The House of Spiders: The Thumb Nursefather Rodion's Story

You have not entered an Entanglement. That's... a relief.

"Relief?" Fuck that, Ticket! Exactly which part of that is a "relief"?

We got nothing. No results, no progress, nothing at all! Not even a half-decent excuse for the Central bastards who wouldn't stop crawling up my ass!

... This isn't what I came back for. I said I would do as I was told, that I wouldn't dare think of leaving again. So why... Why must you people do this to Yoshihide...?

I understand the sorrow that has condensed within you. Yet now that you have sought refuge under our wings, fleeing the shadow of the Fingers... You know, as I do, that no gentler road remains within the arithmetic of these circumstances.

Hah. Fine, Ticket. Let's get right down to it. Wanna know why we're doing this, huh? It's your fault. Don't ya know this whole mess is on ya?

Wandering out there, chasing some stupid-ass star that wasn't even supposed to be yours... Ya didn't just make a bad call.

Ya made the worst call, choosing the Dihui Star's Blade over the Tiansha Star's... We wouldn't have had to lock that damn brat up in the Time Vault if you'd just listened!

That would be enough, Rodion.

.......

And I do hope you will understand as well, dearest daughter of ours. This will be a far better prospect for that child, too.

Yoshihide's aptitude to sense the flow of time is impressive indeed. Perhaps even comparable to yours...

If we'd had enough absolute time, perhaps we could have gradually let the "perspective" settle within her. But we do not - which is why we must press the process forward, even if we must induce a Temporal Entanglement.

.......

Let us check again in 2 days.

You're going to put her through that again? No. No... I'll take her plac - Hrrk!

Fucking hell. Couldn't listen to another second of that crap. I've had it with this sob story routine.

B-Buddy...!

Ugh, can it, will ya? I only knocked her out. Shut your trap and mind your own business.

... Rodion. Where are you going?

I don't need to tell ya anything. Ya like to wander off without tellin' anyone shit too, don'tcha?

Go fuck yourself.

Feels like just yesterday you were sobbin' and snivellin' into your mommy's arms...

And now, you're all grown up! Stuff a brat in a Time Vault for a while, and it'll shoot right up like a frickin' weed. Hey, does that Vault come with bedtime milk on tap or something?

.......

I've been wondering what you were up to. Booze, huh. Figures.

Those bottles look old as hell... Didn't the stuff inside go bad?

Hah, still a brat on the inside, huh? Now this is the kind of stupid that pisses me off.

Booze doesn't go bad. Ever heard of aging?

.......

*puff* All right, then. Never thought that stuttering retard with her E.G.O and the clankin' tin-girl could stop ya, anyway.

But the other Nursefathers... No way in hell ya whacked 'em all and got this far on your own.

Heathcliff carefully chimed in to explain what he'd witnessed.

The Pinky Nursefather and Sinclair... They betrayed and turned on us.

... Is she dead?

.......

Not the last time I saw her, Master. She was still engaged in a battle.

Yeah? That's whatever, then. The other Nursefathers are all washed-up morons, but they won't lose to Ticket.

... Believe what you want. You'll get to meet the other three in hell soon enough. Ask them what happened then.

Anyhow... "Pinky Nursefather?" Did another one join your ranks while I was gone?

... What?

Wait a minute. That sword... Why the hell do you have that sword?

... I realized facing you with Palermitan Style would be a losing bet.

So I learned a new swordfighting style. This sword was given to me then.

... And who gave it to you?

Oh, don't bother hunting them down. I don't... remember well, but they're already dead.

Hah...

An errant rage swelled within Rodion. She trembled like she was about to burst, but she didn't know why. She couldn't.

But rather than asking herself what had set fire to this wrath, or why it burned with such inexorable intensity...

Haha. Hahaha!

Do you even have any idea who you forgot... what you threw away to get this far?

From the first day her baby hands held a sword, all the way to the day she brought you here, I... You got any idea how I honed that Ticket of mine, day after day...?

... Rodion chose to fire that rage at the one who had dared to speak those words.

Ungrateful little bitch...

How dare you forget my Ticket!!!

And next up for the interview... Our very own War Hero, Rodion Bognatelli takes the...!

Hmm? What are you doing hiding in that corner? That's not like you at all.

.......

Wow, is that a picture you're looking at? Don't tell me it's your family photo or some shit like that.

You know what we always say, Rodya. Soldiers looking longingly at their family photos are signing themselves up for a 99% chance of getting killed out there.

... Get the fuck outta here, and take that dumbass superstition with you.

People of my caliber don't die over stupid crap like that.

