….
"But… why wouldn't an entire team be able to get here?"
… Nemo stilled.
"Well, I am the only individual there that trusts their ability to survive underwater."
They went quiet at his answer, so he realised he may have had to explain further.
"I'm an amphibian?"
"Oh."
"…That's obvious."
Kumo wondered, and looked around before speaking. "You were working on the mainland, then, and not here. Are other members of your team going to be arriving here at a later point?"
"…I… don't entirely know."
The frog sighed, coughing for a moment as he stood. Nemo then sighed and looked at them both, frowning.
"In all honesty, I was assigned to come here without any kind of prior information of any kind. In order to not be criminally prosecuted, I have to bring your daughter back to where she escaped, and help hunt down the man she's been trying to kill for the last two years."
Vassa smiled briefly, and asked; "Two years?"
Nemo quietly checked his vision for any small lights, and clearly answered the woman.
"She has been missing from us for the last two years."
"Why did nobody ever tell us about all this insanity?!"
"More importantly here," Kuro began-
"…"
"You… are a criminal." Kuro said.
Nemo sat back down and raised a limb to pause the conversation. "That is because I chose to help her leave when she asked me, and did nothing to prevent her egress. It was not appreciated."
Vassa frowned, and Kuro nodded faintly.
"Where were you situated?"
"Where is your base?"
Nemo… tried to quell the anger they must be feeling. For the good of his work, that is.
"I came here blinded and unconscious," he said. " I do not know where in this world I had been kept."
It was a fitting way to define his travel, since it was a blur until he ended up under cold water.
It was not enough for the parents.
….
...
Lucy rubbed her hands to warm them up, and only stopped when opened the wooden door leading into the hallway.
She glanced to the left, and sat down on the second step of the staircase.
They're still cold.
Why?
…Why?
"Why are they still cold?" Lucy whispered. Her back slowly straightened as she looked towards the man sitting in front of her.
The man's back was mostly blocked by the seat, but she saw the tip of his neck and the helmet he wore. It reminded her of the colors of a metal spoon.
… they turned, and spoke through the helmet.
"What's your name?"
She blinked, and watched the wood grain curving.
"Mom! I'm going to head out, okay?"
…
Vassa looked in confusion towards the sound, but stayed seated.
….
PM: What for?
A small blue light flashed in front of her eyes, and Lucy noted the words that burned into her cornea.
…What should I do to explain…
She tilted her head to the banister and stared at the wood.
… Lucy stood up, and slowly 'snuck' into one of the downstairs rooms, her face only slightly changing direction.
"Letter… letter… wh…" Ah! Aha!
She pulled open shelf drawers in the corner of the bedroom, and eventually found a thick parchment paper envelope. Lucy frowned slightly as she read the words in the top, obviously the sender.
"Atlas Academic Records Office." Huh? This is a very clear bit of text.
Greetings, Joseph.
Due to recent events, we are repealing the ban on your person. We kindly request your presence to discuss new information that has come to light. Please be aware that this newfound knowledge may be of great concern to yourself, as it is to us.
Written in truth,
Vassal of Mantle.
… Finishing the letter had her look up in brief surprise.
Joseph? I knew a Joseph.
"I wonder… if it's the same one?" Lucy mused.
Lucy rummaged around for a writing tool and a blank envelope.
…
…
…
Rats.
She sat down on the bed, and tried to think of how to make a letter with no writing tool. After a few seconds, she came upon a simple solution.
Burn it into the walls until you let me go.
For a moment, she looked upon the charred letters of screams burned into an otherwise pristine white wall, then blinked and returned to the brown wood above her.
Lucy swung her hand to her left, and started tracing words onto the page. Faint streaming smoke rose from her paper, and soon she had a letter written out.
Lucy smugly shook the paper, enjoying her humorous mode of address in the letter.
"Hello, soldier of the kingdom. We have noted your absence, and formally request your presence at the designated location of this message's origin as quickly as possible.
Failure will result in a significant charge.
Deputy Captain Arya."
"Yes Second Lieutenant, sir!" She cried out, chuckling at the shift in her tone.
Lucy glanced back at the older letter.
…
…
"Why is such a lackadaisical girl like you in the army?"
"Woah! What's that informality from you, Sir?"
… "You say. To me."
"I have to get it somewhere."
"… My point exactly. What are…you…doing here?"
"Life, James. It's always 'Life.'"
"…"
"…What?"
"You should start getting a better answer, then. Someday I'll look forwards to you and me sitting down to a drink, and you'd say "James. I found the better one."
