Author's Notes:
Thank you everyone who has reviewed! And also, sorry for taking so long this time around.
I was so kind to introduce new characters as well as throwing in a new plot thread that will reveal some of my own ideas about the Organization later on. I also tried to wright action scenes a bit differently, I hope that you all enjoy it.
Chapter 6 – Liara vs. Anna
Hysteria was heavily breathing as the Awakened Being finally died due to its many wounds. Around her was a battlefield filled with blood and Yoma body parts, created by her and her companion, Hitomi.
The latter, however, was in no condition you'd call new. Her bad sensing abilities had a bad impact on her, as, while she was already about to attack the Awakened One, a Yoma managed to sneak up behind her and impaled her chest with its fingers. Luckily Hysteria was there fast enough to save her life, but still her right lung was far from functioning correctly. Again.
The taller warrior lay face down on the ground, her hand still firmly gripped around her sheathed sword's hilt. As she was sure that everything actually was over, she let go of it and tried to at least sit up, but only ended up coughing a lot of blood.
Hysteria regarded the mess her mentor was in as she walked up to her. She was not uninjured either, but was at least able to walk on her own. She kneeled down next to her comrade and non-gently poked into her ribs on her right side, making her yelp in pain.
"See?" she began her lecture, "I told you that something like that would happen if you ignore a Yoma! You always end up in a mess, how could you survive this long? You're slowing us down!"
Through gritted teeth Hitomi managed "Shut up, Shorty!" before getting poked by Hysteria, what caused her to cough, again.
"And I told you, didn't I? I have a name, so use it already!" the much younger warrior complained.
"Ts," her mentor sizzled. "Just be so kind to *cough* drag me into one of the hou..." she added but was interrupted by her coughing.
Hysteria heaved Hitomi upon her shoulders and carried her into one of the houses where she let Hitomi fall on her back like a bag of spuds, very little to Hitomi's delight. She groaned and grimaced in pain due to the impact.
"You little..." she groaned, but was interrupted by a very arrogant Hysteria: "No complaining. You should be thankful! Without me you were dead, you know? Be a little more thankful!"
Well, actually Hitomi would be in best condition if it weren't for Hysteria. Even though she was a really good fighter already, her defense was like a garden without a fence. Basically Hitomi was acting as a shield for her all the time, therefore ending up in a mess in all eight villages they had cleaned of Yoma, excluding the one they were in, so far.
That time was no different, because Hysteria's task were the Yoma. Some of them, however, were still running about while she happily was going after the Awakened Being already. Hitomi, practically unable to sense anything due to around forty Yoma and an Awakened Being they were fighting, took Hysteria's action as a guarantee for her having finished off all the Yoma. That was a mistake, as she painfully had noticed.
In fact, she and Hysteria weren't getting along at all. The first time Hysteria saw Hitomi fighting, she instantly began to complain about how ugly it looked. Hitomi was "brainlessly slashing around", so were Hysteria's words. She herself, of course, was an elegant fighter with a beautiful technique that Hitomi should learn of. The kind of people Hitomi hated most – arrogant little brats. Oh, as soon, as their job would be finished, she would so teach that "little shit" a lesson.
For a moment Hitomi thought about telling Hysteria again, that Hitomi's condition was her fault, but decided against it, knowing, that it would be like talking to a wall. Hysteria was absolutely unable to take critic, found, that she, and only she, always was right and that everyone with another opinion than hers was just an idiot. Hitomi herself was not sure, if Hysteria actually was a bitch, or if it just was puberty.
Either way, she hated it. She had rather gone on that job by herself instead of having to watch over a defenseless girl with a trap that made the Grand Canyon seem tiny. She sure had enough strength to support it, but was far from being as skilled as her position suggested.
Luckily there was only one nest left for them to clean up. At first Hitomi thought that there was something fishy with having ten Yoma nests that each were led by an Awakened Being, but for whatever reason they did not seem to have a connection whatsoever. At least, neither of the groups showed any sign of caring or even noticing for the other bases to be annihilated by Hitomi and Hysteria. To Hitomi it seemed more like they were surprised seeing warriors sent after them.
As she looked to her left she found Hysteria, sleeping, leaned against her blade.
