Rethinking Objectives

Verity concentrated her gaze on the ground. Tears brimmed in her eyes, half from anger, and half from shame. She was so mad at herself. Being away when the guild was attacked, what kind of member was she? Despite her un-greatness in fighting ability when compared with her other guild mates, she just felt she could have done something that could have helped them fight back. Now their guild hall was nothing but rubble and their ace, left missing. She bit her lip and fought back against the urge to cry. She hated crying. She almost wished for someone to give her hate about it. She was so used to it yet no one was beating her up. Instead they said she couldn’t have known what was happening and that it wasn’t her fault. It didn’t prevent her from feeling she was at fault though.

The blonde took deep breaths and lifted her head. There was nothing she could do to stop the previous events. Now all she needed was to get strong enough to crush the bad guys and help the guild as best as she can. At the moment, that involved money. She set her eyes in front of her and stuck her chin up. She elevated her foot off the ground and was about to start walking when she grew conscious of someone tapping her arm. She whipped her head around. “What?” She asked somewhat harshly, annoyed that she had been interrupted.

The girl shrunk and started to stammer. “W-w-well,” She realised she had been a little too brash and softened her gaze.

“Sorry,” She apologised, gesturing for the girl to continue. The girl straightened up again and spoke more confidently.

“The guildmaster wants you to go meet a girl slightly older than you called Kotone,” She bobbed her head in confirmation. “He didn’t specify anything else except that she’d know what to do because I think he told her. That’s all. G’day Vera! Don’t look all depressed,” She grinned and patted the older girl’s arm before scampering off the wherever.

Vera sighed. It wasn’t exactly what she had planned to do but if Ranor wanted it done, she should do it. There was always the possible chance that this mission thing she was kind of being sent on was a prank but she would never know unless she tried. And so the blonde turned on her heel and began to walk the other way…before promptly stopping in some street because she realised she didn’t even know where she was supposed to be meeting this ‘Kotone’.

428/5000

Gramps’ helper of the day was late. Kotone knew Fairy Tail was busy from her talks with Roejaster, but the old man could have at least picked someone with a sense of timing. The job was important, and Kotone was as ready to strike back at the dark guild Shadow Heart as anyone, even if it was just an independent member operating too close to the area for too long. “C’mon,” she said aloud as she leaned against the corner of a brick building. What was the girl’s name again? Verity? That sounded right. Not that it mattered. Kotone enjoyed nicknames too much.

At least she had a description, or at least as much as she needed – that blond girl from the tournament not too long ago. Taiga had apparently taken a liking to her or something to insist she go with the dragon slayer on a mission. Maybe he just wanted some indirect way of making sure Kotone was okay. They had an odd father-daughter relationship that neither of them really admitted to around one another, mostly because of her lack of desire for family after a history of being abandoned.

Finally, the girl got tired of waiting. Standing up straight, she took off at a casual walk down the road, headed more towards Fairy Tail. If the girl was on her way, she would find her pretty easily. In fact… Kotone quickly ascended to the top of a flat-roofed building, taking a look around. There! Two streets down was this Verity girl. She looked rather lost.

“What, you don’t know your own home town, Blondie?” Kotone asked, deciding the name she would be called based on appearance since she had nothing else to go on. She leapt gracefully from the roof, landing in a crouch with her hands in her pockets. Her brown hair was worn straight like it often was these days, going down to her back. She had on her new tan jacket, a white blouse, a red tie she often wore as an accessory, a set of black shorts, and her knee-high black boots. The shorts were new, since she usually wore skirts. Across her back was strapped a katana. Kotone’s face had an expression of amusement, and her dragon fangs were visible with her cocky grin. Her eyes had a fire in them that even Kotone’s closer friends hadn’t seen in a while.

“Verity, right?” she asked as she stood up straight, her hands never leaving her pockets. “We were supposed to meet.  I’m Kotone Hoshino. Gramps may or may not have told you I was a dragon slayer, as well as his sister’s current apprentice.” Taiga’s sister was the woman called Sonata from the tournament – a reclusive woman who looked much younger than she was, and who generally had a hate for people. She was an excellent teacher though, and Kotone had already benefited from her time with the woman.

489/2000 Ice Dragon's Wrath

As soon as she had stopped moving, a voice called out from up above. "Blondie? Who? Me?" She asked out loud in confusion. She was guessing this person was talking to her since she saw no other blonde around. The sound of being called 'Blondie' was unfamiliar to her so naturally, she was uncertain. She never got called out by hair colour or really appearances in general. The only time that had happened was by...that person ages ago whose attempt at being poetic failed miserably. It had always been mental capacity but recently, the normal name was 'Vera' or as she liked to say, 'that idiot from Fairy Tail,'. Funny how she usually hated listening to other people's comments about her except now, she seemed to be craving them, the negative ones in particular. She didn't want to, but it just...was. She honestly didn't know what she should have been doing.

