After bathing and extensively cleaning her tails, she changes up her mana cloth outfit, Deciding on a short dress with a smile, she heads over to the lab, nodding at Todd as she passes.
“Heading over to the lab Ventus? I’ll let our CO know.”
“Alright Todd. Hopefully you’re healing well. Any route I should take? I feel like walking right now.”
Todd shrugs before responding, “I guess avoid the training fields. A lot of new awoken due to what happened last night.”
Ventus blinks. “Did it spread beyond the cavern?”
Todd nods with a clearly confused expression upon his face. “Yes, didn’t you notice the commotion?”
Ventus shakes her head, “No. I was down there the entire night. Why? Other than people becoming awoken, what exactly happened?”
Todd sighs, left hand cradling his face. “Beasts. Over thirty. We’re lucky Lamu’s squad came back when they did, or the casualties would have been a lot worse.”
Ventus blinks in confusion. “Did any of the civilians get killed? If not then who did we lose?”
Todd closes his eyes, and with a deep sigh answers, “A few awoken, and about half of the civilians on this improvised base.”
Ventus’ nails dig into her palms as she clenches her fists. “I’m. I’m sorry I wasn’t here. As I said, I was down in the cavern. Had I known I wouldn’t have gone down there in the first place. I would have figured out some other solution to the Avery problem.”
Todd nods before with a sigh saying, “You’d better get going, you’re already behind schedule since initial labs were supposed to be handled yesterday.”
Ventus’ frowns. “I guess there goes the walk, oh well probably should get there fast. I hope you’re recovering well.”
As soon as she finishes that statement she travels along the threads she can see, quickly arriving at the lab. Stepping in, she spots a nearby researcher. Approaching, she asks “Where is Senta’s lab? I believe I’m expected.”
The researcher looks up, eyes red. “Oh, it’s down the hall to the left. Just look for the name on the door.”
“Are you okay?”
Shaking her head, she responds, “No. I lost some people close to me.”
Ventus slumps slightly, tails wrapping protectively around her legs. “I’m sorry for your loss. I’ll do what I can to prevent this in the future.”
Smiling slightly, the researcher nods before heading away to do their next task.
Ventus walks towards Senta’s lab, a feeling in her gut warning her about something. Her vision reveals nothing, but the feeling puts her on guard, puffing her tails out.
Stepping into the office, Ventus sees a girl with raccoon features turned away from her. Clearing her throat, she asks, “Are you Researcher Senta? I believe I was needed here in order to finish whatever tests were needed?”
Blinking as the researcher turns, she sees multiple threads that show this researcher walking over and plucking some hair out, causing Ventus to back away. “No pulling my hair.”
The researcher fully turns around before shaking her head. “It is needed to perform tests.”
Ventus backs away further, the feeling in her gut screaming at her. “No, I don’t think so. At least not unless you tell me specifically what it would be used for, as well as what your ability is.”
Sighing, the researcher shrugs, little ears wiggling, “I guess we can just do the physical tests today. I think it’s rude to ask about someone’s ability, and yes I am Senta.”
Continuing to back away, yelping when she backs into the hallway wall, she says, “Well Senta. I’m getting a horrible feeling about letting you touch me. I’ll see if there’s another researcher available.”
Senta gets closer, a slight look of rage on her face. “I don’t care about your feelings, you will be doing these tests with me, and you will submit samples.”
Senta grabs a white and red strand of hair from her pocket before channeling mana into it. A power surges over Ventus but nothing happens. Not realizing this, she confidently demands, “You will submit to this research now, Ventus.”
Ventus is confused, wondering why she would suddenly consent to this. “No, I don’t think I will. Especially with whatever you just tried to pull. I felt the mana build up.”
Senta sighs, and channels mana into the hair once more, causing it to turn to ash as Ventus feels odd. “Now then, you will come with me to do my experiments.”
Ventus takes a slow step forward, tails slack and dragging across the floor, before shaking her head. Her teeth are bared in a snarl as she yells, “No! I don’t know what you are trying to do Senta, but you won’t control me.”
Traveling along the threads she can sense, she quickly arrives back to the entrance of the labs, before continuing on to Lamu’s office. Banging on the door, she shouts, “I’m coming in now Lamu.”
Stepping through the door, she sees Lamu talking to Avery. Blinking, she asks, “Is this a bad time? I thought Avery was in solitary.”
Lamu sighs, clearly saddened. “She was, and will be again, but she had something to report about Senta.”
