Chapter 4 – Backstabbing Liara
"How often do I have to tell you that you don't need to do that?" she asked the young man who had just brought her some bread and fruits.
"You know, sis," he explained while handing her an apple, "if you don't eat regularly your health will suffer."
She took the apple sighing and took a bite. Even though she complained every time that man came she actually enjoyed having a bit of company. But it was not only that, she even more liked the fact that he wasn't scared of her like all the other people were. A few days after she had started protecting her friend's grave he came by by coincidence and since then had been visiting her every day to bring some food for her.
'What a naive boy,' she thought while enjoying the apple she had just been given. Surely she didn't mind him being around but she didn't want him to get attached to her in some way either. She knew that – sooner or later – a warrior would come to dispose of her. After all she had threatened Organization's people and kept them from their duties. Actually she could already feel another warrior's presence.
The man had taken an apple, too. In his big, rough hands the apple looked out of place. He had told her that he was the son of a blacksmith and that he was the one to inherit his old man's business. His bald head and the brown robe that he was wearing made him look like a monk rather than a blacksmith but the warrior had learned that judging a person by his or her appearance might be a fatal mistake. Even his face looked so calm and plain that she had never thought of him being a blacksmith but he knew quite a lot about forging. If anything that was the topic he told her about the most. In exchange she told him about her adventures, like he used to name her jobs.
After she had finished eating her apple she asked him: "Why is it that you started visiting me every day, anyhow?"
While offering her a piece of bread he answered smiling: "Well, this place seemed to me like a grave. I thought that there might be some reason for you to stay here and that you can't leave this place as you please. So I thought that I could support you by at least bringing you something to eat every day so you don't have to starve."
That one made her smile for a bit. 'I don't even need food' she thought shortly before the approaching Yoki distracted her again. She had not felt it before but she knew that, whoever was coming after her, was no small fry. The Organization's people knew what they were doing, after all. She couldn't judge that warrior's strength well due to her Yoki sensing abilities being, to put it nicely, crap. Her fallen friend once said to her: "Even a brick can judge a Yoma's strength better, than you."
'How right she was...' were her thoughts.
"You seem a bit off today," the man's voice told her. "Is something the matter?"
Smiling again, Hitomi arose and replied to him: "This might be the last day you have to bring food for me."
The man was puzzled by the warrior's statement: "What... do you mean?"
Directing her view to the right she calmly stated: "She is coming."
The figure of a skinned, tall warrior came in sight. Unlike the other warriors her hair was raven. She had a calm, empty face and was slowly approaching her target, Soundcutter Hitomi.
"And of all warriors..." Hitomi stated with a low voice and a kind of annoyed face, "it has to be her."
The young blacksmith then turned his head to look in the same direction as Hitomi did. As she was coming closer he noticed the things that Hitomi had already seen as the black haired warrior still was some hundred meters away: her blank face that made her look like a puppet, her height that was equal to the young man's height and her beautiful, raven hair that she always wore combed back and bound into a long ponytail.
"Another warrior..." he said with an anxious voice.
A few meters away Jacqueline stopped to face Hitomi: "I am here by orders of the Organization. I am number 6, Jacqueline. I have been ordered to keep you from protecting this grave."
"Ts," Hitomi fizzled, "what a polite way to inform a warrior of her impending execution."
"Execution?" the man said puzzled. He stepped in front of Hitomi, facing Jacqueline's direction. "What's the meaning of this?" he shouted at her.
Hitomi protested at that but got ignored and just a moment later found herself astonished about why she cared about the young man exposing himself to danger.
"Huh? Execution? I can't remember to have that said," the warrior that towered over Hitomi by one and a half heads stated in her usual, non-emotional way.
Hitomi sighed and gently unsheathed her blade, giving Jacqueline a bad feeling about her plan to solve that matter with words. While the former told the blacksmith to go back to the town due to it being safer there, Jacqueline found herself some time to muster her target. Being about 175 cm of height and having long, straight hair she basically was nothing special. She neither had scars to make her look tough nor did she show some kind of confidence that the other warriors in the higher ranks had. However, Jacqueline found herself rapt by her fellow warrior's hairdo for a moment. Her bangs were cut irregularly at about the height of her eyes. She had two strands, one on the right and one on the left side of her face, go down across her collarbones, down to her unimpressive chest. The rest of her hair run down over her back and even reached her bottom.
