章節 11: Chapter 5
In front of an iron door, in the middle of a long corridor flanked by multiple identical doors, stood two men talking to each other. One of them was bare-chested, while the other wore only a bathing robe.
- Hey! You just got out of room 45521?
- Yeah. Damn, we still can't finish inside. When will they allow us to?
- C'mon! It's only been two days; of course, they wouldn't allow that.
- Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. Meh, that's alright. She's feisty—it's fun. But I still haven't been able to collect any energy from her. And you?
- No luck on my side either. Nobody could, even when there were multiple of us in there.
- Well, have fun now. I'm pretty tired.
- Yeah, go rest.
The bare-chested man patted the other man's shoulder before walking away along the corridor, disappearing behind a door at the end of it.
The other man entered the room, revealing a lone double bed and a dull green crystal next to it.
On the bed lay a young woman with striking red hair. She was a total mess, bruises covering her body, and a white liquid smeared over most of her skin. Her expression was vacant, but a hint of defiance could still be seen in the depths of her eyes.
That young redhead was Jane. For two days, she had been subjected to the worst torture a woman could endure. Each time her gift of speed began to purge the drug from her system, they would administer another dose into her bloodstream.
The man looked at the young woman, a wicked smile on his lips. For the next two hours, only his groaning could be heard. Occasionally, there were sounds of pain from Jane, preceded by the noise of something blunt hitting flesh.
After finishing with the redhead, the man left the room, feeling as though he had forgotten something. Jane was alone again, eyes closed, tears streaming down her face. A whisper escaped her damaged lips.
- Anna...
{ - For fuck's sake, she can't hear me! Fucking drug! I'll burn them all to the ground! }
Jane's eyes shot open when she heard a familiar voice spewing insults one after another. Then it suddenly hit her: the last man had forgotten to give her another dose of the drug. Her gift was already working hard to get rid of it from her system. She could feel it in her body.
[{ - Anna? You... You're here? }]
{ - What?! Jane?! You can finally hear me? Ha-ah! These idiots forgot to drug you again! Damn, I spent two whole days trying to call you! Each time it was nearly happening, they drugged you again. }
Anna's voice cracked at the end of her words. Jane heard her taking a deep breath before continuing.
{ - Listen, Jane. First, slow down your gift, please. We need to make them think you're still under the drug's influence. But don't slow it too much. If I understood correctly, right now you should be alone for two hours, right? I... saw everything that happened, and... damn, I'm so sorry. I should have stopped you from going into that facility! }
A sad smile appeared on Jane's lips. She followed Anna's instruction before shaking her head.
[{ - No. You have nothing to be blamed for, you know that. Don't worry, I... I'm fine. }]
The soul was rendered speechless. In that groggy state, Jane forgot that all her emotions were felt by Anna. And there were a lot of different ones : pain, sadness, and a deep, dark anger. Even though it wasn't directed at her, Anna felt scared just sensing it. She was reminded of an abyss and feared that if she looked into it, it would stare back.
As Anna was distracted by that, Jane slowly closed her eyes with a smile on her face. Behind that smile was a touch of insanity. She let out a whisper before falling asleep shortly after.
- I'll kill them all...
{ - ...Jane... Haaa... }
A few hours prior to that conversation, in Eliza's office:
The white-haired woman was pacing back and forth, biting her nails. On her desk sat another woman, one leg crossed over the other. This woman wore an alchemist's robe, fully black, with shining green eyes and black hair highlighted with green streaks. Her eyes followed Eliza's frantic movements, looking a bit bored. She was about to say something when the shadow near her rippled, causing the anxious woman to stop in her tracks. With astonishing speed, Eliza approached the shadow and shouted.
- Did you find her? It's been two days!
- My apologies, my Lady... I couldn't find her trace at all. It's as if... she vanished once she got closer to the depths of the commoner district. That's where I lost Miss Jane's trail. I tried to scour the entire district but found nothing. I'm truly sorry.
Upon hearing this news, Eliza crumpled onto a nearby chair, her face a mixture of despair and worry. At that moment, the unknown woman spoke, her voice sultry, enticing people to approach before they would get stabbed in the heart.
- Well, I suppose we can try something I made while bored. Some sort of tracking potion. Want to give it a try?
Eliza suddenly jumped from her seat and grabbed the green-eyed woman's collar, shaking her with force.
- Nohana Doku! You had that and didn't tell me?! Let's go now! I'm sure I can find something as a catalyst. You need one, right? C'mon!
Without waiting for a response, Eliza dashed out of the room, leaving the woman stunned.
Back in room 45521, Jane was still asleep. The two hours passed, and her eyes shot open when she heard voices outside the door. Anna spoke quickly.
{ - Okay, Jane, I have a plan! Yo- }
[{ - No need, Anna. I know what to do. Don't worry about me, okay? }]
Jane's tone was as sweet as she could manage, but Anna could feel the determination and hate directed at whoever was behind that door. As soon as she finished talking, Jane took out a small dagger from her dimension and cut her restraints, carefully placing them to appear undisturbed. A minute later, three naked men entered the room. Jane maintained her vacant expression, not moving a inch and struggling to suppress her trembling rage.
One of the men approached her with a wicked smile and grabbed her arm, intending to mount her. Unfortunately for him, Jane sprang from the bed, dagger now in hand, and stabbed him in the throat.
The other two men were stunned by the sudden action of the redhead. One of them regained his bearings quickly and rushed to the door, managing to open it before collapsing; another dagger having found its way to his heart through his back. The last man lifted his hands to his throat, blood seeping through his fingers before collapsing.