Oh, wow. That's hella swagger you've got there. Stacked up like a damn skyscraper.

Well, guess your record speaks for itself. How's your winning streak looking now? Counting formal duels and one-on-one battlefield bouts... 13 and consecutive, huh?

Get the damn number right if you're keeping score. It's 15.

Dang. That's gotta be the highest winning streak on our front line, isn't it? And the poor bastards you offed weren't nobodies either. Every one of them was a big name with big game.

... *scoff* Like it could've ended any other way.

So, who's the kid in the photo? Your daughter?

... Yeah.

Gotta thank your lucky stars she doesn't look anything like her mama, huh?

What was that?

Hey, easy there. That was a compliment. Kid looks like a sweetheart, that's all. Smart and well-behaved, too, I bet. Unlike, well...

Been too damn nice to ya 'cause you're a Class 5 Staff member, haven't I?

Sonuvabitch. The old me would've ripped an arm off ya for a good lesson, ya know that? Back in my day, I was an -

Underboss, Sottocapo, yeah, we know. But you're not one now, are you?

Tsk... Not for long. Once the war is over...

There it is again. That's enough jinxing to lose us the battle...

.......

Still, a winning streak this good? You've practically earned the Sottocapo title back already. Don't worry - we'll all be groveling at your feet when that happens, making damn sure to add a "Miss" before "Rodion."

Hah!

"Miss Rodion?" Nah, "Miss Rodya" will do.

Uh... What's the difference?

It's got a different echo, apparently. Yeah... "Miss Rodion" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Echo?

Yup. Something Ticket... my daughter says sometimes.

Miss Rodion. An enemy was spotted emerging from their camp.

Judging by the broadcast setup, they're probably preparing to air a single combat. Please get ready to -

Which motherfucker are ya talkin' about?

An elite employee of L Corp., I hear.

*puff* ... Guess that's my cue, then.

All right, you're up! Our fearless War Hero's obviously about to add another glorious victory under her belt, so I'll just be the cameraman and enjoy the show from the sidelines.

Haha. Ya do that. Make sure ya keep your eyes open - and don'tcha forget to give me a big hand once I'm done.

Rodion Bognatelli is gonna strut back with another flashy victory.

*puff* ... Textbook. Ya stay put and keep your eyes open, ya hear me?

If I may, Master, I also can -

I said eyes, not your damn mouth.

Don't flap it at me. Don't talk back. Do what I tell ya - exactly as you're told.

I'll have to haul that lil' bitch back and drill the Palermitan Style into her from baby steps. Here we go again, another lifetime of motherfuckin' work.

If you get your ass killed too, then who's left to help me do all that shit, huh? Huh?

... I wasn't thinking. My sincerest apologies, Master.

How many times do I have to repeat myself? Don't think hard, don't think easy, don'tcha even think of thinking and just... just do as you're told. Capisce?

Answer. Capisce?

Yes, ma'am.

It hurts...

... Ugh, not this crap again. It was Textbook I slapped, not you!

Yoshihide touched her own cheek, as if Rodion's backhand had landed on her instead.

Her future.

Her past.

All the strands of time she might never reach had perhaps flooded into her eyes, leaving their mark in her vision.

She could no longer tell from which strand that pain had come. Only the stinging sensation remained, vividly and undeniably extant.

I have to scrape out every last trace... Every last trace.

Trapped within the Entangled strands of time, Yoshihide could no longer recognize the present - the now - for what it was.

Only pain and agony remained etched in her. Only hatred and resentment for her Nursefathers.

I'll cut everything up, sever and burn all of it just because I want to!

And so, she kept swinging her blade in desperation.

The Palermitan Style is indeed a masterful school of swordsmanship. But why does the House of Spiders need it?

It was not a question Rodion had never asked herself before.

Nor had she ever fully rid herself of her doubt about that vaguely phrased purpose of the House - the creation of "The Blade that Cuts Through All."

At one point, she had tried to dig down to the root of the matter herself.

After failure upon failure, however, Rodion chose not to climb back up, but to keep sinking to the endless pit.

An endless pit where she didn't have to understand the purpose of all things at the House of Spiders.

.......

Nevertheless, Rodion never stopped imparting the Palermitan Style to her student.

It began as an outlet for her frustration - a vague hope that if the girl could at least learn the Palermitan Style to perfection, it might make some damned difference.

Then it changed. The girl absorbed everything taught to her like sponge. And Rodion found herself liking the way the child stuck with her, pressing close to a woman everyone else avoided like the plague.

