Steel Trim
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Engineering, Magic, and Kitsune Ch. 63
🕑 Added 2026-01-14 03:10:50 +0000 UTCMoment by moment, John marched deeper into the heart of civilization.
This was an awful idea. He didn't know what dangers lurked in Broadstream Town.
Moment by moment, his heart beat faster as he fidgeted, struggling to keep his hands steady.
He should turn back and figure something else out with Yuki. At the very least, he should have co-opted some of the militia to form an honour guard.
Moment by moment, danger drew closer, wearing the shapes of other people.
John withdrew into himself, retreating into the shelter of his mind as he steeled his will. He had done worse; this wasn't anything more dangerous than his regular trips into the woods before Yuki. The hazards just took a different form, that's all.
Out in the forest, it was monsters or priests waiting for him to bumble into their field of view. Here, it was just people who may or may not blend in with the local population! Never mind that Kiku could probably shapeshift into a little old lady and grab him from behind when he wasn't looking. He just had to… not let anyone get behind him. Or get too close to him at all. Really, he just had to not interact with anyone, because even if they weren't Kiku, they could be one of her flunkies, and an Unbound presumably didn't have to look dangerous to be a threat.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
His hands steadied, and his heart slowed.
He had the tools to do this, though, even if he didn't have his new and improved gauntlet ready. From his pack, John drew the small crossbow he had attached a particular contraption to, something to even the playing field if it came down to it.
Emptiness-order sheathes were all the rage, after all, and although he could not counter supernatural strength entirely, he could certainly make them easier targets. While Kiku was damn smart, and her allies were getting fed information, what better way to deal with that edge than to show up with a new bag of tricks every time?
He just had to make sure she was well and truly dealt with before his bag of tricks ran dry. As much as he hated to think it, there was no universe where it was enough to just drive Kiku off.
No, they needed some sort of lasting way to deal with her, be that imprisonment, sealing her away, or… other means, although the latter did not bode well for Yuki's mental health. What of the pink kitsune's sliminess would she inherit if her sister were slain?
He had no idea how to fix that, or even if he should. Sure, he could maybe find a way to isolate her from the effects with enough research, but then all that power would likely just go to her remaining sisters, too, and there was no way in hell he could figure out a soul-sieve or something to filter all that out.
Would that not be dooming her to die?
Focus.
With renewed vigour, he resumed his slog into town, vigilant against any threats.
Buildings grew in density as the farmland shrank, fields giving way to a denser core as he trekked further into civilization. The road turned from mud to stone, though it was still choked with debris from the recent rainstorm. In places, he had to step around deep muddy puddles or over thick, heavy branches fallen from nearby trees.
John kept to the left side of the path, deliberately exposing the arm holding the small crossbow to any potential attackers on the road. He wasn't outwrestling anyone with supernatural strength, but hopefully they'd go for the obvious weapon first and let him retaliate with something far more devastating. Lightning had proven rather effective so far, after all.
Most folk were still staying at home, perhaps out of fear of the sky opening up once more, which was all fine by him. Glancing around to make sure nobody was sneaking up on him first, he checked his bearings once more. Following the trajectory of where the first ofuda was pointed, he briefly scanned the area with the ofuda detector, jolting when it faintly clicked as he pointed it down a narrow side road.
There. It was a weak positive, but it was a positive.
Heading down the street, he passed a woman tending a small garden out in front of her house. She was petite, dark-haired, and wearing simple brown clothes, which were maybe a bit threadbare. As he started to pass, she looked up, and her eyes suddenly widened. Hurriedly, she rose and bowed. "Lord Hall!" she said before speeding off back inside.
He let out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding. It was probably for the best that—
The woman rushed back outside, and he tensed up. "Lord Hall, Lord Hall!" she called, leading… a teenage boy by the hand out from her house? Presumably, he was the lady's son, but the petite woman looked pretty young. Honestly, he was awful at estimating ages, even before he lived in isolation for five years. You'd think that calling someone’s daughter their wife was a mistake you'd only made once.
"Are you looking for servants, my lord? My son is going to be looking for a job soon!" she said, pushing the young man forward.
"H-hello, sir, my name is Sano Makoto!" he hurriedly bowed, his voice squeaking. "Please take me on as an apprentice! I'm good at cleaning, and I can run for hours! It'd make delivering messages to your men in the local guard really easy!" The kid's voice hadn't even dropped yet.
John glanced around, trying to make sure that nobody was sneaking up to ambush him.
Nothing. There wasn't a soul in sight other than these two. Was this a trap?
He subtly gave both of them a scan with the Kiku detector, revealing nothing. They seemed clear, although there was still a non-zero chance the promise of wealth could have more conventionally compromised them…
Sighing, he looked at the shabby house behind them. The paint was old and faded, and the door was hardly holding on as rot began to eat away at its edges with all the inexorable determination of a force of nature. No, this was just a mother trying her best for her son, even if the thought of effectively handing off her child to what might as well be a stranger unsettled him.