Even though Matthias wanted to stay at first Hitomi eventually managed to talk him into going back to Arnea. It was silent for a moment as the two warriors stared into each others eyes. Jacqueline found something that she called a strange determination in Hitomi's eyes. Suddenly the confidence that she had lacked just moments before was there and impressed Jacqueline quite a bit.
She got interrupted in her thoughts by the shorter warrior: "If you are going to fight me, you should draw your blade. I'm not going to wait forever, you know?"
The moment she had finished Jacqueline effortlessly stopped an attack that suddenly came from the right with her claymore. The image of Hitomi that had spoken just then vanished. The real Hitomi was right to her, morticing her feet into the ground to put as much pressure onto Jacqueline's blade as possible. The tall warrior just horizontally held her sword with her left hand at the height of her waistline. Hitomi put all her strength into breaking her opponents block but wasn't able to.
Without warning Jacqueline made a step forward with her right foot, leaving the left one in place and altered the ankle she had held her weapon to make the pressure Hitomi had built up into making her barge forwards. That finally led to her tripping over Jacqueline's left heel, but she managed to stay on her feet.
As she finally found a secure standing she took a deep breath and straightened up. She turned around to face Jacqueline again and, while gesturing wildly, huffily complained: "That was a dirty trick. And by the way, you shittin' me? No way you could've seen trough my technique that fast!"
"He," Jacqueline giggled, "that's a pretty awesome skill you've got there. How many images of you can you make? Or should I call it... copies? It would work fine against nearly every warrior, Yoma or Awakened Being. Me being the exception, of course."
That arrogance made Hitomi mad. She knew that it would be tough to fight that warrior but she never expected her to see trough her most dangerous technique, a skill that she herself called One Man Army. By moving at lightning speed between up to ten spots this technique allowed her to make copies of her to distract her opponent. Each of those copies was inseparable from the original due to them practically being the original. Or so she thought.
"You are wondering why your technique failed, aren't you?" Jacqueline asked. Not waiting for an answer she thoroughly explained: "Your technique relies on distracting the opponent in two ways. The first one is to practically increase the number of physical bodies you have. The second way is to scatter your Yoki all over the battlefield to make it absolutely impossible for someone to tell where exactly you are. I, however can do that – and that is the flaw of your technique. It's useless against me."
'Who does that bitch think she is? My tutor or what?' Hitomi thought. She ground her teeth and rushed at Jacqueline again. She aimed to slice her in half horizontally but found her target to be gone just a split second before her strike would have landed.
She kept on attacking Jacqueline at a pace that no other warrior would have been able to keep up with but Jacqueline kept dodging all of her attacks. Sometime during the fight Jacqueline had even sheathed her blade again because she was confident to not need it.
Hitomi knew what was going on. Jacqueline read her like a book and therefore was able to evade every single attack of her. There was, however, her last resort for cases like that. She sheathed her sword, giving Jacqueline the hope of finally having that useless battle ended. Hitomi had other intentions, however. Out of nowhere she suddenly had a red pill not bigger than a pea and swallowed it.
Jacqueline couldn't react fast enough and chastised herself for not having been quick enough to prevent that. With Hitomi's speed and muscular strength she suddenly had turned into an actually fearsome opponent.
'That's it for words, I guess,' she thought.
"I see, so that is how you are going to overcome the weakness of your skill and counter my Yoki sensing abilities. Keeping track of you now will be troublesome" she blankly stated.
There was, however, something else that bothered her: "By the way, where did you pull the Yoki Suppressant out from?"
Hitomi scratched her head for a bit, then shrugged her shoulders and honestly answered: "I don't have a clue. Maybe Yagi is to blame for not letting us have any pockets or backpacks and stuff."
Hitomi's eyes had turned into a mixture of a light blue and a light violet. The color of her hair had turned into hazel. Like that she looked even more beautiful to Jacqueline, but she didn't let herself get distracted. Before her there was a really dangerous opponent. She could only feel a flickering something, not to speak of reading it.