Avery nods, turning towards Ventus, her eyes their normal pale blue, akin to ice. “Yes. I hope you didn’t let her take any samples from you.”
Ventus sags, as if all tension was taken from her. “Good, I didn’t but I came here to report her attempting to, even using a hair to try and control me.. It looked like one of mine, but I’m not sure where she would have gotten it.”
Lamu frowns, looking serious. “Do you have proof of these allegations, you two? If not, then while it is concerning, there’s nothing I can do this time. Senta has been favored by the higher ups, especially once Avery started acting weird.”
Avery jumps in saying, “That’s what I mean. She’s the one that brought me the brush with Ventus’ hairs on it. The first thing I checked was for mana. While faint, there were traces of mana on the brush that didn’t belong to Ventus. I didn’t know this until I got a blood sample from Ventus, but by then I was under whatever happened to the brush.”
Lamu nods slowly. “I see, we’ll pull the footage, but our cameras can’t perceive mana yet, only those relics from what seem to be labs in the caverns can right now. I won’t be able to do much, especially since it is only your word versus hers right now. All I can really do is to delay your tests until Avery is done with her solitary.”
Avery stares at Ventus, eyes lightly glazing over, to which she shakes her head trying to clear it. She covers her eyes and quietly requests, “Can you leave now Ventus, I don’t want to turn into that again. It’s better right now, but not completely..”
Ventus nods, her ears down and her tails splayed. “I’m sorry Avery, I’ll head out now, is there a training yard that I can use Lamu?”
Lamu nods and gives directions. “Remember, no going into the caverns right now.”
Ventus nods, teleporting through the door and then following the directions she was given, tails spread behind her catching every little gust of wind.
Three awoken are in her path, all with glazed eyes. The lion headed one on the left says, “You’re to report to Senta now, Ventus. If you won’t go willingly, then we’re to take you there.”
Blinking in disbelief, Ventus rushes around them, easily ducking and weaving around their clumsy attempts to grab her due to being able to see their likely actions ahead of time. Rushing ahead, she teleports out of their sight. She frowns, only to see more awoken approach her, This time several men who she had noticed whistling at her the other day.
The wolf-headed awoken declares “You’re coming with us back to Senta.”
Ventus sighs, groaning. “Why would I go back there? I'm deliberately avoiding Senta after she tried something on me.”
The wolf-headed awoken shrugs at that, “Not really your call. The President’s orders were very clear. Capture the kitsune and bring her to Senta. Let Senta pluck all of her hair. Weird order, but oh well. It isn’t my place to question these orders.”
Sighing, Ventus travels along the threads back to Lamu’s office, entering without asking only to see Lamu surrounded by men in black suits. Looking up, Lamu yells, “Run,” before getting tackled by half of the suited men. As the remaining men charge at Ventus she growls, tails going stiff.
She begins to slow the flow of fabric around them, ramping up the mana expenditure as she stops it, causing them to freeze in place. She teleports out, letting the effect stop, ending up on the roof due to not fully paying attention to which thread she was traveling along. Panting as her head aches, she realizes she burned through 70 percent of her reserves just to perform that ability.
Wincing, she tries to summon her echo, succeeding with only a sliver of mana left. Looking upset, Echo steps out of the portal. “So Ori, why do you look so tired and out of sorts? You’re really not caring for yourself enough.”
Ventus sighs. “I don’t know what to do, Echo. It seems like everyone is coming after me due to some orders, and there are more glossy-eyed individuals. I think it’s due to Senta, but I don’t know for certain.”
Echo sighs before reaching over and scratching behind the original’s ears. “Look, I get it, but there are three options here. The first, awaken another ability inherent to your body. Second, let yourself be captured. Third, is to escape, which will cause you to become a fugitive.”
Ventus sighs in relief at the ear scritches before shaking her head. “I can’t allow options two or three. I wouldn’t know how to do option one, so I’m going to make my own option.”
Chuckling, Echo draws lines of mana into the air, creating a temporary formation drawing mana from a mile away towards them, and directs it to the original. “Let’s get you topped up, and then clean house.”
Ventus groans in joy as her headache quickly fades, her tails working overtime to process the incoming mana. “Oh that feels good. You’ll have to teach me how to do that sort of thing eventually.”
Laughing, Echo answers, “Sure thing Ori. Once we get you safe and you’re up to snuff combat wise.
glad you are back and chapter ended too soon
I know it did lol, sort of the plan :P