Riku finally saw the woman as she walked into the dim light of the room. She wasn't wearing a uniform like the rest of the girls there, but her black and red themed outfit had spots of blood on it from the other woman she had just killed. Riku had seen death many times, ones much worse than that girl had just experienced, which is why he was unphased by it. However, the other girls looked rather shaken.
Riku could hardly focus, but he looked at the woman's face, having a tiny bit of blood on her cheek. Her eyes were golden, and her long white hair nearly went down to her thighs. He couldn't see her face to clearly, much less her revealing battle attire and slender figure. If it wasn't for the magic Riku sensed in this woman, he would've mistaken her for a woman he knew on his world. He knew it wasn't her because of the magic he sensed, but couldn't tell what her magic was. He thought the blade she wielded might be made of her blood, but Riku knew metal when he saw it.
"Y-You... Who the hell do you think you are?!" Remi magic slightly spiked. Jira growled as well, clenching her fist tightly.
"Who do I think I am? I'm just trying to save that boy over there. You could hand him over, but I highly doubt that'll happen."
"Damn right! This is only the first day!" Jira hollered.
Riku's skin paled and almost threw up at the thought of more days of this. "First...day..?!"
"I won't let you take him from me. He's mine now." Remi hissed. The other girls got ready with their weapons, all having an evil, vile aura about them and Riku could sense what horrors they still wished to enact upon him. For the first time in years, Riku felt almost as scared as he did when he faced those dark mages to save Roco. Not only was his magic weaker because of this world's limited magic, but he was also too weak to actually put up a fight if he did free himself. It took everything he had just to try and heal himself and lessen the pain he felt.
The woman sighed and crossed her arms, resting them under her chest, Jira scoffing in disgust. "What a whore."
"A whore? For what? Showing off my beauty?" She chuckled and brushed her hair with her hand. "Just because I'm not afraid to show myself doesn't make me a slutty woman, it just means I'm not a coward. I'm not afraid of men like you bunch." Jira grit her teeth and clenched her fist so tight she drew blood. Remi seemed unusually calm as the woman spoke, but her silence was terrifying nonetheless. "Nothing to say?" The woman tilted her head.
"So all we have to do is show ourselves to prove we're not afraid of men?" Remi then turned to Riku and tore off her ribbon and part of the front of her uniform, showing her cleavage, then tore off her sleeves, stockings, and part of her skirt. Riku's eyes widened and he looked away, gritting his teeth. "Come on Riku, look at me. I want you to see I'm not afraid of your kind."
"I'm not afraid of that kind either... I'm not...like them..." He scoffed.
"All of you are the same at some point." She then turned away and spread out her arms, smirking at the woman. "Well?"
The woman sighed and shook her head. "Well you have no shame that's for sure... I'm gonna give you one chance: hand over the boy. I'd hate to kill so many young women."
Jira stepped up, tearing off her tie and several buttons of her top in one go, her white button up being completely opened up. Remi and Jira spoke in unison. "Bring it on you bitch." The other girls and women stood ready as well, though didn't tear off any of their clothing.
The woman clicked her tongue and uncrossed her arms. "Very well then... I was hoping I would've guessed wrong..." The women all charged her at once, Remi's hands having a faint purple glow as she stood back. Riku couldn't see her face, but he could tell she was watching the woman closely.
The woman avoided and slashed the girls lightly with ease each time they passed. Jira was the only one who avoided getting any cuts, but just barely, her uniform having a few slash marks. They all did their best to land a blow with their weapons, but not a single one of them could hit her. She moved almost elegantly as she evaded their blows with ease.
"Super speed..? Physical enhancement maybe..?" Riku thought to himself as he continued watching the woman toy with the girls.
The woman then sighed and swung her sword, cutting one of the girl's throats with ease. The girl couldn't even scream, she just made a gurgling noise from her mouth as she held her throat and fell to the ground. The woman swung the blood off of her sword, looking to the other women. There were eight left in sight. "Wait...wasn't there..." Riku thought and his eyes widened as he saw a girl hidden behind a stone pillar. The girl rushed out and stabbed the white haired woman in the back.
The woman gasped, her eyes widening. "This is what happens when you underestimate someone...bitch..!" The girl who stabbed her smirked wildly, but the woman started smirking as well.
"Mm..! That feels good..!" She smirked as she swung her arm back and punched the girl in the face, sending her flying back into the wall with a heavy crash. The wall cracked and Riku could hear the bones of the girl snap as well. Riku guessed a couple bones must've stabbed her organs because she coughed up a bit of blood and then she slumped to the ground, dead. Riku was almost set on physical enhancement as this woman's magic at this point, but something told him that wasn't it exactly. In his gut, he knew this woman's magic was slightly different from what he was imagining. He noticed the wound on the woman's back had stopped bleeding and already started to scab slightly.
The woman turned to block an attack with her sword from Jira's brass knuckle. At that exact moment, Remi moved in swiftly, like a snake, and before the woman's wound healed completely, she licked it. Riku's quickly grew confused, but then he suddenly remembered that Remi drew his blood and licked some of it up before her pill took any effect on him. He had figured out what her magic was: she could make pills with any sort of effect she wanted, but she had to ingest the person's blood she used them on for them to actually work.
