Ch.1-3 ¤ Wildcards

I used to work for the Ninth, but now Fate apparently decided it would be funny to make it so I'd end up with their old enemy from the Third. It had been about a week now since the world went insane on me, but I've managed to adapt. Honestly? the ease I've had in doing so actually bothers me. I shouldn't be taking this so lightly. Everything I strove for, everyone I enjoyed and would die for. Even my loyal partner.  Everything's been stripped away from me.

And I'm just calmly chilling with strangers who picked me off the streets. What the bloody fuck is wrong with me.

"So.. that's about it."Silke finished her explanation with a small confirming nod in emphasis. The two of us were sitting across the 'living room' part of the lounging area. She was sitting properly, if a little nervously, while I was lazily laying down on one of the couches, hands joined under my head as I listened.

"That's pretty interesting, actually." I found myself replying. " Explains a lot of things about how the Officio used to work and how their layout is designed." I hid a small yawn by turning my head away towards the seat of the couch for a few seconds; hadn't really slept in the past few days.

"Y-yes, it... got a little difficult at times.." I raised an eyebrow at her comment before letting out a small chuckle.

"Hey, no need to be all modest. We all have to deal with crap one way or another and I'm pretty sure I'd feel like shit if I was in your situation." The Culexus remained silent and looked away slightly.

She eventually managed to mutter a small "thank you" I could have missed if my senses weren't sharpened to high levels by the magic flowing through my blood. I just smiled and teased her a little.

"No coming too close though, I can only tolerate so many headaches in a day."

Silke let out a small 'hmf' and I just chuckled again.

"I can't help but wonder though.." The little Culexus picked up in a more confident tone than usual, it almost felt like she was just thinking out loud rather than addressing me directly. "Why are you affected this much."

 "Hm?"

"No one else gets sick when my suit is set to maximum like this, but you still feel the effects, I wonder why."

I slowly picked myself up from my lazy laying down position and shifted up to a leisurely sitting position, resting my cheek on cold fleshmetal fingers in thought. It was a bit strange like she said. I never really spent time with Culexi back at the Ninth, so the question never really came up. It did mean I had to be even more careful if I was especially vulnerable to their attacks like she was implying. Already my mind started to race thinking of ways of how I could try to deal with this kind of situations.

"Actually, if you don't mind.." Silke perked up lightly at my words. "I'd appreciate if we could schedule some training at some point." she tilted her head slightly, even with the visor on I could tell she must have been looking at me like I was crazy - which is a perfectly valid thing to do, but that's beside the point. "Don't give me that, I'm serious."

There was a few seconds of silence followed by a small sigh. "..If you insist, then I'll see what I can do to help." Her vox-caster concealed the tone of her voice, but from the body language and pace, I could tell she wasn't all that happy with it.

There was an awkward moment for a while longer. She was clearly a bit uncomfortable, but for what reason I couldn't tell for sure. Could be bad previous experiences trying to do the same for all I knew. Either way I decided to drop the topic for the time being and stood up, heading to the kitchen section while stretching my arms a little.

"What are you up to?" she leaned forward from her seat as I started rummaging through the fridge and counters. I caught a glance of her fidgeting from the side of my eye. "Trying to pull my weight" I responded evenly as I kept searching.

The Culexus soon enough hopped down from her big chair and headed over, taking care to remain at least two meters off to my side. Still gave me a slight headache, but it was small enough for me not to care. "What are you looking for?" she asked simply, looking as if she wanted to help. "Alcohols. I used to work at a bar so I know all kinds of mixes."

Silke seemed to stiffen a little, I almost felt like she was going to try to sermon me or something - she looked young enough for that - but she didn't. "Suzume only buys wines." I stopped my search and leaned back slightly. That was a problem, I didn't know much of any recipe with those things. "It's not like you have to anyway... it's.. it's unhealthy you know..." Ah, there was a sermon after all, but she didn't look all that convinced by her own words.

"It helps relax. It's kind of like smoking cigarettes except instead of blowing the smoke into everyone's faces it's something you can keep to yourself."

 Silke swayed a little on her tiptoes before giving another feeble-sounding rebuttal. "W-well, both are bad..."

I just shrugged and leaned against the counter. "Look, I can understand trying to be as good as you can be, but we all have to cope with a lot of stress and bullshit. Except if we let things fester instead of just having a small mental breakdown we turn into screeching monsters." A small gasp escaped her mouth, I soothed my own voice, trying to be comforting. "So it's all right. We can have a few vices to indulge in, it helps keeping us sane and functioning. 'Don't have to try to shoulder the whole world. "

The little Culexus sighed lightly and remained silent for a second or two before taking a few steps and reaching up to give me a pat on the head. I froze in place for a moment, completely at a loss as to how to react to something like that.

I knew shit was going to get awkward.

"You try to act all spooky and tough, but you're really a good girl inside." At this point I felt a little bit of red creep up to my cheeks; and it wasn't blood for once.

"The hell I am!" I finally growled out as she took a few steps back. "I don't "act" or any of that bullshit, I'm always me."

"I know." she simply answered, taking another step back to avoid a punch that never came. "I can tell."

I sighed deeply, trying to contain my exasperation. What the fuck was up with her all of a sudden? I grumbled lightly and took my bottle of vodka from my inventory, setting it down on the counter with a loud 'thud', which got a small tilting of the head out of her. "You're going to drink and you're going to like it."

"Hum, Tatsuki--"

 "No buts, it's the price for making fun of me just now." I immediately cut her and she slumped slightly, probably resigned. "Now now, don't make that face, it's really good stuff I'm sharing with you here."

