The Ether Conflict
Chapter 23: Mysteries Upon Mysteries
"It seems the experiments have been going rather well, Major," Odysseus says with a bored expression, casually twirling her scythe with her right hand.
"Indeed. After collecting as much data as we could from your experiment, we used it on the next batch of subjects. These two girls are actually of the lowest level, yet they can go toe to toe with you," the Major smirks, pointing at the twins in front of him.
After the three Ether users had clashed, a huge crater was created by their energies colliding with each other, throwing chunks of ground everywhere. Having foresaw this, the Major had moved back a fair distance to avoid getting caught in the blast. On one edge of the crater sits Odysseus, her stoic expression and emotionless tone making it very difficult for anyone to read her. On the opposite edge stand the twins, eyeing Odysseus carefully for any movements. They have yet to talk, but they seem like they want to say something. Despite the huge distance that separates them, both the Major and Odysseus can hear each other's voice like they were talking face to face.
"So, you were part of the project after all," Odysseus muses quietly. "I had my suspicions back then, though I wasn't so sure. Is that the reason why the government sent you to oversee us?" The small hazy blue flame that escapes from her eye slowly moves up and down, as if there is wind moving it.
"I'll admit, it was one of the reasons, but I was tasked with getting rid of you and the rest when an opportunity would arise," he says, still keeping a grin plastered on his face. "The government considered you a threat for their plans, so you had to disappear."
"I see," she says in a monotone voice. "Then why did you let me live? Did you think I'd die from hypothermia or my wounds?" she asks, still swirling her scythe.
"You don't remember?" the Major asks her with a surprised look, before starting to laugh. "Haha...ahahahaha! This is hilarious, you actually don't know!" he laughs mockingly. "Then let me enlighten you. You see, for a failure, your powers activating sure was convenient. I'd have put a bullet in that empty head of yours, if it wasn't for that "thing" that killed everyone and almost took my head," he glares at Odysseus, his expression darkening considerably. "Thanks to you, I was almost executed by the idiots on the top. It took a lot of convincing to make them believe you were dead..." Pausing a bit, he takes a step back. "And now I'll make it a reality."
"So, I was saved thanks to my powers...so much for a failure, huh?" she says. Although her face remains emotionless, the Major can feel her grinning like a troll at him. Twirling her scythe one last time, she jumps at the middle of the crater, which is 10 meters deep.
"Eliminate her," the Major orders and the twins start circling the edge of the crater, one from the left and one from the right. Odysseus keeps an eye in both of them, turning her head left and right to see when they will attack.
Reaching the middle of the edge, being opposite from each other, both twins jump high in the air and point their weapons at Odysseus.
"Dragon's Breath!" the girl wielding the flaming sword yells and bright red flames shoot outwards from the sword and towards Odysseus.
"Ice Geyser!" the girl wielding the ice rapier shouts, and the ground below Odysseus starts freezing,the frost extending on the soles of her boots. Sensing danger, Odysseus somersaults backwards and avoids a huge ice shard that shoots upwards from the ground,nearly impailing her. Looking up, she sees flames approaching her, threatening to burn her to a crisp. Odysseus simply swings her scythe horizontaly and a blue dome appears around her. While the flames char the ground all around her, they fail to even scratch the dome, its blue color remaining till the last flames have been extinguished.
"I thought these girls were better than a failure, yet they can't even scratch a single barrier," Odysseus mocks the Major. The two girls fall inside the crater and land 50 meters away from Odysseus with a loud thud, the ground below them cracking a bit and dust getting thrown in the air.
"What did you say?!" the girl with the flaming sword shouts, her bright red eyes full of anger and killing intent.
"Anna, calm down!" the girl with the ice rapier says hastily, her icy white eyes full of concern and fear. "She is trying to make us lose focus."
"So you do talk. Let me make you a proposition then. Throw your weapons down and let me kill the bastard that keeps looking at us," Odysseus points at the Major, who stands at the edge of the crater observing the fight.
"Ha! Why would we fear a weakling like you?!" the flame sword wielder shouts, the flames on her sword intensifying.
"Yet your hands are trembling from fear," Odysseus points at the girl's hands that tremble slightly. "You are what? 15 years old? I am giving you a chance to stay alive."
