ANNOUNCEMENT
Hello fellow readers, it's me, Imaginationsburstingout. Sorry for the late upload. Things have been hectic recently. College had just started and I'm still getting used to how things are. Uploading new chapters might not be on the forefront of my mind in the first month. I promise that things will return in the future but for now, I need to get used to things.
If you want to keep track of my situation, I have a Discord account and I'm more than willing to talk with you and keep you all updated on my situation or if you just wanted to talk to someone! My Discord account is:
Imaginationsburstingout#1950
With that being said, I hope you enjoy today's chapter!
Confrontations
"'This mission is going to be easy' my ass!" Louise yelled out of frustration.
Just as she said that, the cover that she was using was blown to bits by a massive metal fist. Her eyes widened when that same fist suddenly pulled out wrist chainsaw blade. The fist closed in on her fast enough that she didn't have time to run away. Putting both of her arms up and deployed the arm shields she faced the chainsaw blade head on.
"I'll destroy you and harvest your parts just like your other Hunter buddies!" the owner of the fist said.
Louise grit her teeth, her servos running on override as she tries to keep up with their target's strength, which turns out to be a slowly losing battle as she is slowly getting overpowered by the monstrous strength. Shouldn't be a surprise since she is just a Kleiner Hunter, her body just wasn't built for strength, she's built for speed.
And speed is what she'll use when fighting this enemy.
At the last moment, Louise disengaged her arm shields and dropped her arms down. The spinning blade of destruction closed in on her neck but being the Kleiner Hunter that she is, she expected this and was already leaning backwards. While she succeeded in avoiding certain doom, what didn't survive was a small tuft of hair. Quickly righting herself once more, her thrusters came to life and she came out of her cover, finally getting a good view of her target.
He stood at a tall height of 10'8'', easily doubling Louise's height. He didn't have a head, his body was wide but imperfect, scraps of metal plates all welded and formed together to make an almost impenetrable body, painted on his right pec was a red skull bordered with a spiked circle. His arms, though covered with plates were lanky when compared to his body. His lower half was made up of four treads with each were tracks thick enough that she knew none of her weapons would be able to penetrate or destroy.
She didn't focus much on what his name was, all she knew was that this person had been assaulting and killing Enforcers for years now, raiding locations which contained important parts for Hunters. The situation got really problematic when his ambitions began to rise and started attacking Hunters, hence why the Hunters decided to hit back. Unfortunately, Louise and her group weren't the first Hunters to tango with the criminal. Two squads were sent and none of them returned and were presumed dead.
Louise's eyes narrowed when his chest opened up, revealing hundreds of missile pods. In the centre of the missile pods, the criminal himself sat on his control room shielded by a glass, a sadistic grin on his face.
Just when the missiles were being launched, Louise activated her overdrive.
The sound of glass shattering from above made the pink haired cyborg look up to see three Hunters of each classes. Louise chuckled to herself before standing up from her seating position and flew up to meet them midway.
The Hunter in the middle, a Wolyn class looked at her with a grin. "See, what I'd tell you, easy mission right?"
Louise chuckled before punching him in the shoulder, "Shut up, Aaykay, I got my paint scratched for this!"
Aaykay laughed at this and responded with a mocked salute. "Roger dodger captain,"
Louise's tapped on the ground repeatedly, impatience clear on her face as she looked at the door which led to a particular red head's room. For some inexplainable reason, Louise decided to wait on Kirche instead of leaving to continue her pursue of the thief who had mortally wounded her sister. She knew this was a bad idea since she's a liability. While she will admit that Kirche can handle herself, she doesn't really know how she would handle in the face of an actual battle, for all she knew, Kirche was just like those uptight nobles who are all talk and no bite. So why did Louise wait for her? Was it to get back at her for helping her or just pure curiosity or perhaps, a chance to prove herself to others that she's worthy of the title noble, a way to just gain a positive reputation? Louise didn't know and she will never care to know.
The sound of the door creaking brought her attention back into the real world, a frown started to settle on her face when she looked at who came out. She didn't like what she was seeing already and they haven't even left the campus!
"No," Louise said firmly.
The reason for this sudden rejection, was not because of Kirche, this rejection was pointed at the one who was beside Kirche. With an open book on one hand and a large staff on the other, Tabitha looked at Louise with slight confusion. Louise on the other hand scrunched up her face trying to tell Tabitha by expression alone what was obvious. Obviously, it didn't work.
"Don't give me that look, Kirche is the only one that I allowed to come," Louise said while crossing her arms.
"I can manage," Tabitha said.
