Chương 100: 069 – Interlude: Meiko of the Court of Lost Stars

"" And we are… The Court of Lost Stars!"" Despite the fact Meiko was multitasking more spells at once than she'd ever done before, it felt… good to finally be able to admit to her own wrong doing. Even if big sis Leah had volunteered to stand in for her so she wouldn't get in trouble, the guilt of letting someone else be accused for her faults, her mistakes, her crimes, had gnawed at her like a knugrind chewing on a gnut.

Being able to step forward, to say that she was Night Raider, that she was the one who'd stolen those things… it had been a relief. Granted, they were still surrounded by lots and lots of big sisters who did not look happy she'd dumped holy(?) water on them, but that was a different problem. The ones who weren't freaking out about being wet looked absolutely aghast Phantom Thieves had dared to name ourselves a Court. The plan had been going so well!

It had taken Meiko a couple of weeks to figure out something she could pretend to steal and somehow convincingly 'lose'. This time, Meiko had picked deliberately so they could avoid things turning into a messy brawl.

The College of Flames had been chosen because it was distant from the nearest Ranger contingent, the location meant it would be very difficult to close off completely against both someone coming in or going out, most of the girls there had some other kind of magic that didn't let them fly very well, and those who could fly weren't as maneuverable so evasive maneuvers that forced them to bleed away speed would work for any that tried to follow when they were escaping through the air.

The College also had the Crown of the Princess, which was the sort of thing that Phantom Thieves stole in the old world, while also being made of a solid, durable material that could handle rough handling. As something to steal that they didn't have to worry too much about breaking, it was perfect! It was had been a good plan, and Meiko had been planning to do the deed herself using her experimental regalia so that no one else would have to put themselves in danger, but she'd run into range problems.

Specifically, the amount of spells needed to work together simultaneously meant Meiko couldn't project it very far, and unfortunately tests and measurements showed she couldn't use it to reach the crown unless she used her spell while she was several floors up inside or outside the College's central tower, and either way she risked being identified. Big sis Leah had volunteered to pass herself as 'Phantom Thief Night Raider' again, and since Meiko couldn't figure out a better target, she'd reluctantly agreed.

Then it had all gone wrong, and here they were, multitasking spells and getting the beginnings of a headache. Clairvoyance to see with, made more difficult because it was an omnidirectional version, and that was always hard to make sense of until you'd had a few minutes to get used to it. Clairaudience, because hearing was important, and run twice so Meiko could triangulate properly with it.

The vennplate tanks containing the water she'd scooped up from the moat around Pseudo-Vampire Research, as well as the stealth field around them so they wouldn't be visible from below. Thankfully those didn't need much in the way of active attention once they'd been made, and since she'd used up two dousing the hot sisters to keep them from being able to use Flame and a third to make snow to keep the big sisters in the bunker from being able to shoot at big sis Leah, that task had been lightened.

It also meant she only had two floating tanks of water left. More things for her to split her attention on, even if it was only maintaining them since Oscar was busy running the cloth-sims and soft-body physics needed to make their regalia—though could it really be called regalia, the way they were using it? —look realistic, in addition to adjusting their positioning so they wouldn't start drifting and sliding in place.

Fortunately, big sis Leah was doing the talking, giving Meiko more time to adjust as she looked around and listened. All the hot sisters not throwing fire at anymore meant what she'd heard about them really not liking water, and that it was bad for their magic was true. That was good. The fact they all looked absolutely miserable was bad, and was another thing for her to feel guilty about, but hadn't wanted big sis Leah to get punched in the face for things Meiko had done.

And while she might deserve it, Meiko also didn't want to get punched in the face. That was probably the bad girl in her trying to escape justice. And speaking of escaping justice…

"Uh, big sis, shouldn't we be trying to get away now? The water's not going to work forever," Night Raider's slightly distorted voice said. Bis sis looked around and seemed to remember that despite being wet, everyone was still armed, and they seemed to be getting over the surprise of getting a lot of water dumped on them.

"Oh, poot! Yes, run away, run away!"

"Like we'd just let you!" Meiko waited for big sis Leah to rise into the air before she made her move, doing her best to be between the big sister and vennpalte bunker the First Contact Rangers had established around the aliens. So far, they were the only ones using guns, and while all of their shots had been non-lethal—they were using lower-powered shots and low-mass fluid rounds, nothing that would penetrate—they were not fun to get hit with!

She still had to suppress the instinct to flinch as a mix of vennplasma and vennfluid projectiles slammed into her regalia. The low-power shots did nothing of course. The regalia she was fielding was substantially thicker than what most people wore unless their regalia was inspired by Poise-kishi, or were going the heavy armor route. Meiko belatedly raised up a barrier of vennplate anyway, because right now she was acting as big sister's shield. Big sis was acting as their gun.

