Dokeshi March ~ 26!

The thunderous exhalation echoed down the alley, forcing both him and Suki to shift into near-panic mode. They huddled together against the filthy wall in the dark alley, waiting for someone to turn and look for the source of the noise. Yet, it didn’t happen. The marching of all the soldiers was apparently plenty loud enough to drown out the sound of Grant’s ill-timed nasal expulsion, and the squad continued past them without issue.

“Well. Good thing no one heard that.” Suki glared at his relieved tone, making grasping motions at his chest as though she were about to reach in and tear out his heart. Unwilling to test her self-control, Grant stepped to the side and out of range, “What? It wasn’t like I did it on purpose; you were literally holding my hands to my sides!”

“Just… control yourself?” Suki turned away and started searching for a way to climb up onto the roof of the building they had been leaning against. “We need to get higher, to see what these people are up to. If they go into the casino, we might have a major issue. If they're just passing by…”

“Let's be realistic. We both know they’re looking for us.” Grant started piling up a bunch of loose crates. “Why else would they be here? Help me stack these so we can get up to a good vantage point.”

Suki quickly tossed him several boxes and crates from further down the alley, since she couldn’t find any easier way to the roof. “If they're going into the casino, it means we need to find a different entrance. There's no way we can sneak around with all those people looking for us.”

Grant stopped speaking and focused on piling boxes even faster. The thought of having to walk dozens of miles just to get inside a stupidly massive casino was incredibly unwelcome. He managed to finish the precarious stack after only a half-minute, just tall enough for them to reach the roof.

“You first.” Grant motioned for Suki to get moving. “I’m heavier, and at least one of us needs to make it to the roof. I might bring the whole thing down.”

“That’s for sure.” Suki’s eyes ran up and down his body, obviously weighing him with her mind. “That armor by itself weighs as much as I do.”

Grant wasn’t sure if she was calling him strong or taunting him somehow. Frankly, he didn’t know how to handle their relationship. He wasn’t used to companionship of any kind, and suddenly he had a potentially-romantic partner with him at all times. That alone was enough to throw him for a loop. He inspected himself, still amazed to see his lean, muscular form instead of the glorious mass he had aspired to his entire life.

“Was that really less than three months ago?” he muttered softly as his mind whirled. Before he could sink too deeply into introspection, Suki was already disappearing onto the roof and whispering for him to hurry up.

“Hey, quit looking at your… oddly satisfying abs, and get up here!” Suki hissed sharply down at Grant, her head peeking over the edge of the rusting gutters for a quick second.

<Ha! She caught you!> Grant blushed furiously at both reprimands, even as his emotional turmoil doubled. <Oh, man, are you in trouble.>

“It isn’t that weird,” Grant mumbled under his breath, trying to hide the grin that was creeping across his face. Sarge started to reply but apparently thought better of it, merely chuckling instead. The young man decided to ignore the sword spirit as he glanced down both sides of the alley he was in. Since they wouldn’t be needing the crates after he reached the roof, he had the strangest feeling that he should do something other than climb.

With a short jog, he built up speed and launched himself against the wall, using the momentum to propel himself into a flip and landing halfway up the stack. Another sharp jump brought him the rest of the way up, and he sprang for the roof as the crates collapsed beneath him. Instead of an easy climb to the top, he caught the edge with one hand and dangled for a moment.

As he watched the impromptu tower collapse and shatter into mulch beneath him, he twisted to bring both hands to the edge and leveraged himself up onto the rooftop with a straight-arm pull-up. His smile reappeared as he looked to Suki for a commendation, but he rapidly withered under her scowl. “Could you possibly make any more noise? That was way worse than the sneeze.”

“Oops, I guess?” Grant was embarrassed for a reason he couldn’t explain, even beyond having made noise.

“Just be more careful? Please?” She turned and pointed out a few weak spots in the roof tiles, then eased her way up to the peak of the building. “Watch your footing. This whole District is more rot than wood.”

Stepping carefully, Grant crept along to crouch next to her. After making sure he wasn’t about to fall through the creaking singles, he peeked over the edge to see the Dokeshi’s Vassal and House Saturday Wielder talking to the gate guards. A large clock hung over the doorway, and it showed that less than thirty minutes remained until the entrance would open. The rest of the troops were methodically inspecting the line of people waiting to get into the casino, forcing them to drop hoods and hats alike in order to get a better look at who was trying to gain entry.

