Mistwoven Healer

Akari slips through the shadowed alleys and backstreets of Nagano like a jungle cat slipping through a forest. Despite not being in her assault state, she moves with the lithe grace of a natural-born predator — dark, soul-tearing lightning flickering in her veins.

The lightning is new to Akari, having come with her ascension, and isn't something she's used to quite yet. Liora only took the time to explain to her who her progenitor was when Akari was already in her ascension dream, but the power offered was far too tempting to pass up. And while Vyrannis, the Voidstorm King, has never taken the time to speak with her directly as Althia apparently does for Serena, Akari was willing to take up his power nonetheless.

Vyrannis's power is simple and profoundly dangerous. Upon taking up the Voidstorm Legacy, Akari found her Dominion Art profoundly enhanced. Rather than looking like a violet shimmer across her blade, it now looks like inky black lightning and can be infused into anything. Abilities, weapons, and even her own body can now be used to conduct the soul-tearing lightning.

So, equipped with her new Dominion Art, Legacy of Vyrannis: Umbral Severance, Akari finally felt ready to return to the place of her birth and help the friend she left behind years ago.

Absently, Akari wonders what Candice will think of her now. The small, timid girl Candice knew as a child is far from the person Akari is now, and she can't help but consider what Candice will think of her new sentinel status.

Despite Candice's surface-level similarities to Serena, the two are actually quite different upon digging deeper. Candice is the kind of person who likes helping people, yes, but she lacks Serena's soul-deep determination. Serena would throw her own life away, sacrifice unseemly amounts of yen, and go out of her way just to help someone she hardly knows in a way that Candice simply never would. And while Serena's aggressively kind nature often gets her into trouble, Akari truly would never want her any other way.

Candice is different, though. She was Akari's best friend throughout much of her childhood, but when push came to shove… well, Candice simply wasn't there during the worst parts of Akari's life. She knew about them, but she wasn't there.

Akari found long ago that she couldn't actually bring herself to blame Candice for this. What could she have done? Confronted the Reavers on her own, with no sentinel powers or authority to back her up? No, she would have just gotten herself killed.

Even still, though, Candice slowly distancing herself more and more over the years while almost never responding to her texts hurt. In fact, it's part of the main reason Akari was in such a dark place when Serena first found her. She knows how to endure the torments of her family, she has since birth, after all, but the pain of the severed bond with her best friend left her open to her uncle's torments. Akari's friendship with Candice was her shield, and once that shield vanished, she was vulnerable.

To be honest, Akari still isn't sure why she's here. Candice most likely wouldn't have come for her if she were still living in Nagano and Candice were the sentinel in Shinara. However, Akari wants to learn to be better than that, to help people just because — like Serena does all the time.

It's hard for Akari to think of Serena without thinking back to what happened the night she left, but she forces herself to keep those particular thoughts away. She might want to inherit Serena's ability to help people, but she can't let herself get lost in the clouds like Serena does. Even the idea of the small girl walking through the skyway without Akari to watch over her lends urgency to Akari's mission here. If an attempt on Serena's life does occur, Serena will likely never see it coming, and if she dies while Akari isn't there to help her… no, that's unacceptable.

Forcibly, Akari shakes her head to clear her mind. Stars, these old streets are bringing back far too many memories.

Akari crouches in a run-down alleyway across the street from a suburban home with boarded-up windows and a single light flickering within. Several expensive-looking motorcycles are parked out front, confirming Akari's suspicions. At least Akari's old memories still hold some worth; the Bōsōzoku hangout is still here, and with any luck, that light means that it's occupied.

With a deep breath in and out, Akari's body flickers with black lightning that leaves her standing in her assault state. Liora stands beside her invisibly, a meter and a half tall and flickering with dark power of her own.

Akari isn't truly worried about the Bōsōzoku; they might be a threat to ordinary people, but with supernatural threats like the Reavers and Sentinels running around, they've long since learned that avoidance is the best strategy. They won't attack her if she clearly shows them what she is.

Nodding to herself, Akari slips across the street on silent feet — the noise of distant traffic is more than enough to cover what little sound she makes. The door to the house is locked, but Akari no longer has to worry about something as simple as an ordinary lock on a wooden door. A couple light zaps to the doorknob and lock with her new lightning is enough to have them drifting away as violet essence — conceptually annihilated.