"Shut up!" Anna yells and the flames on her sword burst outwards violently, the heat scorching the ground directly under the sword. Even her sister has to move away a bit from the heat the sword emits.
"Heed my words carefully. If you don't step aside, I will kill you," she warns, her expression remaining neutral all the time. "I never show mercy to anyone that stands in my way and you are no exception to this rule." The hazy flame in her left eye intensifies and starts moving more violently and she starts editing huge amounts of killing intent.
A shiver runs through Anna's spine, as she starts to tremble harder and harder. Her sister too is shivering from fear, though she manages to keep her composure much better.
"You have received your orders," the Major yells, keeping his arms behind his back. "Now kill her!"
"So, little girls...what will you do?" Odysseus asks, eyeing the two girls in front of her.
"W-We have our orders, s-so..." Anna's sister musters the strength to say, which takes Odysseus by surprise, though it isn't shown on her face. She expected the girls to just step aside, since their lives are on the line.
"Don't blame me for your deaths then," she quietly sighs, bracing herself for the upcoming battle.
"You are going down!" Anna roars and shoots forwards, leaving behind her a trail of bright red fire. Anna's sister shoots forwards too, but she leaves a path of ice behind her instead.
"It's your funeral," Odysseus comments, raising her scythe to defend herself.
Reaching Odysseus, Anna jabs the sword forward, aiming at her heart. Odysseus parries the sword with the scythe's pole and forces it to move diagonally upwards, barely missing her head. Anna grins at that and causes the sword to burst violently with flames, which quickly cover Odysseus.
"How you like that?!" Anna laughs, before getting kicked by Odysseus up in the air, landing all the way to the edge of the crater.
"You'll have to try better than that," Odysseus says quietly, now looking at Anna's sister, who is charging straight towards her. "How naive," she says and swinging her scythe, the blade cuts Anna's sister in half and her figure explodes to tiny bits of ice.
"What?" Odysseus raises an eyebrow, baffled at where her enemy has disappeared.
"You are mine!" she hears a voice yelling from above her and turning behind her, she finds Anna's sister falling towards her. As everything slows down, Odysseus spots her Reaper materializing behind Anna's sister and hitting her with the pole of its own scythe on her sides, sending her crashing at the side of the crater.
"Maria!" Anna yells, having witnessed the whole attack. Grunting, she lodges her sword at the ground, using it as a leverage to stand up and support herself. "I'm going to kill you!" she shouts angrily.
"You cannot win, I am stronger then you two," Odysseus declares, her Reaper standing to her left.
"Tsk, how much problems will this girl create for me," the Major clicks his tongue, seeing the battle is not in his favor.
"I-I'm okay Anna, cough, cough...just a little roughed up," Maria says softly, coughing some drops of blood. Her ribs feel like they have broken and her whole body aches. Rising to her feet, she smiles weakly at Anna.
"A little roughed up?! You must have at least 2 broken ribs, if not more!" Anna yells incredulously, not convinced by her sister's attempt to deceive her.
"I'll be fine. What do we do about her and that...thing that is with her?" Maria asks, clutching her left side with her right hand.
"I have an idea, but I'll need you to keep them at bay," Anna says quickly, looking at the two figures that still stand at the center of the crater. "Think you can manage that?"
"I'll try, but no promises," Maria responds. Applying her powers to her left side and grunting a bit by the sharp pain that floods her brain for a moment, she raises her rapier and points it at Odysseus. "Oh elements of the unknown, grant this soul the power she needs in this desperate time," she starts chanting and 1-meter long icicles start forming all around her, their sharp edges pointing at Odysseus.
Is she chanting a...spell? Odysseus wonders, her curiosity peaked by what she seeing in front of her.
"I command the element of ice and so i plead, the ones above us all to strike our enemies!" Maria finishes the incantation and the icicles shoot forward. Odysseus merely raises her scythe and a blue barrier appears in front of her. The icicles collide with the barrier and shatter to pieces, not even scratching it.