"What face?" she quickly protested a bit louder than her usual tone. "You can't even see my face behind this!"

I just shrugged as I started to pour two glasses of pure Russian goodness. "Relax." I let out calmly before picking up my own and sampling a small sip. All hail the Drink of Kings. "I'm not really going to force you." she sighed lightly and tiptoed again, hazarded a glance to the glass, then to me, then back to the glass.

When she finally decided to lift her visor, my headache exploded a few levels. I grit my teeth at the sudden pain but bore with it. I emptied the rest of my own glass in a quick gulp to help with it then reported my attention back on her.

Her face really did look innocent, no matter how much I looked. She had short blue hair and gentle green eyes. It's when I saw those eyes that I knew for sure; she wasn't meant to be a Magical Girl. They were eyes that made you feel like you wanted to protect them from all the horrors we can't run away from. But at the same time, they weren't completely naive. She had seen her share already; I could feel that much.

Silke cautiously took the glass I had offered her and gave it a look as if it was some sort of dangerous poison or radioactive material before slowly bringing it closer and eventually to her lips. It was kinda cute actually, especially with that face of hers. She took a tiny sip and blinked before shivering. "..warm.. it's cold, but then warm.." She looked down with a curious expression and took another, longer sip. She coughed lightly and tried to cover her mouth with a gloved hand.

"TATSUKI" another now-familiar voice suddenly roared behind me loud enough for me to turn around and take a stance. "What do you think you're doing with my little German!" Suzume was standing barely half a meter away from me, most likely having snuck in with one of her Callidus Tricks while I wasn't looking.

I let out a small chuckle and shrugged, trying to put on an innocent look of my own. I was probably failing badly though. There's no way I can ever be considered that anymore anyway.

The Callidus' expression softened a little and she put a hand on my shoulder. "Just teasing." she then leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes before adding in a whisper. "But if you try to get her drunk to take advantage of her I'll put you in a Barrier that'll make you beg it was a Witch's.~" I remained silent and blinked once with a neutral expression.

Silke blushed slightly as she stepped in  "J-jeez Suzume I can take care of myself!" Yes she can, now if only she could avoid coming this close with her visor open I would appreciate. I get the feeling this stabbing pain in my gut is going to become nasty any moment now. I let out a small grunt and she seemed to realize, taking a step back and slamming her visor shut. A glance at her glass made me realize she had already downed it all. What?

"Well, I digress." Suzume leaned against the counter as well and brought a hand to her hair, adjusting it carefully like she seemed to always do. "I just met with one of my contacts and found us a little job." I gave her a small look. This time she wore a pretty regal cocktail dress of midnight blue with small purple styling and details. Looked about right for meeting with a client.

"So what's it going to be?" I crossed my arms and titled my head slightly in wonder.
"Escort duty." she responded with a hint of tease.
"Oh come on!" I objected with a roll of the eyes.
"For a cargo ship." she smirked and specified, leaving my interest renewed:
"Go on."

Suzume nodded and moved away from the counter, heading for her usual throne-like chair in the lounge."Long story short, a museum burned down and all the salvaged works are being transferred to a new exposition site. There's for entire billions' worth of art pieces in that ship on the black market."

"Classic, so they think pirates are going to try to intercept?" I headed over as well with Silke in tow before getting a seat myself.

"That's a bit of an understatement actually. The sponsors received an ultimatum by an unknown source that says unless the cargo surrender at a specific location and time, the entire crew is going to die and that no amount of security will be able to prevent that." Suzume explained calmly as she joined her hands.

"Now you're talking my language." I couldn't help but smirk. After all the crap I've went through lately I really needed an opportunity like this to unwind. "So we're expecting Officio opposition? Sounds like something the Tenth would do."

The ice-eyed Callidus nodded lightly. "No doubt, their ultimatum was very arrogantly written. They must have something they believe to be a trump card of sorts. That is why I'll be sending the two of you." she made eye contact with the both of us for emphasis. "Tatsuki, I trust you will be able to take on and defend against whatever they will be throwing at the client. You will be acting as lure while Silke finds and shuts down whatever it is they have up their sleeves."

"That sounds right up my alley." my smirk widened at the prospect of a last stand with unknown forces crashing down. For the first time in a week, I felt excitement again. "I'll show them why they used to call me the Phoenix of the Ninth." Suzume tilted her head with a small amount of confusion, most likely having never heard of any such title. It stung, hard, but I just put on a token smile and waved it off. "Nevermind."

"The data?" Silke asked flatly as she stood back up, soon answered by another nod from the Callidus. "I already added it in." The Culexus looked back to me and made a motion to tell me to come over as she walked to a side-room that held a lot of electronic material; surveillance equipment mostly.

I was honestly a little surprised when I saw just how well the little German handled all this equipment. When it comes to combat, it's not uncommon to hear people speak of how they see their weapons as extensions of themselves. That was roughly the feeling I was getting when I watched her. In no time flat she pulled up the exact location the ultimatum asked for, the sea charts for the vicinity, the weather conditions for the specified time, the itinerary of the cargo and its blueprints and specifications.

"Here, please review this." I blinked lightly at the Culexus and gave her a look. "It's all you'll need to know so.. please memorize it well!" I couldn't help but nod at the enthusiasm in her outburst. What a strange girl. I took a seat in front of all the monitors and started to check everything. I doubted I'd actually make use of all that intel, but there was time to spare.

Time that couldn't make me more eager for it to pass quickly.