But by the end... teaching the Palermitan Style was no longer a lesson. It was the last thing left for her to do, and she had run out of all other excuses.

.......

At least in those days, when Rodion raised her hand against the girl she'd thought of as her daughter, her Ticket, she had still bothered to dress it up with justifications, however thin they were.

You broke the Thumb's code of conduct. You move too slowly. You are not doing as you're told. You have the nerve to cry when you've done nothing right.

However, when she finally learned that even the Ticket she'd put her trust in was not a "golden" one she'd dreamed of...

She could not contain the rage boiling up inside her.

Justifications - excuses, really - no longer mattered before her anger. She lashed out and struck the new girl without any particular reason.

Never once did Rodion understand that the one who had set aflame the few scant threads of the spider, the threads that might have led her to the golden chance she'd spent so long craving...

I'm... sorry...

Please, tell me why... why you're hitting me... So I can do better...

.......

Weakling.

... was none other than herself.

... Weakling.

That's fair. Haha... Just look at me. Can't say I've got much of a comeback...

*puff* Still better than the other weaklings who are out cold... or croaked.

Tell me what happened while you can still think straight.

Well, you did manage to burn off the vermin's wings. At least you'd accomplished something before you ended up like this.

The Lord of Flies.

Reflexes bordering on precognition, with extraordinary combat capability.

A monstrosity armed with corrosive fluid that can melt anything, and the ability to swoop in and out of battles with airborne hit-and-run tactics.

G Corp.'s decisive weapon clearly sat outside the average standards of war weaponry,

But other Wings also possessed capabilities that more than matched the Lord of Flies's own.

The Lord of Flies had already been slain a couple of times.

First, by the endless waves of R Corp.'s mercenaries.

And once more, by T Corp.'s unthinkable inventions and other prestigious Fixer Offices.

Before long, however, it would appear on the front lines again.

And once Command decided that the loss exchange ratio was no longer within the acceptable range, research attempts began for ways to counter G Corp.'s game changer...

And they discovered that in its moment of death, the Lord of Flies would leave behind a unique entity known as the "Maggot Prince."

The higher-ups didn't tell us what it takes for the Maggot Prince to metamorphose into the Lord of Flies...

... But the vermin won't stop spawning back if it's not killed before transforming, is that it?

Yeah. To stop that... we had to limit as much of its mobility as possible and remove any chance for the Maggot Prince to hide or escape.

Liu Association's flames burned away one pair of wings and the infestation zone, as planned.

Our ranks broke halfway through and things got real ugly for a bit...

But I managed to deal with the vermin's remaining wings before you got here. Lucky, huh?

Well, seems this is as far as luck would take me.

Half his upper body melted away, the Fixer directed a bitter gaze around him.

Countless soldiers had fought beyond their limits, but they were nowhere near felling G Corp.'s bioweapon.

And the only reinforcement that arrived at that hell... was a single fighter.

Dawn had begun to settle on the battlefield. With eyes full of doubt, the Fixer finally gave voice to the question lodged in his throat.

Do you think... you can finish that monster off?

... Hey.

Rodion stepped forward with a savage smirk.

She swept her gaze over the battlefield like she already owned it, standing straight with the arrogance of a hero marching at the head of a triumphal procession.

Each firm step she took spoke of an unshakeable confidence that she would win the fight.

Don'tcha know who I am?

... 'Course I do. I've seen you fight before.

Rodion of Famiglia Bognatelli... There isn't anyone on this front who doesn't know your name.

Huh. So you do know.

Then stop fidgeting like some scared puppy and get your ass to the rear.

Anyone who had seen Rodion fight a duel, even once, knew better than to dismiss her arrogance for mere bluff...

... because they knew that every duel she fought would end with a head lopped off, followed by a spectacular flourish of the sword.

Rodion's sword, always.

You know, I'm different from the rest of you cannon fodder. I don't lose duels - never have, never will.

Those on the front lines had no choice but to trust in the confidence exuding from the way Rodion's coattails billowed behind her steps.

Haha...

In battle, knowledge bears a weight no fighter can afford to ignore.

What kind of opening is the opponent prone to target? Which foot do they withdraw first when dodging a blow?

What options do they reach for when backed into a corner? Which sword stance comes out when they have to measure each breath in a prolonged duel?

Know how the opponent aims the edge of their blade, and the duel will lean into one's favor.

Ah. Her bad habits rubbed off on you. I suppose you really are cut from her cloth.

What's with that stupid look, dumbass? Thought you'd have a shot because you're relying on a swordfighting style I didn't teach ya, hmm?