'Considering her speed and muscular strength she's no enemy I can defeat that easily anymore,' Jacqueline analyzed the new situation she was in.
The shorter warrior grasped the hilt of her claymore and took a steady stance. Her eyes that now revealed a depth that surpassed the depth of an ocean found Jacqueline's yet again blank face. The black haired warrior was about three meters away from her target as said target's face all of a sudden turned honest and determined.
The ground around Hitomi started to show slices and cracks. The air around her was scintillating and Jacqueline could feel wind weakly blowing against her face. She knew that Hitomi was the source of all this but no matter how hard she tried to focus, she couldn't hear it, not to speak of seeing it. Not the swings and slashes in the air, not the slicing and cracking of the ground.
The sudden it came, the sudden it stopped. But the fashion it stopped in was anything but silent. It was like all the sounds that had been swallowed by the attack of Number 11 were unleashed at once together with the sonic waves bound to them.
Jacqueline was knocked back a few meters by the mere shock wave and felt a sudden, intense pain in her ears. For a few moments she wasn't able to hear anything. Her sight was hazy and she couldn't even see her own Yoki clearly.
She sat on the ground, heavily breathing, and tried to get her sight back by blinking multiple times. She saw the figure of a warrior walking towards her and before she knew the tip of a blade pointed directly towards her forehead.
The rare expression of stress was in the black haired warrior's face as she realized the situation she was in. Hitomi explained to her that it was Jacqueline's defeat and that she should return to the Organization before Hitomi would decide to kill her. Jacqueline, however, could only hear some incomprehensible gibberish but could figure approximately what Hitomi had said and on a whim decided to finally use Yoki since there was no way her reading abilities would help her against her opponent again.
In a flash Jacqueline shot back, found herself safe ground and shot towards Hitomi again. She tried to impale the five claws of her hand that had changed shape due to her releasing an immense amount of Yoki into Hitomi's chest while she carefully aimed for non vital points. Hitomi, though, was able to block the attack with the broad side of her claymore. That led to her to being sent flying for about ten meters before touching ground again. She hit the ground several times before eventually stopping her uncontrolled movement.
She slowly got to her feet again. Jacqueline's attack, however, had a far greater impact than originally planned by her. Due to her opponents block only three claws hit, but not were they were supposed to hit. All three of them impaled the shorter warriors right lung, causing her to have problems breathing and coughing up blood a few times.
Hitomi sunk to her right knee again, stemming her left hand against the ground to not completely fall again.
'It's the same... it's the same as last time! Again I got overpowered in a split second... but this time,' she continued her thoughts after a short pause, looking at the warrior that was stepping towards her, 'there will be no Emily to save me...'
###
Hitomi lay on the ground, trying to breathe but only ending up coughing. Her right lung was no longer capable of doing it's job. Every now and then she was able to take a breath, so at least she didn't suffocate.
Before her there stood the Awakened Being that had made her unable to fight in a single blow. She finally had to accept that her Stormcutter was far from being the non plus ultra as a special attack. It was to slow to hit her enemy and to weak to damage it.
As the Awakened Being aimed for yet another strike Hitomi had already come to terms with her life. Too soon, because the fellow warrior whose arrival she had sensed a few minutes ago suddenly made her appearance.
Without warning or a second thought she started to bombard the Awakened One with slashes. That she did at a pace even Hitomi had problems following. Her enemy started to rapidly launch attacks with her eight arms and despite hitting several hundred times the damage she inflicted couldn't stop her opponent from cutting her apart bit by bit.
In the end the Awakened One was but a pile of flesh and Emily was in a condition far worse than Hitomi but still she remained standing and offered her help in healing the wounds of Hitomi and her comrade Maria who was lying behind Hitomi.
###
The razorlike edge of Jacqueline's blade gently touched Hitomi's neck.
"I am sorry to correct you," the black haired warrior began, "but it is your defeat."