"Honestly," Hitomi chuckled a bit, "look who's exhausted already. I'm lying around here, beaten half to death, and yet you are the one to fall asleep even before dusk. Still a child, it seems."
Her condition had bettered a bit. She was an offensive type, so healing was rather exhausting, but she had enough experience, due to an asshole of an author always getting her lung damaged, to at least heal the dangerous wounds and therefore had her lung intact already.
"Time to get some sleep myself," she whispered to no one in particular, closed her eyes and waited for the darkness to carry her away.
###
The sun had set many hours before as he was still walking through the forest. At night it was nearly silent, only a few animals could be heard. The most noticeable sound was Orsay's cloak that dragged over the forest floor, making leaves rustle every now and then.
Fall had began, so some trees were already decorating themselves in red, orange and yellow. The envious wind, however, did its best to blow their leaves off.
"Aw man," he sighed, "I'm getting into that mood again, it seems."
The mood he was talking about was basically his "Liara has done crap again"-mood. That time, however, it was worse. The Organization finally had enough of his favorite warrior's comrade's sudden deaths and had finally decided to find out if it really was her doing or just pure coincidence.
Orsay didn't know himself if she actually was killing her comrades to clear their ranks to take them herself. It did not even matter much to the Organization, as long as the victims weren't Single Digits. However, Liara was number 12 then, so it was, if the rumors about her were true, likely for her to go after the first Single Digit she saw.
So the Organization thought to just put her into a hunting party together with one that wouldn't hurt losing – number 9, in that case.
Despite being a good warrior and a born leader, she had gotten rather nosy and had started to ask bothersome questions. So whatever the case – Liara killing her or not – would not be a problem.
Of course they'd have the both women monitored. By an upcoming warrior with rather good senses. No second Jacqueline, but enough to do the job. Accompanied she was by The number 5 at that time, also a young talent, but with far less potential than Hysteria or Hitomi had. Still she was send together with the trainee to take care of Liara if the rumors were to be true.
Though being still a trainee – a troublesome, at that, because she tended to run away – she had great talents with nearly everything and was, in case Hysteria wouldn't do as number 1, also a candidate for that spot.
After endless hours of walking around in the dark Orsay had finally found, what he was looking for: a campfire's light.
He accelerated his steps a bit to find Liara leaned against her sword in her usual fashion: cross-legged and with folded arms. She was sleeping and, even if faintly, snoring.
Orsay chuckled. He remembered very well how Liara had reacted to him telling her that she was snoring. It took him the better part of an hour, world-class diplomacy and a keg of red wine to make her talk to him again.
He sat down, too, leaned against a tree, sitting in the same way Liara always did.
He gently smiled while regarding his friend, but soon his smile vanished, leaving a touch of concernment on his face.
"You better not be killing your comrades" he whispered to her, even though she couldn't hear him. "I do not want to lose you... again..."
###
He took a deep breath of the salty sea air around Havel, one of the few towns in Baden having a port. The ado was busy as always: ships were loaded and unloaded, freights of all kinds were carried from a to b over c and back and your occasional drunken seaman was staggering around.
He himself was there to enter a ship. That day should be the day to greatly change his entire life, but he was not yet aware of that. All he knew was basically that he was going to an island far away to research something. That he was thought to stay there as long as necessary, and hell, he would stay there a very long time, was not part of his knowledge. He was a young lad willing to see the world, after all, so he basically didn't even care that much.
He was dressed in a black cloth cloak. The color black was what acted as a distinctive feature for the people willing to join the expedition Yoma. For the details he did not care much.
How little did he know...
Next to him there was a girl in her teens that refrained from letting go of his cloak. With begging eyes she looked up to him. He just kept gently stroking his younger sisters hazel hair that she had always bound into two pigtails. Green, moist eyes were meeting her brother's calming brown eyes.
"Do you really have to go?" she asked with a bidding voice.
"No worries, sis. I'll be back before you know it" he tried to convince her.
How little did he know...
###
It had been about seventy years since then. His sister most likely was death – and he hoped that she had not fallen into the hands of the Organization – the very same Organization he had unknowingly became a part of.
