….
After the screaming stopped, she was practically catatonic for the next seven hours.
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Kuro watched for it all, then… slowly dragged her up to a standing position.
"Firstly, you had just became an adult, and that happened. Secondly, we did think you were dead. You have definitely been through some very rough things."
…
"If it makes you feel any better, Lucy, you were sometimes a little bitch back then as well."
…
…"Is that meant to be reassur-"
She slowly shook herself into mobility and turned up to look at his face.
"I know it's probably a really really bad time… but can I-"
It's midnight. It's a bad time.
"You called me a bastard, said I was tricking you, and told me I was lying to my own daughter. You said that."
"You thought it first. I was going to ask for my staff."
… He was tired, and so yawned and breathed out heavily.
"I thought it… was for a personal thing."
She looked away.
"Well, we're now properly recognized as family now? We just had the lovely reigniting of family wholesomeness. Now, it's personal."
…
"Okay. Go ahead."
She burst out with it like a shot just waiting to hit.
Kuro outshot the words with a negative answer. "No killi-"
"I need it to wash my clothes."
…
…
…
The two of them stood there awkwardly.
… We already washed them before.
"Personal reasons?" Kuro emphasized with a suspecting eyebrow.
She winced.
"Before you say anything… it's not what you're thinking. I just don't want to have to wear my other set of clothes I had with me before coming here."
…
"You had a second pair of clothes? What was it for? You weren't traveling here wearing any protective clothing at all. I thought we taught you that as an eternal rule."
…
"I did have protective gear. I just chose to not wear it and throw it into the ocean to hope that worked."
"You… did what?"
…"It didn't work though."
"Did you go insane without us? That is ridiculous!"
"It's not like that. You…
…
… You mean cold protective equipment? Why would I need that?"
"Everybody needs it!"
She paused her gesticulating in response to his outcry and blankly started at him.
"Not a woman that controls the cold by thinking."
…
…
…
They had another pause, when Kuro smiled.
"Ah. You managed that? I thought you stopped because it was too tiring."
She smiled back a smug grin… which then fell down. "It's awe…."
"…
… that's not the issue. I can't get rid of my combat gear."
…
Oh.
...
...
"Okay… then just don't wear it, then." Kuro pointed out.
She chuckled. "I can't just… not wear it. If I don't have anything else that's "fit to wear" then it forces me to wear it. The staff is actually useful. The outfit is just…"
"Too easy to recall the past?"
… Lucy momentarily smiled. "I.. was going to say bright, annoying, revealing, shittily designed, pocketless, and eye catching… but that is also a good point."
… Kuro thought briefly. "You remember how Vassa disliked your old dress…"
"I have high chance to be forced to wear a ridiculously revealing dress. It's just as bad."
… "This is madness. Why would anyone make this be a thing? It… forces you to wear it? How?" Kuro asked.
…
"Is it something like… a key on the outfit allows you to unlock your weapon case?"
"That could've been nice. It literally forces me to wear it though. I can't not put it on."
How? Just… you feel obligated to wear it?
"What makes it… a for-"
She shrugged. "Magic. -Wooooah.- It just… appears on me in a little shimmer."
…
…
…
What a strange use of Aura.
She continued speaking her ideas behind her clothing choices.
"The idea behind it? Not sure. Keep clothes cleaned regularly? Simple way to publicly humiliate the problem soldier through overly revealing outfits? It's a clever idea to have your armor be able to just get transported to you whenever you need to get it quickly… my armor is just absolutely ridiculous."
… "-soldier?"
Kuro spoke… slightly too loud for the whisper he intended.
"Huh? Yeah. I was sent off to be a soldier. That's what you planned. It's why I was there at all."
Kuro watched in dawning horror. "No. No. We had you sent away from us, yes, but we sent you to a school where you would learn to control your abilities, then you'd graduate and be sent home to us. The fact that we got a letter of your death surprised us all."
She stared dimly at his face.
…
…
…
"There's a school to learn magic? That sounds… amazing! When can I sign up?" she joked.
…
Kuro waited for her to continue.
"When can I sign up?"
"Lucy. Please take this slightly… more seriously?"
"I am serious. Where is this place and when does it start enrollment?"
…
…
"Lucille. You went to the academy already."
"No I didn't. I was a soldier, remember?"
"Okay…. So… somewhere along the way, there was an absolutely horrible mistake made and you ended up being put on a list that you never should have ever gotten into in your life, and had to become a soldier."
