering outside. They were a gathering of the majority races of this galaxy. Humans, Turians, Salarians, Krogans, even a few Quarians and Hanar. There were a couple of beings from other universes clearly mixed into the group as well.
“They don’t seem especially reputable, so I would suggest taking all of them out, except then we’d never be sure we got the right person.” Yoruichi pointed out.
"It seems some interrogations are in order," Seraphiel said firmly.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing here?!" One of the Humans called out. It was always the Humans who were the most reckless. Mot would think the Krogans would be the first to pick a fight, but the three Krogans in the group were showing surprising judgment as they were edging out from the rest of the group. Wrex's presence likely helped, as he trooped down the ramp of the ship.
“We’re looking for one particular criminal among you. Unfortunately, we don’t know which one, so we’ll have to do some digging.” Seraphiel announced.
“And who do you thi-“ The same Human tried to say before the crushing weight of both Seraphiel's and Yoruichi's [Reiatsu] forced them all to their knees. These were not crème of the crop warriors with high levels, and they were suffocating under the sudden pressure, barely able to draw breath.
“I wasn’t asking any questions yet. You’ll know when the questioning starts.” Seraphiel said in a voice that brook no arguments.
She slashed her own wrist, allowing blood to flow freely on the ground, surrounding everyone. The sight of seemingly endless blood behaving weirdly and forming into complex magical patterns was enough to spook most of the scum gathered here. She had a nice Blood Magic Ritual in mind, one that would allow her to tell when someone was lying. Vampires were very good with this sort of thing and had developed all sorts of ways to discern liars from those who spoke the truth. They usually also had ways to protect themselves as well, if they were smart, but these people certainly didn’t.
“Now, there are several ways to do this, each more delectable than the ones before. Let me tell you a little secret. A bad torturer only knows how to break the body of their target. A decent torturer knows how to break the spirit of their target. And a good torturer can break the very minds and souls of their targets. Given a little time, I could make you all sing like the little bitches you all are. By the time I would be done with you, you’d not only tell me everything I want to know, but everything you know, offering any morsel of information. And this is the best part. Not to make me stop, but to make me continue. Why? Because whatever dregs remain of your broken empty husk know that once I’m done, there will be nothing left for you. No emotion, no life, no hope. Even if you miraculously found a great healer, nothing would be able to heal the scars on your mind and soul.” The worst part was that Seraphiel said all this with a cheery, almost giddy voice. There was not even a shred of doubt in anyone’s mind whether she was capable of doing what she promised.
“Or…” Yoruichi prompted.
“Or…you can all be boring and help me find who we are looking for.” She said with a disappointed tone.
The scum were happy to squeal all they knew, and they found who they wanted in minutes. After the other scum heard that the Human, it was always a Human, man was a child killer and potentially worse, they offered to execute the man themselves. Feeling charitable, Seraphiel let them. They would take the body back to the parents of the child.
“Damn. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. You would’ve made a great Krogan. Almost to the point that I’m happy you weren’t born as one.” Wrex commented.
"I am a little curious about where you learned so much about torture," Kaede asked, as an aficionado of the field herself.
Seraphiel laughed mirthlessly. “The Eldar’s darker cousins, Drukhari, taught me much. Chaos taught me more. Besides, my brother is literally the Lord of Hell.”
“Raziel?” Tatsumiya asked a little confused.
“Not that brother.” Seraphiel shook her head. “You’d know him best as Lucifer.”
The name carried meaning in many, many universes due to how fundamental the story was to the foundation of the original universe, to the point where many universes had their own version of Lucifer, so they all understood immediately.