Chapter 80 - First Penetration Into The Ivory Quarter

"Remember your Youth!" Were the words that immediately greeted Akira and Kiki, upon first entering the Ivory Quarter, as they continued walking alongside the Dragon Monk Caravan: scrawled across a dismally faded party banner with hanging streamers, stretched between two lamp posts set on either side of a polished, yellow brick walkway.

Kiki tilted her head, perplexed.

"Isn't this like the—"

"No, it isn't," Akira cut back sharply. "Wrong alternate universe. Way wrong."

"...Wizard of Oz…"

In any case, this particular yellow brick path took them directly through the swarming midst of an ocean of grey fog, impenetrable in its thickness beyond just a few meters. Across a sprawling, dewy green lawn, between rows of nostalgic sweet-smelling cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Through an open gate along a red brick wall, with a sign whose words were too faded to read.

Kanna was resting with the pizzas in the back of the wagon cart, so it was just the two carrying on side-by-side. As Kiki was trembling, and not just because of the cool misty air falling against her exposed skin.

"This place gives me the creeps," she said.

"Well, it should," Akira said, pulling her close with one arm. "The elder told me there's been no word from the Ivory Quarter residents in months."

Kiki warily turned to her. "That's...strange."

"Yeah. So it means you'd better stay on your toes," Akira added ominously. 

However, there'd been much more that she asked the elder about, while the two were having their last meeting on business arrangements at the monastery's private tea room. Such as the identity of the [Bookish Monk] she'd witnessed being slain by Purple Fox, during the trial:

"She wasn't given a proper burial, like all the others." Akira had mused, turning away, in deep concentration. "Almost like she never existed."

"You're half right, in your assessment," the elder replied, prompting Akira to face him again as he paused to drink a sip of tea, before continuing: "what you encountered was merely a puppet, being controlled by the person whom you seek. Sent to try to protect you and your friends, by showing you how to survive the trial."

Akira was confused. "A puppet...being controlled…?"

The purple elder nodded. "Hers is a unique type of ability, allowing the wielder to create physical manifestations of their [Mana] which can then be controlled with their mind, through the use of [Mana Strings]—connecting them even across vast distances."

"That explains a lot," Akira said, considering it for a moment before abruptly gasping. "But then, how is it that you know all of this?"

"Call her...an old associate of mine," the elder replied. "That woman, Cita, saved my life. It was one of her puppets that showed me how to beat the trial, back when I first enrolled at the monastery to investigate what had caused my daughter's death."

"Cita?" Akira questioned. "Is that her real name?" It felt strangely familiar, though she couldn't place it.

"I first met her only after I became an elder. When I noticed, after running surveillance duty over the trial across many nights, the same girl would always seem to turn up. A girl whom many of my fellow elders seemed to recognize as well, but not from around the campus—with some even thinking she must have been a ghost. And I recognized her, right away, as being the same woman who saved me.

"So she was opposed to the trial's existence as well," Akira noted, with a raised eyebrow. "Then why couldn't she do more to stop it?"

"I wondered the same thing!" The elder quickly said, excitedly hunching over the tea table "That is why I snuck into the trial chamber with the next group of acolytes one night, while [Invisible], to see if I could make contact with her." 

The elder at once grew calm, leaning back from the table with a serene smile. "It was...remarkable, meeting her for the first time. To hear just how compassionate she was about the plight of the acolytes taking the trial. Bringing to my attention the plight of the [Pillow Girls], which I'd never even considered before—how the golems showed a tendency to tear the limbs of female acolytes. Which, if left alive, the monastery officials...would then secretly"—he sighed, burying his face into his hands—"dispose of."

Akira nodded, suppressing a smirk. "So, she helped you start your poor little limbless girl charity?"

"She deserves far more credit than that!" the elder snapped. "She would have a puppet watch over them in my room, whenever I was away. It used to be that I could summon one of her puppets to me, anytime I wished, by plucking on a [Magic Tether] she'd formed with me, but I notice it's been severed since our last meeting." 

Akira shrugged. "Women, amirite?"

The elder smiled sadly, tilting his head down. "I'll...admit, I'm a bit dismayed to see her go." He then looked up, grinning proudly. "Though, I take it as a sign that her work at the Monastery is complete."