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm on important business right now. Please ask me again later," he replied, not rejoicing in the way the boy winced. This situation wasn't something he could deal with right now, anyhow. The timer was running, and they only had so long before Kiku realized something was going on.
"Of course, my lord! Excuse our intrusion," she replied, her eyes snapping momentarily to her son with a small lick of anger before pulling him back inside with her.
He hoped that wouldn't become a problem, whatever that was. If people started to try to thrust their children on him, he might end up running a bloody high school before long, once they figured out that he had a soft heart.
Resuming his trek, he carefully followed his detector, although he always ensured to scan for threats around him. Thankfully, the occasional person he passed mostly had better sense than to engage him in conversation. A few started to walk in John's direction, but something in his countenance must have scared them off when he locked eyes with them.
Where the hell was the ambush? Surely Kiku had a plan in place. She had to! When was she going to spring her trap? Maybe she just had her contingency hidden by the ofuda rather than lurking around. Perhaps the second he saw it, whoever was waiting would see him too, and know that he wasn't near Yuki and take action.
His fingers twitched as his eyes darted around, frantically searching for threats.
The signal grew stronger, though the slow trickle of people grew as he ventured deeper into the city's mercantile core, close to the market. With every passing person, the hairs on his arms stood up ramrod straight, as if he were a squirrel trying to puff itself up in the face of a cat.
Movement caught the corner of his eye, and he snapped to the source, arm twitching up as he readied himself to dodge an incoming attack.
First, he pointed the crossbow to make them feel it was the more pressing threat, while he subtly angled the gauntlet in their direction. The movement stilled.
The horrified man hurried back into his house and slid the door shut with an almighty CRACK!
"Sorry, sorry!" John frantically apologized, his arm dropping back to his side before running away, jogging away from the house and letting the poor bastard get back to his day without an unhinged "Unbound" pointing a deadly weapon at him.
He needed to get himself under control before he killed somebody! Was he truly so pathetic that he couldn't deal with some simple problems without Yuki at his side? He had lived without her for years; he could manage a few minutes!
Clamping down on the ever-growing pit in his stomach, he pushed on, more cautious than ever as he followed the signal. Finally, he came across a small plaza. It seemed to be some sort of basic community square. There was some old, half-decayed seating to the edge, currently occupied by some old folks who hadn't yet noticed his arrival, evidently undeterred by the threat of the weather. Beyond that, the cobblestone square had one feature that immediately drew his eye: an old stone well.
And his ofuda detector was going wild while pointed at it.
Keeping the old folks in his peripheral vision after a cursory scan to make sure none of them were Kiku in disguise, John crept up to the well, cautiously looking around for any hint of a threat. The only people he hadn't already accounted for were a couple who curiously watched him from the safety of their house, gossiping at the front door, but they didn't seem like a threat. There were no windows open to peek at him through. Nobody was lurking on the roofs.
He tensed, peeling off the makeshift filter from the front of the magic detector and returning it to its original function. He ran the device over the nearby building. Although there were some very, very weak positives that he could attribute to more typical ofuda, there was nothing overly worrying that could indicate an ambush vector by a magical force.
He had no choice but to press on.
Casting one last glance around the area, John crept up to the well, leaning over to peek into its depths. With the relatively high angle of the sun, he could barely see the water perhaps thirty feet below, a bucket hanging just above it, shrouded in shade. Still, there was no sign of an ofuda.
Unfortunately, there seemed to be plant debris floating on the surface, making it hard to see into the depths. John couldn't imagine that it'd be in a sealed container at the bottom. It'd be too easy to ding it with the bucket and potentially damage the seal, ruining the ofuda once water got inside.
Also, someone should probably clean all that debris out before it started to rot and poison everyone here.
That wasn't the only possible hiding spot, though, was it?
John pulled out his magic detector and ran a quick scan of the walls.
Click.
His eyes locked onto a particular piece of rock in the wall, one that looked maybe a bit loose. Swapping in his telekinetic focus, he easily pried the rock free with a few quick wiggles, popping it out to reveal… There!
A fat-looking envelope of paper was attached to the side of the crevice, almost like a letter hidden away in the secret panel of a desk.
Smile finding its way onto his face as he fished the rock out, John placed it to the side, but a sudden chill shot down his spine as he looked back into the pit. Something was wrong.
Say, what was a piece of reed doing down there? Why wasn't it floating on its side?
John's eyes widened as he saw the faint glint of metal below the water, dodging out of the way just in time as a flaming kunai soared from the water in a jet of steam, punching straight through the roof of the well before flying off into the sky like a misfired firework and screaming off into the distance like a demented projectile.
A moment later, a man followed it, shattering the wood into a storm of splinters with contemptuous ease.
John didn't even bother shielding himself and giving up visibility of the new threat as the man landed on the well's ledge, instead relying on his warding to bounce the splinters, which it did admirably.