What had happened to him on that ship, how disgusted he felt as he first heard about what their objective was and how fast he actually got along with it were things that he neither wanted to remember nor cared to understand. In no time he had become one of those monsters. And then he met Liara.
And suddenly he felt that he was human again. Memories about his long forgotten sister had started to penetrate his mind. He instantly feared that she was his very sister but was truly relieved as he found out that she was not. Still he projected all of his memories, all of his love and care for his sister on Liara.
And there she sat, sleeping like a baby. Was she a murderer, craving for their comrades ranks? Or was she just a warrior, lucky enough to always be the sole survivor?
Orsay didn't know. He didn't know a damn thing about the only person in the world he actually cared for. That was the bitter truth he had to admit to himself.
After he had sat there for a while he decided to wake Liara. The rumors did not leave him alone. He needed to know. And he needed to know now.
Liara suddenly felt a gentle shaking, much like being rocked in a cradle. Her eyes opened and she saw Orsay's faces inches away from hers. She blinked once. She blinked twice. Then her look turned into a mix of skepticism and disgust.
"What... are you about to do?" she asked him in a deep voice.
"We need to talk. Now!" was the answer he gave her.
His face was overwritten with honesty. An honesty that Liara misinterpreted. Slightly.
Thousands of thoughts ran through her head that made her face bit by bit turn from a pale skin tone to the red of fresh blood.
'His face – so close to mine. This honesty in his eyes and face, that urgent need to talk to me. What is he thinking? Of course, we know each other quite a while, and I kind of like him, even though he can be really mean sometimes, but I never thought that he would have that kind of feelings for me. Oh my god, oh my god, what am I? I... I..."
"I'm not ready!" she stated loudly.
Silence.
"Ready for... what?" a dumbfounded Orsay asked her.
More Silence.
"You are... not going to confess to me?"
Even more silence.
"How old are you again?" Orsay asked with a monotone voice and a very cloudy expression.
"Can we pretend that never happened?" Liara asked sheepishly.
Orsay just sighed, arose and took his former seat again.
Some time had passed as Liara, still slightly blushed, spoke up: "So what is it then that you want to talk to me about?"
"There are rumors," he deadpanned, before his face turned concerned, "that you kill off warriors in higher ranks in order to raise your chances for promotion."
Liara's blush vanished, together with all the color her face had. Orsay luckily didn't notice that she had given away herself due to the darkness. Still she turned her face away from him.
Without much emotion, facing the ground, she quietly asked: "What if?"
Exactly what he had feared. Liara actually was doing what the rumors told.
"How many?" he asked.
"Nine."
"For the sole purpose of being promoted?"
"Yes."
Orsay's left hand grabbed the upper part of her bodysuit and pulled her up. Before she had time to react she was hit to the ground by Orsay's right hand.
She sat up and held her aching left cheekbone while teardrops were forming in her eyes.
Orsay kneeled down in front of her and roughly grabbed Liara's upper arms, putting quite a lot of pressure on them.
He shook Liara a few times while emphatically hissing at her: "Are you out of your mind? They will dispose of you if they find out that you actually are doing that!"
She looked away from him again while fighting her tears. She sniveled: "But... if I... if I can't become number 3... they'll be disappointed." She directed her gaze towards Orsay again and then energetically blubbered out: "I don't want that!"
Orsay had to loosen his grip at that. In her head she still was pretty much a child. Killing... endangering her life for a promise that she most likely was the only one of those three who still remembered.
He had no choice but to embrace the silly warrior in front of him. While pushing her tightly against him with his right hand around her waist he pulled her had close to his shoulder with his left hand.
With a voice unknown of him, even by Liara, he said: "Stop doing such dumb things. I don't want to lose you."
At that Liara threw her arms around him and started to cry uncontrollably.
###
The closer she got to her destination, the more excited she got. Orsay had warned her thoroughly about not killing her comrades anymore. Liara had listened and really wanted to not disappoint Orsay either, but for some reason that determination grew smaller and less important by the minute.
She could already sense her comrade that was already waiting for hear outside of a town. With her hearth beating stronger with each beat she steadily approached her.
###
"She's approaching her. They will meet any minute now" the slightly shorter girl stated.