The steel eyed look that Tabitha followed up brought some slight surprise to Louise but she didn't show it. Unlike Kirche, Louise could tell that there was some weight behind Tabitha's words. Both of them stared for a few more moments before the cyborg relented and gave out a sigh. She might as well come, just insurance that Kirche isn't going to get in to serious trouble. From what Louise could glean off of the blue haired girl, she was strong enough to summon a dragon familiar. Despite not being able to use magic for almost a decade already, Louise can still tell vaguely how much skill and power is required in summoning a mythological reptile.
While a headache was something of a rarity to Louise since she was 95% machine and 5% human, she could feel one coming up. She massaged her temples with her hand before doing some breathing exercises to calm herself. Once she was sure that she wasn't going to snap at the next thing that pisses her off, she looked to Tabitha.
"Keep an eye on her," Louise said while pointing at Kirche.
Kirche was about to retort and tell Louise that she can handle herself but she was cut off when Tabitha responded with a quiet 'mmm' followed by a nod. That simple sound that she made, followed by the gesture seemed to have given off a larger effect than expected as Kirche gave her a look of betrayal and started going off on a small rant about how could she do this to her friend. Of course, the only ones who listened to those words were the paintings on the long hallway along with the flower vases on the side.
A few minutes passed of total silence with the only sound of three footsteps and Kirche having a one-sided conversation with Tabitha. They had long left the girls dormitory and made their way towards the main gate of the school. When they reached that location, they then walked around the campus' perimeter and making their way to the western side of the campus. Rounding the final bend, Louise stopped in her tracks making the others do the same while also stopping the newest tale that Kirche was going to tell.
Standing in front of them were five guards, three knights and two musketeers, upon seeing the cyborg they all tensed up with their hands closely hovering over their weapons but the guards were simply the icing on the cake. With clear hesitation on their faces, they all parted revealing two more individuals, individuals that she didn't want to confront right now; Henrietta and Agnès.
The princess herself wore a neutral look on her face while her captain opted for glaring at Louise. Louise closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she continued to walk past the guards and past Henrietta and her captain. Not once did any of them utter a single word, past the princess was the hole that she had created last night. As she continued to make her way to the tunnel, Henrietta turned around and her voice pierced the silence.
"This isn't you, Louise,"
Louise scoffed at that before turning around to face Henrietta, a scowl on her face. "What do you know about me, princess?"
With pleading eyes, Henrietta replied. "I know that you wouldn't do something as absurd like this!"
Louise reciprocated by walking up to her. This prompted the guards to hold their weapons and began unsheathing them, Agnès included. While the guards were tense, Henrietta wasn't, she stared back at Louise, not flinching once. When their faces were mere inches Louise spoke with a low tone.
"Oh, trust me… I would do something like this," she then backed away. "The Louise that you knew died in the unforgiving sands of the Amazon Desert eight years ago,"
Confusion began to wander in Henrietta's mind but she couldn't speak her mind because Louise immediately turned around and proceeded towards the hole before stopping and calling out to the two girls, sarcastically asking them if they're still going. This jarred the Kirche and Tabitha out of their small stupor. The pair of friends awkwardly walked past the guards and past the princess but they were suddenly stopped when a hand reached for Kirche's shoulder.
The red-haired girl looked back to see the pleading eyes of Henrietta, with a hushed voice that sounded louder than it seemed. "Please… watch over my best friend,"
Kirche didn't say anything and chose to smile and gave quick nod before chasing after the cyborg. Tabitha didn't say anything but still looked at Henrietta and did the same.
A/N: Sorry if it's short and I'm sorry because I can't promise a longer next chapter. As mentioned above, if some of you skipped it, I'll say it again here. College just started for me and things are still hectic. Once my situation becomes stable, new chapters will come out weekly again. Unfortunately, for now, it's random updates.
If you want to keep track of my situation, I have a Discord account and I'm more than willing to talk with you and keep you all updated on my situation or if you just wanted to talk to someone! My Discord account is:
Imaginationsburstingout#1950
With that said, time to read your reviews!
Touhoufanatic: Indeed, there is psychological drama happening here. With Eleonore being a cripple for life, questions will be asked like how will she cope with it? Would she be given special treatment? Right now, she doesn't have to worry for she's still in a coma.
Lucian Naruto: Accurate grades for someone who's loyalty lies to Princess Henrietta. Louise didn't really consider Agnès to be a threat to begin with… in fact, she doesn't really consider anyone in the academy to be a threat. She knows how powerful she is and she knows when to use such power.
I have to agree with your last statement, with Louise being more independent than before, she doesn't have to prove anything to Henrietta since she knows that such things can only harms her either physically (even though it's impossible) or mentally.
Louise isn't vying for anyone's attention since she herself knows that she's powerful.
With all of that said, I bid you all adieu!
Peace~