…
She leaned towards him and spoke slowly. "I don't think you're understanding me that well. I never went to any academy, school, or place of magical ability study. I may have done schooling here, before whatever caused my weird memory changes… although I'm just blaming that shitty rat bastard for it. I was made to be a soldier, and so a soldier I was. Now… where's this academy? That sounds lovely, I'll take one spot, please."
Kuro stood in shock.
"Never?"
"Nope. Now.. about… how far away is it? I might be able to walk it in a day or so."
… Hah. You… really can't just… walk to them, Lucy.
"Which one?"
"Ooooh! There's MULTIPLE? Which one's closest?"
"A-"
Vassa banged on her door in a fury.
"No! I'm grounding you for eternity if you even try! Why in gods are you UP SO LATE? Is someone getting stabbed to death?!"
… Kuro tilted his head. "Ah. I guess that you can't hear my reply. Sorry, Lucy."
"I meant YOU. Kuro. Her too… but that's not the real important detail."
Vassa trod out of their bedroom, bleary eyed and furious. "Why would you ever try to help her go back there? After the insanity they pulled, I'm not going to let her agree to go to an academy EVER AGAIN. Why…"
"Because it turned out that she was never brought there, Vassa." Kuro explained.
"…"
"What?"
"Where did you wake up at?"
"She's asking to go back to the academy, right? She talked about trying to walk there, and talked about distances."
Kuro caught her up. It was a chilling look she flooded her face with.
"She just told me that she never even went to an academy, and she was just skipped past all the normal things like consent and academy training on order to directly become a soldier."
…
…
"Those bastards. I'll kill them with my bare hands."
...
...
Vassa started pacing around the hallway, occasionally glancing at the two of them or muttering about some various methods of torture…
…
…
…
"Lucille. Get over here."
The girl jumped for a second, then slowly pulled herself over to the woman.
"Lucy. It's Lucy."
Kuro chuckled softly, and Vassa nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, you…"
…
…
…
Vassa started staring as her head slowed the bobbing.
"Lucy?" she asked.
The Lucy in question nodded.
"Lucy Mantle, the girl who had some of the most deplorable handwriting I ever met?"
The Lucy in question flushed pink.
Vassa smiled. "Well, you're an adult, and you're definitely going to be staying here long term, right? Then… we need to get some of the more logistical details out of the way."
She pulled out her hand, and the room became diffused in a soft blue light.
Lucy skidded back like a skipping stone.
…"Kuro. You mind?"
Kuro stood behind Lucy and prevented her rapid velocity from reaching any higher speeds.
"I, Vassal of Mantle, first admit that I am completely ignoring that it's only really alive here, and in history books… and that I really don't give a shit. It's been decades and nobody stopped me now… so why should they? They don't even go to this chunk of the forsaken island that often, and I really think that the next official bastard that comes here deserves a good few years getting thrown off of a few cliffs or whatnot-"
…
Kuro pierced through her rant and sighed. "That's not legally binding phrasing, is it?"
…
"Fine, fine. You're no fun." she said. "Ahem… Let's do that again."
"I, Vassal of Mantle, formally request you to become a part of our kingdom. (Asterisk should be put down if I wrote this for legal issues since we're on shaky ground.) Although the kingdom may technically only be one in name, it is not in the matters of heart or soul."
…
She grabbed her daughter's hand and shook it once.
A little shimmering appeared around them both, and faded away.
Lucy sung a little, making a quiet "badink."
…
...
….
I… know this feeling. Lucy thought.
A quiet tingling was in the back of her head, slightly fuzzing the edges of her eyes.
… what's the best way to check that this is the same?
…
"Close your eyes, please? I'm going to move behind you."
….
Hmm? Why?
"Okay. I am fine with that. Why did you want me to do this?" Vassa asked.
… she quietly thought for a second.
Vassa closed her eyes and stood still. "Are you trying to embrace me sneakily?"
"No. Where…". The room filled with loud rattling from a side room.
"Don't go trying to sneak that sta-"
The noise kept happening, and Lucy asked quietly, "Where am I?"
…
…
…
"How am I meant to know that?"
…
She heard air whistling from some strange action.
…
"Point at her." Kuro spoke.
Vassa pointed.
Lucy shouted out in delight. "Ha! I was right! I knew I could recognise that feeling anywhere!"
She winced in response. "Don't shout so loudly, kid."
…
…
"I was right! I was right! I-I was so right! I was right!"
Lucy was dancing in place, singing a little tune about her assured right-ness.
"Be quiet."
…
…
…
She didn't stop. Instead, Vassa had an unusual pinging feeling from her body.
