Ninjas!
(Wednesday, 15th of Lover's Harp Moon, 2021 )
Jack and Luna ran up the stairs towards Princess Hina's location, with Father Time in his hand while Luna carried a Bone Collector Revolver. Jack left Jojo in his hotel room. Both of them ran up the stairs to reach Princess Hina as fast as possible, while Leia had a better idea by using her jetpack to shoot herself through the hotel floors. To no one's surprise, Leia got there before Jack and Luna. From the top of the stairwell, Jack could see blue bursts of light come from the top of the stairwell. It was quieter than gunshots, yet Jack could hear booms and explosions. Rasputin soon joined the two of them up the stairs. The three of them reached the top of the stairs to see Leia, surrounded by a force field that deflected the katanas the ninjas were using.
"Ninjas?" Jack formed a dog hand sign with his left hand as his right hand held Father Time. "This feels like a crappy 80's film. Anubis!"
A jackal head shot up from Leia's shadow and bit one of the ninjas' arms off, causing him to clutch the wound. Rasputin rushed forwards, with a golden energy surrounding his palms. Rasputin rushed towards two of the ninjas, and his palms collided with both of the ninjas' heads. A golden jolt of light and electricity coated the two ninjas, making them twitch violently before the barrage of energy suddenly ceased, along with their movements. Rasputin dropped the two bodies, and smirked while looking at the remaining ninjas.
"The lord disapproves of your actions, so do me a favor and just perish in the name of the lo-!" Rasputin was then suddenly pierced in the stomach by a katana, which was smaller than Mifu's, yet it came out on the other side of Rasputin's body.
"Rasputin!" Jack fired Father Time at the ninja who stabbed Rasputin, nailing him right in the shoulder, and slowing him down.
"Do not Fret my friend, for you see, the gracious lord has blessed me with a body that shall not fall unless he himself deems it so!" Rasputin's palms were now coated in a thick layer of light instead of golden lightning. "Another blessing is that what doesn't kill me, makes my faith in the lord even stronger!"
Before Jack could question what Rasputin meant, Rasputin slammed his palm against the ninja's chest, causing a pillar of light to shoot out from behind the ninjas' back, engulfing the entire hallway in a thick light, like a very long flash bang just went off. There was no sound from the attack, only light, and the light was blinding. Even Jack was affected by the light. While Jack was blinded, Jack aimed Father Time's barrel down at the ground to prevent himself from accidentally shooting anyone. On the other hand, Luna was almost entirely unaffected because she closed her eyes at the exact moment the light engulfed the halls.
"Hehe~, lucky me~" Luna smiled upon noticing that all of the ninjas were disorientated and she aimed her revolver at one of the ninjas. "Kaaaa-BOOM!"
Luna staggered from the recoil of her gun, only to miss her shot entirely. The bullet soared past the ninja, and instead, it hit the metal rod behind the group of ninjas. The bullet ricocheted off the metal pipe and bounced into the drywall ceiling. While inside of the drywall ceiling, it ricochets off the water pipe of the floor above, causing a crack to appear in the pipe before bouncing off that pipe, and another before shooting out of the wall to shoot back into the wall on the left. The bullet then bounced off another pipe to exit the wall again, this time to pierce through the shoulder of one ninja, coming out of the other shoulder to pierce the chest of a second ninja. At the same time, the water pipe that had cracks fell apart, causing water to spill all over the hotel floor, soaking the ninjas in water.
"Target advantage calculated, arm damage type: electrical, damage output decreased by 100%, damage spread increased by 500%." Leia aimed her arm cannon, which made her look like that one girl from Metroid, at the ninjas.
Blue electricity began condensing into the arm cannon, and Rasputin jumped back from beating up one of the ninjas to avoid the oncoming attack. Leia's eyes glowed a soft green color before she shot her hand cannon. Electricity shot forth from the arm cannon, and clung to the ninjas. They were paralyzed, but some let out pained yells before collapsing on the ground, twitching on the wet ground. Jack's eyes opened to reveal that the fight was already over, and all the ninjas were on the ground.
"Wow, I didn't do shit that entire fight." Jack commented before making Father Time disappear. "Thanks for covering up my sorry ass, I'll get you guys bubble tea after this."
"Princess Hina's location is nowhere in my 500 meter search radius." Leia informed Jack, and Jack let out an annoyed 'hm' sound. "That sound. Are you constipated, Jack?"
"No, just mildly infuriated." Jack scowled and walked towards Hina's door and kicked it down, only to notice that it was unlocked.
Jack noticed something about the lock though, the bolt of the lock was missing. Jack knew for a fact that Hina was incapable of removing the bolt because she had no tools, or any other belongings aside from clothes. Jack entered Hina's bedroom to see that the only accommodations that were made in the girl's bedroom were the removal of one of the beds and addition of stairs to the single remaining bed. Jack looked at the bathroom to see that it was closed. Given the height of the doorknob, Jack wasn't sure if Hina could actually reach the doorknob. Jack opened the door to the bathroom to see that there were no stools or steps in the entire room. Jack wasn't sure if Hina was able to reach the counter top of the room, and given how the stairs didn't move.