"That was anticlimactic," Odysseus murmurs, feeling very disappointed from the attack she just received. Maria merely grins at her, pointing at the space above her. "What the..." Odysseus manages to say before a dozen 5-meter long icicles fall from the sky at her position. Swinging her scythe, she cuts one of the icicles in half, its pieces striking the ground next to her.
As all the icicles fall down on earth, Maria loses sight of Odysseus. "Maybe we got her?" she wonders aloud, before a huge explosion throws ice chunks everywhere. As the clouds of vaporized water settle down, Maria sees Odysseus standing in the middle of where the explosion had occurred, gazing at Maria like a predator eyeing its pray. "How strong is she?" Maria gasps, when see notices her rapier is starting to glow and release mist, like when dry ice starts evaporating.
"Ready for our trump card?" Anna shouts, panting slightly. Her own sword glows red, its flames acting like water and falling to the ground.
"I'm ready!" Maria yells and grabs her rapier with both hands.
"Let's do it!" Anna yells and both girls lodge their weapons on the ground and start channeling their powers to it. The ground starts cracking and watery flames start seeping out from one side, while on the other side, Frost starts covering it. When the two powers meet, the whole ground explodes and steam covers the battlefield, dropping visibility to virtually zero. Thankfully, Odysseus chose to remain on the defensive, casting a barrier all around her, which saved her. Looking around, she swings her scythe and shatters an ice icicle, its fragments harmlessly passing her. Hearing a footstep behind her, Odysseus turns around and tries to raise her weapon to defend herself, but she gets hit by Anna's sword, piercing her right side and barely missing her spine.
"Gah!" Odysseus gasps, blood getting vomited from her mouth. The Reaper tries to strike Anna, but gets pierced by at least ten icicles all over its body. Releasing a hair raising scream, it slowly starts to crumble to dust, until nothing remains.
"What were you saying?" Anna grins. Retracting her sword, even more blood gashes out of the stab wound, with Odysseus clutching the wound with her left hand as hard as she can, trying to stop the bleeding. Falling to her knees, she feels her powers deactivating and with one last swing at Anna, who effortlessly avoids it, her scythe vanishes.
"Fuck you," she growls, raising her head to look at Anna.
"You really should know your place, insect," Anna mocks, kicking Odysseus in the head. Crashing to the ground, she tries to lift herself, but her hands give in and she falls to the ground again. A pool of blood starts forming around her, and her head feels really dizzy. Unless a miracle happens, she'll pass out from blood loss and probably die.
"It's a shame, if I am honest," the Major says, having descended the crater with help from Maria. As he approaches Odysseus, he motions to the twins to lift her up. Moving to her sides, the twins grab one of Odysseus' hands each and lift her. Standing in front of her, he grabs her limp head and raises it so she can look at his eyes. "It seems you have so much potential...you just needed a bit of pushing." Odysseus tries to activate her powers and for a brief second, a bright blue hazy fire forms in her left eye, but it quickly gets extinguished and Odysseus vomits blood, her body barely able to function.
"I'll...kill you...even I have to die," she croaks, her eyes slowly closing.
"Now, now, you can't die yet, I need to ask you a question." he says, and both twins channel their powers in Odysseus' hands.
"Aaaaaaarghhh!" she screams as her right arm gets burned and her left chilled. She feels as if she will explode, her nervous system overloading with pain signals. "It hurts?!" she says through gritted teeth, the pain becoming unbearable. Tears start flowing from her eyes and Maria stops channeling her power, feeling guilty for causing unnecessary pain. Her sister on the other hand just keeps channeling her power, until Odysseus' hand is burnt to crisp.
"Where did you hide the second vial of Serum White?" the Major demands.
"I-I don't remember..."
"Unless you want to experience the same pain again, I suggest you answer my question."
"I told you...I don't remember!" she tries to shout, but vomits blood again.
"This getting us nowhere," the Major murmurs to himself, when he notices Odysseus saying something.
"I'll kill you all," she says with the last bits of her strength, her head hanging limply and her body being supported by the twins, who hold her arms.
"The one who is going to die is you," he says, unholstering a pistol from his right thigh and aiming it at Odysseus' head. "Send my regards to your childhood friends, what were their names? Ah, yes, Calliope and Chara. I'm sure they'll be happy to reunite with the one that killed them," he smirks.
