Alright, here's your chapter everybody! I know that you've been waiting for this. Too bad about Ryuhime and Xera... Looks like Elric's lost another team...
Elric sighed. Well, their first real quest, hadn't exactly turned out like he'd planned. Not at all like he'd thought. Maybe he just shouldn't hunt with partners, maybe that was the best way to kept things like this from happening. After all, the past couple times he'd tried hunting with a group other than the White Knights, look at how it'd turned out for him, and for them for that matter. Probably worse for them actually, now that he thought about it.
He looked at the cart, where the bodies of Ryuhime and Xera, and the deviljho all lay cold and motionless. Their stillness was unsettling. Especially the deviljho. It was dead, definitely dead, but it looked as if it were ready to lunge back to its feet and attack them all.
Hell, it was a deviljho. It could very well manage to do so. It wouldn't surprise him in the slightest. There weren't all that many of them, but even a single one could demolish an entire city. When just a single one of them came near Loc Lac, it immediately triggered an urgent quest. It was dangerous in every way.
He sighed. "I guess I'll need a new team now."
Ryuhime jumped up in fright. This was far from her most intelligent move, as it also caused her to spill out of the aptonoth cart that was carrying her back to the city. She hit the ground and cried out in pain, her back feeling as if someone had poured a powerful acid along it.
The ground was like ten thousand needles, each stabbing into her with a fury.
"Ah, Elric, looks like one of your girlfriends is alive and well!" A rough voice laughed. She knew that voice, who was it?
"Great!" Elric said cheerfully. The aptonoth cart rolled to a stop and he walked around to stand over her. "Um, are you sure that she's alive?" He leaned down and patted her cheek.
"I think so..." Ryuhime said softly. Then she remembered! Her legs! Xera! She immediately pushed herself up, ignoring the pain as it flared through her body, and she staggered up to stand on her feet. First bit of good news, apparently she either didn't need her feet, or she still had them, either way she counted it as a plus. But she had to know what happened to Xera! She took a weak step forward, and then her eyes locked onto the other girl. "Xera." She said, her next step landed on a rock, spilling her onto the ground.
"Ouch." That rough voice said. Rat-something. What was his name? Rat-breath? No, it was a real name, not a nickname.
How was her mind not working anymore! She didn't know how to handle this. After all, her mind was all that she really had. It wasn't like she was worth anything more. All she was was a brain and a pair of awkward, annoying tits. And now she couldn't even think anymore!
"Don't worry lass." Another, softer voice spoke up. Arms reached under her and lifted her gently from the ground. "Stop hyperventilating. C'mon. Do it with me now. Breathe in. Now out."
And with him- Elric! His name was Elric- leading her, she slowly regained control. Although she was still in a panic. She could feel her heart pounding, it seemed like she could calm. "S-s-s-sorry."
"What are you sorry for lass?" He was so gentle right now.
Her mind flashed back- a half-hour? An hour?- to the fight with the deviljho. She had been swallowed whole by the monster, and Xera- oh god! She struggled to escape from Elric's hands, but he was too strong. Or maybe she was just too weak. Either way, she couldn't get away to go to her Xera.
"Calm down girl." He tried to soothe her, but she continued to struggle, despite the pain it caused her, up until he laid her down in the cart.
"X-Xera." She pulled herself along. Only now did she realize that the entire group had stopped. The cart, Elric, even the White Knights were stopped cold in the middle of the road. Weren't they only like a mile or so away from Loc Lac? How could it be taking them this long to return?
That didn't matter. She had to get to Xera. Her feet seemed to cling to the floor of the cart as she dragged herself to the lithe body.
She remembered what she'd just seen and forced her eyes forward. She didn't want to look down at her feet. At the empty place where her feet would no longer be. Her life as a hunter was gone, completely. She couldn't travel around with the others anymore. She'd be stuck at Loc Lac. No wait, not even that. She was nothing. Loc Lac was for hunters, and she couldn't do that anymore. There was nothing left for her. The most she could hope for was going back to town like Michael had. But she didn't have the kind of experience that he did, so no school would hire her either. She was nothing anymore. The implications were tremendous, and horrifying, but she didn't have the time to think it through right now.