Hoping to keep Rodion from predicting her movements, Yoshihide tried sheathing her sword to reassume another stance...

I'm the one who taught your mommy dear her swordfighting style, ya know.

... only for Rodion's rapier to intercept her and cut the attempt short.

Tsk. I just can't with greenhorns who haven't had a taste of the War...

Put what you learned to use! Don't just blindly swing that sword. Do it right!

Shut up. I don't want any advices from you.

You can't close the distance, and I'm not some thick-skulled idiot like Outis, who prefers eating hits with those augmentation tattoos of hers.

What's your damn plan with that long-ass sword draw, hmm? Showin' off? "Look at me, I can even cut through space!" Is that it?

You're hardly in a position to play calm, are you?

I know that Eye of yours is close to overheating.

The primer strikes, and the Acceleration Round fires.

It's the opening strike that won Rodion victory in countless duels.

Her rapier shoots forward in a blink, piercing through the erratic movement and straight into the heart of the Lord of Flies.

A fighter of mediocre skill would have died then and there, unable to defend against the thrust...

... but the same could not be said for the entity she's facing.

For fuck's sake... Your wings are burned off. Can't ya at least act like you're wobbling around, asshole?

.......

Tsk. I'd have to move at least twice as fast before this rapier can so much as graze that bastard...

You talk too much.

...!

In that instant, her precognition twists and bends.

The prediction she had seen mere seconds ago is overwritten by something entirely different.

The Eye darts frantically, from one direction to the other.

The direction from which the wind blows, the density of the clouding dust, the faint fluttering of her sleeves...

The Eye braids every last clue together and derives a single possible outcome from it.

It's a computation that has never once betrayed Rodion's expectations.

... It dodged.

The instant Rodion registered the attack, she snapped her head aside. A single black line sliced past her face.

Cold brushed across her cheek. A few strands of hair were cut off and scattered into the air as Rodion scoffed in disgust.

Hah! Disgusting fucking fly.

So that's what you're firing? Hocking up half-digested corpses? That's some nasty shit right there.

Rodion's gaze followed the missed shot to where the corrosive fluid had pooled, hissing as it ate into the ground.

Several corpses lay half-submerged in it, their forms sloughing apart into shapeless pulp.

The smoke rising from the revolting mass smelled like rotting human flesh - a stench too foul to put into words.

A fist came driving straight toward her. Rodion caught its force on the tip of her blade and diverted it aside.

She read each erratic flurry of attacks motion by motion, driving her rapier into the openings.

Whenever she realizes the monster has seen through her path, she changes the arc of her attack with the recoil of her bullets.

The building recoil is all it takes. With each clash, the Palermitan Style accelerates.

And eventually...

Rodion's footwork, which had been trailing behind one pace at a time, began to catch and lock into the rhythm of the Lord of Flies's assault.

.......

In one swift turn, the Lord of Flies sweeps around to Rodion's back.

An attack from the dead angle, aimed to break through her advantage.

However...

Gotcha right where I want you, prey.

The instant a chilling metallic click rang out, doubt flickers in the entity's eyes.

The Lord of Flies didn't predict wrong.

It was simply that, for one brief moment, Rodion's Eye had seen farther ahead. The computation predicted the future outcome more perfectly than her opponent's.

Rodion fires a lone bullet that had been loaded in place of an Acceleration Round - a fragmenting armor-piercer ammunition.

The bullet tore forward with a deafening shot. For the first time since the duel began, the Lord of Flies lost its balance and crashed hard into the ground.

What's wrong, bug? That one got under your shell?

A mere underling of the Thumb... You dare?

Bad news for ya. This one's gonna hurt just a little more.

Jagged metal shrapnel flew in every direction, ripping through everything nearby.

My win.

Convinced of her victory, Rodion moved in at once to collect the insect's head...

But in that instant, one of the Lord of Flies's arms ballooned up right in front of her face.

Oh, shit...!

... Your reaction has slowed.

The more variables there were to predict, and the harder those variables became to read, the faster the Eye of Precognition would overheat.

Rodion had already survived many close calls in this duel by drawing answers from its foresight...

But when the overheated Eye failed her for just a heartbeat, corrosive fluid exploded from the Lord of Flies and ate through her leg.

The acid of the Lord of Flies is no less lethal than the deadliest venoms out there.

The vicious wound it leaves is the kind no common treatment could mend. The kind that no budget-priced Singularity could patch up.

Still, not every useful soldier chooses the very center of the battlefield as their stage.

Even this seemed to have been a development well within Rodion's prediction...

Nngh... Shit. This hurts like hell.