Hitomi's gaze wandered to the ground. She knew that Jacqueline was right. Even though she had just taken a Yoki suppressant the enormous amount of Yoki that Jacqueline had used just then gave her the chills. In addition to that that amount of Yoki had made Jacqueline faster and stronger than Hitomi herself was.
'That also is a Single Digit fighting seriously,' she thought. 'No way I could ever match something like that,' she had to admit.
She wanted to sigh but ended up coughing.
"Honestly, how reckless you are," Jacqueline lectured her while sheathing her claymore yet again, "due to the drug you took you won't be able to regenerate that easily for the following twelve hours."
Hitomi's eyes wandered up to meet Jacqueline's again.
"You're... not going to kill me?" she asked being surprised.
Jacqueline sighed bugged: "Of course not, stupid! I've been telling you from the beginning that my mission was not to execute you, but did you listen? No, you didn't."
The shorter warrior did not quite understand what was going on. Jacqueline took Hitomi's sword and put it in the second fitting of her armor. She then took Hitomi and started carrying her towards Arnea. The latter protested heavily what led her to cough over and over again.
"Shut up already, will you? Your wound is nothing to laugh at, so, for your survival's sake, stop complaining at let me take you to some place where you can rest for a while."
"But the grave..."
A dunning view of Jacqueline made Hitomi resign. She inwardly cursed herself for still not being strong enough to protect something important to her. Her face clearly showed that.
Jacqueline, being fully aware of that, tried to lift Hitomi's mood a bit: "You know, Hitomi. Protecting someone important to you even though she's already dead is noble, but, no offense intended, wasted effort. You have quite some abilities that are still able to grow. It's better to spend them on protecting people who are still alive. The dead will not give you their thanks for having their corpses protected, nor do they care what happens to them. And," she paused for a bit, "your memories of her are the most important thing. As long as you keep them, there is no need to have a corpse or a place to feel her closeness."
Hitomi knew that all along, she had just not been aware of it. It felt wrong to her to leave the corpse of the one who saved her live to the Organization. But she could do nothing about it anymore. She felt that her cheeks had gotten wet. Even though she was not crying and didn't even feel like it, still some sole tears ran down her face every now and then.
She eventually fell asleep due to the monotone motions of Jacqueline carrying her and the thoughts that swirled around in her head.
###
Just after she had reached the town of Arnea the black haired warrior felt an awkward silence there. There was no muttering about silver-eyed witches, Claymore, half-human, half-Yoma and suchlike. It was more like whispers coming partly from surprised faces and partly from pitying faces. She didn't care about that, though.
The moment she had left the town she dried her face with the right sleeve of her skin tight uniform and put on her blank face again. Her inside was stirred up but she had no time to care about that.
While she was thinking about what to say to her she noticed some man in black hiding in the bushes to her right.
One of them stepped out of their hideout to greet Jacqueline: "Hello there, Blankface. I presume that you are the warrior sent to enable us taking former Number 6's corpse already?"
She mustered the man who was dressed in black completely. His cloth robe revealed nothing but his face and hands. His face was missing the skin of it's entire left side. To Jacqueline it seemed like he had suffered a rather painful burn in his past.
"You are Dae, if I am not mistaken?"
"I am," the Man in Black answered plainly.
"I am the warrior sent to give you access to Emily's corpse."
"That is great, indeed. But, if possible, don't kill her. She is one of my favorite children, after all."
"I have no intention to kill her. But... children?" Jacqueline stopped short.
Dae directed his gaze towards Hitomi's location.
He then explained, sounding rather honest: "To me, all the warriors I create are like my children. Even though I regularly meet them at most two times in their entire life – when I turn them into warriors and after their death – I am always interested in what they are doing, where they are going and how reliable they are on their jobs. Sometimes I get really sad after hearing that one of them died. In some way I am their father, after all."
Even though Dae had spoken very convincingly just then Jacqueline had some doubts about him really meaning it the way he had said it. As the head of the Retrieval Squad it was more likely for him to just be interested in new research results, she thought. However, if he was really as concerned, as he said he was, then there was something that he could tell Jacqueline about.
She also directed her view into the same direction as Dae looked and asked him: "That corpse... why is it so important to her to willingly risk her life to protect it?"