Jane stepped down from the bed, and her clothes reappeared on her. There was an insane shine in her eyes as she looked at the three corpses on the floor.
- That was for everything you did to me these past two days. Now it's time for the rest of you.
Though she no longer had any drugs in her system, the bruises and cuts on her body remained. Strangely, they hadn't touched her face—typical of men, now that she thought of it.
She couldn't dwell on it. The man who managed to open the door had already alerted the others in the facility at the same time. Her katana appeared in her hand as she walked out into the corridor, where there were already goons amassing in front of it.
A crazed smile appeared on her face, and she vanished on the spot. The next moment, she reappeared at the end of the corridor, pinning one of the men to the wall with her katana through his stomach. Behind her lay a trail of corpses with missing limbs and heads.
She leaned close to the pinned man and whispered.
- Where is your leader? I have a debt to settle with him.
- On the... last floor, the third one. Please... let me go...
- No.
Having her answer, she unpinned the man and, as he fell, slashed him in half at the waist, splattering blood across her face and clothes.
From then on, only cries of pain and the heavy thud of bodies hitting the ground could be heard echoing through the corridors. A few minutes later, she stood in front of a simple wooden door. She kicked it down, revealing a laboratory where the black-robed man was measuring a liquid in a vial.
Without lifting his head, he laughed and spoke.
- So, the Denki rising star escaped? I guess someone forgot to give you your dose of the drug. Did you come to get more? I should add 'addictive' to its list of symptoms.
Jane didn't answer. She vanished and reappeared at his side, attempting to slash through his neck. Unfortunately, the same weird veil that defeated her made her blade bounce once again.
- Haaa... You never learn, do you? Fine, let's take this to the courtyard. There are some pretty important things here I'd rather not damage you know.
Shrugging, the man opened a nearby window and jumped, landing in a wide and barren courtyard. Jane frowned but her insane smile appeared again before following him down.
{ - Be careful, Jane. He's not a warrior at all. }
[{ - Yes. That veil and his poor sword skills make that obvious. }]
- I just want to know one thing before I kill you like I did all your subordinates. Why? Why women, and why pleasure?
- Oh, it's quite simple really! First of all, we don't just extract that... energy from women only. Monsters, animals, men—you name it. But women give it most efficiently through pleasure. Men yield more energy through pain. Shame we couldn't get you to feel that at all. Are you sure you didn't enjoy it? Just a bit?
Jane's anger flared at his answer, and decided to not listen to anything anymore. That answer wasn't expected and made even less sense to her. In her opinion, it was just a wicked and evil fetish he was fulfilling.
Since nothing else were needed to be said, Jane took the initiative. She approached him on the front and aimed a slash on his shoulder, but at the last second she vanished to reappear behind him, slashing his heels. She put a bit more force than her latest slash in the laboratory, and when it hit she could see the veil ripple a little.
It seemed to her that veil was controled directly, and he could choose to reinforce it wherever and whenever he wanted.
So she took a step back and a second Katana appeared in her free hand. The solution was simple for her : attacking without stopping, in diverses spots or angles, adding more strength each time.
A storm of slashes coming from seemingly all directions engulfed the black-robed man. Sparks flew each time her blade struck the veil. He tried to retreat little by little, to catch a glimpse of Jane standing still for a second so he could use his magic. But she wouldn't let him do that. At this point her strikes were filled with all the anger she could muster, all the pain she had to go through over these last two days.
The stalemate lasted for a while, neither side seemed to weaken at all. Until a loud crash and a surge of magic energy forced Jane back, sliding across the ground.
- Hahaha! You're the first to break my veil like that, young Denki! I'm impressed, really. Well, Are you done now? Let me have some fun, too.
Just as he finished speaking, a wooden spike materialized and cut throught the air toward Jane. She twisted her body sideway to barely dodge it but had to cut the next one, that appeared in her blind spot, in half. She wouldn't have noticed it if Anna hadn't warned her.
Jane tried using her speed to move around him she had to stop, the spikes were too fast to dodge or cut down. Because of that new wounds opened on her body, so she advanced one cautious step at a time, her senses on high alert to react for any attack coming her way.
After what felt like hours, she finally got close to the man that was now panting, obviously exhausted by the continuous use of magic. He fell on the floor, and lifted his head to look at the redhead, a laugh shaking his shoulders.
- Too bad I can't continue my research. But no matter—you won't be able to stop us with my death alone, Jane. This facility is just one of many across the country, no, the world.
The young woman couldn't be bothered to listen to this. She slashed at his head. Just before cutting it totally, a new spike emerged from the floor, impaling her stomach. Jane still finished her slash and his head flew through the air, landing a few meters away.
- It's... finished. For now... Let's... burn this place down. Anna?
A sigh echoed in her mind, but her friend remained silent. Jane's eyes shifted to the deep red that characterised Anna's control. She lifted her hand and small flame flew from it into the laboratory. Anna had seen explosives when they were there, and sure enough, an explosion followed moments later.
Anna protected their body with a flaming shield, burning the corpse in front of them to ashes at the same time. She then returned control to Jane, who collapsed, stabbing her katana in the floor.
She leaned on it a bit, her face hidden by her hair. She was bloodied all over, everything burned to ahses around her.
Fortunately the facilities where pretty far from civilian's homes.
- Look! Over there! She's here! Oh God, she needs medical attention!
- Ugh, why is she always bloody and half-dead when I see her?!
- Shut up, Nohana, and come help!
Jane lifted her head, trying to focus her blurred vision, tears streaming down her face. She whispered a weak wonder.
- E... Eliza?...
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票