She continued with her dragging until she got to Xera, and then grabbed the taller girl by her shoulders and shook her.
She looked just like she did in her dream. Had it been a dream? Actually it had to have been. Xera looked a lot worse now than she had in the dream. In the dream she'd been pale and her lips had turned blue. Now, her hair was sticking up wildly, her stomach was a deep, brutal, mess of bruising that reached up from her panties to her chest, even up around her shoulders. Her bra was ripped too, a series of small tears, almost like teeth, running along the top edge of the back.
Ryuhime's eyes filled with tears. Xera hadn't reacted to her shaking. Everybody around her was dead silent. She wished that her dream had been real, that she was already slipping into death to join the wild girl that she loved.
"No." She croaked out, her voice coming out in a harsh rasp. She fell forward onto the other girl's chest, her head resting against Xera's left breast.
"Ow."
She'd known that this was a stupid idea the minute the hunt was suggested. Had it really been worth it? Xera had wanted to go on the hunt so badly though. Ryuhime just couldn't bring herself to deny Xera her wish.
And who had just said 'ow'?
She felt a soft hand lay on her back as she fell into the darkness again, afraid of whatever nightmare would come, but sure that it couldn't be as bad as her reality was now.
As it turned out, she wasn't wrong, but it was a close second.
Her nightmare brought her back to when she was a child, just after she was advanced to a higher class the first time. She was now isolated, in an unfamiliar group of people. They immediately saw her as prey, and pounced.
The very first day she was brought in to the new class, the bullying started. Hell, she hadn't even gotten to sit down before it happened. It wasn't like she was unused to it either.
Even when she was in her own grade, she was alone, and everybody else would tease her and pick on her. After all, she was the freak, the genius, the target. She'd had her clothing stolen after she went to bathe after a tough day of training. Most of the other girls had pulled her hair at least once. One day she even been stripped in front of the class, Lynn had let her go home early that day, where she'd cried for hours in her bed.
But right now, her dreams carried her back to her first day in her new grade.
Immediately, they'd seen her as the perfect target. A genius, physically weak, insecure, she was honey on the ham. She was a nice and plump aptonoth steak, rare flank of anteka.
Ryuhime was introduced in the front of the class. "Everybody, please welcome our newest student, Ryuhime. She's coming to us at an accelerated rate, advancing from her previous lessons." The teacher said as she presented the girl.
As Ryuhime walked back to her seat, blushing furiously all the way. The only empty seat in the class was right in the back, surrounded by two large tough-looking students. One of them was covered in scars and had a studded black eye patch covering his right eye. She was petrified of both of them, they were so much bigger than her, and each had a sick smile on their lips. Before she even made it past the third row, the bullying started.
One of the girls seated next to the aisle Ryuhime was walking down was the first among them. She just stuck her foot out into the aisle and inch or two further than usual.
Being that Ryuhime's attention was focused on those students in the back row, she didn't notice the change in position. Even if she weren't looking to the back row, she still wouldn't have seen it. In her arms was a large book, in which she wrote down all of her notes. It probably weighed a good twenty pounds or so.
With no way of her being able to see the foot in the way, she tripped. She tripped, fell, and landed on her arm, complete with the heavy text she was hugging.
It felt like her arm snapped. She kept herself from crying out though. She had dealt with bullies for a while now, and knew that they wanted to hurt her. If she could make it seem like she was still fine, they would give up right?
So she bit her lip, even as the girl who had tripped her bent over to help her back up. "S-sorry." She stuttered as she stood up.
"Better be more careful." The girl said. Her words were kind, but her face wasn't. Her eyes were razor-edged daggers, staring holes into Ryuhime's. Lips were pressed together in a tight line. She looked like she wanted to kill the purple-haired hunter. Or at least make her hurt.