"Guys, what if the people who set up the room weren't expecting her to use the bathroom?" Jack wondered, ignoring the slightly disgusted stare from Luna. "What if they weren't planning for her to stay in the long term, or even the night?"
"You're saying this was intended?" Leia questioned while scanning the room for further pieces of evidence. "Forgive me, but it is hard to tell, I am unable to tell whether or not someone is being rhetorical."
"Oh, my bad." Jack apologized before clearing his throat. "What I'm guessing is that someone intentionally set Hina's kidnap up."
"Well that giant flower off in the distance looks promising." Luna pointed out the hotel window, and Jack was curious as to what she could be talking about.
Jack walked to the window to look outside. It was hard to see outside in the dark and murky thanks to the night sky. Lucky for Jack, lanterns lit the area below. Most of Hinode Jack could see consisted mainly of thick forests and some small villages like the one he and his group landed at. These smaller villages had towers that had massive lanterns hovering over them like hot air balloons, illuminating the dark night sky above and murky forest below. The lights also illuminated something massive coming from the ground. The massive object had a massive green stalk, with leaves scattered around its massive stalk. Jack followed the green stalk until his eyes reached the top of the stalk, and he saw a flower bud, not ready to bloom just yet. Jack then looked down to see the stalk was in the middle of some kind of castle ruins, as though it suddenly shot up from the middle of the castle. The castle was on the top of a nearby mountain, further increasing the flower's elevation.
"How the hell did we not notice the giant plant thing?!" Jack gestured his hands towards the giant flower. "Like, it's at least as tall as Sanctuary!"
"Scans show that the flower grew just recently, 8 seconds ago to be exact." Leia scanned the plant as Jack noticed some kind of light flowing towards him, similar to that guy who gave Jack the hand magic. "What the hell?"
"What's that light?" Luna pointed at the light coming towards Jack, and he looked at the source of the light, only to see it was coming from Hina's duffle bag, which was left behind thanks to her kidnapping.
"It's my class skill, Power of Ancients, allows me to learn ancient or forgotten magic..." Jack walked towards the duffel bag as the light became brighter and brighter.
Jack grabbed Hina's duffle bag, and placed it on the bed. Jack unzipped the bag to peer into the bag, checking it to see if there were any clues Jack could have possibly missed. Inside the bag were nothing more than clothes, but Jack removed the clothes to see where the light was coming from. Underneath Hina's packed clothes were three things, some books of some kind of god Jack was unfamiliar with, and a picture frame depicting what Jack assumed to be Hina's family. Weirdly enough, the light was coming from the two books.
"What the shit?" Jack picked up both of the books. "Why am I gaining abilities from these?"
"Oh, those books contain the teachings of a long forgotten god, he was often called 'He Who Dreams'." Leia informed you in a robotic voice. "There may be limited data on him, but if you like, I can assist you in discovering those abilities."
"Nope, let's just focus on finding Hina, then we'll see." Jack grabbed Hina's clothes and put them back in her bag. "Also, I didn't want to seem rude, but Rasputin has been bleeding out this entire time, so can we do something about that?"
"Fear not, the lord will not let me die!" Rasputin had his hands in a prayer motion, but Jack still wanted something to help cover the wound.
"Okay, let's go to the lobby." Jack then remembered his doubts that the hotel staff were innocent in all this. "In the meantime, let's go investigate them."
Jack finished repacking Hina's bag and slung it over his shoulder. As the four of them descended the stairs, Jack ran back to his room to get Jojo. As you went to the room to get your badger, Jack's three teammates went ahead into the lobby. Jack entered his room and picked up the honey badger, which was still fast asleep. Jack picked up the badger and carried it like one would carry a baby. Amazingly, the badger actually made Jack feel at ease. That was until the sound of gunshots suddenly alerted Jack that something was going on down stairs. Jack ran down the stairs to see all of the hotel staff lined up, on their knees and hands in the air as Luna had her revolver out.
"OI, WHAT'S GOIN ON HERE?!" Jack shouted at his teammates, while Rasputin was on his knees praying. "IS THIS A FUCKEN ROBBERY?!"
"No, this is an interrogation." Leia had her eyes glued on the people who were kneeling in front of Luna. "All of their anxiety levels are spiking, so lying would be ill advised."
"Honestly, they look like they're about to have an anxiety attack." Jack sweatdropped while looking at the scene before him. "Luna, put the gun away, and let's talk this out like civilized adults."
"But they already told me some interesting things!" Luna aimed her revolver at the receptionist. "Like how they weren't associated with the ninjas, instead, they were held hostage and threatened to be killed if they didn't listen to their demands!"
"If they're innocent, then don't aim the gun at them." Jack took away Luna's gun and looked at Leia. "What about you, are you able to tell if they're lying or not?"