Specifically, it was timed to her daughter's little song.
"I-I was so right! I was definitely right! I was ri-"
Vassa muttered in annoyance. "Just… stop talking."
And so… she did.
In near unison, Vassa saw a small sentence appear in her head, coloured the blue of her ability, and a second sentence appeared just moments after that.
Semblance: User: Vassa has not specified a target to PM.
Semblance: User: Lucy has been momentarily banned from the chat for oversending.
…
What?
…
How did this happen?
Lucy? How did this happen?
….
...
User: Lucy has been momentarily banned from the chat for oversending.
… damii.
Geddamii.
At least it wasn't the deputy captain trying to talk to her this time.
...
"Warrior… are you not going to try to ask your team to help you?"
She had to then try to hand sign "… I talked too much." Charades with problematic military mission consequences if you lost. 0/100, She never played it after that.
"You… haven't moved a foot." Arya quietly pointed out.
I know that Arya.
…
Ahem….
"I… don't need to move to talk to people, Arya."
… "That's ridiculous. How can you do that?" The blonde woman scoffed and shook her head.
… "I… just could as soon as I started using my abilities."
"Are you a spy, Warrior?"
…
"Are you meant to idly message people? Were you brought here to be a scout?"
… Lucy did not respond.
"Correct. You are not. Run off and actually find people or you'll have to do your next mission alone."
…
Lucy shuddered softly.
Ugh. That mission had been awful. Flesh and horse-demons and evil dogs everywhere.
Lucy stood to attention. "What now, captain? What is my missi-"
…
Damn muscle memory.
….
A little nudge touched her, blue light shining through her eyelids.
PM: How did that happen?
Lucy opened her eyes, and watched the two people looking at her in surprise.
YOU.
It was you people.
"That explains things. So… you were the one behind all those weird blue messages?" she said, really not excited to know the origin of the blue text.
"Could you two clarify something here? Lucy… you haven't said anything that's very coherent. What's the detail about blue messages?" Kuro asked.
"She has, somehow, been sending messages little blue text messages to me every single day for years." Lucy exclaimed. "I could never change them, and I always had to sit through tiresome messages like "Have you eaten today?", "Did you meet anyone?", "Are you learning new skills?", "You're properly updating your wardrobe, right?"
….That is what they had called a bad coping mechanism. After all, if you send a message to the dead, the dead don't reply.
It somewhat helped, but they knew it wouldn't go anywhere-
… "Every. Single. Day." Lucy gritted her teeth. "I had to spend valuable time just reading through a little blue box asking me question after question after question."
Vassa watched her, looking for something.
Anything.
…
Whatever she was looking for, she never found it.
Vassa caught a breath. "You… got those? You actually, honestly, had those messages?"
Lucy fell with a peeved gaze onto a wall in a dramatic leaning.
… "Yes. I did." she replied. "They got rather tiring after I had to deal with them for three-odd years."
Vassa's expression drooped.
Kuro winced.
… The girl peeked out from her melodramatic pose and widened slightly.
Lucy tried to amend the damage, and stepped forwards. "It wasn't all just things I kept getting annoyed by. They were… useful. I also used them as a bit of a guide myself."
She chuckled briefly, and had an excellent idea to lighten the mood.
World: User Lucy:
/\.../\
|O |
|. VV . |
…
…
…
…
Lucy was confused. Her emojicat was usually a well appreciated addition to the conversations.
"Okay, what's wrong now? That usually has a better response." she asked.
The two older people gave no reply.
Did I not… send it right?
She tried again, frowning, and visualizing a commented number.
World: User Lucy: #11
A far rounder and squishier emojicat appeared in her vision, actually looking more like an illustrated cat than an emoticon.
…
…
…
"Hey. Are either of you… getting anything? Do I need to send more cats?" Lucy questioned.
Vassa stared at some minute particle in the air, completely fazed.
…
"…You did this?" Kuro asked.
"If by this you mean I sent messages of cute emojicats #11 and #4… then yes, that's me." Lucy said.
"How are you doing this? This is my semblance."
"Well, we already mentioned that. You're the creator of it." Lucy pointed out again,
"I know it's unusual for them to change… but you… you…" Vassa looked down at her hands and started blinking rapidly.
Lucy smiled slightly.
...
Subtle revenge was nice once in a while.
Vassa stood straight, and glared at her. "Lucille. Don't you think I don't know what you're thinking about."
Lucy stilled, pausing before trying to send more emojicats into the blue screen.
"Stop this and explain yourself!"
…Time to back off now.
...
..