Dae then turned his full body around to be able to face Hitomi's direction without having to twist his neck to the right that much.
"You see," he began to tell of what he believed was the truth, "the Awakened Being, Emily, that is, once saved our Soundcutter's skin. She got rally attached to her and they spent quite a lot of time together whenever they could. As soon as Emily became a Single Digit, they were separated. Eventually Emily lost it and awakened before she could send out her Black Card. I have no doubt that Hitomi would have gotten it. Emily was taken down by you, however. The moment Hitomi heard about that, at least that is what I think, she headed here. Regrettably she ran into some of my man who were about to take the corpse away. About the rest you should know, I assume?"
"I see," she unemotionally stated.
Something crossed her mind, so she asked Dae a favor.
"And what would that be?"
"After you've taken the corpse, will you be so kind to fix the grave?"
"Huh?" Dae wondered, "why should we?"
"Well," she answered, "Hitomi would be very sad to see the grave of her best friend defiled. She might even end up like Maria. So If she had at least a place to go, whenever she feels like mourning, that would be a noble thing of you and your men to do."
"I don't know..." the Man in Black contemplated Jacqueline's idea.
"I'd owe you, of course."
"Huh?"
"I have my hands full of work, but as the head of the Retrieval Squad there might be things that you want to have observed, confirmed or obtained. Something your men can't do and the Organization would not send a warrior for. I could do that then," she offered.
Dae directed her view towards her again. "I see," he said while offering her his right hand, "it's settled then."
She also gazed into his eyes then and took his hand.
###
It was knocking at the door.
"Come in," Jacqueline demanded.
It was Matthias who entered through the screaking door. Whit him he had a vase with colorful flowers. He placed them on the night table next to the bed Hitomi was resting on.
"How is she?" the bald man asked Jacqueline who sat on the second bed in the inn's room.
"She'll be fine," she answered. "Her Yoki is growing stronger hour by hour. She should awake very soon."
Sightly relieved Matthias sat down next to Jacqueline.
After he had watched Hitomi sleeping peacefully for a bit, Jacqueline broke the silence: "Don't get too attached to her."
He directed his view towards the warrior's blank face and asked puzzled: "What do you mean by that?"
Jacqueline arose and stepped over to Hitomi's bed. Having an unusual gentle look on her face she looked at her and tenderly let the tip of her left index glide over Hitomi's forehead.
"She's a beautiful girl, isn't she?" she asked with a voice that wasn't more than a whisper.
Taken aback a bit Matthias answered: "Yes, she is."
"He... that's what I'd like to say. And you are a young man, there is no blaming you for thinking that way."
"What are you trying to say, then?"
She then stepped over to where Matthias was sitting and laid her right hand onto his left shoulder and explained herself, having an honest face: "She is neither a girl nor a woman. She is not even a human. She is a warrior, half-human and half-Yoma, an existence with the sole purpose of finding and slaying Yoma. She can die every day. Those who like or even love her will be the ones to suffer. So, for your mind's sake, forget about her as soon as possible."
Matthias then arose and stepped towards the door. Before he left, he just said: "Thanks for the advice."
A few moments after Matthias had left a dark figure stepped out of a dark corner of the room. His cloak made abradant sounds as it dragged over the wooden floor. Only the man's angular face could be seen under his hood.
"Honestly," he complained, "I thought that guy would never leave."
He sat down onto Jacqueline's bed, in the same spot she had sat before.
"What's about our Sleeping Beauty? It's not like I can have you watch over her forever."
"It's as I said. It shouldn't take her long. My guess is that she'll awake around nightfall," she sat shortly before taking place next to Orsay.
Yet again they sat around together, having the most silent atmosphere around them. Again it was Jacqueline who broke it: "Do you have orders or are you just passing by?"
A rather wide smile appeared on his face. It was, however, unnoticed by Jacqueline due to her looking at Hitomi.
"You're not the one to waste time, are you?" he asked her, not really expecting an answer. "As soon, as she is awake, the two of you are to return to the Organization. There is a scouting mission awaiting you and a, how to put it... babysitter-mission for her."