But ya know...

The thing is, I'm actually pretty fucking important. Got a big name and all.

... as she fished out a single special bullet that a certain useful someone from Command had given her prior to the duel.

People of my caliber... we carry one of these... Nngh... just in case.

A sliver of green light flashes across the cylinder, and the bullet burrows straight into Rodion's heart.

From the bullet flows tears shed by a being in another being's stead. And now it courses through Rodion's veins.

Helapoiesis Bullet.

K Corp.'s Singularity, condensed to its most potent form, mends her melted leg in the blink of an eye.

And it doesn't stop there. The tears also restore the overheated Eye according to the "original state" Rodion pictures in her mind.

Whew. Thought that was the end of me.

Surprised? Didn't expect that, did ya? I'm good as new now.

.......

Really gets under your skin, huh. Join the winning side if you're jealous.

Although she threw the line out like a victory cry, Rodion wasn't exactly in a position to brag.

She had already used every decent high-grade round she had, and without the Soldatos to provide her extra supplies, there was no other crutch she could rely on.

Her body had been restored to perfect condition, but her chances had not. Using the Helapoiesis Bullet didn't mean she could suddenly come up with a breakthrough plan to defeat her opponent.

Despite the odds being against her, Rodion's fighting spirit did not so much as waver. She held up her sword again and brandished it in the same spectacular flourish.

Fucking dogshit.

.......

Keep swinging that thing, and you're gonna become a retard, ya know?

There won't be a damn thing left to remember even if ya win!

I know... That's why... I'm severing it all.

Nothing... Nothing must be allowed to remain here.

Not memory, not time, not even the heart to hold them.

That is the ending you, who have made me into who I am, and I, will meet.

An honest, one-on-one duel.

The Palermitan Style is known to accelerate the longer a duel lasts.

A duel of this kind couldn't be more ideal for a practitioner of that style, but...

This goddamn bladetrail...

The chaotic trajectories of the sword and the myriad bladetrails carved into the very air put the brake on Rodion's acceleration.

The more her movements accelerated, the more the severed space around her closed in, leaving her less and less room to stand.

Despite the odds being against her, Rodion's fighting spirit did not so much as waver. She held up her sword again and brandished it in the same spectacular flourish.

As long as the acceleration could bring me to the future I foresaw...

Rodion's mind began to race.

She had no idea what the Lord of Flies had learned while fighting the employees of the other Wings and Fixer Associations...

But it was easy to guess that the vermin was blindsided by the fact that a bullet to the heart had actually healed her instead of killing her immediately.

Haha... Hahahaha!!

... You make too much noise. Can you not fight quietly?

Rodion did not bother putting that thought into words.

This opponent's killing blows would always come for the head. The brain.

Putting that trivial fact into account on her own was enough to slow down the overload on the Eye of Precognition.

A clash. Two. Then three.

With every clash, the sounds of sword and gunshot began to lag farther behind the motion itself.

The future her Eye had shown her drew closer and closer.

The sword movements of the Palermitan Style began to gain speed. The rapier and the blade, and Rodion herself, too.

At the end of the next instant...

The duel was wrapped up once and for all,

with a singular point drilling into the neck of the Lord of Flies.

And the hunt comes to a close.

Ah...

A singular point drilling through scores of afterimages.

The lightning-fast attack can neither be severed nor avoided, nor parried.

Rodion believed in the force that directed the arc of Yoshihide's blade - the force of hatred and hostility toward her and the other Nursefathers.

The decisive blow would be delivered not by the Dihui Star's Blade, but instead by a weapon that would guarantee the utter annihilation of her enemy:

The Tiansha Star's Blade.

The precognition born of that belief pierced the waves of time rushing over Yoshihide and corrected the reversed causality once more.

And the hunt comes to a close.

In that split second before death, a flash of insight finds Rodion.

Her lips curled with a triumphant smile. Victory was within reach.

But in that same instant, there was another in the Corridor...

... who had been waiting for the opening born from that very same precognition.

.......

Only a fellow practitioner of the Palermitan Style could have spotted that opportunity.

It was an attack from a blind spot that could neither be predicted nor blocked unless the Eye had room to compute the variable of another enemy.

The arc of the sword, perfected over thousands of repetitions, pierced through Rodion's heart.

You...

The heartbeat of the Thumb Nursefather began to still into a faint echo.

And only then, the eyes of the boy,

whose body still bore the bruises of his master's beatings...

You... you little...! Heathcliff... You... You dare betray me, after everything...?

.......

... finally stirred with a flicker of living light.