"You...killed them..." Odysseus whispers loud enough for the Major to hear her.
Looking at her for a brief moment, he starts laughing harder and harder. "You seriously don't remember even that?! Hahaha, this is so funny! Don't you remember how you gutted your so called friends, during the first stage of the Serum Project?" the Major laughs and Odysseus' eyes widen in response as much as they can.
"N-No...y-you are lying," she says in a quivering voice. "N-No, th-this...it is a lie, it can't be true!" she says, raising her voice with each word she utters. Repressed memories start coming back, Odysseus relieving them once again. "No, this is a lie!" she yells, straining her body even more and coughing blood once again.
"But it is true. I was personally overseeing the battle. You killed them Elpida. You should have seen their crying faces while they were begging you to spare them," he grins and Odysseus' memory of that scene resurfaces, her mind breaking for the first time in three years.
"Aaaaaaaaarghhhhh!" she roars and the air around her starts pulsing violently outwards. The twins get pushed 20 meters back, their feet digging on the ground, while the Major gets flown 30 meters backwards, crashing to the ground and rolling another 20 meters.
"Anna, her power is..." Maria gasps as she can feel Odysseus' signature is getting exponentially bigger by each passing second. Dark clouds start gathering in the sky above them, swirling counterclockwise.
"We need to deal with her right now!" Anna yells, shielding her face with her arms from the winds that have been created by Odysseus' power. Suddenly, a pillar of blue energy shoots from directly above Odysseus, covering her and everything in an 1-meter radius away from her with a blinding blue light. A shockwave is released the moment the pillar hits the ground, throwing the twins even further from where they stand. As they roll to a stop, both of them look at the blue pillar that slowly gets smaller and smaller, until it disappears. The air has stopped pulsing; in fact, it has become still. In the center of where the pillar was sits a lone blonde girl, but her appearance is completely different from how it was when the battle started. Her eyes retain the characteristic bright magenta and bright blue color in the right and left eye respectively, but there is no hazy blue fire escaping from the left eye. What's unnerving is that her eyes have vertically slit pupils, like a cat's. Her hands are clad in elbow-length gauntlets, colored white, and a white breastplate has appeared on her chest. Two medium-sized wings made of blue energy protrude from her back, being at least 2 meters long.
"Haha..." Odysseus laughs quietly, keeping her back turned on both of the twins. Standing up like a puppet that its puppet strings are being pulled, she starts laughing louder and louder, before turning to face the now standing twins.
"What the..." Anna whispers, growing pale at what she sees. Whatever wounds Odysseus may had, are non-existent now, like she was never part of a battle. Her face has a grin so twisted and terrifying, that even Joker would cower like a girl if he ever saw one like this.
"Oh God, p-please h-help us," Maria whispers with a quivering voice, her hole body trembling like a leaf.
"I killed them...I killed my own friends! Isn't that hilarious!?" she yells loudly, looking at the clouded sky with eyes wide open. "And now I'll kill you two," she grins even more and the girls can feel their bodies getting frozen in fear just by looking at her. Snapping her gaze at the twins, Maria lets a small yelp escape her mouth, taking several steps away from Odysseus.
"W-We defeated y-you once...s-so...s-so we can defeat you a-again," Anna shouts. Every muscle in her body is tensed, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Fear, terror and desperation slowly fill her head, her hands trembling harder and harder as she raises her sword.
"Really now? In the sorry state you are?!" Odysseus mocks and takes a step forward, the ground below her cracking. "I'll make you suffer so much, plunge you so deep in despair, that you will beg to die," she says slowly with her twisted smile, walking slowly towards Anna. "Not even God will be able to save you."
Anna can feel her body moving away from Odysseus on its own, her mind getting overloaded with fear. "D-Dragon's Breath!" she yells in a fit of panic and bright red flames shoot out of the sword. Odysseus merely swings her scythe vertically and a thin layer of energy gets thrown to the flames, cutting them in two.
"Too bad, this was your only chance to survive," Odysseus says playfully and promptly disappears from view.
