"Is that all there is to it? Hector, you are a silly man."
With those departing words, Lenore of Styria closed her eyes and gave the platinum-haired man one last smile before she felt the sun's light burning away at her figure. As time seemed to slow down for her and everything went dark, Lenore felt something envelop her, a cold sensation unlike any other.
"So this is what dying feels like." She thought as the cold touch of death spread, and yet, it wasn't as cold and merciless as she expected. There was a strange warmth, as well, as though she was resting near a calm flame. Was this some afterlife? Or was it perhaps a limbo, trapped between the borders of Heaven and Hell?
It would explain the strange sounds she heard, the scents that surrounded her, and the faint lights that flashed around her. Caught between Inferno and Paradise, for though she may have done terrible things, as well as being a creature of the damned, she rarely took part in the more reprehensible actions as the rest of her kind. Perhaps this was her fate to never belong in either realm, forever a prisoner to the endless nothingness.
…
…
…
She realized that something was wrong when she felt sweat on her forehead.
Lenore quickly sat up from the hard ground with a gasp, her eyes darting around as she blinked rapidly, her surroundings beginning to clear up. Two large buildings were to the sides of her, made of a dark brick that she had never seen before. Yes, she has seen brick being used to pave some roads, but never to make buildings such as these. Moreso, she never saw tubes of metal attached to any building she's ever seen in her life, nor these strange containers that had foul odors coming from them. However, her attention was drawn towards the lights and sounds that came from one end of the hallway formed by the buildings. Picking herself up, Lenore trudged towards the source of the noise, squinting her eyes as the lights grew brighter before she made it out of the alley.
As her eyes adjusted to the lights, she gained a befuddled expression as she saw humans walking about without a care in the world, garbed in strange clothing, but what truly confused her were that some of the people had inhuman features on them! Some looked more like a Night Creature, some with features of a plant, some truly bizarre!
"Where am I?" Lenore asked herself with a whisper as she slowly stumbled back, only to stop when she heard the sounds of men cackling behind her. Turning around, she saw three men, one of them looking more reptilian than the other two, walking towards her with less-than-pleasant looks on their faces. The leader said something that she couldn't understand, though judging from the tone of his voice, he seemed to be full of himself. He and his companions probably thought that she was a mere damsel, a victim for them to play around with. Her assumption was proven correct when one of them grabbed her arm, a perverse expression on his face as he and his companions tried to bring her into the alleyway.
Oh well, she was feeling herself getting hungry, anyways.
Letting them believe that they were dragging her off for their amusement, Lenore kept checking back towards where the lights were, determining whether or not she was far away enough for her to drop the act. She received her answer when the man that was pulling her tried to toss her towards a wall, prompting her to act. Yanking her arm, she threw the man into one of the nearby metal containers before she grabbed his partner and struck him towards the reptilian-looking one, knocking the pair to the ground. Moving quickly, she made her way towards the first man and pulled him up so her fangs could reach his neck, biting down on it to begin draining his blood. Desperately, the man tried to scream, but his windpipe was being crushed, his vocal chords unable to make a proper cry as the only sound he was able to make was one of a dying gasp.
As he bled out, however, Lenore's eyes were flooded with visions of his past memories. Knowledge of where she was, what year it is, what her situation looked like. It was unlike anything she'd ever seen, but she needed a bit more. The knowledge that was useful to her was limited, and everything else were personal memories that belonged to the man. Thankfully, she had another body that she can use.
Making her way to the next body, she took note of the reptilian man's skin, realizing that it would take a bit longer to pierce it with her fangs, which would buy him enough time to recover and attack, so she opted for a simpler solution. Grabbing him by the jaw, she pried his mouth open, struggling a bit before she heard it crack, then she grabbed his collarbone and pulled, twisting the man's neck until the sounds of it breaking were heard. Letting the body drop, she then turned towards the last man alive, who was staring at her with some incoherent fear. Good. It's what the would-be rapist deserved.
Before he even had the chance to scream, Lenore pounced on him, sinking her fangs into his neck and drinking the blood he had to offer. Once more, she felt his memories flash around her vision, trying to absorb the important bits of knowledge she felt she needed before her victim became a shriveled-up prune of a corpse. Knowledge of language, recent history, important events, all of this was learned as Lenore drank to the last drop before there was nothing left for her to drink.
As she let the last corpse fall, Lenore massaged her temple as she processed the memories. To think that she was so far from Styria, and in a time far past when she was supposed to die. Not to mention how advanced humanity had become since that time, both socially and genetically.
Ah, yes, the biggest advancement of humanity in the past two hundred years. "Quirks." She whispered to herself. To think that humans had the potential to gain fantastic abilities! From manipulating the earth itself to having strength that would put them on equal terms as vampires!
Though a part of her still craved rest, it was quelled by a more curious part of her mind. She wanted to know more about this world she ended up in. To see how far humanity had come.
To understand why she was still alive.
That last thought gave her pause. Why was she still amongst the living? She was burned to ashes, with nothing left that could've been used to resurrect her. Was she so indecisive that she was exiled from entering either afterlife? Was she given a second chance to redeem herself for what she'd done to humanity? Or was this God's punishment for her, doomed to never find peace?
She shook her head from those thoughts. She wouldn't find any answers, sticking to one spot. She needs to actually look for them. That means that she will have to find a place to hide, or even blend in with the locals.
