"Wow, I never thought that as soon as I arrived in this country I would meet one of you. I must have a good star on my head to be so lucky" - Smiling maliciously, stroking his lip with the tip of the index finger and maintaining a challenging pose while resting Elbow on her lap, Vanesa walks cautiously until she has Yukino within reach.
Due to the pain from injuries from the fall, pulling in air or trying to move quickly was out of the question. And for some strange reason, her latent healing abilities were suddenly limited, as soon as she encountered that woman.
Vanessa Louerio, a woman whose childhood dates back to the slums of Brazil. Struggling day after day to bring her mother money home, she lived a deprived childhood abused by her alcoholic father. That torture and mistreatment continued for several years until she reached her adolescence; by which time, her father had already caused the death of her mother and was about to sell her to a clandestine brothel.
Lonely, helpless and feeling doomed, the young woman crouched in a corner on the bed while her first client pulled down her pants. For her that moment was repugnant, the rancid stench of her sweat and the body fat of that individual was impregnated on her skin.
Trying uselessly to push him away from her with her hands, she provoked the anger of that subject who did not doubt her for a moment by giving her a strong slap that broke her lip. When that client's shift was over, the mother entered the room due to the sound of the knock that she recently heard.
"Stupid girl, the face is the first thing a customer sees to pay for you. Just open your legs like everyone else and stop causing more problems" - Throwing a bottle of balm at her legs, the woman left the room without utter another word.
That was the life Vanessa was condemned to, an empty and meaningless life because of her hated father. Escaping was not an option, since from the rumors she had heard from other young women who had been in that brothel longer, those who tried to flee ended up being captured and sold abroad. The less fortunate were used for snuff videos until their lives were over.
Day after day, the routine was repeated for her until exhaustion, the calendar sheets seemed to fall slowly, making that eternal enclaustrum. Everything was like that until one morning a strange client arrived at the premises requesting that they gather all the young women.
Dressed in a black raincoat and a hat that covered his eyes with a slight shadow, the man spoke bad Portuguese first until he asked for an interpreter in English. After a few minutes of arguing with the madrota of the place, he walked in front of the young women one by one, contemplating their faces. One by one, after reviewing them, she discarded them until it was Vanesa's turn.
Just when it seemed that she would be discarded as well, something caught the attention of the stranger who immediately returned to see directly into the eyes of the girl. Her gaze was so deep as an abyss, she could make anyone's blood run cold. But Vanessa had gone through so much torment that a glance at hell was nothing compared to that gloomy prison.
"Major Arcana" - Smiling with pleasure, the man put her hand on Vanesa's shoulder, gesturing to the madrota's men to prepare her to take her away. Thinking that it was those snuff videos, the young woman first offered a fight trying to get rid of those guys by force. Only receiving a blow to the back of her neck that knocked her unconscious.
By the time she awoke, she was bound hand and foot completely naked on a cold surgical plate. Still dizzy from the blow, I turn her head to look around her and slowly gaze at blurred silhouettes beside her.
Her pupils dilated in horror as she reacted to what was in front of her, corpses of other young women with completely destroyed eye sockets and expressions of agony on her faces. Looking more closely, on her arms was a tattoo with the inscription of the Roman numeral seven. Each one had the same tattoo on her skin and precisely on his own, a pang was felt that little by little it ran through her skin.
Trying to free herself from her with all her might, she kicked and tried to move her hands to no avail, completely exhausting herself as a covered-faced doctor entered the room.
In her hands, he carried with him a translucent container containing a kind of amorphous creature that twisted with great violence. Leaving it on the instrument table, the doctor took a needle that was connected to a pumping machine; Connecting it directly to the vein in Vanesa's right arm, he proceeded to turn on the device.
At a moderate speed, that machine began to drain the blood of the young woman, who begged to stop without that subject paying attention to her. Her lips soon began to feel dry and a stabbing pain stabbed into her orbits.
The hypovolemic shock began to manifest itself in her body, causing her sphincters to relax almost to the brink of death due to the lack of oxygen. At that moment, the doctor took the glass container and placed it on Vanesa's belly. Who with horror looked at how that creature broke the glass that contained it and pierced her belly under her at the height of her womb.