A girl jumped down from the roof which confirmed her belief that she had been talking to her. She twitched her eyebrow. Immediately her tone of voice changed from airhead like to a matter of fact. "Of course I do, I just didn't know where I was supposed to be going," She explained. She eyed the other girl curiously. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought she looked like some kind of rebel school girl...or maybe she was some kind of rebel school girl. Verity herself wasn't wearing anything particularly outstanding. Just black leggings under some kind of patterned dress shirt. Her hair was in a high ponytail and if anybody else didn't know any better, she'd look like she was going shopping or something - anything but a mission...if this even was one. She continued to eye the other suspiciously until she mentioned her name was Kotone. So she really was the person she was supposed to meet. And she was a Dragon Slayer, surprise surprise. Nowadays, she couldn't even be sure if someone asked whether her name was Verity. That random person off the street sometimes asked her that. At first she had been convinced that there was someone after her but then she realised it was just because they recognised her from the Tournament. Talking about the tournament and people's sisters...

"Really? You're the apprentice of that lady with the cool hat?" She asked, eyes wide open. "Awesome!" She stood to attention and grinned. "Yes, I am Verity." The girl adopted a frown on her face. She actually didn't know what there were doing thanks to that girl. "And no, I didn't realise you were a dragon slayer because he didn't tell me, nor did he tell me anything else actually. Some random girl just told me I needed to meet you and then she ran off." It wasn't necessary to inform her but it didn't hurt to gain some context on where the blonde was coming from. She lifted her gaze to meet Kotone's. "So what are we supposed to be doing?"

928/5000

At first, Kotone appeared a bit surprised that Verity was calling her awesome for being the hermit’s apprentice. But even with her recent attitude adjustments, Kotone was still Kotone, and a little ego never hurt anyone. A big one… that was a different story. “Yeah, I’m awesome like that,” she nodded, her fangs still showing in her cocky grin as she crossed her arms. “But seriously, I’m supposed to do a favor for the big guy and accompany you on your chance to help the guild. He said you were taking it pretty hard not being here and all.” Kotone’s grin faded as she said the last sentence. She closed her eyes and looked somewhat more neutral as she shrugged. “No shame in that.” The old man had ways of knowing things people never admitted out loud. It was a little creepy at times - at least to Kotone.

Kotone reached into her pocket and pulled out a thin white ribbon, which she used to tie her hair into a ponytail. She was going to do some work, so she might as well get her hair out of her face again. She refocused on Verity with her somewhat neutral expression still apparent on her face. She also seemed to be fighting back some sort of amusement that threatened to break out at any moment. That was how things appeared, at least. “You’re probably wondering why they didn’t ask someone like Tatsuma to accompany you. He’s from the guild and also a dragon slayer. Truth is, the old man and I go way back.” Kotone cracked another grin. It was like she couldn’t help but look cocky. “He trusts me, plain and simple.” That wasn’t quite the entire story. Kotone had also wanted badly to do something for the guild, but she’d never been able to bring herself to express the care she had for the two guilds she was in regular contact with before. Now that she wasn’t so hateful, it was just tradition more than anything. She had an image to uphold. That image could come in handy at times. Times like now. She’d managed to tell Taiga, at least.

Kotone turned around, putting her hands in her pockets as she started walking. She went slow enough that Verity would easily be able to keep up. “There’s a guy near here who works for Shadow Heart. He’s supposed to run some of the local stuff they’re doing to undermine Fairy Tail. We’re going to put a stop to that." She turned to partially face Verity, giving her a more honest-looking grin for the first time. “What do you say to that?”

931/2000 Ice Dragon's Wrath

Verity grinned alongside Kotone when she admitted that she was awesome like that. It didn't take long for her face to fall though. She cast her eyes to the ground when the girl mentioned her taking being away hard and all. Usually she might have questioned who the 'big guy' was but she knew she was referring to the guildmaster. It just seemed pointless. She didn't like to admit to that. To herself it was all fine but hearing others say it as if it was alright hurt. At least the girl wasn't actually saying it was alright although the blonde definitely got the feeling that it was implied. She only said that there was no shame. And while she did think there was plenty of shame in the act, she guessed the girl was talking about the feeling itself. She sighed. Who knew?

After her little spell, the girl looked back and readjusted her facial expression back to its smile. She noticed immediately that Kotone was finding something funny. She frowned a bit. And then she spoke. Maybe she was over reacting but she visibly stiffened at Tatsuma's name. She struggled to keep composure. Any other thing she might have wanted to say disappeared. She kind of had the urge to punch the guy in the face again. That and to completely wipe him from her current thoughts. "I don't think he'd be at the guild," She said, her tone suddenly colder, barely keeping the frustration out of her expression.

She was glad when the brunette in front started to walk. She quickly caught up and fell into her pace. She nodded as Kotone explained what they were going to do. A tiny smile made its way onto her face. It steadily grew into a matching grin. That sounded fun. She'd wiped her head clear of any other thoughts and focused on the mission at hand. "Let's kick some butt," She replied enthusiastically, her former optimism seeping back. She returned to face ahead while a question formed in her head. "Do we know where this guy might be?" She asked, swiveling round to face the dragon slayer once more.