"Where is-" Anna manages to say, before finding herself falling to the ground. Crashing down, she can feel a hot liquid running from her thighs. Trying to stand up, she finds to her horror that she can't use her legs. Rolling to her back, her face becomes as white as snow. Her legs from the middle of her thighs and down have been cut, the dismembered legs lying a few centimeters away from their owner. "Aaaaaaaaarghhhh!" Anna screams in pain, clutching her left thigh...or rather what has remained attached to her body. Tears start flowing from her eyes, the pain becoming unbearable.
"Noooooooo!" Maria yells, running to her sister and kneeling besides her. "W-We need t-to take you b-back, you n-need medical attention immediately!" she cries with teary eyes, letting her weapon fall to the ground and forgetting about the psychotic murderer that stalks the battlefield for now.
"Gotcha," Odysseus whispers to her right ear and grabs the top of Maria's head with her left hand, like a basketball player grabs a basketball with one hand. Lifting her in her own height effortlessly, Maria flails her legs as hard as she can, trying to pry Odysseus' hand open with her own two, but failing to free herself.
"Let her go!" Anna yells at Odysseus, slowly crawling with her hands to where she stands.
"Know your place, insect," Odysseus growls and pins Anna's head to the ground with her left foot. "Now, enjoy your sister's screams of agonizing pain and suffering!"
Channeling her energy through her left hand, Odysseus literally hijacks and fries Maria's brain, as her screams resound in the air. Anna is yelling something, though her voice is barely audible from the screams that fill the air. A blue needle of energy protrudes from Maria's head slowly, tilting towards the back. After a few moments, Maria stops moving, her arms and legs hanging limply in the air. Releasing her grasp on her head and letting Maria to fall to the ground, Odysseus grins yet again, taking a step backwards. "Rise," she commands and Maria rises like a puppet whose strings are pulled.
"M-Maria...a-are you okay?" Anna whispers in terror, seeing her sister's dull and lifeless eyes.
"She is mine now...to do as I please," Odysseus says, approaching her new "puppet" from behind and embracing her. "She is so beautiful," she says softly, eyeing Maria seductively and running a finger slowly from the top of her chest till her lower parts.
"Get your filthy hands off of her, you psychotic bitch!" Anna yells in anger, her eyes emitting pure hatred towards the blonde.
"Now, now, little girls like you shouldn't use such language to your elders," Odysseus says playfully, waving a finger to her. "I think a punishment is in order." Grabbing Maria from the neck, she throws her high into the air. Suddenly, her energy wings become tendrils and shoot upwards in the sky, impailing Maria's body and ripping it to pieces, with blood, meat and organs raining down on the ground. Anna has a horrified look on her face, having just witnessed her sister's brutal execution. Her mouth hangs open, being too shocked to even breath.
"Hahahaha, there's the look I love seeing!" Odysseus throws her head back and laughs like a lunatic, drawing pleasure from Anna's expression. "Though I think it is time you departed for the afterlife. Send my regards to your sister," Odysseus smiles and one of her tendrils impales Anna, entering through her mouth and exiting from between her legs. Raising her in the air, the tendril starts slamming the poor girl's body on the ground till it is nothing more than a pulp of meat and bones and with a swift move, it sends the remains flying at the side of the crater. "Now, where is the Major? I still want to play some more," she says in a childish manner, looking around the crater for her final target. Her tendrils mold together and slowly shape the energy wings she had in the start. As she walks towards the direction where the Major was blown by the winds, two streams of white energy fly to her, swirling around her white gauntlets for a bit, before entering her body.
"Ah, I feel much better," she sighs in relief, feeling her lost energy coming back. "Seriously, these fights are so draining," she complains as she scans her surroundings. "Where are you, where are you, I just want to play with you," she sings in an innocent tone, which greatly contradicts her true intentions.
"Hm, what is this?" she wonders aloud, eyeing a body whose chest is moving up and down. "Ah, Major! You are alright!" she exclaims happily, hopping towards him. "And here I thought you had died. Thankfully, it seems like you are only injured!"
Standing 5 meters away from him, Odysseus notices his arms and legs are bent in a really weird and unnatural way. "Ouch, that must hurt," she cringes a bit.