With someone to take the brunt of attacks going towards her and reducing the amount of dodging she had to do, big sis Leah had the flexibility to shoot back. Glowing spheres of Star Bursts shot out from her hands towards the sisters shooting at them, the spell exploding into light and rolling sequential explosions of sound instead of a burst vennplasma. Each detonation made was overwhelming through her sensory spells, but they didn't actually hurt. It wasn't her ears and eyes perceiving them.

The gunfire faltered as the sisters who'd been shooting at them dealt with the sensory overload, but hopefully weren't hurt. Meiko was still too young to be allowed to learn to use the flashbang that Kaede used in ancient times, but she and her crèche-sisters had experimented with making their own, and the good ones used strobes that made it hard to use your eyes even if they weren't so bright they were blinding.

Down below, she saw the big sisters around the bunker moving, vennplasma flames blasting out around them and obscuring the crowd of wet big sisters from sight.

"Oh, poot." Big sis Leah had noticed too.

"I don't suppose you have any more water?" she said as she sent more Star Bursts down near the bunker.

"I do, actually…" Meiko said. She stopped maintaining the last two water tanks, which briefly lightened the headache she was feeling, even as she became aware of how hot Oscar's hardware felt. Even as she felt it, the chassis became colder as the temperature control system went off, the internal freeze rays cooling in bursts rather than constantly to conserve power. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The water fell, no longer supported by vennplate or hidden by her stealth field, and she watched as the vennplasma was snuffed out. Hopefully that will mean the Flame big sisters will stay too wet to chase after them.

"That works," big sis Leah said.

"Come on, we need to get height!" She shot up, and Meiko followed after her, staying off her tail as vennplasma erupted from her regalia's feet.

"Big sis, I'm almost at the edge of my range," she warned, even as she shot out her own vennplasma.

"Simplify the spell!" Leah said immediately.

"Deactivate what you don't need!" Meiko considered that, looked down at herself, realized what she was doing, and deactivated every point of articulation on her regalia.

"Oscar, stop running the sims." Her regalia became a solid, unmoving, ninja girl-shaped block of vennplate with vennplasma jetting out from its feet, and while her headache didn't disappear, the load on her mind was considerably lightened.

Meiko also now had Oscar's assistance to maintain four active spells, one inert spell, and one inactive spell, especially when he managed to consolidate the spells down even further, turning what had once been her regalia into a guided kinetic impact spell"Incoming Rangers," Hunter announced.

"700 meters and closing." Meiko couldn't see them and Oscar's sensors were too far, but if the older buddy said so…

"This is where we split up," she said through her formerly inactive spell.

"I'll hold them off, you release the decoys and hide." For a moment, big sis Leah looked at her with concern and seemed about to protest. Then she blinked and seemed to recall where Meiko was before pointing into the shroud.

"Got it. They're closing from that direction. Be careful, all right?" That last was probably out of habit. It still made Meiko smile, even if big sis couldn't see it.

"Go. I've got this." Then she reoriented her regalia and increased the rocket thrust. Behind her, big sis Leah disappeared under a Singularity Cloak as several glowing decoys accelered away from her location. The Rangers soon came into view, and Meiko cut off the thrust as she reoriented her regalia to an upright pose. Fortunately, Oscar was there to help her as they both moved the regalia's limbs to something appropriate.

It didn't need to last long, but every second was one more big sis Leah was using to get away.

"Hello, b—sisters," Meiko called out through her ventriloquism spell.

"Lovely day for a flight, isn't it?" Naturally, they slowed down. All of them were wearing some kind of visor and ear protection, dedicated flashbang protection hardware. Good.

"Phantom Thief Night Raider!" a red armband Ranger called out. Ah, that meant the first contact Rangers had gotten her description out.

"You are under arrest! Come quietly, or there will be trouble!" Oh, she managed to use a classic line! The big sister even had a pistol in one hand when she said it. With some difficulty, Meiko managed to move her arms and clap her hands in acknowledgement.

"Nice!"

"Thank you!"

"Unfortunately, I can't do that," she continued.

"My honor as a Phantom Thief means I can't surrender. If you want me, you'll need to catch me!" Every Ranger in sight gained a determined look—not, not every Ranger. One had raised a hand to cover half her face, muttering something quietly. Only Meiko's active clairaudience allowed her to make out the words: "Clueless chick magnet genes strike again." Was that some kind of code phrase? The words were too random for anything else.