"I can tell, and from what I see, she's telling the truth." Leia informed Jack while Jojo was cradled in Jack's remaining arm. "According to her, there was a horse that was left behind outside that one of the ninjas used to ride here, but it was left here to make a quick getaway."
"Cool, so maybe we can use this horse to track the head ninja down?" Luna took her gun back from Jack, but put it in her holster instead of aiming at an innocent person. "Well, we need to get moving, but I feel like we're forgetting something."
"Oh yeah, staff, can we get a big band aid or something, the priest idiot got stabbed with a samurai sword and needs medical attention." Jack pointed his thumb at Rasputin.
"I'll be okay, but I could go for some bandages to stop the bleeding." Rasputin was still slightly annoyed with the bleeding, so one of the staff ran off to get Jack's group a first aid kit.
Upon receiving the first aid kit, Rasputin stitched his wounds shut with surprising precision and covered them with a bandaid. The four of them left the hotel to see an odd looking horse sniffing Ebony Horse, and kicked it lightly with its hoof. Leia scanned the odd horse as you walked towards the beast. The horse noticed Jack and clopped over to Jack. The horse let out its breath directly in Jack's face before nudging him. Jack somehow understood its desire for attention, so he began stroking its face, feeling how soft its fur is. Speaking of fur, it was all black with some silver stripes.
"Sleipnir." Leia suddenly spoke while looking at the horse. "One of the few and only animated Slayer Weapons, Sleipnir is the horse slayer."
"Huh, I guess the book was right, artifacts are indeed attracted to one another." Jack commented while stroking Sleipnir's long snout. "Wait, all artifacts were made by some guy named Alexander, so how the hell did he make a horse???"
"Well there's also a cat weapon, along with weapons that take the form of an army of tiny reapers, puffy chicks, and pigs capable of performing manual labor." Leia thought to herself. "I think there's also a literal Wyvern, living treasure chest, and genie artifact."
"How were you made?" Jack asked Sleipnir while looking deep into its eyes. "Did Alexander get fucked by a horse and give birth to you?"
"Did you forget that all artifacts were made by Alexander turning consenting leaders of the 72 tribes into weapons?" Leia asked, and yes, Jack had forgotten about that.
"So what was Sleipnir?" Jack asked while looking at Sleipnir's body. "Were they the leader of the horse tribe?"
"Close, the unicorn tribe." Rasputin actually knew his history quite well. "Even though there isn't a horn...maybe it will show with the Unison?"
"Unison?" Jack asked, and Rasputin sighed.
"Everyone can use a slayer weapon, but not everyone can Unison." Rasputin explained. "Unison is when the weapon and person become one, fully accessing the weapon's true potential. Still, these weapons are nothing special without their Unison, so that's why these weapons are abandoned if they can't be used with the Unison."
"So that's why Mary was able to use the Wellerman." Jack noticed that Leia nodded.
"Mary was able to summon parts of the cannon, but she wasn't able to use Unison." Leia only knew about the fight because the entire class was told about what happened. "If she could use its Unison, she could have summoned the entire ship and its fleet with ease."
"Wait, I never performed a Unison with even one of my artifacts, so why is everyone convinced that I can use all of them to their full potential?" Jack asked, and both Luna and Rasputin looked curious.
"This is supposedly information classified by Professor Geppetto, but since it involves you, you have the right to know." Leia then had Luna and Rasputin cover their ears. "You see, normally people can only perform Unison with only ONE slayer weapon in their entire life."
"What do you mean by 'normally'?" Jack noticed that Leia chose her words carefully.
"You are an exception to this." Leia informed Jack in her usual monotone voice. "Before the accident took place, Zane, Alice, Othelia, Rico, and Nico have all reported you being capable of using the Unison of at most 5 different weapons simultaneously."
"Eh? But I never had any artifacts before coming to Oneiro!" Jack then remembered his lantern, something he felt like he should bring along. "Wait, what artifacts did I possess?"
"You possessed Doomed Prince the Lamp, 12 Months the Shape Shifting Gun, Nursery Rhyme the Spellbook, Storyteller the sword, and Ebony Horse the mechanical t-Rex." Leia then wondered something. "According to them, Storyteller was always your go to, yet you summoned Father Time for this fight. Any particular reason?"
"I have no idea where the gun is, but I think I know where the Doomed Prince is." Jack then had Rasputin and Luna uncover their ears. "In the meantime, let's rescue Hina, before figuring out how my dumbass lost three artifacts along with my memories and leg."
"What the hell kind of convo did we miss, Rasputin?"
"No idea Luna, but may the lord guide us to our goal!"
"What religion even are you anyways?"
"I'm Solian."
(A/N: Just to clear up any misconceptions, while this world has a lot of similarities to IRL, but geography and religions aren't in those similarities. Like while some religions in this world bear similarities to IRL religions. Like the Solian is based heavily on Orthodox Christianity. Just note that I don't formally recognize organized religion.