1288/5000

The tensing at the name Tatsuma didn’t exactly surprise the female dragon slayer. She all but hated the fool kid for the way she treated women in general, much less how he acted as a dragon slayer. Okay, she didn’t hate him, much as she wanted to think that. She was just really disappointed and disgusted by what the kid had turned into at some point, whether it was his dragon’s fault or just how the kid had turned out when left to his own devices. It was the way she grew cold saying he *wouldn’t*be there that caught her attention. She didn’t… nah, she couldn’t. No self-respecting girl liked a womanizer like him. Right? Whatever, it wasn’t her business. Either way, he was obviously up to something stupid.

Kotone grinned reassuringly when Vera asked if she knew where the guy they were after might be, looking forward and shrugging nonchalantly. “I have my sources,” she told the girl mysteriously. Those sources were specifically Ranor Taiga in this case. She was just being mysterious for fun. “He’s holed up outside of town. They think they’re safe because the Magic Council can’t do anything about it in their current state." Kotone frowned, her eyes determined. “But they didn’t count on us being here. We’ll show them what happens when they hurt our friends.”


1153/2000

((Sorry about the bad post…had writer’s block but was only capable of writing this because all the others have even more major blockage of the mind >.< ))

Vera shrugged her shoulders upon hearing Kotone’s ‘mysterious sources’. She was betting that they were composed of a singular person called Ranor Taiga but she didn’t mention it. She nodded her head when she mentioned the location of the robbers. Her brain appeared to be completely empty of thoughts so complementary to that, nothing would be coming out her mouth any time soon. She was in a more thinking mood it seemed. That was definitely rare. But then she hadn’t experienced such conflicting emotions before. A silence fell over her and her mood dimmed. Even if she was helping… it was also still hard. Her attitude, completely flippant and now? She didn’t think that was going to be particularly helpful.

The blonde sighed for the how many-ieth time that day and looked up at the sky. The dragon slayer besides her faded from her thought process and all she could think about was trying to think about things. Thinking was actually quite a hard thing for her to do. For someone who always rushed in, it wasn’t that surprising. There was just so much to think about that she couldn’t focus on any one particular thing. She levelled her gaze with the buildings around her once more. She wondered when they were going to meet this guy.

217 + 1288/5000

Verity’s quiet didn’t bother Kotone. She was busy wondering why she was acting like her old self rather than the newer her. The image of the still unfinished repairs to the guild hall was fresh in her mind. It spoke of powerful magic being slung, and even with Fairy Tail’s reputation, that kind of damage would have never been done by its own members. Kotone had been at Lamia Scale during the attack there. She’d gone with the others to keep them safe at the direct insistence of Daedalus himself, rather than fighting as she naturally had wanted to do. If she had been at Fairy Tail… ugh. She wished she would have at least had the opportunity to speak to Ranor himself instead of the girl that Verity had probably talked to earlier.

Kotone sighed, her magic coursing through her in her agitated state. Her eyes flashed blue, though she wasn’t looking at Verity. The only noticeable sign that Kotone wasn’t actually all that happy, if she were paying attention, would be the lowered air temperature near Kotone. The pair walked in silence as each dealt with their own Fairy Tail-related issues silently, though kotone recovered first.

“Hey Verity,” Kotone finally spoke up, her tone far more calm than cocky. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for Fairy Tail either.” Kotone had spent plenty of time around Fairy Tail when she was a bit younger. Ranor Taiga had the amazing ability to see past her anger and invite her in, despite knowing she would probably never join a guild. Kotone was too proud. Kotone was too afraid of losing her family a third time. The attack… was proof she very well could. But she didn’t want to think like that. Bad things happened, and there was nothing even a girl like her could do about it without some sort of psychic powers. Fairy Tail wasn’t gone, and most of the damage could and would be fixed, both to people and the guild hall.

Letting out a deep breath she’d inhaled without even realizing it, Kotone forced a grin. She could practically feel Verity retreating into her own head, though Kotone had had enough of that to last her a lifetime. She wouldn’t make the same mistake that had caused her to become so bitter before. No, now was different. Everything was different, no matter how much it seemed the same. “But what say we stop feeling sorry for ourselves,” she decided finally. “I think it’s time we started feeling sorry for the guys we’re going after. When we’re through with ‘em, they’ll be sorry they ever touched Fairy Tail with a ten foot pole. That’s a promise.”

As she talked, Kotone’s grin widened in excitement for the fight to come. Along with her excitement came a further release of her magical energies. While it wasn’t as impressive as some of Fairy Tail’s more senior members, she was certainly a force to be reckoned with. This was a fact she’d never been more happy about in recent memory. It was time to hurt the people who hurt Fairy Tail and tried to hurt her friends and Kade at Lamia Scale. She faced forward, hands in her pockets. The building on the outside of town they’d holed up in was now in sight. “It’s time for a little payback.”

1714/2000

The blonde girl continued to walk ahead, eyes gazing blankly at whatever. Side effect of being in deep thought. She was only jerked out of her daze - at which point she faced Kotone - when the other girl spoke. She smiled. She would have objected saying that as a fairy tail member, she held more of a responsibility than Kotone at being in the guild but it was pointless, pointless to argue. What would she gain anyways? Absolutely nothing would be a good answer. And so she stayed silent, unable to form words to express herself in a way that she found worthwhile. Then again, what was worthwhile? She couldn't find anything that was. But if that really was the case, wouldn't she have already given up and surrendered? She knew there was something out there. Selfish cause or not.

There was definitely one thing that currently fit the bill though. Helping her guild, making it strong again. She decided that was a very good worthwhile cause for the current moment. She'd sort herself out later, she wouldn't lose her mind just yet. She struggled to put herself back into the main mindset. Push out the thoughts, bring out the things that mattered for the moment. She found that listening to the current situation helped and so she made a point to listen to Kotone intensely every time she talked. She was currently talking about not feeling sorry for themselves etc. She totally agreed...except

"Did they actually touch Fairy Tail with a ten foot pole?" She asked, frowning in confusion "That's a bit inconvenient for them, wouldn't you think?"

She looked at what was ahead of them and frowned further. Wait. That house was the one that housed a sociopath/murderer/random? That wasn't right. It wasn't even fair. Sociopaths/murderers/randoms weren't supposed to have houses that were bright green speckled with lots of blue polka dots on the outside. There weren't supposed to have houses that looked innocent with their little terraces lining up the front porch. In fact, how had she ever not seen this apparently beautiful house that have absolutely no regard for the rules of human nature? She scowled.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" She asked, a slight growl in her voice, the results from being slightly jealous of this fey looking house. "I think it could be an illusion!" She declared and started striding forwards purposely. Probably not the wisest decision she'd ever made but then again, she hadn't been very wise as of late.

1926/5000

Kotone just sighed and shook her head when Verity didn’t understand the ten foot pole phrase. She was amused they’d chosen the airhead to help her… then again, she was pretty sure that, knowing Taiga, she was helping Verity. Tangible proof she’d helped her guild mates be safer would be a great way to get her spirits up even a little, even if she didn’t think about that fact yet. Kotone was here to play support, and if it meant that Fairy Tail would look even better because Verity took these guys down, then it was fine with her. Shadow Heart wouldn’t so easily get over something like that.

Verity expressed confusion at the innocent looking house, stating that she thought it could be an illusion.  Kotone glanced at her, giving her a small grin. “It is an illusion,” Kotone told the girl as she started to walk again. “I can’t see through it, but I have better than normal senses. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”  Walking up to the house, the brunette girl stopped in front of the door. She took a deep breath and glanced at Verity, giving her a nod. She reached out her leg, kicking the door. It flew open, revealing a much more run down interior.

The pleasant exterior was a lie, replaced with what could easily be a haunted house. This haunted house, however, was filled with a gang of Shadow Heart agents operating in the area. They all stopped what they were doing, looking up in surprise to see Kotone and Verity in the doorway. “Hey boys,” Kotone greeted, grinning her fang-filled grin. Her excitement (and magical energy) was practically washing off of her now. “I hope we aren’t interrupting anything.”

2000/2000 Ice Dragon's Wrath complete
3/1500 Gale Winds

Okay so it was an illusion. Phew. For a second she'd actually believed that there were crazy people out there who had awesome houses. But the unfairness of that! She breathed a sigh of relief and followed the dragon slayer through the kicked down door. She didn't think she wouldn't be fine. How stupid would that be if she wasn't? Anyways, the inside of the house was much more suited to what she assumed was a bunch of crazys. It was tattered, it was torn...there was a giant frickin' hole in the middle. Hmmm. Either that was a really impressive carpet or it was actually a hole with water inside it. Was it their bath? Perhaps. She knew animals bathed in water holes but humans? She didn't know that one. This really was like the haunted house in Akane Resort she found. Weird...but kind of wonderful in it's own very creepy way.

It suddenly occurred to her how cold the room was. She was shivering. She wished she brought a coat. She figured this sudden coldness might be a result of the ba-

"Ah my god. You are so interrupting my session it's not even funny anymore." A supposedly Shadow Heart mage dressed in a 'gothic lolita' style dress emerged from the back of 'boys'. "These, are my puppets," She gestured dramatically to the supposed gang of Shadow Heart members. "And I am most certainly, not a boy." She stated disappointment. The woman sighed and sat down cross legged on the ground. "Anyways, how may I help you this not very fine day? My house is running down and I don't even know what i'm doing here,"

Verity didn't know what to do. She certainly wasn't expecting this. She didn't even appear to know of Shadow Heart. She decided to take a shot in the dark. "We're here on behalf...of Fairy Tail!" She responded confidently.

The woman adopted a bored expression. "Oh, that guild. What do you need help with? I'm 'fraid I'm not very entertained by Fairy Tail,"

Okay. Verity was officially confused.

2270/5500

Kotone didn’t lose her grin even when the woman appeared. “Look, I don’t care who the hell you are, lady, Taiga doesn’t make such amateur mistakes, and neither do I, anymore.” She stuffed her hands in her pockets, the cold dying down for the moment as her eyes flicked to the water in front of the pond. “I don’t know what sick thing you’ve got going on here, but…” Kotone grinned again, her eyes glowing icy blue for a moment before she closed them, “We’re here to put a stop to your little party.” The dragon slayer looked completely unprepared to fight at the moment, aside from the obvious signs of her magical energy bleeding off a bit.