"I found out how to send messages across the blue screens to other people, if you were wondering." Lucy explained. "I was thinking for a moment that, if your ability is to create the blue screen, you would get every message that I try to send you. And thus, I send you emojicats. They're cute, right?" she grinned.
The blue screen had been useful, sometimes, on occasion. It was like she could just picture a letter to anyone in her sight. Despite the screen being undetectable to most people, like her superiors, it had a function and preformed it well.
Admittedly, Lucy used it most often to annoy Yuki to hysteria, causing the girl to try to catch her attention frantically.
… "That's not your semblance, though. Your semblance is to control ice." Kuro pointed out.
Whu-
.. "-and cold winds," he added as an addendum.
Lucy sputtered as she spun a couple times between them. "Excuse me?"
Vassa sighed, a long slow sigh. "And here I thought she matured…"
…Rude. Shame on you for that.
"I… that's so little though! Who would be proud to say that 'My ability is to control ice, and only ice!'" Lucy exclaimed.
Kuro sighed. "Where's this coming from now? Lucy, you are aware we live in an area with an incredibly cold climate, right?"
…
…
…
Lucy paused her flailing finger of indignation.
"Well… yes? That is a valid point. That power… would be incredibly useful in this location. But, I say my point still stands that learning more is better."
"Yes, that makes sense. However, I think that Vassa's suggestion is rather important. We should follow it." Kuro said.
"Okay." Lucy said. Arguing wouldn't help out much in this case.
…
…
Her eye twitched.
…
Lucy started to fidget as Kuro went to grab a few chairs for everyone to rest on. Vassa went with him to try to get a few drinks.
…
…
A low tapping came from the other room. Vassa took out a few glasses and poured some water.
"I can also control fire, you know," she burst out.
…
"Lucy, that's a logical branch of your ability, isn't it? You control the cold, then you try to control the heat. It's probably untested, but you could perhaps do it in the future."
…
"-and lightning," Lucy called.
…
Vassa looked silently over.
…
"Okay, Lucy."
…
…
"-AND DARKNESS."
"... I'm going to trust you on that."
GRHMHNHNGNMHMHMHMHNHHGNFN….. you… yoooouuuuu….
Lucy charged into the room. "I am a skilled mage. Please be aware of tha-"
Kuro and Vassa were sitting on two of the chairs, both holding a glass with a clear liquid.
Kuro gestured at a chair opposite them, and-
"Sit down."
…Lucy sat down.
...
...
...
...
...
"That's the problem here. We know." Kuro said, while Vassa passed over a glass.
"We are aware that you have a powerful semblance. It's why we don't want you to try to prove it by trying to do something significant," Vassa explained.
"It would be best if you didn't use it at all, but that didn't work well the last time, as you know." Vassa added.
…
When was the last time she had been told to not use her magic? She knew it had definitely been a while back….
…
…
Lucy pursed her lips and hissed through her teeth. "Are you talking about that time a loooong ways back when I unintentionally gave myself a severe magic overload and I briefly paralysed myself? That time?"
…
She realised that, by the looks on their faces, they were not thinking about that point, and probably hadn't known.
"Okay. Let's back up from that."
"You had paralysed yourself?" Vassa groaned. "Gods, why did you not tell us that?"
"Because nobody cared about it."
…
...
…
Lucy started to send another emojicat to distract them from the silence, but became distracted by a comment on her statement.
Vassa started talking.
"You froze everything in your line of sight over the course of a few seconds, Lucy. I think that merited some kind of reaction. Also, I'm pretty sure that this paralysis you experienced was just breaking your Aura."
"I've had it as well. I think it's just… you were unused to it. If you had told us, we could have helped," she said.
Kuro went up to get another glass, and called out from the kitchen. "When you were younger, whenever you tried to prove yourself… it ended badly. Fields of ice, flying boats and terrain changing movements are just the largest examples we still remember, kid."
"That… makes more sense on why you'd try to regulate things then." Lucy noted.
… Vassa stood and set her glass on an empty table.
"We wouldn't be having this conversation if you just didn't use it, as we requested, but you keep deciding to break the one rule we set."
She turned, and fell onto her pulled aside chair, watching Lucy above clenched fingers.
"Do you know how much harder things are going to become?" Vassa whispered.
"Incredibly hard. It will be tremendously hard to keep you protected if you keep doing this every couple of weeks. The first time we were able to just ask Branwen to not talk since he's the only one that recognised your ability as Aura, but then you decide to pull this stunt today, in front of a significant audience that is all watching you."
