Queen's Blade Unlimited Story: Chapter 1-1(c)

For the poll about my Irma, "looks good but doesn't feel right" won with 30v-40%, followed by a tie between "looks great, the outfit suits her!" and "she looks awful, plain awful!" with 16v-21%. After that, there was "can't say I have strong opinions" with 10v-13% and finally, "looks bad, the outfit is fine but..." with 3v-4%.
Hmm, a polarizing poll if I've ever seen one... what a pity...

One more poll, so how do your resolutions hold up anyways?

And after quite a long time since last chapter, here we're resuming the fabled Unlimited story, now intending to release installments in a row as long as we can! What kind of developments are waiting for us?

Enjoy!




Chapter 1: Elina's Journey (Part 1)

Michel's Escape

With ragged breaths, Michel raced through the forest, a whistle clasped tightly in hand.

Following a long forgotten animal trail that split off from the highway, his feet suddenly found themselves caught by some of the neglected underbrush.

“Uwah!”

And yet, despite the fall, or being absolutely caked in thick mud, the boy scrambled back up and began running once more. Quivering in pain would have to wait for later.

“Please wait~”

A woman's voice called out to him. His pursuer was a girl in maid's clothing, floating in mid-air. She'd initially introduced herself as Airi and offered to protect him...
But right now, the young boy wanted nothing more than to escape her.

“Did you honestly think someone being chased would stop if you politely ask them to?”

Michel muttered under his breath, quickening his pace instead. His heart pounded his chest and his feet felt like they were on fire, yet still, he kept running.

“Why are you running?”

Airi tossed a spirit orb out as she continued her pursuit. This was the exact reason why Michel had fled in the first place: as someone freely capable of manipulating spiritual beings, Airi had made her nature as a supernatural entity quite clear itself. She was a wraith.

“Overtake him.”

She ordered the orb with a whisper. Able to simply fly through physical obstacles without issue, the spirit orb darted off into the trees.

“I'm running because there's a wraith chasing me!”
“Is that so? I'm afraid I still fail to understand.”

Airi cutely tilted her head in mild puzzlement as she casually hovered through the air.

“At the very least, could you please listen to what I have to say first?”
“It’s a little late for talking now, you tried to tie me up, remember?!”

Michel shouted, he hoped that if he yelled loud enough, maybe someone might hear and come to rescue him.

“Well, you did try to run first, you realize?”

The maid answered matter-of-factly, before suddenly voicing a command.

“Restrain him.”

As ordered, the spirit orb suddenly dashed out from somewhere within the forest to cut the boy off, placing itself right in his path. Although spirit orbs lacked in any manner of physical attacking power, with a mere single touch, they could deprive just about anyone of their will, stamina and life force. Running into this one would spell an end to their long chase.

“And checkmate.”
“Uwaah!”

Surprised, Michel flung the whistle he’d been holding in desperation at it.

“It's hopeless.”

Only holy or magically-reinforced items could ever hope to harm incorporeal beings like a spirit orb.

...And yet, what should have proven an utterly pointless gesture ended up being  anything but.

The moment the orb made contact with the white, silver embedded whistle, it suddenly flashed in a radiant light and vanished in a small puff of smoke.

“That... can't be... no, wait, then that must mean...”

Overcoming her initial shock, Airi suddenly began muttering to herself as something became all too clear to her.

“That power... yes, that has to be it.”

Acquiring the whistle that boy kept on his person was just one of many orders entrusted upon her by her mistress.

“Approaching him would be foolish without a plan however.”

Airi stopped in her tracks.

The power held within the whistle, the one that’d extinguished the spirit orb, could potentially have the same effect on even her. A few countermeasures would have to be in order.

Far from oblivious to the fact that Airi had stopped giving chase, Michel made his escape. Making his way past the forest and underneath the sun would at least mean removing the spirit’s ability to follow.

“If I could just get to town, where there's a lot of people around...”


--


Spoilers? If you somehow remember the scene of an enigmatic boy frantically running with Airi's fires chasing after him, you got that right, the Unlimited story is believed among some fans to be some sort of reboot of the Sword of Unicorn novels. Penned by the same author too, which might sound odd...

Also, if you're wondering, the pronunciation of the boy's name is "Mishel", same as Cute's alter-ego from the games, weirdly enough (the name "Michel" is confirmed, seeing as his pic will have that name later on).

Oh and lastly, I think for the first time, this chapter mentions that Airi has control over hitodamas (we're translating those as "spirit orbs"), as well as onibi (which we'll translate as "will-o'-the-wisp"), the latter stronger than the former.