In case you missed it, we got some exciting news about White Triangle just yesterday!
About the Dragon Ball girls poll, Seiten beat Nowa with 22v-57% vs 16v-42%.
Man, I was soo~ sure Nowa was gonna take it...
And continuing with the Jump polls, it's One Piece's turn next!
Now, here's one more bit of Fio's story, with our mysterious guest traipsing around?
Enjoy!
It wasn’t all that unusual for cities to be built atop ancient ruins. After all, there were simply more benefits than disadvantages to it, easy access to still functioning roads, water and sewage systems, or a ready supply of stone materials for construction, for example.
Among those who knew Sheldan was one such city however, few remained. Time passed, and its people forgot the origins behind the city they lived in. Those who still knew were either individuals who could still remember the land before the city was even founded, or explorers who took to exploring the ruins in search of abandoned relics.
It was in these underground corridors, once travelled back and forth by adventurers and explorers of all ages, where a masked woman in a priestess outfit strolled about without a care, acting as if she personally knew the area.
“Hm…”
Abruptly stopping, the woman jammed a dagger into the wall. A soft whoosh was heard as several sharp needles suddenly shot out from the floor three steps ahead of her and stabbed into the ceiling.
“I should probably take care of the deadlier ones first, yeah.”
Slowly pulling her dagger away from the wall, it seemed tangled in a mess of small threads, near invisible to the naked eye.
“I wonder if I’m overdoing things a little with the hand holding…?”
The woman quietly complained, deactivating the trap.
One quick look ahead and she concluded none of the remaining traps in the corridor should pose much of an issue to the two, so she let them be.
The masked woman then carefully erased any trace of her previous activation of the needle trap. No doubt even its original creator would be unable to tell she’d made of a dud of it.
*Hiss!*
A snake within her robes suddenly alerted her.
“Hm? What’s up?”
Her ears, longer than an ordinary human’s, twitched.
“Tsk, earlier than I thought she’d be.”
Clicking her tongue, the woman muted her presence and hurried to hide herself in a side tunnel.
A girl in white underwear walked by, without a sound.
[Nope, definitely not walking.]
The girl’s feet weren’t even making contact with the stony pavement of the underground corridor. With several spirit orbs still surrounding her feet, it looked more like she was merely sliding through the air.
Airi had lost the outfit she’d materialized via snatching away Leina’s essence due to her little disappearing act earlier. Her uniform only materialized as she willed it to, and so, whenever she took an action that required a lot of her life force, she’d usually find herself unable to maintain the outfit for long, often leaving her in her underwear or less.
“Hm…?”
In the midst of following the lesser spirits, flickering in a bluish-white light around her, the wraith stopped and looked around, as if looking for something she deemed amiss.
[Did she notice me?]
A cold sweat ran down the masked lady’s neck. Infiltration always carried the risk of being caught, but she never figured it could happen right here and now.
“Hm, perhaps it was just my imagination?”
A slightly doubtful look crossed over the wraith’s features, but she opted to keep going.
Gliding along the stone pavement, with Fio still in hand, she faded further in.
“Phew… good thing she’s not that sharp.”
The masked woman waited for the redhead to be out of sight before sighing in relief.
[Definitely would have been a fight waiting to happen if she’d spotted me.]
A fight between Airi, who barely had any life force left in her, against the masked woman, who was still at 100%. The results would have been obvious.
“Kicking her ass here wouldn’t help those kids much, now would it?”
Brimming with confidence, her wandering gaze stopped as she noticed something on the floor. It was a little hard to make out in the dark, but the smell told her all she needed to know: it was blood.
“Well hello, thanks for making this even easier for me.”
A grin formed behind her mask and before long, the woman began following behind the wraith, using the blood trail she’d left behind.
***
[What… happened? Airi only TOUCHED me… and yet, I can’t lift my arms, my legs feel weak and my body is acting like it just got every ounce of energy drained from it...]
I could only watch as she took Fio away, unable to lift a single finger to help him. What a way to lose...
Still… I’m not about to let it end this way…!]
“Miss Leina! Miss Leina!!”
Tomoe’s voice brought Leina just the clarity she needed.
[I need to regain consciousness! We have to save Fio!]
“Aaaaah!”
Yelling, Leina got up.
[My feet are still unsteady, but no time to worry about that.]
Placing both her hands on a wall and looking around, Leina’s eyes met Tomoe’s, the foreigner looking back at her with a look of surprise.
“Tomoe?”
“Y-Yes?”
Still startled by the sudden yell, the priestess took a step back.
“What happened to Fio?”
“He was taken by Airi.”
Tomoe replied in a quiet, apologetic tone.
“I wanted to follow them immediately, but I couldn’t leave you in this state either, Miss Leina, so…”
The Vance girl balled up her fists.
“We’re going after them!!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to rest a little first?”
“We don’t have that luxury. Let’s start tracking them right away.”
Leina adjusted her bathrobes that were in disarray, then opened the sauna room’s door.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment