Zemuria, March 1206
"Hiya," Taylor slashed the nearest Desert Elly with her Tachi. Gecko-like monsters were quite dangerous, especially in packs. Dodging another beast tongue attack, she positioned herself as her master taught her. Her body slightly moved forward, on bent knees. Her sword is in position behind her.
"Second Form: Gale." She moved with tremendous speed. She attacked the nearest monster, and then, without slowing down, she changed direction towards her second opponent. She reaped the process two more times, finally, with the last speed boost, returning to where she had started. Finally, she looked at her accomplishment: four Desert Ellys lay dead among the dunes.
"Very good. Your skills have grown far more than I anticipated. Be proud of what you accomplished, but remember you are still very much at the beginning of your journey." said Master Ka-fai
A month. That's how long ago she woke up in Zemuria. The whole month she spent training under the scorching sun of the biggest desert on the continent's southeast. It was rather hard to get used to living here. The lack of even basic amenities was truly bothersome. The only way to replenish supplies would be by the caravan stopping once a week by the oasis. It was also the first time in her life she had seen a real-life camel. She even managed to pet one.
"Thank you, Master." She was genuinely grateful. Although he may never have told her outright, she figured out that her Master was on an important journey that he postponed just to train her.
"In such a short time, you had mastered the basics. You are ready for the next step. Therefore, recognizing your skills, I grant you this scroll, officially recognizing you as a beginner-level swordsman of the Eight Leaves One Blade school of swordsmanship." He said, presenting her with a rolled scroll. She didn't know what to say, but remembering her lessons about swordsmanship etiquette, she nodded. "I accept this great honor, Master," and then take the scroll.
"Our time is near its end. There is a single lesson left that I will teach you; after that, it will be up to you to hone your skills and find the answers you seek." fear gripped her. She was so focused on training that she forgot to think about what she would do when it ended. As if sensing her emotions, Master Ka-fai raised his hand in the gesture that he hadn't finished yet.
"I will not leave you alone. I managed to contact my dear friend in Erebonia. His son is one of my disciples, whom you reminded me of. I believe that together, you would be able to help each other complete your paths. He just accepted a teaching position in the newly opened branch campus of Thors Military Academy. With my friend's help, we managed to secure you a spot in it as a student." Taylor couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her, back at school?
"Master, I don't know if it's a good idea. Me going back to school…" She was terrified that it would be a repeat of Winslow.
"Taylor, you must overcome your fears and doubts sooner or later. This is as important in the path of the swordsman as swinging your blade. I don't know what made you so fearful of academic institutions, but you will face this fear if you ever want to achieve mastery." Taylor bit her lower lip. She knew he was right, but this realization didn't alleviate her fear at all.
"I understand, Master. Then, if we are parting, I should give you this back." She unbuckled her belt that held a Tachi and its scabbard. That Master Ka-fai gave her at the beginning of her training. "After all, this is the only sword we have."
"No, this Tachi is yours. I gave it to you, and with you, it shall remain." he stopped her. "I can protect myself as well without it as I would with it. And I have this feeling that time will come when you will find your own blade, but until that time comes, this one shall serve you well." Talyor only nodded while putting a belt on once more. "Are you ready for your last lesson?"
"Yes, master."
"Then listen closely, for it will show you your path towards mastery. Which road you choose to reach will be up to you, but it will act as a lighthouse on your journey. Let those words guide you on your way—the truth behind the seventh form: the void.
Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.
Understand the truth behind these words, and you shall reach your mastery."
Earth Bet - current day
She woke up. Reaching for her ARCUS, which was lying on the bedside table, flipping it open, she looked at a screen. It shows 5 am.
"Well, time to wake up," she said to herself, getting out of bed. After refreshing herself in the bathroom, she was ready for her morning training. Maybe she got spoiled? By looking around her house bathroom, she missed the dorm bath.
Two hours later, she finally finished her training. When she entered the kitchen, her father was already there preparing breakfast before he would be forced to go to work.
"Good morning, dad." She said, "Morning, kiddo. Is it finished already?" He answered. Grabbing a knife, Taylor decided to help him in his current task by chopping an onion for a two-person portion of scrambled eggs. "Yeah, it is good that the weather is so nice. It would suck if it were raining, like the day I arrived." nodding, her father asked.
"So, what are your plans for today? Unfortunately, I must go to work, so I cannot stay with you."
"Well, I will take a walk around the neighborhood to see what changed. Plus, I wanted to go to the south docks and ask around if anyone had seen that woman who disappeared." They took their plates with newly cooked breakfast and moved to sit at the table.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I heard stories… and they are never pretty. I don't want anything bad to happen to you. And going against the gangs is a bad idea." Her father was clearly concerned.
"I know, Dad, but I promise I can care for myself. You saw me training. Plus, I want to simply look around and ask a few people who work in the vicinity." Danny looked her in the eyes for a moment; after a few seconds, he loudly sighed.
"Okay, fine. In that case, you should have this. I bought it yesterday when you and your new friend had fun at the shopping mall." He put a small box on the table. "Just promise me that if you ever drive any vehicle, you will not use it. I don't think that I would…"
She could clearly see that her father was struggling. Opening a box, she found a mobile phone, an older model, but it was more than enough to make a call. "Thank you, Dad. I know it must not be easy for you. If I ever drive, I promise the phone stays in my pocket."
They finished breakfast, and Danny left for work. Taylor walked inside her room to prepare for her own today's little private special ops mission. She wrapped her Tachi in cloth, tying up both ends with a small rope to create a makeshift holding bag/backpack, that way concealing her blade. Unfortunately, it was necessary as carrying a blade in the open was illegal in her state. This particular news irritated her greatly. This very blade was with her since training with Master Ka-fai. She had it on her hip for most of her time, and now a lack of its weight was uncomfortable. After ensuring her sword was safely secured on her shoulder, she grabbed her battle orbment and walked out of the house.
The city looked exactly how she remembered. Deciding to take a walk instead of riding a bus allowed her to better assess Brockton Bay's state. This far away from downtown, even Lord Street did not look well maintained. She could clearly see numerous potholes, and the pavement she walked on was cracked, with some parts missing. As she was ruminating about the state of city infrastructure, she saw an older man trying to cross a road. He held a bag of groceries in one hand and in the other, an old-looking wooden cane that he used to support himself. As a man struggled as his hand visibly shook, Taylor decided that she would help him.
"Sorry, Sir, do you need help?" She asked. Pointing first at the crosswalk and secondly at the grocery bag.
"O… would you kindly, young Miss. My strength is not what it used to be." he chuckled slightly. "Legs and arms, too, in that matter." Taking the bag in her left hand, she locked her right arm with his to support his weight. That way, she helped him cross the street, and in the end, she helped him reach his apartment located in one of the old tenements on one of the adjacent streets.
"Well, here it goes, " she said, putting a grocery bag on the table. It was a small flat, and the kitchen she was standing in barely had enough free space to move. But despite that, it felt cozy. Walls near the entrance were decorated with various old mechanical clocks.
"Thank you again, young Miss. It is hard to find such upstanding youngsters these days. Wait here a moment." He walked towards what she assumed would be a bedroom. This gave her time to look at this spectacular collection of clocks. There had to be at least 30 of them, neatly placed one next to the other.
"You like my little collection?" asked the old man, who exited his bedroom.
"Yes, it is quite beautiful. How did you get all of that?"
"Ah, before I retired, I was a watchmaker. My whole family was. This is only a small part of my family legacy that has survived to this day. But I will not keep you here any longer. Here, take it. It is for you. Good deeds deserve good reward." He said, giving her a 100$ bill. This shocked Taylor
"Sir, I cannot take it. It is too much."
"I am old and have no family. What will I do with money? I will not take it with me on the other side. Plus, as I said, good deeds should be rewarded accordingly. Take it, you earned it." he said, pushing a bill into her hands.
"Thank you, Sir, but it was really unnecessary. I never expected any payment." She finally accepted the money.
"I know that only added to the fact you earned it. But well, if you are so guilty about it. You could come sometime for a cup of tea and listen to this older man rambling for an hour or two. My late wife taught me how to make mean cookies." he joked.
"Well, in that case, you have a deal," she said, smiling. She said goodbye to the older man and returned to her walk. After an hour, she finally reached Winslow High. Still, the sight of her former school filled her with a mixture of emotions. Anger, disgust, but also surprisingly gratitude. It was here where her journey to Zemuria started. In the end, she was the one that won. They wanted her alone and friendless, and now she had friends who would stand with her even if the world was ending. They wanted her weak and vulnerable. Now, she was a practitioner of Eight Leaves One Blade school. They wanted her miserable, but now she was happy. They failed in every aspect.
She looked away from her old school and pulled a photo that Aiko had given her out of her pocket. It was time to ask people some questions.
Six hours. She was at this for six hours and nothing. Her boss confirmed that she left the building that night at 9 pm, as always. He even showed her a security camera feed showing Akiko leaving. Then she started to ask different shopkeepers if they had seen her that night. But they said they were either already closed at that hour or hadn't seen her that night. After that, she tried to ask random people on the street, but that also had no results. So now here she was, sitting in a small cafe, eating a very late dinner in the form of chocolate-filled pancakes. It was already getting dark outside, so it was time for her to return home. She accepted today's failure, paid for her meal, and walked towards a bus stop.
As soon as she exited the cafe, she felt something weird. No, something was not right. Something had changed; even though people should have been around at this hour, the whole street was empty. The unclouded eye was one of the techniques that Master Ka-fai taught her during her training and the skill she honed. And now she knew she was being watched. Someone didn't like that she was snooping around.
"Well then, let's see who you are," she muttered to herself. She focused on nearby insects and took control of them. Using her swarm she quickly located three groups of people that were watching her.
"Twelve people in total," she thought.
Now, she had two choices. She could evade them and safely return home or spring a trap they were preparing and turn it around on them. She decided on the latter as this could be an opportunity to learn something about the disappearances straight from the culprits' mouths. She started to walk down the street, observing what her ambushers would do. As she reached an intersection, a small group of three gangsters in ABB colors walked into her view on her left, blocking her path and forcing her to go in the opposite direction. She could see through her swarm as two additional teams were approaching other intersections. They were boxing her in. It was time to spring the trap. She sprinted towards a small path on the other side of the road. Exactly where they wanted her, seeing as their new prey started running, gangsters quickly followed. Soon, they arrived in the back alley. It was a dead end. Just as they planned, but as they arrived, the girl was nowhere to be seen.
"Where the hell does this bitch go? She did run straight here, didn't she?" Said one of the gangsters.
"Saw it with my own eyes, boss," answered another.
"Come out, girl. There is nowhere to run. There is no need to make it harder than it needs to be," said the boss, clearly irritated.
"I don't like it," said the third, scared.
"Shut up, greenhorn. It is just another stupid... " But before he could finish, he was interrupted.
"ARCUS activate," said the voice behind them.
All the gangsters imminently turned around. Now, in front of them stood the same woman they were hunting. But now, on her hip, there was a Tachi. He recognized it from his grandfather's paintings. On her face was a simple domino mask. Her hand reached towards them, and weird flying blue hoops circled her body.
"CAPE!" he shouted, but the cape spoke before he could do anything.
"Chrono Burst"
Chrono Burst was a weird art that allowed users to manipulate the time continuum for a very short time. It enabled a user to attack twice at the same time. With her sword in hand, she targeted eight gangsters grouped together.
"Second Form: Gale," she activated with her craft. While due to the power of the art targeting two others simultaneously with Six form crimson slash, she learned from observing instructor Rean.
Before the leader of the gangsters could do anything, the cape attacked at a speed impossible for normal humans to achieve. For a moment, he could swear it was like there were two of her. And like that, all his men were lying on the ground. What was left was him and a stupid first-timer. The cape looked at them and started to close the distance with her sword in hand.
"Where are the women you've been kidnapping?" the point of her sword was now just a few inches from his throat.
"You think that I am afraid of you, Cape? You are nothing in comparison to a great dragon." He would not betray Great Lung.
"Then maybe your companion will be more talkative." said a cape. At that moment, a stench of urine reached his nose.