Ryuhime pulled away, rushing to the back seat. Surely these two boys, no matter how they looked, couldn't be as bad as this girl. Couldn't be as dangerous.
She took her seat, subject to the leers of the other students. Every one of them seemed to be trying to strip her down, see her bleeding, whatever. It looked like they wanted her dead, like she was a monster they had to hunt.
Nothing more happened until she left the class. She hadn't been able to pay much attention during class anyway, too afraid to even look up from her book.
She left the academy to go and eat lunch at her house. However, she barely made it out the door before she was tripped again. This time, nobody helped her up. This time, there was more than just the one of them. It seemed like the entire school had turned out for this, whatever it was. The barely functioning rational side to Ryuhime knew that there were nowhere near that many people outside with her right then, but for some reason, she couldn't believe what her mind was telling her. It had to be everybody, there were so many of them.
All of them looked mean.
"Look at the little girl, scared and lost." The same voice from class, the same girl. Her eyes still had the feverish look to them. "Think you're better than us?"
"N-no." Ryuhime tried to deny it, but it seemed nobody was listening.
"Little punk, coming in as a genius." One of the guys out there spat at her. "You're not better than us. We can do anything you can do too bitch."
That same girl moved forward and grabbed Ryuhime by the hair, twisting it tightly around her fist and yanking Ryuhime off balance. She dragged her until she was lying down, and the girl shoved Ryuhime's face into the wad of saliva.
The others all started to move forward, kicking her and spitting down on her. She curled up on the ground, trying to become as small as possible.
It worked for a little while, just a few kicks, but at least they couldn't hit her head. One of the students pulled his foot back and slammed it forward right into her stomach. As a reflex, Ryuhime's hands snapped down to cover the injured area.
Which allowed the brutes free reign to attack her everywhere else. One shapely foot swept down and smashed her right in the face, another kicked her hard right in the back of the head. Another choose to stomp hard down on her feet and calves. One really large foot slammed into her chest, kicking her over onto her back to open even more of her body to the abuse.
It didn't last long at least.
Ryuhime lay on the ground, in a slowly spreading pool of blood. She lay there for a good ten minutes after the beating ended. She would have continued to lay there until, well, possibly forever.
Luckily somebody else came along to help her. As soon as that gentle hand touched her, she passed out.
Then she was moved from that class as well. And again with that next class. She was accelerated through five, six years of schooling, which didn't matter. After all, she was smart enough to keep up with any of the levels of school, they only had to find where it was that she wasn't bullied.
Unfortunately, she was bullied at every level. The only way they stopped hurting her was when she was taught on a one on one basis with her teachers, without anybody else being involved.
That still didn't truly stop them though, only minimize it.
They still waited outside for when Ryuhime had to go home. Or anytime when she was alone. Sometimes it was something small, sometimes just a slap, or some hurtful words. Other times, it was a full hit.
Whenever her teachers asked her what happened, she refused to tell anybody what really happened. After all, what if they hurt her even more for telling somebody? And it wasn't like she could just tell her parents. They'd disappeared ages ago, too long ago for her to even remember what they looked like. She was on her own, so she would just have to deal with it herself wouldn't she?
Just how it always was.
Ryuhime woke up in fright. She hated that memory. She hated all of her memories. All of them except for the ones about Xera, and those were too few and far between. She hadn't seen Xera at all over most of her school time, except for her first year, when they were in the same class, and the last one when they graduated. It wasn't like she could go and visit her covered in her own blood and bruises.
Wait, Xera!
Ryuhime pushed herself upright, looking wildly around for the dark-haired Xera. She wasn't in the aptonoth cart anymore?
When had she left the cart? Ryuhime now found herself sitting up in a massive, fluffy bed, in a posh bedroom. Where the hell was she? She'd never even seen such a beautiful room, let alone slept in one. This was a thousand times more incredible than even the room she'd borrowed in Elric's mansion. Was that really only two days ago? Oh wait, she'd been asleep, was it three now? Or even four?