Looking down towards the least bloody corpse, Lenore pondered over a possible disguise. Her nightgown stood out a bit and wasn't appropriate for mingling with the public, and if the memories of her victims served well, it was not uncommon for a lady to wear a man's clothing.
Swallowing her dignity for the time being, she began to replace her nightgown with the least dirty clothes she could grab from the man, noting the strange sensation of the fabric before putting it on. Making her way out of the alleyway as she put on the last article of clothing and grabbing whatever coin that was in the mens' pockets, she took a look at herself to make sure that nothing was out of place, grimacing a bit as she saw just how ill-fitted the pants were. At least the belt held up and the brown coat hid it away from view.
Taking a deep breath, Lenore swallowed her pride and walked out towards the streets of Yamanashi Prefecture, readying herself for whatever may come ahead. Blinded by the flashing lights, she blinked quickly before she got adjusted to them, her eyes slowly widening as she took in the sights around her. The moving of strange wagons, how care-free the people were at this hour, the strange murals depicting people in colorful outfits. It was more jarring than she ever expected.
As she walked and looked around her surroundings, she realized just how much she needed to understand. There was so much that the mens' memories didn't tell her! "That settles it, then…" She muttered to herself. "First thing after finding a place to sleep is to find a library."
That thought quickly hit a snag. She barely knew a single damned thing on how to function in another country, let alone one several centuries in the future! She barely had a vague idea of how things worked here thanks to the memories of the men she killed, and that may not work because they were criminals! That attitude would probably get her in deeper shit than they have!
Despair began to form in her stomach, realizing how much she needed to learn, what struggles she'll have to face. She began to bite at her fingers as thoughts raced through her head, dreading the thought of -
She was brought out of her mind when she heard a crashing sound coming from an alleyway, followed by a young man groaning in pain.
A sign of fate's benevolence, perhaps?
"Perhaps there are upsides to being a good samaritan." Lenore thought to herself as she walked over to the injured young man, taking note of his green outfit before speaking, switching to Japanese she learned from her victims' memories. "Dear me, are you alright?"
Earlier
"In hindsight, I probably should've started smaller." Izuku Midoriya thought to himself as he fell towards the dumpster. Just earlier today, he had the idea of distributing his quirk's power throughout his body instead of focusing it all into one area. His current teacher, Gran Torino, applauded the idea at first, but noted that he also needs to be able to use the power in such a manner without having to concentrate too much. They trained from midday to dusk, but Izuku still felt that he needed to work on his quirk more, so he began to use the alley as an obstacle course to quicken his training, bouncing from wall-to-wall. It turned out that he wasn't entirely ready for it, as he smacked face-first into a wall before he was in his current situation.
He braced himself, but this little to cushion the fall, as pain exploded throughout his body and caused him to groan in pain. As he rolled over and fell to the ground, wincing as he landed, he failed to notice the sounds of somebody walking towards him until he heard them speak in a heavy accent. "Dear me, are you alright?"
Opening his eyes, Izuku was stunned to see a woman stand over him with concern in her eyes. She had red hair and eyes, complimenting her pale face. Despite the baggy clothes she was wearing, she was very beautiful, so much so that Izuku's mind shut down for a bit. When he regained control of his thoughts, his first thought was "An angel…"
Upon realizing that she said something to him, Izuku rebooted his brain. "Oh, uh, yeah! I'm alright!" He said nervously as he picked himself up. "Just doing some late-night training, that's all!"
"Training, you say?" The woman asked before her face lit up. "Oh, are you perhaps a hero?"
"Uh, close enough." Izuku replied as he dusted off his uniform. "My name is Deku! I'm a hero-in-training, I'm interning with a Pro that lives in this area."
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Deku." The woman said with a smile as she bowed her head. "I am Lenore. Happy to make your acquaintance."
"Nice to meet you, too, Ms. Lenore." Midoriya said as he thought to himself. "Lenore… that sounds like a foreign name… She must've come here from another country. Never thought I'd be able to meet someone from another part of the world!"
"If you're wondering if I'm a foreigner, the answer is yes." Lenore began, snapping Izuku out of his thoughts. "I've been looking for a library nearby since I came here from Europe to get away from the… less-than-pleasant aspects of it, you see. In my haste to move here, however, I failed to learn the layout of the area. You wouldn't happen to know where one is, would you?"
Snapping out of his daze, Izuku gave Lenore directions to a nearby library, grabbing a small piece of paper and writing said directions down on it before giving it to Lenore. "I thank you for the assistance, Deku. Hopefully, I'll be able to see you become a full-fledged hero. Maybe we'll see each other again soon." She said to the young man, who merely blushed as he scratched the back of his head in a bashful manner, letting out a small chuckle. "Well, I, uh, thanks for saying that."
Letting out a small giggle before she made her way in the direction given to her, Lenore found herself in a better mood than earlier. Despite the setback earlier, she was beginning to make good progress on her new journey in this world. "Plus…" She thought to herself. "Deku seems to be quite the kind lad. He could be of use outside of the library. I just have to get close to him for whatever answers I may need. What could go wrong?"
Oh, she has no idea how well that plan is gonna go.
Am I out of my mind? Maybe. Am I high or on drugs? Depends on how you look at the chaos that is Epsi's Hoard. But it is kind of the reason this fic is being made at all, as well as my cousin showing me Castlevania on Netflix.
Hope to see this story continue, and I especially hope that you guys Fav, Follow, Subscribe, and leave a comment for this story! See ya soon!