"I can see that. Don't lose focus" her comrade, also still in her teens, answered.
The two girls were positioned on a grassy hilltop roughly eight miles away from their targets of surveillance. While one of them saw with her senses, the other saw with her eyes.
The girl sensing their targets still wore her trainee's uniform. Her long, wavy hair was bound into a ponytail, leaving just a few strands of her bangs to frame her face. She only wore the skin tight, light gray trainee uniform. She smiled a little while monitoring their targets.
The other girl, half a head taller than her comrade, was a full fledged warrior already. Despite being only fifteen years of age she already was number 4 of the Organization. She wore her straight long hair loose and only had her bangs cut a little to not have them hang in their face all the time. She wore the standard warrior uniform with three-ply pauldrons to mark her as one of the Top 5. She could see what happened with her own eyes, a specialty that gave her the nickname "Eagle Eye".
Right next to them there sat a man wearing a black cloak and cloth around his face that only revealed his eyes. He was the one the Organization mostly put in charge of scouting missions. For the moment he kept just listening to the reports of the ones with him.
"They've met" the trainee stated. "Their targets also are aware of them."
"I can confirm that. There is movement in the town near them."
That also caused no reaction in the third spectator. To him the outcome was important, nothing else. Even though there was more than one possible outcome, he basically had to accept either one.
'Anna and Liara,' he thought, 'that might be really interesting. If that bastard warned her? Very likely, I guess...'
"They are engaging the Yoma. Twelve left... eleven..." the younger warrior started to take count.
Her comrade, slightly in disadvantage due to her not being able to see through opaque objects, decided to see as many as possible, but to rely on the trainee's statement.
"Ten... Nine... Seven..." the latter continued her count.
"Six... four... three... one..." she continued as everyone watched.
'Of course,' the Man in Black thought on, 'that is no challenge to either of them. The aftermath will be the interesting part. If there is one, that is.'
###
Around them there were neatly bisected body parts of Yoma lying around and, if one would not have known their numbers, it would have taken him ages to figure out how many they were. Anna and Liara had effortlessly turned them into a pile.
Liara slowly led her eyes wander from left to right, as if she hoped that there would be more. But in vain, their targets were dead.
Sighing she sheathed her blade and complained: "Again a day wasted on weaklings..."
Still, there was the Organization's number 9, Anna. Liara had no means of knowing when she would be able to meet such a person again. She supposedly was the weakest of the Single Digits, her first step into those ranks. But there still was Orsay's warning... and she had promised him.
'But when, if not now?' she asked herself, while Anna turned around and asked her to accompany her for a bit, since their respective handlers would be waiting together.
They passed the town gates while Liara still was gauging the odds. She knew that she was under surveillance, so if she were to attack Anna, she would give the Organization the prove they needed to have her executed.
Still, the only one she knew of that could sense her without being sensed by herself, was Jacqueline. And, due to a very talkative comrade, she had got to know that said warrior was busy going against Luciela of the south.
'They have only her,' she thought to herself, 'so,' she concluded, 'they can't be monitoring me.'
Having gauged the odds thoroughly as always, she wasted no second thought and drew her blade, what made Anna stop in her tracks.
She turned around to the warrior walking a few meters behind her, sighed, and drew her blade, too.
"So the rumors were true?" she asked Liara with disgust in her eyes.
"Basically, yeah," her comrade deadpanned.
"May I ask your reasons?" Anna wanted to know.
"Gotta keep a promise. None of your concern" she answered.
###
"They are fighting!" the trainee stated matter-of-factly.
"Surprise, surprise," her comrade answered.
"I see," the Man in Black said while arising, "please keep me informed on everything that might be interesting."
"Understood," the both girls answered.
###
Liara intended to take Anna head on. She knew well that a Single Digit would be far beyond an easy enemy and therefore wanted to end it quickly.
She ducked under an horizontal swing from Anna to attack her with a vertical swing from below, just to find Anna gone the moment her blade struck. She was in mid-air, already on her way down again, seeking to split Liara's head in two, but Liara blocked the fierce attack with her blade. The force, however, was strong enough to bring her to her knees.