"Who would have thought...that I would be killed by you...of all people," the Major utters with a raspy voice, his breath being rugged and shallow.
"Karma's a bitch Major," Odysseus giggles in a sinister way, a twisted expression that promises pain and agony plastered on her face. "At last, I'll have my revenge!" Odysseus shouts and her wings morph into tendrils once again, rising from behind her back and pointing their sharp edges on the Major. "At last, I'll avenge my friends and family!" she roars and the tendrils shoot forwards to strike their target.
A breaking noise is heard in front of the Major and space itself seems to crack and break, as a figure gets out of the huge crack and swings a Greatsword, cutting all the tendrils in one motion.
"Hello Major. Master sent me to bring you back," the figure, a small girl that is about 12 years old, informs the Major, as the crack from which she exited closes.
"You are late," the Major frowns, still lying on the ground and looking at the clouded sky.
"My apologies, but Mas-"
"Who the fuck are you?" Odysseus rudely interrupts her, glaring dagger at the little girl who just stopped her from having her long sought revenge. "And what's with the whole loli getup?" she says, eyeing her potential enemy from top to bottom. The girl has short curly blonde hair and a pair of dark green eyes. She wears a two-piece dress colored purple and on top of her head sits a small purple beret.
"Who I am is of no concern to you. My orders are to retrieve this man and return, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped trying to kill him," the girl states, unfazed by Odysseus' appearance.
"Then go to hell with him!" Odysseus screams and her tendrils shoot to the girl, who just stands still. Raising her hand, a crack forms in the space in front of her and shallows the tendrils, before closing and cutting them. "What the-" she says, before she feels her body being pierced by something. Looking down, she finds one of her blue tendrils protruding out of her abdomen. Grabbing the tendril, she pulls it out of her and the huge hole that she has, starts healing at an alarmingly fast rate. "It will take more than my own attack to kill me," Odysseus frowns, crushing the tendril with her left hand.
"That's unexpected," the girl says in a surprised tone, expecting Odysseus to just flop to the ground and bleed to death. "But it matters not, you are not a target...yet." A purple dome covers her and the Major, like the one Odysseus used to protect herself against the twins. Odysseus responds to that by materializing her scythe and striking the dome, not even scratching it.
The girl kneels down and carefully picks up the Major with her left hand. Swinging her Greatsword, she creates another crack, its blackness sucking the light around it.
"It's useless, you cannot break this barrier," the girl comments, as Odysseus keeps striking with her weapon. "You are too weak to-" she says, but gets interrupted.
"Shut up!" Odysseus roars and with another strike, she manages to break a part of the dome that is big enough for her to pass through, a small shockwave being created at the impact point, throwing dust everywhere. "You are not getting away!"
Turning her face so that she looks at Odysseus with her left eye only, it starts glowing bright purple. "Displace," she mutters and everything in front of her in a cone gets flown away, like a shockwave just came out of nowhere. As the dust settles down, Odysseus finds herself all the way at the edge of the crater, the force of the attack having sent her flying through the air and crashing on the ground. Standing up, she finds out her powers have deactivated and her head is pounding like crazy.
"My head," she groans, clutching the back of it and feeling something wet running down her neck. "Where is that girl and the Major?" she says, looking around for them. "So...they escaped," she sighs as she spots a crack closing at a distance of about 150 meters.
Sitting on the ground, she can feel her head becoming heavy and her vision blurry. She swears she can hear voices yelling something, but they feel too far away to understand what they are saying. She just sits there, gazing in the distance. She starts wondering, how her friends are. Falling to the ground, she starts losing consciousness, as her vision starts blackening. "I'm fine," she croaks for no apparent reason, before fainting.
United States of America
Hope's Peak, California
03:00 AM
In a small town named Hope's Peak, situated East of Los Angeles, about 50 km away, a lone figure walks in the streets, which are devoid of any humans, except for the occasional patrol of armed guards that act as the police, making sure no crimes are happening. The town had been built shortly after the earthquakes had stopped by survivors that were living in Los Angeles, so most buildings were made by wood or metal sheets and their appearance was...not pretty, to say the least. They were some concrete buildings here and there, but they probably were owned by rich people. After all, even in the apocalypse, money keep ruling over everything. As it keeps walking, he figure notices that more and more people start appearing on the streets.