Screaming in agony, Vanesa felt her strength leave her until in a single second her eyes saw everything dark.
"Another failure unfortunately sir, it seems that we will need another candidate for the protocol. We must take the bodies to the incinerator and destroy all the evidence before we leave this country." - Some clinical facts suggest that corpses have reduced neuronal activity in the first five minutes of death, before the nerve synapse shuts down completely. In that window of time, Vanesa's mind listened to what would happen to her body and she felt an indescribable rage against everything. Her alcoholic father, her weak mother, the brothel mother, and even the doctor.
"If you could get back at all of them, would you?" - A voice inside her completely alien to her whispered at that moment of rage. The creature that had recently merged with her told her that it was originally an entity known as the void. Primitive creatures that had an ancient connection to the flow of life. In exchange for reviving her and granting her the power to take revenge, she had to make a pact where her soul was consumed as a catalyst. Making it impossible for her to be reborn again.
"Give me the power" - Without even thinking twice, Vanesa took that rope that would allow her to get out of the mud in which she was. Her eyes widened once more and with incredible ease, she broke the straps that held her hands and feet.
The doctor who was still talking to her superior, turned in the direction of the noise that was heard in the room. Only to be grabbed by her neck and lifted with colossal force by what until a few minutes ago was the fragile body of a young woman.
"I'm thirsty" - Murmuring almost without moving her lips, Vanesa seemed to speak as if she were someone else. Then the doctor's face began to dry like fruit until her flesh, blood, and bones turned to dust.
Dropping that bundle, Vanesa turned her gaze towards the man in a black raincoat who was applauding enthusiastically at that gruesome spectacle. Just as the young woman was about to repeat the same thing she did to the doctor, the mysterious man in black reached out her hand in front of her and knocked her to the ground in a deep headache.
"Bad girl, you are a major arcana but even so within the major arcana there are hierarchies and I am above all" - Uncovering the flap of her sleeve, on her wrist you could see the tattoo inscribed with the Roman number fifteen. The one who is the mocker of the whole and sovereign of pride, who has no background in his greed or reparation in his actions: The devil.
The power of that man far surpassed the newly acquired power of Vanessa, who she could not help but curse and hit the ground with her fists when she realized that she was once again a prisoner of another.
"Do not cry my beautiful arcana, I am above you but I am not your slave owner. We are partners in a mission that will change this pathetic world so that we can give it the shape we want. Everything you dreamed of will be in the palm of your hand. , you just have to follow me "- Extending his hand, the man in black helped Vanesa to get up and she followed him.
After walking through the corridors of the old abandoned hospital, they came to a room where other people just like them were already waiting for them. Faces completely unknown to her, but inside her he felt a throbbing momentum that reacted to her presence.
"Welcome to Tarot, the deck that will dictate the fate of this corrupt world" - All those present applauded the announcement of the man in black, who was hugging Vanesa firmly by her shoulders. That organization to which she had joined, meant a watershed in the modern history of the world.
"Who the hell are you?" - Completely lost in her thoughts, Vanesa realized that Yukino was already leaning against a streetlight pole. Noticing her, she only laughed lightly as she realized that she still had a habit of daydreaming.
"As I told you, I am the chariot. And I belong to the Tarot, those who have been chosen to give a new shape to this miserable world. And you my little lady, you are hindering me and my comrades. So please sit down. free to die. " - Extending her right arm towards Yukino, a strong gust of wind hit the young guardian who barely had a chance to invoke her astral armor.
Due to her impact, her body rolled down the snow-covered street, leaving her face up struggling to get up. As she flexed her knees, she felt a burning rush through her belly just where the gust of wind had hit her just moments ago.
"What the hell is this?" - In a panic, Yukino contemplated some snail-like creatures that degraded part of her armor with her saliva. That slime was so corrosive that she soon reached her skin inducing excruciating pain forcing her to rip them quickly from her body.
"I'm surprised you're still standing, usually they all end up crying on the ground while my girls completely devour them. Maybe it's because of this disgusting cold air that they move slowly, but no matter the result will be the same in the end" - Brandishing his right arm with the movement of a whip, a torrent of snails began to give home to a surprised Yukino, who kept dodging the intense attacks of her rival with great difficulty.