Jacqueline felt a faint sign of interest in what exactly a babysitter-mission is but didn't give it too much thought. She felt a bit eased to have a scouting-mission again. On the other hand it was annoying to her to have to cross the whole continent just to scout something. She could have done that without fail from wherever she was. In the end complaining wouldn't have helped her, so she accepted it.
'Another two months wasted to get there,' she exasperatedly complained to herself, 'and as I know them I am to return here just to waste another two months.' She sighed.
"Something the matter?" Orsay asked.
"Nah," she answered.
After another period of silence Jacqueline broke it yet again: "How's Liara doing?"
"She got promoted two times since the two of you were on a hunt together."
"Oh?"
"At first she was promoted to rank 13. Shortly after she was sent to annihilate a Yoma nest together with number 12. The latter died, however, and so Liara got her rank."
That made Jacqueline wonder: "A Yoma nest, huh? Shouldn't normally either of them have been able to do it alone?"
Orsay arose with those words. He stepped towards one of the windows and looked into the setting sun. "That exactly is the problem here," he said with a sad voice.
"I heard rumors," Jacqueline said, "from former number 19, Maria."
Orsay was pretty sure what the rumors were about. The warrior's grapevine worked quite well after all.
"I heard," Jacqueline started to tell as she rose up to place herself next to Orsay again, "that Liara may have gotten promotions that where not... politically correct. I heard that Liara may occasionally have killed higher ranking warriors to take their positions. Therefore the other warriors started to call her Backstabbing Liara."
He was right, after all. It was the exact rumor he had heard, too. The job Liara did together with number 12 seemed to corroborate those rumors. There was no proof at that time, however.
"If those rumors where to be true," Jacqueline asked with a lower voice, "what would be the consequences for her?"
Orsay didn't answer that question. He didn't want to name it. Besides, he was sure that Jacqueline already had the correct idea and just wanted to have it confirmed. He turned around and left without another word.
###
The two of them had just entered the great hall where the elders of the Organization were residing. Rimuto looked kind of bored, like he always did. However, the two warriors that had just entered the hall caught his attention since he was awaiting them. They stopped in the middle of the hall, waiting for their permission to speak. Out of the corner of her eye Jacqueline spotted Rubel who slightly nodded to greet her.
Jacqueline felt that something was off that day. Whenever she came to the Organization there were at most two to three actual warriors besides Number 10 and the trainees. Most of the time the warriors present weren't even strong ones. That time, however, there were three really bright Yoki present. They were small but their luminance told Jacqueline that they were at about her level in terms of raw power. One of these Yoki even was familiar to Jacqueline, she just couldn't classify it at that moment.
Rimuto arose and stepped towards the two warriors just to stop about two meters away from them.
"It is good to see that you were able to fulfill your mission without having to kill Number 11. Good work, Blankface. Please accompany Rubel out of the hall. He will have the details on your next job."
Without a single word Jacqueline turned around to leave the hall, closely followed by Rubel.
Rimuto then directed his gaze towards Hitomi while giving a nearly not noticeable hand signal to one of the Men in Black. A young warrior in her teens entered the hall and placed herself next to Hitomi. She had four braids, two to frame her face and two that were engulfed into a ponytail.
She saluted to Rimuto and said: "At your service!"
Rimuto then explained to Hitomi: "This young lady here is Hysteria, the new Number 8. You and her will be partners from now on. I lay the command in your hands even though she has the higher rank. She is very important to us and we can't afford losing her due to her lack of experience. You better do that job properly. If you slack off again we will send Jacqueline to execute you, got that?"
That one had hit. Hitomi was lucky to still be alive. On her way to the Organization's headquarters she thought about it many times. Had the Organization sent another warrior she would have most likely been dead then. From the conversations she had with Jacqueline during their journey she had got to know her as a gentle and caring person, even though she did everything to not look that way. The first time she died she was saved by Emily. The second time she died she was saved by Jacqueline.
She decided not to let such luck slip away and answered: "I will not disappoint you again. Leave her in my care."
Rimuto mustered the warrior's face for a bit and decided that the honesty it was showing was real.
"You are dismissed then," he plainly said before returning to his seat.