Akari pushes the door open, uncaring of the loud squealing it makes — opening it more slowly would only make matters worse, after all. Besides, no gang worth their salt would grease door hinges when it's a great alarm.

Inside the living room of the dilapidated home, four young men and a single pretty young woman lounge on a ratty old couch. As they look up to see her, phones are dropped, and guns are drawn as people scramble to their feet. No one fires, though, smart enough to know that shooting at someone who is obviously a sentinel isn't a good idea.

Akari lets out a breath, a small bit of tension releasing within her. She didn't want to have to fight these men and women, but she would have if required. Yet, the great thing about gangs outside of the Reavers is that most of their members at least have a damn brain. They don't just go firing on strangers for no reason… well, most of them don't.

"Sentinel," one man says, lowering his gun and giving Akari a hard look. With a gesture, he orders the others to lower their weapons as well, clearly marking him as their leader.

"Botan," Akari greets, nodding her head at the gang member. She remembers him well, although he was new to the Bōsōzoku when she left. He must have risen through the ranks, good for him, although it's a shame that he never ended up learning how much cologne was too much because stars does this place reek.

Botan doesn't offer any hint that he's surprised about Akari knowing his name, although she knows he must not recognize her. Instead, he just returns her nod. "What brings you here, Sentinel?"

"I'm looking for Candice Hayashi; she used to live a few streets away," Akari says, narrowing her eyes and allowing them to burn with violet power. They better not test her on this if they know what's good for them.

Akari already checked Candice's house, of course, and found it listed as for sale. It's possible that Candice already moved to Shinara or Tokyo, and Akari simply didn't know about it, but she needs to be sure. Besides, no one would know the happenings of the neighborhood better than the Bōsōzoku.

Botan shrugs, "Girl went missing two months ago, and after searches kept going nowhere, her parents moved to Tokyo to escape the war."

Akari's lips turn down, and black lightning begins flickering up and down her body with increasing ferocity. As she looks at Botan, she presses on him with her power.

Akari learned a while ago that people can feel the presence of a powerful sentinel bearing down on them, even non-sentinels. She also learned that this effect can be weaponized — merely a look at Akari would give Botan the feeling of staring down a tiger ready to pounce.

The others in the room take a step back, raising their weapons toward Akari again, but Botan stays still — his face calm. Hmm, this must be how he rose up so fast. Akari didn't expect him to have such an iron will.

"Where is she?" Akari asks, meeting Botan's eyes with her own blazing ones.

"I'd have thought you'd already know," Botan says, letting out a tense breath. "You must not be one of the city's sentinels; otherwise, you would. When kids go missing, it's the Reavers. They do that thing to them, where they inscribe their bodies with Stygian Mana — by force if required. By the time they're done, the kid is either dead from the process or so broken by pain and captivity that they do whatever the Reavers say. Well, either that or insane."

Akari grits her teeth. They're doing the same thing here that they're doing in Shinara, but the scale must be greater if it's common knowledge. This is just more proof that her uncle and the other leaders within the Reaver organization are monsters.

"And if I had to start looking for her, where would I go?" Akari asks, letting up the pressure on the man somewhat.

Botan shakes his head, "You won't find her, and even if you do, she won't be the same. Still, I suppose it's not my place to tell a sentinel what she can and can't do. Try the warehouse district, but be ready for a fight if you actually go. The city's sentinels avoid that place like the plague. You'd need some serious power to get out alive, assuming they don't try to kidnap you, too."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

At this, Akari's eyes widen. "They would attempt to take a sentinel alive?" she asks, incredulous.

Botan nods seriously, "Yes. We caught wind of new orders distributed through their ranks; they'll be trying for sentinel captures specifically. Unless you're a powerhouse, I wouldn't go within a kilometer of their territory. I don't know what they want one of you for, but I sure as fuck know that it ain't good."

Akari bites her lip, considering. Then, she finally asks the question plaguing her mind. "Why help me so much?"

At this, Botan actually laughs, "Listen, I might not be an upstanding citizen, but I want to be torn apart by monsters just about as much as anyone else. The Reavers have sold out to the Volcora and are now openly working against the GDF. So far as I'm concerned, them succeeding at whatever they're planning won't work out well for anyone, even them. Also, you haven't even threatened to harm us. Sure, you look all scary-like, but I don't get the sense you'd actually kill any of us."

Akari allows a small smile to crack her lips, then with a quiet "Thank you," she heads for the door.