"Please don't kill us!" Fucking greenhorn. He turned his head towards this stupid moron.
"Shut up, don't tell…" he felt a dull pain in the back of his neck and lost consciousness.
After knocking down a gangster, Taylor turns to the last remaining member of their group, who was now sitting terrified on the ground in the paddle of his own piss. He couldn't be older than seventeen, yet here he was, doing what he was doing. "Well, I am listening."
"I don't know much. It was my first time. But… but I know the location of one of the safehouses. They keep some women there before they are further processed. We were just there when the boss learned that some women were asking around about the whereabouts of one of the catches. It is just down the street. You have to go back to the street, turn left, and then go one city block until turning right into an alley like this one. There will be a red-painted door there. You have to knock in a pattern: three knocks, stop, two knocks, stop, one knock." He spilled it all.
"That's all?" Taylor asked.
"Yes, please don't kill me." With a swing, she knocked him down unconscious.
"Well, I thought to intervene there for a second. But it looks like you had it well in hand. Good job," said the voice above her. Taylor looked up to see one of the city capes, Glory Girl; she carried her sister Panacea in her hands.
"Welcome. So I understand that you heard what he said?" asked Taylor, pointing at a young gangster.
"Every word, so wanna go together to bust ABB safehouse?" Asked Glory Girl. " Amy already called the police, so I think we can leave those here alone. They will be picked up shortly." Well, she really didn't have any objections about working together
"Sure, but what about your sister? What I do understand is that she isn't exactly a combatant." even when she couldn't see her face from that distance, Taylor was confident that Panacea didn't like her last question.
"I will stay outside until you are done. I am pretty sure that whoever is a prisoner there will need medical attention." said the healer.
"Well then, let's go," said Glory Girl with a big grin.
Soon, they stood in front of the red door in a dirty, dead-end alley. A nearby garbage container was overflowing with garbage bags. Big roaches crawled around the spilled biological trash on the ground, and a hungry rat was bitting into one of the bags that fell out of the container.
"Lovely place," commented Glory Girl. "So, how are we doing this? Are we knocking, or are we 'knocking'?" She even made a hand gesture that made it clear what she meant in the second knocking.
"Give me a moment. We should scout what we are dealing with first." Taylor took control of the nearby cockroaches and ordered them to move into the hideout. "Okay, there are five people in total. Three are gangsters; they will be placed at the end of the staircase that starts just outside the door. Further down, there are cells. There are two humans there. Those must be victims."
"Wow, how did you manage that? Are you a thinker? No, no thinker would be able to do what you did in that last fight. Grabbag?"
"It doesn't matter right now. Let's save those two people." Taylor didn't really have a cover story about her abilities and didn't want anyone to know about Arcus. She may have told the protectorate that she traveled to another world, but they only knew that she attended the school there for a year.
"Ok, sure, ready?" asked Glory Girl. Taylor drew her Tachi and nodded. Momentarily, a member of the New Wave ripped the door and threw it at the dumpster, making quite a ruckus. They rushed downstairs. The First gangster received a punch to the guts from Glory Girl. Two remaining gangsters, seeing who was attacking them, tried to flee, but Taylor blocked their path and quickly subdued them.
"Well, that was fast," said Glory Girl.
"Yeah, it was, but you really didn't have to throw that door into that dumpster," Taylor said unamused.
"Aw, common, it wasn't that bad. Plus, it is not like that really helped them in any way. Look, let's look for those prisoners.
Two rooms farther down the basement, they found prison-like cells. It looks like someone just welded some steel bars together in what probably once were cellars. There, inside one of them, were two young women. They were dirty and clearly malnourished but otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately, none of them was Asian.
"Don't be afraid; we are heroes. We will get you out of here." Said, Glory Girl. She was about to rip the cage off when Taylor stopped her.
"Wait, let me do this." Glory Girl nodded, moving aside to make her room.
Taylor inhaled and then exhaled.
"Autumn Leaf Cutter" with single-strike hinges that held the door to the cell were cut, and the door itself landed flap on the ground with a thud.
"They helped both of them to stand up, and then they walked out of the basement together.