Riku could already see Remi had a pill in her mouth, holding it with her teeth as she clung to the woman's back. The woman struggled, trying to force Remi off. While the woman was distracted, Jira smirked wildly and punched her in the gut, knocking the wind out of her for a moment. Remi used that moment to move to her front, forcefully grab her head, hold her mouth open, and force her tongue into the woman's mouth.
Riku grit his teeth, trying to force himself out of his restraints so he could help the woman, but he was too late, or so he thought. The woman's eyes shimmered and she lightly smirked into the kiss. She grabbed Remi's wrists and forcefully pinned her to the wall. Riku could hear the crack of Remi's bones and she screamed into their kiss. The woman used this chance to force her own tongue into Remi's mouth, using her tongue to force Remi to swallow her own pill and holding Remi's mouth open so she couldn't bite the woman's tongue. The woman then sucked Remi's tongue into her mouth, bit it, and forced Remi to drink a bit of her own blood, before finally pulling away from the bloody, violent kiss and throwing her off to the side like a ragdoll into Jira. She had turned Remi's power on herself as if she knew exactly what it was.
Remi and Jira both fell over and Remi was screaming in pain, from her wrists and bleeding tongue no doubt. Riku watched as Remi's own magic began to take effect on her. She began to lose her senses, her vision blurred, her sense of pain increased greatly, and her body was much weaker physically now.
"Remi!" Jira cried out. Riku hadn't even noticed that all the other girls were screaming and trying to run now, but they were all dead in moments. The woman either stabbed them or slashed their throats with inhuman speed.
Jira hadn't even noticed, too worried about Remi. "Jira... Run...away... Hurry..." Remi coughed up more blood.
"No...this can't be happening..! It's not fair!" Jira cried.
"It's not fair? You were both given a second chance at a happy life at Artemis, and the second a boy enters, you plot to do horrid things to him?" The woman scoffed.
"Shut up! Do you have any idea what the two of us have even been through?! What all of the girls you killed went through?!" Jira howled with rage.
"I know horrors you pathetic girls couldn't even imagine, so shut your damn mouths." The woman glared at the two with a cold gaze, and Jira instantly went silent, but continued to glare at the woman. "You should consider yourselves lucky that I'm killing you and Riku Fumiya isn't. Are you aware that that boy possesses magic as well?" Jira and Remi's eyes widened slightly and they looked over at Riku, who just stared back at them weakly.
"That's a lie... If he had magic he would've used it to free himself and kill us all!" Jira shouted.
The woman sighed. "Would you like to hear why he didn't-"
"Just shut up!" Jira sprang up and ran at the woman, screaming as she pulled back her fist. Without skipping a beat, the woman swung her katana and cut Jira's head clean off, Riku avert his eyes.
However, Remi began to vomit. "J-Jira..! No...why..?"
"Now she'll go to the grave not knowing the answer." The woman shook her head, looking over at Remi. "Would you like to know why he didn't kill you all, or are you going to make the same mistake as your friend?" Remi didn't say a word, she just looked over at Riku for answers, and the woman did the same. "I have a feeling I know what your answer is, but tell us Riku, why didn't you free yourself and kill these girls?"
Riku paused, looking away as he spoke. "Because I didn't want them to see me in that light... I didn't want to prove them right...that all guys are evil and only care about themselves... I thought...that if there was even a chance that this would all lead back to how things were before all this...then it would be okay...but now I know..." Riku looked over at Remi, and Remi's eyes widened slowly as she saw his sad gaze. "You were going to kill me once you finished torturing me...right..?" Remi didn't respond, just continued to stare back at Riku with wide eyes. "Did you...both really hate me...that much...after all this time..?" Riku's eyes filled with tears as his happy memories with the two girls flashed through his mind once more.
Remi froze up and slowly started to giggle and she forced herself to stand. Her giggles slowly became louder and louder as she began to speak. "Don't look at me like that... Don't you dare..." Remi began laughing wildly, tilting her head back as well before suddenly looking at Riku with a sharp glare. "DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" She screamed as she dashed at Riku, grabbing a knife off the ground and reaching out to stab Riku. Riku merely closed his eyes, his tears spilling as the woman moved so fast it looked as if she had teleported in front of Riku, stabbing Remi through her head. Without making a sound, Remi's body went limp and the woman pulled her blade out of Remi's head, Remi's body falling to the ground, and Riku felt nothing but pity for the two girls he once called his friends.
Riku didn't know what to think. He didn't know whether to be grateful or afraid. He had no idea what this woman's intentions were and he hardly wanted to trust her after being fooled by the lively Jira and sweet Remi. He stared at their bodies, all of their happy memories flashing through his mind one final time, as well as everything they had done to him this day. Although he tried, Riku could no longer stay conscious, and finally passed out just as the woman began walking toward him. "And you were just about there... Shame." The woman chuckled as the rope around Riku's wrists cracked and broke off, frozen. Riku vowed one last thing internally before losing consciousness however. "I'll never...trust anyone so easily...ever again..."