Using a bit of Yoki she raised her own power to push Anna away. That only seemed to work at first, because Anna was, without touching the ground, rushing towards Liara again already, leaving her little time to react. Her attempted block failed and wound opened up on her left shoulder. She ground her teeth in pain but still managed to get away from Anna with a fast move.
It took Liara some moments to swallow that her opponent just had changed the direction of her movement in mid-air. With things as they were that was going to be a tough fight.
Anna had no intentions on letting Liara think for a way out, leaped into the air, just to somehow find herself something solid there to land and shoot towards Liara again. That time she was fast enough to jump away, making Anna impale the ground rather than Liara's chest.
For the moment, Liara could only thing of one thing to do, something, that was always a help in battle when she didn't know what to do – zigzagging around like a lunatic.
Due to the very random pattern Liara did that at, Anna had, despite trying, very little luck in landing another hit. That was not the only problem: Liara got, on a regular basis, close enough to attack Anna, what the latter could avoid by leaping away in time.
Anna could not do anything much. She tried to figure out the pattern of Liara's technique – and yes, she actually considered it one – because she knew that every attack had a pattern, however complex it might have been. So she kept leaping around between ground and air while still trying to keep track of Liara, while occasionally crossing blades with her, to no effect on either side.
That was, until they hit each others blade with enough bad luck but fury to smash it out of each others hand, making both of them stopping short in their tracks.
Both of them were panting while they looked each other in the eyes to find any sign of weakness, lack of determination and the like to make use of. In vain. Both of them had no intention of losing to the other. In Anna's case that simply was because she had no intentions of dying. To Liara it was her promise that kept her going. If she did not have it, she would not have anything else, or so she thought.
"An interesting... technique you've got there," Liara gasped. "Did I get it right... compressing Yoki to a degree to basically solidify the air in order to use it as a foothold."
"Yeah," Anna answered out of breath, "that's about it. Your technique's not that bad, either. Zigzagging around to no visible pattern to avoid being hit as well creating chances to strike yourself."
"A technique?" the pig tailed warrior stumbled. "Don't even consider it one."
"You should. It's worth working on" Anna praised her with no visible expression.
###
"The fighting has stopped."
"Yes, they are talking."
"So when exactly are you to take measures, Wendy?"
"As soon as Liara kills Anna. Not a moment sooner."
"I see."
Ermita looked into the same direction as the hybrids accompanying him. Thought he couldn't see anything, he still had a clear picture of them in mind, due to the reports of the girls that were with him.
'It would be good if Anna could solve that matter with words. I'd rather have none of them dead. Best case scenario.'
###
The two warriors had gotten their respective claymores back and were facing each other again, blades still drawn.
Anna explained her view of things: "As of now, Liara, none of us has the upper hand. To what degree that changes when we use Yoki, is pure speculation as of now, even though I have a bit more of it. I say we stop this here and now."
Anna was right and Liara knew that. Knowing how her Yoki affected her, she was sure that Anna would get the upper hand in an all out battle. Yet she also had done nothing that would ultimately proof that she was killing comrades to rank up. Even though if the Organization had other Eyes at hand, they could only tell that the two of them were fighting.
Liara closed her eyes, sheathed her sword and opened them again to meet Anna's gaze.
"You are right," she stated, "fighting you was proof to me that I am able to put up a fight against the supposedly weakest of the Single Digits, but defeating you would be up to luck. And, since rumors about my behavior have started to spread, I think that is no longer going to be how things work."
"I could tell the Organization, you know?" the warrior with braided hair said challengingly.
Liara took a deep breath to think before answering: "I have got the feeling that you won't."
Anna raised an eyebrow: "And you base that on what?"
Liara just smiled and, while walking past her, calmly said: "The gods are with me."
###
"They parted ways" the young trainee stated.
"Confirmed. No sings of another conflict" Wendy agreed with her younger comrade.
Ermita turned around and started to walk away.
"That's a relief," he stated, "would have been bad seeing my children cut each other to bits. Thank you for your work, Wendy, Teresa."
Both of the girls saluted, shouting: "Aye, sir!"
Author's Notes:
Next time we'll basically be having Hitomi/Hysteria, stay tuned for anything else.
kstefan88