"Why's such a philosophic guy like you in the army, Lieutenant?"
"Life."
"…
…
…
… I'm going to drag you to a bar if it's the last thing I do."
…
Lucy picked up the letters, and entered the room where everyone else was.
Or… she would have. Instead of taking that path, or even leaving the room at all, she faltered. She stood still after a few steps, pausing and looking somewhere at the distance.
…
…
…
….
"Mail! We got a letter from somewhere?"
"OH! Can I see?"
"What's that? Can I see?"
She looked up at her mother as the opened letter was set down.
"No, it's nothing, dear."
…
…
She pouted.
"If it's nothing, then why can't I see it?"
…
Lucy held up the letter, and slid it in her sleeve. She then sparked a small speck of light on her hand, and wrote out a sender:
"Atlas… Academic… Security… Offices…"
Lucy, now double-lettered, left the room with her opened envelope and entered the large room. The door creaked open, and she held up an open envelope with a look of confusion.
…
"Hi. I have a letter I found in my outfit. I'm going to walk about and try to remember something about it."
"What?"
PM: What?
Lucy walked over to Vassa's chair, and handed the letter over her shoulder. She turned right, and walked over to stand near the far right wall in the rectangular room.
Vassa read the contents, scoffed, and handed the letter to Kuro. He proceeded to read it, then tossed it to one of the tables.
"You're not doing that." they spoke in unison.
"I never said I was going to follow it. I just wanted to tell you I'd be going outside for a while."
…
The family watched each other silently.
….
Nemo raised his hand and asked an… intrusive question.
"What is this letter?"
The stares were a clear answer, so he lowered his hand to have it rest-
The witch walked closer and leaned her arms on the table, face towards him.
"Well, the deputy captain wants me back, and if I ignore the letter, I'm getting charged."
He sighed, and closed his eyes. Arya… you're insa-
…
"Deputy captain?" he asked softly. "Deputy captain Arya is trying to charge you if you don't come back?"
The parents turned to him. "You know this woman?"
… "Yes… I do."
Nemo turned to face the witch. "We haven't even left the continent? Are you telling me that your prison was on the same LANDMASS?"
He clenched his limbs a few times in pure astonishment. HOW? How…
This is infuriating.
…
…That psychopath. They should bur-
Nemo sighed.
"That woman was our leader." he explained.
"I'm not going to do anything the letter says." the witch exclaimed. "Nothing at all."
…
…
The room was quiet after that.
….
"I am going to leave." Lucy stated, and she walked with purpose towards the front entrance.
She slipped through a crack in the door as she opened it, and stood in the doorway for a moment, looking at the dark wood buildings amidst the white and grey and dark blue.
…
…
Lucy straightened her dress, and twiddled about a few fingers as she stood.
"What in the world should I do now?" she wondered.
As she stood in the entryway, a few people looked at her as she stayed stone still, doing her best at doing nothing useful at all.
Uhhhhh… Fighting?
Lucy cringed. The last time she had to do a duel, it resulted in her getting thrown into a cave wall. Lucy instead tried to think of a better alternative.
Plants?
She frowned.
Gem-work?
… She recalled the small gems they used a few weeks ago. "No… not enough for that." Lucy muttered.
Enhancing some of my knowledge or skills?
Upon thinking that, Lucy felt her skills were already fine.
"Helping your sister?"
"That could work. Helping others is always-"
…
…
…
…
Lucy blinked a few times in confusion. "Eh?"
She turned to her left, and gaped for a couple of seconds. "…."
The light hooded person stood stiff-stick straight; She appeared just as still and unsure as Lucy, in fact.
"You can help me." they repeated. "I have to do some… things."
Lucy looked ahead at the snow, then turned.
The young woman stared at her, large eyed and dark rimmed. Lucy noted she had some interesting little patches on her face, and leaned closer.
"!"
They leaned back in a higher proportion to her leaning.
Lucy nodded once in affirmation. "You're the one that heard my magic."
…
…
"-and…"
Lucy said nothing, not really knowing what to say.
"It's not impressive or anything. It's me, Hôdė."
Lucy stared at her in silence, taking three steps back.
…
"You aren't going to…say… anything?" the young woman asked.
Lucy grimaced slightly and looked away. "Uh…. erm…"
Hôdė sighed softly. "Never mind. I'll just leave you to yourself."
She walked away stiffly, looking straight away from the girl.
…
…
Hôdė rubbed her hands, pulled her clothes tighter; and began to prepare for her trek.
aaaaahhhhh….. oooooooohhhh. Okay. Let's get going.