"Candice Hayashi," Akari demands, blade held to the throat of a Reavers gang member. "Where is she?"

The man squirms from under her boot, attempting to shy away from the flickering black lightning singing at his skin and nipping at his soul.

"I-I don't know! I swear it! I don't even know who that is, stars-damn it! Just please let me go!" the man cries, his eyes flickering to the corpses that were once his companions. Akari might be trying to learn from Serena's kindness, but no member of the Reavers deserves kindness. They're volcora in human skin and need to be put down.

Akari's eyes briefly flick to the man's black armband, the symbol of the Reavers stitched into the fabric. "You wear that symbol proudly, a symbol representing fear, hate, and death to so many. When you put on that armband, you lost all chance at redemption."

With that, Akari plunges her sword into the man's throat, leaving him to gurgle and squirm until his body begins to dissolve into violet essence, his soul destroyed.

Akari watches the man die without an ounce of pity in her heart. Whatever might be being done to force some people into the Reavers, this man and his group were all willing participants in the kidnappings, violence, and murders. With that knowledge firmly lodged in her heart, Akari feels no churn of the stomach nor twinge of guilt at being the brutal executioner to end the chain of suffering.

Removing her sword before the entire body dissolves into essence — this is about sending a message, after all — Akari turns to stride away, disappointed once more by her lack of findings. However, she still pauses to drop a small note card on each of the Reaver bodies before slipping into an alley.

Akari knows where people like Candice are taken after being kidnapped by now, but she can't act on that information on her own. The warehouse is simply too well-defended for Akari to hit alone, and there's no way that the GDF would allocate Audrey or Kayne to come to deal with the problem — even an hour or two of their time is inordinately valuable to Shinara's defense. As such, Akari decides on an easier course of action. Continue killing Reavers until her demand is satisfied.

Akari isn't trying to dismantle the Reavers in Nagano; they're too well embedded to the point that rooting them out would be nearly impossible short of just leveling the city. No, Akari is here for her friend and nothing else. While the kidnappings taking place here sicken her, she needs to fight that battle in Shinara, where it can actually be won.

Her plan thus far has been simple: kill Reavers and leave a note on each of their corpses demanding Candice's freedom. The unspoken offer is also simple: give up Candice, and the killings will stop. She's already done this to four different groups, and she doesn't intend to stop until her friend is released.

Akari's certain it will work, too. What need do the Reavers really have for Candice? She's just a drop in the bucket amid nearly a thousand kidnappings in the last month alone. They're a practical group and will understand that giving one girl up in order to make the killings stop is worth it. And until that time… Akari will make the streets of Nagano run red with Reaver blood.

After several hard days of putting down Reaver team after Reaver team — even taking down several with Stygian Mana-empowered tattoos — Akari finally receives a reply to her message in the form of a Reaver team that continues patrolling areas she frequently hit for hours upon hours without a break. After Akari is certain it's not a trap, she moves in only to be greeted with deep supplicant bows by the three men wearing Reaver armbands.

"Nishi Route 379," the lead man says, not looking up at Akari. "Be there at 1 AM tonight, and your request will be fulfilled."

Akari waits a minute, standing in a shadowed backstreet with the men bowing before her. However, after nothing else is said, she turns and slips away as silently as possible. She honestly considers killing them, but ultimately decides not to. She needs to show that she can play nice as long as she's getting what she wants.

As she moves rapidly away from the Reaver messengers, however, she considers their words. This meeting is the most obvious trap anyone could ever concoct. They want to capture a sentinel, and they have something that one wants in order to serve as bait. And yet, Akari also knows that Candice will be there if she's being offered this deal. They'll want to catch her in their trap, and who knows what methods she could have to detect whether they're lying.

The fact that they're being so careful is troubling, as is the fact that Candice is almost definitely still alive. If she's been corrupted with Stygian Mana…. well, there's no telling what will be left of her friend's body or mind when Akari reaches her. Stygian Mana entering someone's body is never good, but the process is often far worse when the subject is forced into it.

Akari sits on a rooftop, watching over a silent street just thirty minutes before the designated meeting time. The sky is dark overhead, and the streets are strewn with shadows, but Akari doesn't mind. She just sits silently on the roof as she eats a GDF ration bar and considers how she will respond to Serena.