…
Kuro walked back into the room and slid his filled glass across the counter.
"In this case, it's not as bad as it could have been, because we all already know. For most of us, it's as if you graduated from a rather prestigious academy and returned home, slightly misremembering us after so many years. The more pressing issue comes when we bring other people into the population."
Lucy took a sip from the cup in her hands, then gagged and looked down. "Hold it a second. Is this…. warm water?"
…
…
"It's not that bad, is it?" Vassa muttered. "Anyways, the main point of this entire thing is that we want what's best for you. I know it's not easy to recognise it, but protecting you is all we are t-"
"…trying…"
She rested her face in a hand and stilled.
"Gods. I… I completely forgot. Kuro. What week is it?"
Kuro thought about it, taking a few sips of his water. "5th week into the winter period? I'd have to check. Why? Is th…"
…
"Oh."
Vassa raised herself and looked her daughter in the eyes.
"If you do anything even remotely similar to using your semblance…." she said. "-then you are going to regret it for the rest of your life."
Lucy stared, saying nothing.
…
…
…
"I'm going to go check the date today," Kuro said.
…
…
"Did I miss something relevant to the conversation? You both are acting… in a way that is most likely not normal," Lucy said after a rather long period of staring between the two women.
"We are going to have visitors."
...
...
...
"Soon? … I think it's going to be soon if you're this worried and don't want people to know your daughter is a mage."
"Don't use your abilities. I don't think you will want to be interrogated in order for the greater government to discover why you are not dead."
That does not sound good.
... Lucy bit her lip and thought about that. "I'm meant to be dead? Weird. I didn't get the memo. Interesting.
…Who exactly said I was dead?"
"No clear sender. It just said that you died in combat, and that they were sorry for our loss. However, it's an Atlas based and run academy closest to us, and this means it has some of the closest ties to anything that could hide your existence. Especially since the academy already is meant to teach individuals to join the military, it would be a rather simple thing to just ignore the requests of the small region and hide the records of all wrongdoings to-"
Vassa noticed a quiet harumph, and, clearing her throat, paused her rant. "I had a long time to think about this. You coming back just gave me more details to get a clear picture."
…
"What do you want me to do?" Lucy said, calm and staring blank eyed.
"As long as our new guests are here, you cannot use your semblance in the town."
"Town?"
Kuro called down from the upstairs, and started moving around.
"I'm thinking that if she went out into the surrounding area she can get it all out without a problem. She could help Déa or Ivaldi, Kuro."
…
"That… could work. But, what happens if someone tries to go out along with her?"
"… We send out someone else alongside the initial group so we won't need her to use her abilities."
…
Creaking steps came from between their silence.
A knock on the wooden hallway door.
"That all seems like a good plan. Is Lucy aware of exactly why we need her to do this?"
"I explained it all," Vassa said.
Lucy raised her hand.
"We have about… 23 days until the planned arrival of the delegation-" Kuro said, walking around the chairs to sit back on his.
"Don't call them that. It's too official and I'm still infuriated with them. You can't really get infuriated at a delegation. You can get infuriated at visitors that nose their ways into everything."
…
…
"Actually, now that I'm thinking back, shouldn't we have gotten a message from them thirty days before they would come? We didn't get anything," Vassa grumbled. "Those obnoxious people."
…
"-and so we need you, Lucy, to understand that we are trying to prevent them from knowing that you're the exact same person as before." Kuro finished.
Lucy continued to raise her hand.
….
...
"Yes?"
She pulled her hand down. "Am I allowed to use my magic in town in case of incredibly dire emergencies?"
"… No," Vassa replied. "You can't. Then, everyone would live, and we would just repeat history all over again."
Lucy thought about that for a moment.
"-means that I just extend the nullification onto the new arrivals, righ-"
She looked up at her parents. "Wait. Does this count with this building as well from now on? No magic in town or around these people?"
Vassa stared at her. "Yes, Lucille. That's exactly what we wanted."
Lucy nodded, then raised her left hand above her glass.
…
…
"Can I borrow a knife?" she asked. "I need to check my test, and that's one of the fastest ways to…"
…
… Wait. There's actually a better way to test it.
"Excuse me. I think I need to put on a new shirt."
Lucy stood up, walked to the door, and pulled it open while holding it in place with her foot. While doing so, she pulled at her overshirt and slipped into the hallway.
… Do I have any backless shirts in this place's clothes?
…
Wait. Here is not going to work well.
"Push door, push door, push door…" she muttered, trying to quickly slip her excessive number of shirts off.
…
…
…
Aw, damnii.
….