“It looks like they're just looking for us, not actually going inside.” Grant squinted in an effort to get a better look at the Vassal and assassin, but they were too far away for him to see much of anything. “Why is that? Do you think they can’t touch us once we get inside? Wait… what House controls these casinos?”

“I’m… uncertain, but usually House Thursday has a hand in anything that takes a large investment. I can’t think of a project that would require more money than constructing a single building that cuts off a huge chunk of a District. That aside, even if we are fine once we get in there, how do we make it past all those guards when they’re checking everyone?” Suki scooted to the right to get a better angle. “There are too many for us to sneak past.”

“How many is too many?” From his angle, Grant could only see a few guards searching everyone. Since he made a larger silhouette, he was forced to crouch lower than Suki. Even in the dark, his broad shoulders might be noticed against the backdrop of stars. “Can you get a good count?”

“Give me a second.” Suki’s voice was strained, and he looked over to see that her foot was stuck between a couple of loose shingles. “This part of the roof is super unstable.”

“Yeah, I see that. Do you need some help over there?”

“No, you’re too heavy with all that gear and our supplies. You might bring the house down around us.” Suki carefully worked her shoe free, then edged her way higher for a better look. “I see at least fifty, not counting the Vassal and Wielder. There’s probably triple that number of people waiting to go inside when the door opens.”

She crouched back down and turned to face Grant. “What we need is a distraction. Something that will make them abandon the search so we can blend in with the crowd.”

“Where are we going to find a distraction big enough to pull all those guards away?” Grant motioned to the barren rooftop they were huddled on. “We’re sorely lacking random people that would put their life on the line for us.”

Suki’s eyes drifted to the crumbling chimney at the center of the roof. Without saying anything, she carefully picked her way over to the stack of red brick and mortar. It took a moment, but she was able to pry loose a few bricks where the chimney met the roofline.

<If she pulls too many of those bricks out, that chimney is going to collapse onto the roof and bring this whole building down with it,> Sarge warned Grant as soon as he realized what she was doing.

“Are you trying to knock that over?” Grant started cautiously sliding over to her, making sure to spread his weight out as much as possible. “I don’t want to be up here if that happens.”

“I know this may sound crazy, but I think that’s exactly what we are going to do. If we can get a bunch of them inside, then drop the top half of the chimney onto the roof, I think the whole building will collapse with them inside.” Suki hefted a brick, testing its weight, then peeked over the edge to make sure the situation hadn’t changed. “Any of them not trapped inside will rush in to save the ones we manage to take down.”

“How are we supposed to drop the chimney on them without ending up in the collapse ourselves?” Grant tested the sturdiness by roughly stabbing the rotting wood where it touched brick. “This will come down too fast for us to jump over to the next building, and I have no idea how any construction works. I can’t help with this.”

Suki bit her lower lip in thought. “It’s definitely a problem…”

<What about your lightning spell?> Sarge’s interruption was sudden enough that Grant almost jumped in surprise. <Doesn’t the training version provide a speed boost?> He pulled up the information to check.

Elemental Spell: Thundering Step

Prerequisites: 65 Mind. Two feet. Metal weapon.

Active Mode: Create a static field in a five-foot radius around you that damages others when they move through the area. Doesn’t move from the point it was set. Lasts five seconds.

Mana cost: 10 per use.

Damage (Self): 0% Mental cultivation.

Damage (Other): 100% Mental cultivation per second.

Training Mode: Increase movement speed by 50% while out of combat. Combat is defined as not dealing or taking damage from an opponent for five seconds.

Mana cost: 10% per second. Mana regen halted while active.

“I’ve got an idea, Suki.” Grant’s hand drifted to grasp the hilt of his sword, and he slowly drew it, watching as the moonlight glinted off the edge. “It’s been a while since I brought down the house with thunderous applause.”

“What?” Suki rolled her eyes at his cheesy statement, but Grant’s grin only widened as he stared at the Vassals in the distance. “Why are you so strange?”

“My best friend for more than a decade was a cow.”