Ch 2.88: Run

Only three of the bouncer got in before Elaina was able to react, throwing a series of chains on the door frame including her crystal one, using a considerable amount of mana to hold them in place.

“I got these,” Tira said, pulling a blackjack out of her pants that Elaina was pretty sure she’d seen in Tira’s toy drawer before. It was quick, the strikes to their faces as the bouncers tried to take in the situation. Each blow didn’t seem to do much physically, but the receivers of them each stepped back, standing flush against the wall, no doubt a result of Tira’s [Domineering Presence].

“Gyah!” Flora was through, from the sounds of the wall cracking and bar patrons screaming, having used her forearms as a battering ram to break through and create a hole the rest of them could fit through. “Come on!”

“What in the blazes is going on?” the bartender said as the group started making their way through the hole and over the bar.

“Sorry!” Carly said.

“Shein’ll pay for it!” Tira said as she bounded pass.

But Prisma wasn’t moving.

“Come one,” Elaina said, offering her hand out.

Prisma stared at it, unmoving as the bouncers behind were slowly but surely pushing aside Elaina’s chains. But then she looked up, caught Elaina’s gaze, and nodded, taking Elaina’s hand and following her as Elaina ran into the other bar.

This place, Elaina thought as they ran, chasing Flora’s hair as it made its way over and through the bar. It was lit similarly too the outside, lots of red lights, and with a stage like Mirage, though it wasn’t musicians on this stage but dancers, dancers performing acrobatics on metal poles both vertical and horizontal, undisturbed by the ruckus.

Those dancers weren’t quite fully clothed either, Elaina couldn’t help but notice. None of them were naked like she’d been moments before, but the all had on lingerie at the most, and one just had on a pair of panties and some sort of pasted-on star coverings over her breasts. Those look interesting…

But it wasn’t time to fantasize about jobs she could have had in another life, it was time to focus. Elaina found herself relishing the new freedom of [Restraint], using it to keep track of Tira’s belt buckle as well as pull and push aside people in her way by their clothes. By the time they’d caught up to the others, they were already at the far back wall—no, the front entrance? By some miracle the entrance to this bar was on the opposite side of the entrance to Mirage, giving them even more of a head start from anyone trying to chase through the streets.

“Take the bag,” Flora said, stepping over two seemingly unconscious bouncers and throwing Carly’s satchel into Elaina’s arms. “They aren’t going to be looking for you two in those outfits; get to the meetup point, and we’ll distract them.”

“We can’t break up now,” Elaina said, but she did throw the bag over her shoulder. “What if—”

“No, she’s right,” Tira said. “We’ll lose them, then meet up later, once we’re all sure we’re not being tailed.”

Elaina was left standing there as the other three took off into the night, Prisma still behind her. But the bouncers on the ground were starting to push themselves up, and more were coming their way besides. “Come on,” she said, grabbing Prisma and running off in the opposite direction.

There was one major problem, that she didn’t know where to go. That and the fact that she could see what were very clearly two bouncers from Mirage on the street corner she was running towards.

“Slow down,” Prisma said, halting to a brisk walk along with Elaina’s hand. “Florence was right, they’re not looking for us.”

For the second time in a row, Elaina listened against her better instinct, walking along to street with Prisma, hand-in-hand. As they approached the two people who were undoubtedly on the lookout for them.

“They even gonna come this way?”

“Dunno, but be on the lookout.”

Despite their attentiveness, neither gave more than a passing glance to Elaina or Prisma as they walked by, rounding the corner and each breathing a sigh of relief when they were out of earshot.

“Fuck, how did you know that was going to work?” Elaina said, hanging her head low as they carried on.

“No one was looking at our faces when we were up there,” Prisma said, face blushing even in the red light. “Trust me, I heard how they were talking about us.”

Elaina could feel herself blushing at that thought too. Over a hundred people in total… That’s how many had seen her completely naked. Sure, some were at a distance, and she’d managed to hide most of her body the majority of the time, but there was no getting around the fact.

“I can’t believe we did that.”

“Neither can I… Stars, my father is going to kill me if he finds out I lost a fencing tournament without Koh in it.”

“Would that really be his priority?” Elaina said. “I mean, you and I were both—”

“We’re going to pretend that part never happened, actually,” Prisma replied, holding her head and back up straight as she walked. “Especially with them around,” she added with a mumble, gesturing at another pair of Mirage employees running through the red-light bathed street, dressed like bartenders this time, though still clearly on the hunt. Guess they’re all in on the chase.

Those employees also passed by them, not even a glance at the two people they should’ve been hunting. “If it’s any consolation, you’ll probably never lose a fencing match again. Maybe to Koh?”

Prisma stopped, looking down at the sword on her hip and going to grab it.

“Don’t draw it here, it’ll draw attention itself.”

“Right…” Prisma said as she resumed walking. “It’ll never be a fair fight between me and her again. I have this… this thing, a stance switch. I can alternate, but I already feel one of them on, and I can’t just turn it off.”

“I know,” Elaina said. “You’re also stronger and faster in general too, and there’s no way to turn that off either… That’s how Carly and I— why you thought we were cheating in the tournament.”

Prisma stopped again, looking down an empty alley before dragging Elaina into it. “What’s going on? What’s in that bag, and what happened to me? It called me a name, a crude, weird name!”

“Shall I explain, Elaina?” Temmie asked.

She considered the offer for a moment, but ultimately shook her head. “No, I will, Temmie.”

“Temmie is its name? Is it some sort of pet?”

Elaina bit her lip, struggling to find the words. “It’s a long story, but I’ll tell you everything. You deserve that much, at least…”