"All right, then. Have it your—" the Red began. Meiko didn't let her finish. She just activated a jet of vennplasma on her regalia's back to streak towards the Ranger. It was rude, but she was pretty sure it was what criminals did! Naturally, everyone immediately opened fire, and from the way pieces of her regalia's vennplate were exploding into showers of sparks and the slow firing rate, more energy was being put into these shots. They were trying to break through her regalia's defenses!

Meiko didn't slow, not even raising one arm to protect her face as she closed the distance to grappling range. Something slammed into her face, and her head exploded. As all the shots abruptly stopped, mouths opening in horror, Meiko let them hear her last words.

"Lost Nebula, detonate." Her regalia, a solid, person-sized mass of solid vennplasma, rapidly sublimated into a cloud of cold vennplasma, the pseudo-matter expanding several dozen times its initial mass as Meiko's opened her eyes, no longer needing to concentrate solely on the input of her clairvoyance spell.

The Rangers had been knocked back by the force of the controlled explosion, but beyond the initial burst to disperse enough of the vennplasma around the Rangers to enclose them, the ongoing sublimation had only the force of a breeze. It hadn't been meant to hurt anyone, after all. It had been to put them in a cloud that jammed all the sensors built into the chassis of their buddies to keep them from being able to track big sis as she dropped back to the ground to shed her Phantom Thief regalia.

Slowly, Meiko sat up from where she'd been lying on a blanket she'd unrolled on the pale white grass of one of the College of Flame's outdoor park areas between buildings, wincing as her headache throbbed. If anyone had seen her, they'd have thought she was taking a nap. With the buildings between her and where the encounter had happened, sound was just muffled enough that she could have believably not been disturbed by the flashbangs going off. What was another lie to a bad criminal like her?

Feeling very tired and moving carefully so as to not jostle her head too much, Meiko grabbed hold of the pushbar of her cart and began to walk to where she and big sis Leah had arranged to meet. Despite all that, she couldn't help but smile. They'd done it! They'd managed to put Stardancer's knives where they'd be found and properly returned to the museum! And they didn't have to give back the crown, because they'd managed to lose it during… the… fighting… …

M-maybe big sis had managed to drop it when Meiko hadn't been looking! Yeah, that's probably what happened! … She really hoped that's what had happened. Leah sat at the bench against the College's wall, and did her best not to sweat, or look tired, or look suspicious, or just draw any sort of attention to herself. She felt hyper-aware of the basket full of gnuts and knugrind scales at her side, most of them picked the previous day and then hidden in the Witchwayowt Forest in case they needed it…

and because she really needed them so she could smelt new metal for her next karaoke machine. The sound of wheels on the stone pavement made her glance in that direction, and she sighed in relief as Meiko finally came into sight. The relief was short-lived as she realized what she was looking at. Meiko looked like she'd been up three nights in a row, and had still done the usual 99 pushups, 99 sit-ups, 99 squats, and nine-kilometer run every morning.

Instead of happily pushing her very useful food cart, the little sister was draped over the push bar and her feet seemed to be struggling to move.

"Meiko, are you all right?"

"I'm fine…" she said weakly.

"Just… tired." Her lips curved up into a weak smile.

"But it worked. I helped." Leah let out a small sigh.

"Yeah, you helped," she admitted.

"Now sit down on top of the cart before you fall over. I'll take care of pushing."

"I'm not going to fall over again," Meiko pouted.

"That's not the argument you think it is," Leah said. Ah, little sisters. So cute. Borderline self-destructive… but cute. Thank goodness she'd outgrown all that silliness. Picking up the basket full of raw organometallic ores she was going to smelt to make her next karaoke machine, she tucked it away inside the cart, then had to help Meiko actually sit on top of it. That experimental regalia must have been harder on the little sister than it looked.

"Come on, little sister," she said with tired fondness.

"Let's get you home."

"I met the aliens," Meiko said tiredly as Leah wrapped some vennplate against the cart's pushbar and started walking, the cart moving with her.

"That would have been good to know," Leah said dryly.

"Sorry…"

"It's fine. We were on radio silence for a reason. What were they like?"

"They said I could be their friend…" Meiko said, a happy smile on her face. Leah reached over and patted her on the head.

"Congratulations." Meiko stared at the shiny, if slightly stained crown in need of a little cleaning buried in the basket of gnuts and scales.

"Oh, poot!"

"Sorry," Leah said sheepishly.

"I was too busy dodging to remember to drop it." Meiko closed her eyes and sighed.

"It's all right. We'll just need to figure out how to return it…"

"Can we clean it first? The stains and hairs caught on it are kinda annoying me."

"…yeah, we better clean it first. It looks really messy."