He was tall, lean, and mean, wearing a deep blue shirt with torn sleeves; his corpse-pale arms terribly scarred, looking like he had been through a dozen too many barfights. Resting heavily on his long, gangly limbs, he perched like a gargoyle on the lip; his long, soaking hair provided him a faux-veil before he whipped it out of the way and revealed a borderline feral snarl, exacerbated by half of his upper lip being missing, exposing violent red gums.
Somewhere in the background, the older people screamed as they frantically evacuated, and the couple slammed their door shut.
Who the hell was this guy? How was he not affected by the ofuda?
John looked him up and down, noting the lack of obvious yokai features aside from some pointed nails, but those could be found on mundane locals. Were Unbound that didn't become more yokai-like entirely immune to the effect?
"Hey," John said, voice a mask of false calmness even as he tried to figure out how the hell to get enough time to get on his flying disc at this range. "Someone is going to have to fix that, you know."
The man laughed, though it was bitter, more forced out of some misguided politeness than anything. "She didn't tell me you had any wit. Really, I was told you were more the whining, simpering type," the man spat, voice full of gravel.
"Really now? Here I thought she had a crush on me," John responded, slowly, almost lazily raising his crossbow as he bought time to think of a plan even as panic threatened to flood his veins… but it didn't boil over. "How long did she leave you waiting in that pit? A day? A week? I hope she lets you have bathroom breaks; cleaning wells out sucks."
There was a constant, building anxiety coiling around his heart like a serpent, but he remained calmer than he thought he should be. Honestly, he might have been less panicked than when he expected someone to jump out from around the corner at any moment.
Perhaps he was getting too used to life-or-death situations.
The man growled out, "Watch it, pest. I just have to take you to her alive. You don't have to be entirely intact." Another kunai slipped from his sleeve, immediately igniting the second it touched his hand.
It was good information that the Unbound wasn't trying to kill him, even if he seemed like he wanted to. At the very least, the mystery man might pull his punches a bit.
Maybe John could get on his disc if he got the man to look away? Sure, he could still try to hit him in the air, but his warding held up to getting chucked through a tree by that other Unbound; it should be able to handle a knife or two. From there, he could figure out a way to immobilize this bastard.
The man seemed damn fast from that jump, and if John went to climb on the disc, he'd get tackled in a second. Now, the real question: how much did Kiku tell the man? Did he know that John wasn't an Unbound? Would he expect superhuman physicality?
John huffed, shaking his head. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage. They call me Hall John," he stated. "You already know that, though. Who am I duelling today?"
Something—John didn't know how to describe it—in the man's stance shifted, and he rolled out of the way just in time as a blur streaked past him, but he could feel something catch on his bag with a loud CLUNK.
Pivoting, John raised his weapon just in time to see the side of a building borderline fucking detonate in a shower of flame and fury, a chorus of screams and shouts erupting as the structure burst into flame, followed by John's now dislodged flying disc skidding to a stop in front of the inferno.
"Hear me, Hall John!" the man screamed as he walked out from the wall of flames, appearing like an ashy apparition. He was… different now. Where was once pale, scarred skin was a thick, heavy layer of earthen armour worn like platemail. The only thing he could still see was the eyes; those damned yellow eyes. "You killed my brother! The kitsune will have her prize, but I will reap my toll first!"
Oh. Oh shit!
Again, that unmistakable feeling of danger struck John, and he ran out of the way just as a stone pillar erupted under where he used to stand.
Instinctively, he fired his loaded crossbow at the now armoured juggernaut.
"Ha, what, does the big, scary hermit—" the man began before the bolt impacted his chest, the emptiness aspected magic scattering the dense shell of order before a time delay core of gravity pulled it back together, coating the man in a thick shell of air that really didn't want to move. "What?" He took a heavy step forward, as if he were walking through a swamp.
Frantically, John swapped his gauntlet's focus to the cold focus, pointing it not at the man but past him, unleashing a stream of sheer cold onto the inferno, smothering it before the fire got out of control, only forming a layer of frost upon the behemoth set of armour.
"This won't stop me from breaking every bone in your body!" the man growled, stomping toward John with enough force that the earth shook beneath his tread, pure superhuman strength letting him brute-force the slow even though it looked like he was moving underwater.
He only hoped Yuki was having an easier time of things.
Comments
Chargcake
Next chapter pls
Paxmorgana
I thought next week was the break week. Not angry, just curious if next week there will or won't be a chapter.
Vlad Cold
Nice one. Would be interesting take one for interrogation, though I'm not sure how can you take one alive. On a side note, if reverse gravity vector and throw him high in the air, would it make his earth-bound abilities useless, making him good target for lightning?
TACNUK3Z
holy. fuckin. shit. IT'S TIME
K
Oh. That guy he almost accidentally cut in half. Of course he had a brother. They always do.