Around them, the guys growled and made various threats Kotone barely heard. She was in a fighting mood, and had a lot to get out of her system after hearing about Fairy Tail from Roejaster. “So the way I see it,” Kotone started, believing wholeheartedly that they would be too stupid to take her advice, “You idiots either clear out of here and go crawling back to Shadow Heart…” Her eyes opened one more time, an intenseness in her gaze that said she meant business. “Or we send you back in pieces after we pay you back tenfold for our friends.”

Ice Dragon's Wrath
222/1500 Gale Winds

Verity stood back and let Kotone do the talking. She seemed a lot more confident in that area than her in any case. She noticed that the cold appeared to dissipate as the girl put her hands in her pocket and wondered if that was where her source of power came from. Her hands. Of course that was a ridiculous idea because who wanted to be limited. It was probably just where she was channeling her power at the moment. And so while the blonde was figuring out how the ice dragon slayer worked, the woman narrowed her eyes.

"Mind you manners dear, you should care who the hell I am. I am not a part of that, that spineless guild you call Shadow Heart running around declaring war on the Magic Council but not actually doing anything about it. And I haven't done anything to your precious guild. I've heard stories about both of you...trust me, they aren't pleasant," If the ice in her tone wasn't enough to show her anger, the dangerous light in her bright violet eyes and the way her body trembled with fury would have caught the attention of even the most dim-witted person in the room...which meant Vera noticed.

Vera narrowed her eyes at the woman. "So you do admit having a part to play in Fairy Tail's...disaster," It was more of a statement rather than a question. She didn't know what else to call it so for lack of better word, used 'disaster'.

The woman laughed haughtily and lifted her chin. "No, that wasn't me, I wasn't here. Destroying the guilds is a fool's move. If anything, they should have gained the trust of the guilds but alas, no."

The blonde was no more impressed by the strange woman's answer than she was upon initially thinking that bad guys could have beautiful houses. "Well you're still evil at the very least," She pointed out bluntly.

This gained her no favours with the woman. She sent the girl a withering gaze before focusing on Kotone, who in her opinion, was worth more of her time. She could tell by the magical energy she was barely exerting. "You tell me that you'll make me pay tenfold? Tell them-" She waved to the men straggling around with blank expressions on their faces "-to. They were there. As for me, as I said before, leave me alone. Don't anger me," She turned around and started walking to the supposed back of the house, leaving the remaining gang of 10 to snigger or cower in fear.

2699/5000

Kotone’s confident grin didn’t falter as the woman spoke. If anything, she seemed to not give a crap whether or not she was still with Shadow Heart. “They wouldn’t be pleasant,” Kotone told the woman in response to her mentioning of stories being told. “See, I make a living destroying cows like you, who think they can do what they want. I don’t give two craps whether you’re still in Shadow Heart or not. You’re still here, outside my friends’ town and causing trouble.” Kotone’s hands left her pockets and she cracked her knuckles as her grin widened. “And that’s more than enough reason for me to cut loose.”

“Don’t think I’ll let these idiots off the hook just because you’re controlling them right now. In fact…” Kotone lifted an arm as she took a combat stance as wind energy quickly gathered around her. She let loose, making a tossing motion as a blade made of focused wind sliced into one of the ten lackies without hesitation. He slammed into the wall and fell to the ground bleeding. It had worked so easily because she hadn’t even been looking at him. She glanced at Verity, her face all business. “Shall we take care of them quickly? I’d hate to keep the lady waiting for her beating.”

MP 290/325:

Kotone was cool, both metaphorically and literally. Awesome things were just spilling out of her mouth, no effort necessary. Verity wished she could do that sometimes. Her idiocy was fine but sometimes it came out in really bad situations like that time in Kunugi Village. She didn’t mind the fact she had made a rather stupid comment but she couldn’t deny the slight inconvenience it caused. Well perhaps it wasn’t an inconvenience because she managed to punch the living daylights of the robbers while they sniggered at her. Anyways, it didn’t matter right at the moment because they were about to fight. To be more specific, Kotone just jumped right in there with some powerful wind attack that sent one of the guys flying. Vera was caught by surprise and by instinct, summoned Fiera Ignis mainly because that was the weapon she was able to use best. Possibly not her best choice ever because it was fire and Kotone used ice…oh well she could also use wind apparently. Like that Hermit too she thought at random.

She nodded once at the ice dragon slayer once she mentioned taking care of them quickly and turned back to look at the enemies. She allowed herself to grin, almost feral in appearance. She was kind of looking forward to bashing in these people’s skulls. A bit of much needed stress relief?

The girl swung the broomstick fluidly in the direction of the nearest guy next to her and caught him square in the stomach. He grunted as the wind was knocked from him and crashed into the other guy near him. She didn’t waste a moment and leaped towards them, making a sweeping motion with her broomstick. This caught them both and while not particularly hard in terms of blows, was enough to make them sink into the water hole nearby. She took the opportunity to decapitate both of them by requipping Hauskor and sparking her electrical surge attack while chucking Fiera Ignis to one side because she couldn’t hold it at the same time and she didn’t want to bother requipping into it again. The water only served to enhance her attack due to its conductivity and she pulled her dagger out of the water, rolling to dodge some guy’s attack before stabbing him in the leg causing some bleeding.  She pushed him into the water to and it was safe to say, he didn’t miss out on any of the electrocuted water.

