Blood of the Innocent

File 18: Shooting Stars

The van finally arrived at the hotel at Siena, where they checked in. Since the gang was from Proiettilo, they had a discount to check into the hotel regardless of the gang they were in. They rented three rooms for the night on the third floor: Inferno and Lettuce, Wraith and Persona, and Minny, Dante, and Exodus.

"Hey," suggested Persona, "Don't we need to keep watch just in case anyone tries to assassinate us?"

"Of course," replied Wraith, "That's why Dante and Exodus will be watching over Minny's room. You see, even if Exodus does fall asleep, Dante has this thing that works in his brain. I don't know how he had gotten it, but it was probably from the wolves that raised him.

Dante doesn't really go to sleep."

"What do you mean?" asked Persona.

"There are two sides of a brain: the left and the right side. Dante only uses half of his brain."

"Is that why he can't perform complete sentences?"

"Well, kinda. You see, since his left side of the brain is shutdown, all that processing power is moved on to the right side of the brain. Whenever night time falls, the right side of the brain will shutdown and all the processing power moves to the left side of the brain. That way, both sides of his brain get rest without him sleeping. Kinda like how dolphins work."

"So Dante doesn't really need sleep to function since one side of his brain does all of the work."

"Yeah. Now go to sleep. I'm pretty tired from fighting a metal bird."

—

Persona woke up from a crackling noise. He got up hazily and checked the time. It was already last midnight. He looked over the other bed and noticed Wraith snoring. He probably didn't notice the crackling noise that was coming from the hallway.

As Persona opened the door to the hallway, he checked the other doors and noticed that Minny's door is open! Persona rushed over to check to see if Minny was okay, but was greeted with Exodus pointing her gun at him in the doorway.

"I'm known for having trigger finger you know," warned Exodus.

"Sorry," replied Persona nervously, "I just heard a crackling noise and wanted to make sure things were okay."

"It's the reason why I got up to open the doorway. Do you have any idea where it came from?"

"I heard it from the hallway."

Exodus and Persona looked around the hallway, trying to look for the crackling noise. They then noticed the open window, revealing the night sky. Out of habit, Persona closed the window to prevent any bugs from entering the hotel.

Exodus noticed something odd and tapped Persona's shoulder, pointing at the window. It was open once again. Persona went over to close the window. He reached his hand out, but soon his hand began melting. Persona quickly jumped back from the window, restoring his hand.

"What was that?" yelled Persona, "Should we alert the others that we're under a Magia attack?"

"No," replied Exodus smiling, "I want to fight this guy. We don't wanna disturb our fellow friends' sleep too, right?"

Persona nodded, "From what I've observed, the person needs that window to be open. His ability allows him to melt things."

The stars from the night sky suddenly got closer and closer, entering through the window. They took the form of the Big Dipper.

"What's a constellation doing floating in the hotel hallway?" asked Exodus, confused.

"It's just too boring now that you've figured out how things work," replied the stars, "So tedious. It's like you're all main characters and everything gets spoon fed to you."

"Can you explain what's going on?" asked Persona.

"My name is Stargazer. I have the ability to control small miniature sized stars with my Star Magia. They can melt anything in sight, and protect me from any danger just by moving towards the opponent's attacks. The only downside is that I have to have the night sky fall upon me, hence why I need that window open."

"Stargazer sounds like a dumb name!" said Exodus.

Suddenly, a star from the Big Dipper came shooting towards Exodus' stomach as fast as a bullet, melting her. Persona rushed in to restore her back to her original form.

"A healer?" asked Stargazer, "Even more tedious."

There seemed to be no way to close the window. If they tried running there, they would instantly get shot by the stars and melt. If only Wraith was awake, or even Lettuce.

"I'll just wake them up with my revolver," yelled Exodus.

Exodus shot two bullets in the air, making a loud sound. However, they were all suddenly outside, at the parking lot of the hotel.

"The stars can transport my target and I to different places," smiled Stargazer, "It's pretty handy whenever I want to escape. After all, I am the assassin of Sicario gang #7."

Immediately, Exodus shot another bullet at Stargazer, aiming for his forehead. However, a star quickly blocked the bullet with its speed, melting the bullet.

"Light travels pretty fast," smiled Stargazer.

Exodus shot two bullets. This time she was making a Rotation shot. As expected, the bullet pierced through the star, destroying the star. However, it didn't manage to hit the target.

"How the hell did you destroy my star?" asked Stargazer, "It's a good thing they regenerate. However, I've seen that technique before. That's Rotation, the technique that even the Boss fears! Once he knows we've eliminated a Rotation user, we can get off this kill cleanly and scot free! We'll all become Capos!"

"Persona," whispered Exodus, "The stars regenerate. However, what would happen if we destroyed all the stars at the same time?"

"Would that work?" he replied.

"It's worth a shot. However, I don't think I have enough bullets to make more than three Rotation shots before reloading. It'll take time for me to reload, which will let the stars regenerate quickly."

"So you're saying we need a bigger projectile than bullets to destroy them all at once?"

"Have you thought of using Rotation on your yo-yo?"

"I've only tried it once, but it wasn't as fatal."

Suddenly, a star began shooting at Exodus and Persona. They received multiple injuries but were quickly restored by Persona's Magia. Exodus gave the signal as Persona threw his yo-yo at the Big Dipper. Exodus shot her last bullet at the yo-yo's sides, grazing it and giving it a spin.

The yo-yo hit the stars, instantly destroying all of them with its size. With the stars destroyed, Stargazer began to implode. Just like how stars grow old and die, so did Stargazer when his stars had died.

"So.. we know that they're after us because of Minny's new Capo position," stated Persona, analyzing the fight.

"And some of them know the secret of Rotation," replied Exodus.

It was a rough night, but everyone had slept well.