Turning left on an intersection, the figure finds itself on a road that is bustling with activity, as people are entering and exiting shops of various kinds and even some cars roll on the road, though they are dwarfed by the crowd of people. Making her way to a bar named "End of the Line", she stops in front of the entrance, where a tall and fairly bulky man dressed in black stands, holding a clipboard.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but I'll have to ask you to remove your hood," the man says professionally, looking at the woman in front of him. The woman complies and lowers the hood of the cloack she wears. The man notices her long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes to be somewhat familiar, though he can't be certain if he has seen her somewhere. "Your name please," the man asks.
"Shi...Shirley," the woman says with a stoic expression, her tiny pause passing unnoticed. After scribbling her name on the clipboard, the man opens the door to the bar.
"Have an enjoyable experience," the man says and the woman nods, entering inside a small hallway. As she walks, she spots small posters at the sides of the hallway, showing the figure of a woman and on the bottom, the phrase "Women's Night" is written with red letters. Reaching the end of the hallway, she pushes two heavy black doors open and enters the bar. It was a fairly nice-looking room, with loud music and several old looking bulbs providing just enough light, so the customers could at least see where they were walking. Looking around, she spots a corner table where a woman, that has frilly blonde hair that go till her waist and a pair of blue eyes sits with a child no older than 12 years old, that has orange eyes and long silver hair, and she makes her way towards them. Sitting across them, the woman, presumably the mother of the child that sits next to her, eyes her for a moment before speaking. "The Phantom has come and seeks revenge."
"The Reaper reaps, the souls of the undead," the woman finishes the sentence, before adding. "It's been a while Jennifer."
"Shiho!" the woman says loudly, standing up and leaning across the table to hug Shiho, who maintains her stoic expression. "I'm so happy to see you again! It's been 10 years since I last saw you!"
"I'm happy seeing you too. How have you been?" Shiho actually smiles a bit, though it is too subtle to be seen with the low lighting the room has.
"You know, running from the factions, taking care of my sweet daughter, the usual stuff," Jennifer waves her hand dismissively.
"How have you been Celia?" Shiho asks the little girl, turning to face her.
"F-Fine," the girl answers back timidly, feeling a bit intimidated by Shiho.
"That reminds me, where are your daughters? Are they not with you?" Jennifer asks with a confused look.
"No, they are still in Japan. I wished for them not to get involved in our own problems," she says with a serious expression. "Though I do wonder if they are fine."
"Come on, I'm sure they will be fine. They are Nishizumi after all."
"I have faith in them they will persevere. I just hope..." she trails off, not finishing her sentence. "Anyway, I think you know why I am here."
"So...it's about that thing?" Jennifer says slowly, lowering her voice considerably.
"Yes. I'll need transportation and supplies to cross the country."
"That's not possible. The factions are in war with each other and passing the borders is akin to suicide," Jennifer hisses quietly, looking at Shiho with concerned eyes.
"Whatever may befall us, we advance," Shiho states, looking at Jennifer with her most serious expression. "You know what will happen if they build the machine, Jennifer. Nowhere will be safe and even worse, it could threaten the whole world."
"I know, I know," she sighs, thinking about it for a second. "Fine, I'll provide you with what you need, but..." she catches Shiho's hand and a grin appears on her face. "...we have a lot of catching up to do. It's been 10 years since I last saw you, after all."
Shiho can feel a shiver running through her spine, knowing that her American friend tends to be a bit...privy on the personal lives of others.
"Fine by me, but what about your daughter?" Shiho asks, seeing that Celia has already fallen asleep.
"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Jennifer dismisses Shiho's question. "Let me go grab a couple of drinks first, though," she says and bolts to the barman to take a couple of drinks.
Knowing her, she'll probably come back with two or three bottles of whiskey, Shiho sighs quietly, preparing herself mentally for the upcoming barrage of questions.
A/N: So, the battle came out a little bit larger than I thought, so I had to postpone Miho's Insertion at the lab and the escape of the other girls. To compensate for that, here is a scene that raises a ton more questions at what the hell is going on. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!