With three down in one shot, she stood up again to see what Kotone done in the not very long time she took to handicap the three goons chosen by her.

6/10 guys left

3141/5000

160/200 MP:

Kotone didn’t waste time either as Verity swiftly took out three more enemies, throwing them into the strange pool that sat in the center of the room. The pool was bugging Kotone. It seemed far more familiar than the house itself, but she couldn’t place why. She’d never paid that close of attention to the area, truth be told. Oh well, no time to worry about it. A ringing of steel could be heard as Kotone’s katana came free of its scabbard, and with a couple of quick slashes, two more of the thugs went down. That left four more. “Vera, go after the boss lady,” she ordered, casting a glance in Verity’s direction. “I’ve got the rest of these guys.”

With that, she slammed a palm into the ground, causing spikes of ice to erupt from the ground and knock one of the men off of his feet, falling into another woman who was serving as another one of the big boss lady’s lackies. She didn’t waste any time, spinning around and kicking another guy in the face and sending him spinning . she took a moment to wipe some sweat off of her brow, ducking someone’s metal pipe they’d thrown at her. “Now that’s a lackie weapon if I’ve ever seen one,” she commented as she spun around and flung a set of ice shuriken at  the guy who’d thrown the pipe, pinning him to the wall. Verity could take the woman for now. Kotone had a bit of fun to have before she interrogated the lucky winner of this encounter for information on Shadow Heart.


704/1500 Gale Winds

She nodded at Kotone and waited for a good opportunity so that she dash off in the direction she had last seen boss lady as the other called her. She trusted that Kotone would be able to finish the rest of the thugs with ease. They weren't that difficult to fend off after all, she defeated three in one shot. For her to do that she thought it was pretty freakin' amazing. The opportunity came no less than a second later and Verity was off. She still had on her Hauskor and she had no clue where Fiera was. Well that wasn't the best plan ever was it. She'd probably have to lead boss lady back since Hauskor was admittedly, not that great compared to Fiera.

As she ran, the interior of the building flashed past her. She wasn't heeding any attention to any of it. Bad mistake. It wasn't her fault; she was more intent on the chase but suddenly she ended up skidding to a halt. Where was she? The room didn't look familiar at all. In fact it was completely different to the front of the house. It looked like the wilderness had exploded quite terribly within. Gnarled roots clung to the mossy underfoot and if she wasn't wrong, there was not one, but several, big trees reached the top of the room. The canopy covered the expanse of the ceiling and she couldn't see anything. Something told her this was where the crazy boss lady was though.

She was tempted to call out but she'd grown enough to realise the stupidity of her actions if she did so. She frowned. In times like this, it'd be really handy to have a dragon slayer around. She had a feeling they'd be able to sniff out the enemy with ease.

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The remaining thugs didn't last long against Kotone. She sheathed her sword from a crouching position as a combination of ice-encrusted and windblasted enemies fell around her with a groan. Kotone slowly stood up as the last man concious crawled backwards into a wall, continuing to try to back up as if he could just break through the wall through sheer terror. Kotone allowed a cocky grin as she slowly walked towards him, picking him up. "What are you doing here?" Kotone asked them. "If you aren't with Shadow Heart anymore, what's the point?" her questioning was in vain though, because these lackies seemed to be suffering from whatever the other woman had done to them.

With a frown, she dropped the man, kicking him in the head and knocking him out cold before walking towards the direction Verity had gone, keeping her eyes out for anything Verity might have missed. Something wasn’t right about this place. The pool in the middle of the house looked strangely like a pond of some sort, complete with lilly pads that were dislodged when the men fell into the well, and some scared-looking frogs. “Alright, Sid,” Kotone asked her cat as he poked his head out of her bag she’d sat down in the entrance. He loved sleeping in her bag and was rather used to her making a ruckus. “Where’d Verity go? This place is too strange and open-feeling for me to pinpoint her scent.” Sid only meowed in response.


954/1500 Gale Winds

((I'm not in the point of view of Verity although you can probably see that))

While the blonde girl wandered around, the woman herself was no where to be seen. In fact, she was currently stalking Kotone. Not stalking her as in being creepy but making it hard for the girl to pin point things using a range of illusions. The actions weren't about having fun or sadistic in tone. They were about separation. Blonde girl would be easy to deal with so brunette had to be occupied and incapacitated first. She was thinking a little bit of-

"HAH! I FOUND YOU!" An annoying voice behind her declared.

The woman jumped, breaking out of her usual icy disposure. She dashed a look behind her shoulder and rolled her eyes. "Oh it's just you," Her tone held her obvious contempt. "Would you mind not being so loud and annoying? I'm trying to get rid of someone," She said, focusing her eyes back front again.

"Fine then. Whatdya want me to do?" The woman didn't respond directly to that and instead flicked her hand in the general direction of the girl all the while staying focused on Kotone. "Oh I see," the voice replied.