"Dammit Ryuhime!" She shouted to herself, her voice rough and hoarse, barely audible, and barely recognizable, even to herself. Her eyes started to fill with tears. There were only two things she liked about herself, and now one of them was ruined.
That wasn't important though. What was wrong with her? She should be looking for Xera dammit! How could she be thinking of herself at a time like this? What kind of horrible person was she? She pushed herself out of the bed, staggering as she did so. She knew immediately that she shouldn't be moving. But that wasn't important. What was important was that she found Xera. When she didn't fall flat on her face, she was impressed. She couldn't look down though, she didn't want to see those bloody ends to her feet again.
She staggered forward three steps before she fell flat on her face. She was impressed with just that much. Without feet, she shouldn't have even made it that far, especially considering that she didn't even have a good sense of balance, never had.
She dug her nails into the floorboards and dragged herself forward about half a foot. Reaching forward again, she tried to pull herself along again.
She only managed to do it four times before her arms gave out on her. She collapsed forward, her arms unable to even bear her own slight weight anymore. Her head smacked into the ground and she thought that she felt the skin open up again. It certainly seemed like it, it felt like she was losing all of the blood in her head in a slowly growing pool, matting down her hair.
How much blood was there in the head? She should know this. She knew everything. But for some reason she couldn't think of the answer.
Maybe her brain had already lost too much blood and that was why she couldn't think anymore. She started crying as she lay there, her salty tears mixing with her blood. That was how they found her later when they came to check on her.
"Ah," Elric tutted. "What did you think you were going to accomplish here?"
"Sh-shut up!" Ryuhime croaked.
"Huh, seems like that devil's stomach acid hit you harder than we thought. Well, now you sound gruff and tough like a hunter should."
"Wh-where's Xera?" She wanted to cry even harder because of the way her voice now sounded, but Xera was most important. She had to know that she was okay before she could be concerned about herself.
"Xera." Elric gave a heavy sigh. "Xera is..." He hesitated.
All of Ryuhime's worst nightmares just came true. Xera was gone, she was dead! Ryuhime started to cry even harder, her body shaking on the ground. What the hell was the point to her life anymore? She'd only come on this stupid mission with this stupid group of stupid morons because Xera had wanted to. Ryuhime knew that they weren't experienced enough for it.
Elric sighed again. "Look girl, I'm sorry." He squatted down and laid a hand on her back. "Don't worry, everything'll be okay."
"How can it be okay when Xera's dead?"
Elric started to chuckle.
Ryuhime felt a surge of anger overcome her and she lunged forward, determined to make him hurt for laughing at Xera's demise. "How heartless can you be!" She said as her rush knocked him off-balance and tumbled him to the floor. "I loved her!"
"Told you." Ryuhime was confused. Elric didn't seem to be saying it towards her. But they were alone in the room right?
Then the door opened.
Ryuhime's eyes filled with even more tears, but this time they were tears of joy rather than depression. Joy because there, framed by the doorway, stood a perfect vision of beauty. Xera.
Xera walked into the room, squatted down next to the pair, and patted Ryuhime on the head. Suddenly she pressed forward and locked her lips against Ryuhime's, her tongue squirreling in to wrestle with the shorter girl's. Ryuhime simply sat there on top of Elric and hoped that she wasn't dreaming.
Xera's lips were so soft, and Ryuhime's were so pliant. The dark haired hunter's strong, powerful fingers dug into Ryuhime's chin, manipulating her just so. All of which Ryuhime loved.
When Xera pulled back and released Ryuhime, Ryuhime lunged after her, trying to continue to kiss, but Xera stopped her cold with her next words.
"I love you too Hime."
Haha, got you! Alright then, now the mushy romantic stuff is going on and you all dig it right? Well, let me know dammit! Nothing's as good to a writer as to know that people are reading and enjoying their work.