For the past few days, Serena has been sending worried texts to Akari asking if she's alright and if she needs help. Akari didn't know the best way to respond, so she simply gave short replies telling Serena that everything was fine. However, Akari hates the idea of doing the same thing to Serena that Candice did to her. She needs to come up with something good to say.

Eyes flicking up and down the street before returning to her phone, Akari types out a few messages before deleting them. If she tells Serena that she'll be in danger tonight, nothing will stop her from trying to get here as fast as possible. And yet, in the event that something does go wrong, and her contingencies aren't enough, Akari wants Serena to know more about how she feels.

Ultimately, the message Akari ends up with is simple and inadequate — she's never been a wordsmith. However, it will hopefully serve its purpose.

Serena (9:34 PM): Hey, I haven't heard from you in a while, so I just thought I'd check in again. Please let me know if you're okay. I hope you get back soon. <3

Akari (12:41 AM): No problems here, I had a couple of run-ins with the Reavers, but I think I'm close to finding Candice. The area I'm going to tonight is supposed to be dangerous, even for sentinels, but I contacted the local sentinels and GDF forces in Nagano to reinforce me. No need to worry. With any luck, I'll see you tomorrow. <3

Returning Serena's little heart emoticon was a matter of great debate for Akari. Would it seem too out of character for her to return it? Is it too soon to be sending each other hearts over text messages? Serena has always sent them, so maybe it doesn't have the significance she thinks it does.

Akari groans, putting a hand to her head. Maybe she should have waited until she returned to show Serena her true feelings, but then… what if something happens? Akari refuses to let herself die or suffer some other horrible fate without at least showing Serena her feelings first, and by that same reasoning, she sends the heart in her message.

Carlota (12:45 AM): Targets have been spotted moving in. Are you ready?

Akari jumps as her phone buzzes again, this time with a message from one of the sentinels stationed in Nagano who agreed to help her. Right, it's time to focus.

Akari (12:45 AM): Ready and waiting.

Putting her phone down, Akari shifts from her sitting position and into a crouch. She deposits the still mostly uneaten ration bar into her inventory with a soft crackle of black lightning — no need to be wasteful — and watches the incoming dark figures on the street.

Akari sees six figures walking along the narrow street between abandoned houses, five of them large, burly men, and the other a small figure being held between them. The smaller figure jerks and bucks violently against her captors, which she finds worrying.

The Candice she remembers would seem timid and wait for her opportunity to escape. The girl she sees on the street, though, bucks and twists like a wild animal, even snarling at the men holding her. If Akari didn't know better, she would say that the girl seems rabid.

For a brief moment, Akari closes her eyes, sorrow for her friend's fate washing through her again and again. Candice has almost certainly been through some kind of forced conversion process to make her into this, and there's no way of knowing whether it can ever be undone. Still, she has to try; maybe Serena will have an idea.

Looking at her watch and seeing that it's nearly time, Akari stands from her crouch and casually leaps off the building. Then, seemingly alone, she walks down the street to greet the men holding her friend captive.

The Reaver men stop underneath a streetlight, making them easier to see as Akari approaches. They locate her quickly but don't make any hostile movements. Who knows, maybe they will just give over Candice and leave. She doubts it, but it could happen.

Seeing her old friend up close is hard. Her eyes are bloodshot, her teeth are bared, and her body is covered with those black tattoos filled with Stygian Mana. Those would have felt like fire in Candice's veins as they were forcibly inscribed onto her body. Akari only has her Stygis Scar to thank for making her resistant to the same kind of treatment — nothing like this would work on her.

For a long moment, Akari looks for a hint of anything recognizable in her friend's face as she continues bucking and kicking at the men holding her. Horror twists in her gut as she can't find a hint of the kind girl she played games with as a child.

Swallowing, Akari stops just at the edge of the light cast by the streetlight, staying in shadow. "Our deal is struck!" she calls over to the men holding Candice. "Release her into my care, and the attacks on your patrols end!"

One man steps forward, his body rippling with dark mana as his tattoos gleam on pale flesh. "The deal has changed, sentinel," he says, lips curling in a cruel smile. "We'll be taking you, too."

As expected, dozens of dark figures begin to detach themselves from nearby shadows, rushing quickly to surround Akari.

Akari smiles as the Reavers rush her, perhaps three or four dozen men and women covered in black tattoos — many of them seeming rabid as Candice does. They descend on her like a pack of predators on their next meal, but they fail to consider two critical things. Akari has a plan, and she is no longer prey.