------------------------------------((And a back to Verity we go))----------------------------------------------

Verity finally deduced that the room was just strange. No other explanation. The woman couldn't be in this room, she had to be somewhere else. She felt uncomfortable with just Hauskor as a form of protection. Hauskor was ridiculously breakable, suitable seeing how hauskor the word meant fragile. She hoped Fiera was still in tact. It should be. She was almost tempted to go back just to retrieve the staff again. It was a terrible feeling to be separated from that weapon that was so obviously a part of her. She shook her head and continued on looking. No, she told herself, she still had to find the woman.

So instead of retrieving Fiera, she retrieved her new free to summon weapon, Relica. Relica at the moment was some useless piece of junk she had no way of knowing what kind of magic it used. It was a sword though and swords were handy. She could wield both Hauskor and Relica at the same time so she guessed that was a benefit of not having Fiera on hand.

She continued walking when suddenly, she saw Kotone...well she thought she saw Kotone. 'Kotone' was doing a lot of shimmering and shaking. She didn't Kotone could do that with her magic. She was suspicious. She went up to the supposed girl who was a fair distance away and poked her with a sword. That wouldn't have been the best thing to do if it actually was Kotone. However, it past right through, no gasp of pain or anything. Okay, so 'Kotone' was an illusion. She had to be drawing close to where the woman was. Unbeknownst to the blonde, the walls behind her closed into one another as she walked further away - or at least they seemed to close. All of a sudden, she was out of the house. What?

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"Why do you people have to go around and ruin our fun?" a hyper-sounding voice went off behind Kotone as she was trying to orient herself. Was it just her or was the entire house shifting subtly to get her lost? Her sense of smell didn’t help much when everything smelled like… woods… and looked like a house. She turned around, her eyes widening only slightly at the sight of the newest person to appear. She didn’t’ recognize her or anything… it was because she hadn’t been able to smell her. Was the illusion changing? Was this girl an illusion? No, Kotone could smell her now.

“Because it looks like you’re having too much and the rest of us are jealous,” Kotone replied dryly, sighing as if this girl was a bother and not a threat. She slowly turned to the girl, only to get a heavy object to the face and fly back into the wall. As she hit the wall, bark splinters flew off, revealing that the wall wasn’t a wall at all. This thing is one massive illusion?! Just who was the person in charge of this place?

Kotone was jerked from her slightly distracted thought and cheek rubbing as she stood up and heard the voice again. “Now, now, no one likes it when you don’t take them seriously~” the girl taunted as she seemed to shimmer out of existence and appear somewhere else with astounding speed. A teleporter?

“Crap…” Kotone whispered under her breath as she stood back up. She was going to have to pay attention if she didn’t want the girl’s unpredictability to be her downfall. She could deal with high-speed spells. She had next to no experience with teleportation though. Kotone pulled out her katana with a ringing of steel, charging the girl. The girl only teleported, touching Kotone’s sword and causing it to teleport across the room. Kotone twisted to see where her sword landed only to get hit again, twice. Suddenly, her jacket teleported and landed on her face before she felt another kick to the back, which caused her to fall forward onto the floor next to the pool again.

“I could make this even more embarrassing than I am, you know,” the girl taunted with a cat-like grin on her face. “You’re fortunate I’m here to beat the crap out of you and not play pranks like I looooove to do~” she told Kotone, wiggling hyperly as she talked. “We’ll see how long I can hold back.”

1372

Verity blinked around in confusion. She wasn't in the house. In fact there wasn't even a house. Where the house would have been instead stood a clump of trees, a patch of open grass...and a water hole. Hmmm. A water hole. That was suspicious indeed. Very suspicious actually. She frowned. This was too weird of a situation. Even if she wasn't a dragon slayer, she could tell the water hole looked alarmingly similar to the one in the house. There had to be an explanation. An illusion? She narrowed her eyes. First she had to be sure. She had dumped three guys in the water right? Therefore as logic said, they had to still be in the pool. She moved closer to the water source until she was peering over the edge. The water was all but clear. She stood back that wasn't right. Upon closer examination she could tell it was definitely the same one...but if that was so, where were the bad guys whom she electrocuted?

The blonde seeing no other choice hoped into the water. And promptly yelped as the electricity racing through the waves zapped her. Okay, okay. Her experiment worked. Luckily for her, the effects of her previous attack on the water were fading so she managed to have enough sense to exit the pool. So the water hole was actually the one and only water hole. What if...? She frowned. She pulled out her sword and poked around in the water. Where she saw nothing, her sword definitely felt something. It was like poking a solid wall of air or water, depending on how she saw it. The girl sat up in triumph. So she was right in thinking it was an illusion. A broad grin spread upon her face. Now she just had to find a way to break it. Or walk around till she smashed into Kotone! She could smash into the lady too but smashing into Kotone would let her tell the other girl what she just discovered.

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Kotone couldn’t help but grin as the teleporter ‘s leg slammed against her arm. The dragon slayer was starting to get the hang of the whole fighting the teleporter thing. She was less random than she could have been, and that made her predictable. “No fair! Stop it!” the girl screeched as she tried a second time to hit Kotone and failed. It didn’t seem like she could teleport Kotone, so that was good. It could make this a lot harder if she could.