…
…
She strode until she was just out of the town, and did a few stretches to stay limber for the journey.
She did squats, few arm swings, and a few positive thoughts.
"Hupp. Two. Three. Four."
"I'm good at this!"
"Hupp. Two. Three. Four."
"I! Can! Walk! This!"
"Hupp. Two. Three. Four."
"Sis is thinking this is! A! Bore!"
Hôdė flinched and spun to her left. There was the wall, and the snow. Nothing else was in sight. She frowned, taking a step forwards to peer around the town's entryway.
Paff-fffff.
"Shaipé."
Hôdė looked down to the ground. Lucille, staring up at her, was lying on the ground in the snow.
She spoke in a flat monotone, "Oh nooooo. I have been caught. How disastrous." The effect was somewhat less pronounced after she smiled slightly.
Hôdė replied in a similar monotone. "Shock. Whatever shall I do? You should pay for your sneakery."
Lucille laughed, and hoisted herself up. "I knew that must've come from somewhere!"
She smiled a bit, then looked at her.
"Where are we going exactly?"
Hôdė quietly explained her plan:
"I'm going to get some special materials for a project. I only have a simple product."
"Okay. I'll help gladly." Lucille said in reply. "Where exactly are we going? What for?"
…
…Hôdė's face fell momentarily.
…you.. don't remember completely.
…
"Atlas. It has the largest range of what I need." Hôdė explained.
She let her face become flat, and started walking slowly forwards. Hôdė efficiently ended the conversation, and refused to allow anyone furthering any interrogation. That will just cause confusion, so Hôdė made a plan to fix this in the way that she knows best.
Only action will help her now.
… reasonable, uninterrupted action.
….
The two of them wandered 'cross the land in moderate silence.
The wind blew softly, the snow made a delightful crunchy sound like a pillow of ice, and nobody said a word.
Until, it became a bit too quiet, and the silence was broken. Hôdė spun around, and kept readjusting her body until she was directly opposite of the sun.
"I present to you… my greatest machine to ever exist as of this month!" she cried out in glee, swinging her arms wide with the sun illuminating her like an angelic being.
"You're doing wh-"
…
"Shaipé!"
Lucy covered her eyes and looked back at the older woman. "What's that all for? Why're you answering my question so late?"
The light rimmed figure fell slightly.
"…"
"…"
"…I didn't have enough energy. Please just work with me here, this took a lot of effort to even talk to you about."
Lucy frowned, tugging idly at her hands. "All right… what's this thing?"
"Energy!" she cried out in excitement. "Behold!"
Hôdė reached down to her feet, hit some metal object with a "dingggg" and leapt towards Lucy.
To give a sense of distance, Lucy was around… ten to twelve strides away from her travelling companion. In this situation, that is around ten large steps between them. Hôdė, in order to be standing right next to Lucy, would have had to jump…
…Lucy didn't bother to calculate the distance and just replaced it with an approximate "really far, like gobsmackingly so."
As Hôdė landed with a hissing thud, she straightened her hood and threw her arms out to a few degrees. "The spark is complete! How do you feel?"
"Huh. I'm… really impressed, like gobsmackingly so." she said.
Hôdė felt her face fall. Her arms dropped three degrees. "…Ah."
Lucy hesitated for a second. "What is wrong?"
Hôdė quietly took a stride, and in a small flash, appeared further away before turning back and pulling her hood higher. "That." she called out.
Lucy stared. Am I just… really really jaded by now?
…
…
Wait…. She frowned, and thought back on the talking that interrupted the silence. "Go back a bit. What did you call that jump-leap-thing?"
"…"
"Spark."
Lucy grinned as she heard the confirmation. "I knew it! It had to come from somewhere!"
"What had to come from… where?" Hôdė squinted and looked at her excitement. "How about you show me what you mean?"
Lucy stretched out her arms, and smiled. "It's time to show you the power of sorcery!"
After crying this out, she spun, blinking to Hôdė's side in a second.
Then, the silence re-emerged.
Lucy smiled.
Hôdė walked blankly.
…
…
…
She crouched to the ground and shouted into the snow. "FUCK. You… just… already developed it without me."
"I have no idea what you're insinuating."
"You already created the spark jumping idea. I'm late to the presentation party."
Hôdė sighed a deep, deep sigh. "I was all excited, looking forwards to showing you that I actually built it… and you already did and forgot."
Lucy realised her mistake then. "No. No! It's not that! Yours is really impressive!"
Her comfort did no real good, and they continued on.