"Work?" Akira chortled. "We're the ones who did all the heavy lifting around here."

"She always wanted to stop the trials, but could never think of a way how to. Not without it involving killing off the golems completely." He smiled at Akira. "She told me she's proud of you, Maximilian. And can't wait until the two of you finally meet."

"Pshh!" Akira bristled, blushing as she looked away with a frustrated face. "In that case, why doesn't she just send one of her puppet things?"

She grinned, showing her teeth. "I'm assuming they can fuck, right?"

At this, the purple elder laughed under his breath. His eyes were closed, with an altogether jolly look about him as he then arose from the table and calmly headed for the door to leave.

"Hey!" Akira yelled after him, annoyed. "Mind telling me what's so damn funny?"

"You can ask her for yourself, soon enough. Once you find her in Mithil's Ivory Quarter." He briefly turned back, the blinding sun of a brand new day cast upon the side of his face. "If Cita was confident she could leave me to look after this place alone, then you can rest assured that I will."

It was then, at this moment of her recollection, Akira was pulled out of her thoughts: back to the caravan's steady trudge through a dense fog, along the yellow brick road littered with cherry blossoms.

'An ability like he described would explain how she was able to escape when we cornered her at the Amrita. It was only one of her 'puppets' we'd encountered."

But what was her end goal, with all this behind-the-scenes string-pulling?

With the milk bar, hiring former prostitutes. The grand library, built in the poor section of Mithil. Those Rakshasa who lived ordinary lives in Mithil, which had shown themselves willing to fight to the death to protect her. And now, her noble efforts to minimize the losses of life at the Hidden Dragon Monastery...

Considering all these feats, it dawned on Akira:

'They're all good deeds—all of them. So either she's some big pussy, bleeding heart philantrophist, or she has some ulterior motive that's yet to be revealed. Some grand scheme that would put even a huge bastard like me to shame!'

Either way, Akira was exceedingly curious. She and others had sacrificed so much for her to make it this far, just to finally come toe-to-toe with this bitch. So, it had better be worth it. 

While she was thinking this, Kiki tugged on her sleeve. "Akira!"

"Huh?" She stirred, as if from a daze.

Kiki was trembling. "Um, are you daydreaming at a scary time like this?"

Akira gave a weary chuckle. "Uh, it's...nothing. Just...not that it's anything new, but the strange shit that exists in this world never ceases to throw me for a loop."

Just as she said this, a structure appeared through the fog.

Ai was incredulous. "Ah! Isn't that a…!"

It was a large, multi-storied, multi-winged structure with a sleek, modern appearance: Tall glass windows and a spotless white, smooth cement body. Situated atop a small hill, ascended by a wide set of stairs. A long row of multiple double-doored entrances, fit for a large number of people to come pouring in and out of, despite how eerily unpopulated and quiet it was, currently.

"So, that guy wasn't messing with me after all," Akira said, sharing in Kiki's awe. "It really is just one big high school, like that creepy elder said!"

On a whim, she held up her [Big Business Tie], seeing its light point straight forward.

'I'm ready for some answers, "Cita."'

Seconds later…

A [Level -5] [Student Council President] emerged from the school: a well-presented, polite young man, dressed in a grey school uniform and black pants. He frantically hurried down the steps, halting in front of the caravan to give a courteous bow.

"Apologies for my tardiness," he said.

After which, as he regained himself, Akira noticed his eyes fall upon her and Kiki—widening to the size of dinner plates.

"Uwah!"

He tripped, falling forward with a shocked yell and blood rocketing out of his nose.

It happened too fast for Akira to react:

"What the—"

He landed with his face wedged between her breasts.

"Huh?" The [Student Council President] reacted, confused. After which he then, upon drawing his face up from the well-cushioned meat globes, gingerly gave each a tight squeeze with his hands—fascinated as the caveman who first discovered fire.

That is until he broke into a nervous sweat: upon glancing up and seeing Akira's furious expression.

"Grr! Kids these days are so perverted."

"Ah, wait! I'm sorry, miss!"

"Pervert!" she instinctively shrieked, casting aside his panicky pleas. Followed by her swiveling to the side—

To deliver a [Chi Slap] across his face!