“It’s not my fault you’re predictable,” Kotone told the girl. “Should I give you pointers on how to attack someone effectively? Or do you want a first-hand lesson?” Kotone formed a sword of ice in her hand, since her katana was off further away where it had been teleported previously. Activating her wind magic again, Kotone sent a blade of air at the teleporter, who once again tried to teleport ‘unpredictably’ to Kotone’s side. Unfortunately, Kotone was already swiping where she’d predicted the girl would be, and the sword cut into the girl’s arm.

Kotone didn’t hurt her ‘too’ badly, but she certainly didn’t mind teaching the girl a lesson. Immediately, she kicked the girl in the stomach while she recoiled in pain and dragon roared into her face, sending her flying back this time. The girl hit another wall, where bark from a tree flew out of where the wooden wall should have been. She didn’t move this time though, causing the dragon slayer to smirk. “Alright, now to find Verity,” she mumbled as she took off down the illusory hallways.

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Verity was thinking about how she'd look like to the general public just walking around in a field of nothingness. Or forests. Maybe she didn't even appear. She had no idea how the illusory house worked. One minute she was there, the next, Kabam! And she was out, wondering how on earth she'd get back in. Although at this stage, she was more keen on staying out. It'd help more. Or so she thought. She wandered around a bit more before deciding she needed a better plan. Walking around was taking too long. The blonde shook her head and placed one hand against a tre-

Bam and the dirt was gone. Literally. She was in the house again. Verity looked around, confused. She looked at her hand and saw she was leaning against a broken wall. Realisation dawned. The tree WAS where the wall was. But that didn't explain... She looked down at her feet where some random girl was lying dazed on the floor. She was knocked out cold. She bit her lip in thought. Judging by the way she was, Verity could assume Kotone's handiwork was the one that made the girl like that. Either the tree was some special trigger or the girl had done something. She couldn't tell yet. Verity raised her head to look at the surroundings. Where formerly was trees and grass, there was ground and walls. Well at least she knew it definitely was an illusion. Possibly another dimension that was merged into the forest but she couldn't tell. She saw what she thought was Kotone's katana on the floor and decided to pick it up, storing her own sword away. Hauskor was still in her hands.

She didn't think the dragon slayer girl could have gotten too far away and so she decided she'd take a peek around. She decided following the hallway would be the best idea. And then she had a brain wave. Why not just call out her name?

"Kotone?" She yelled fairly loudly (and with ease). The house seemed to shudder in response. Verity frowned. It was so strange. She decided they needed to find the woman and find her fast. That way they could be out in the actual forest again. And then there was the mysterious factor that she had been outside and suddenly reappeared. She didn't understand. Finding Kotone was probably the best thing she could do at the moment.

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Kotone was busy coming to a realization about the place, herself. Her sense of smell was off, because she was still smelling the forest despite being in the house. While Verity was getting sneak peeks about whatever weirdness was going on, the dragon slayer was still only treated to the… no… what was that flickering? Kotone’s eyes widened as she looked around, realizing the house was flickering in and out as the forest she knew they were in replaced it. Looking around, she wasn’t sure what was going on. The trees were roughly in alignment with the walls, but not entirely. She didn’t have long to take it in though, because the house reappeared fully after a moment.

“Kotone?” she heard Verity call. Kotone felt a wave of relief. Something weird was going on here, and it had her worried, more for Verity than herself. Kotone had faced some pretty bad stuff before and come out in one piece, and she rarely stopped to think of what might happen if she didn’t succeed. Succeeding was her only option in any situation, after all. “I’m here,” she said equally loudly, stopping her movement for now. Sid meowed behind her, having followed her out of the room. She turned and let the cat jump into her arms. The illusion was unsettling him. “Poor kitty,” she nuzzled him with her own nose before looking back up. “I’m tired of this place…” she mumbled to her cat quietly.

After a few more seconds of that walking everyone usually did to get places, she heard Kotone's reply. Verity smiled and hurried after in the direction she heard her voice. "Cool!" She replied mostly to notify the older girl she had heard her, the rest because she just said it on an impulse. When she arrived where Kotone was, the first thing Verity noticed was the cat. "Nice cat," She said, nodding to it. And then she was all business. "So this house is an illusion. I was walking and somehow I ended up in a forest. I then figured out some of the nature aspects were in the house like the water hole. And again, I ended up back here by some unknown reason. There was a knocked out girl." Hopefully Kotone would be able to tell her about that girl. If she had been the one teleporting her in and out of the house then perhaps they could use her to teleport back out again since she wasn't a big fan of illusory places.

Then again, that wouldn't be able to happen any time soon with Miss I'm A Shadow Heart Defect Not An Actual Member Lady wandering around the house causing all kinds of trouble for them and for the people outside. Besides, it was their job to stop her. "We should find the lady. I think we shouldn't split up again unless we really have to." In a very strange way she thought she was giving Kotone a choice by letting her have the chance to voice out whether she agreed or didn't.

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