…
…
…
"What powers your version?"
"Magic."
…
…
…
She turned like a waddling bird and looked up at her.
"No Dust?" Hôdė furrowed her eyes in surprise. "Not a chip of it?"
"If you're asking if you can use mine, it's a no."
She quieted at that… then turned around with a grin. "I win."
"…huh?"
Hôdė's finger pointed at the back of her head, and she whirled up to stand and spin to face Lucy.
She kept smiling. "I won this! I didn't even use Dust! Yeah, yours is… annoyingly good, but only you can use it."
"Was this a competition?" Lucy asked. "I definitely forgot if this was an earlier event."
"Come on. Just… look at them! These guys didn't use ANY Dust!" she laughed. "Amazing, right?"
Lucy smiled, and tilted her head trying to recall how this was impressive to have clean equipment….
…
… She thought for a second. Dust? The gems, she means?
Dust is a crystalline material in various forms, with each form applying a different effect. For example, Red Dust is a "fire" Dust, capable of generating heat.
Blinking away her confusion, she pulled herself back to the conversation.
Lucy did learn from her mistake before though. "Wow! That's great! What did you use instead?" she questioned.
Hôdė turned around, and gestured her finger at the sky. "The SUN!"
She quietly nodded.
"…"
"…"
"Woooooooah… HOLD IT. TIME OUT. Stop right there." Lucy hollered.
"Why do you need more materials when you just have inhuman leaping powered by the SUN?" Lucy cried out. "It makes no sense!"
"The SUN doesn't have feelings, does it?" Hôdė cried out in equal measure.
…
…Lucy lowered her arms, and twitched a finger.
…
…Nope, I cannot parse that at all.
"Can you explain that a bit as we walk?" Lucy asked.
"Gladly."
….
…
Okay, Lucy learned some things as the two of them leapt across the landscape. Firstly, there's the Grimm. She met those dumbasses.
They are, interestingly, attracted to negative emotions. Strange how she just… knew that sounded right. Lucy felt that was… honestly pretty clever.
Hôdė thought that the main idea of why people that hunt Grimm die was related to that.
"You literally wear it on you. That's not hiding emotions!" was the specific outcry she had. This was about Aura.
Lucy momentarily rolled her eyes. It's the same thing as magic. Who cares about the terms if we all understand the effects?
"Lucy!"
Ah. Shaipé. What were the points given? Yes… uh… Aura is the ability to do kickass supernatural things. It was powered by your… soul. Now, if your enemies are attracted to emotions, and you have your mental state used to fight against creatures…
Lucy paused, stepping slowly over a few branches. "That's just going to kill anyone in time. You can't really… hide that."
"Yes! This means I am a historic woman!"
"Because you invented solar powered boots."
"Exactly because I invented solar powered boots!" Hôdė exclaimed. "Think of what would happen if you kicked a Beowolf wearing these beauties?"
Lucy cringed at the idea. It wasn't because it was impossible to say nicely… but that she… already saw something similar. To be specific, it was her 'teammate' Ezekiel taking her bet that he couldn't kill a monster without his firearms.
The obnoxious bastard proceeded to burn the creature to death by punching and kicking it with vigour and a mechanical suit. She said using the propellant counted as a weapon, and he stole her lunch.
…"okay, maybe the wrong idea…" Hôdė muttered. "Oh! What if I ran? Just… think of that."
Lucy thought about it. How would it feel to just blink… anywhere she could see?
…Firstly… I'd love that. But… more importantly.
She appeared right next to Hôdė and stared. "How do you make the propulsion? Is it a combustion?"
Hôdė lifted up her foot, balancing hesitantly for a bit, then grabbed Lucy for support. She held up the foot and pointed at the arch of her foot.
Lucy looked at it. It was a nice looking metal, a bronze shade that wasn't too reflective. However, it was unadorned and appeared to be rather… flat.
"I can't see anything."
"What? It broke already? I was looking for-"
AKK!
Hôdė leaned her chest down and tried to look at the bottom of her foot, before jumping up half a foot in the air. Her raised foot unexpectedly shot out a small metal shape with a ptung noise.
Lucy got hit in the chest, and Hôdė fell to the ground as a shhhkk sound came from her.
…
Lucy checked her chest, and didn't feel anything particularly… wrong. But, to make matters assured safe, she reached into her pocket to take a draught of her medicine.
huuuuuuuuuuuuuoh-KAK KAK.
She accidentally spat out a few drops of the liquid with a cough, and realised it was better to just do the entire dosage.
..
..
…
This was not a good look.
….