Without having fully recovered even from training with Vargas, added to the injuries from the fall that still continued to take time to heal, she felt how the cold night air intimidated her already exhausted lungs as if pins were stuck in them at home. inspiration.
The objects and surfaces that were impacted by Vanesa's attacks showed signs of degradation that made them fragile at the slightest touch. "I cannot continue to maintain this rhythm, if the battle continues I will run out of spiritual energy and kill myself. I must bet everything on this one attack" - With a hunched position to hold her breath, Yukino extended her arms once more in position to throw. a concentrated attack of spiritual energy. Energy sizzled in the air, completely ionizing it, revealing a golden glow on the white snow that at times seemed to resemble the glare of the sun.
"Try to stop this asshole. Razor fly lumen fang!" - Two blades of energy shot out of Yukino's arms, the cracks in her armor collapsed leaving her skin uncovered showing the obvious wounds inflicted by Vanesa's previous attacks. The speed and oscillation of the energy flow gave the sensation of the blades turning into a sphere of incandescent plasma at times, so intense that objects in the path of it seemed to have melted when they even touched him.
"It is unfortunate to see that this is all you have. It will not be difficult at all to dodge this little toy" - Jumping from the ground at a considerable height, Vanessa smiled confident of her abilities thinking that she had been successful dodging that attack. But quite the contrary, her expression changed to a look of surprise when Yukino's attack inadvertently changed direction as if she had followed him in the last second that she decided to dodge him.
"This can't be possible. Who the hell are you supposed to be?" - After saying those words, Vanesa's body was repeatedly hit by tiny beams of light that made strident sounds like saws cutting parts of her armor. Screams of despair came from the lips of that woman, who summoned hundreds of her minions in order to contain the fierce attack of the guardian Loa.
When the light completely ceased, Vanesa's inert body fell to the ground like a sack that whipped up some of the snow in a subtle whitish mist. Everything seemed to indicate that the battle was over and the result was favorable for Yukino, who staggeringly tried to approach the body of his rival.
It was then that a few steps from her, her armor disintegrated away from her body in small particles of light that were soon devoured by the darkness of the night. Her sight was tired and she watched everything blur around her, the force soon left her body and she collapsed right next to her opponent.
"Hey Adam, have you thought about it? Come on, I don't want to go alone, maybe it will catch your attention too" - Submerged in lethargy due to fatigue and pain, inside her thoughts Yukino began to see images of the past when she was still he lived like Adam. In a small cubicle inside the company offices, Rafael, a close friend, was holding a cup of coffee while he chatted pleasantly with a furious man who constantly looked at the hands of his wristwatch.
At that time when the company was not yet fully consolidated abroad, foreign sales efforts and business alliances crammed the desk of many workers, including Adam's.
Feeling suffocated by responsibility, he loosened his tie a bit as he exhaled from physical and mental exhaustion, causing Rafael to hold back a bit in his talk, remaining expectant for what his friend would say.
"Okay, let's go with that fortune teller, my ears are about to bleed with your talk" - Smiling, Rafael took his friend by his shoulder as they walked towards the elevator.
Already before the doors of the commercial premises, Adan did not avoid showing a certain contemptuous look on his face. He was never interested in things like astrology or future reading, as he considered these to be a waste of time or cheap entertainment.
As they crossed the threshold, a beaded curtain and a suffocating aroma of incense greeted them amulets hung on the wall. In front of them, a table set with a deck on which was already a woman whose appearance oscillated between 50 years, drinking directly from a bottle of liquor at the same time that she cursed for the heat that she was in that place.
"I assume you are the one who contacted me on the phone to make an appointment an hour ago, correct?" - Completely enthusiastic, Rafael sat on the chair and took the deck from the fortune teller, who later began to cut it and arrange it in columns to observe the three times.
Adam, who was uncomfortable by that situation, crossed his arms while he carefully observed how the fortune-teller was sweetening her words, looking for reactions in Rafael's face, who could not hide his emotions like an open book.
"What a deception" - Even when he muttered those words under his breath, the fortune teller stopped moving her hands for a moment and she contained her anger by taking a drink from her bottle. With a serious look, she lifted her face in the direction of Adam, who for a moment felt a chill as he watched her reaction.
"The price of betrayal is bitter oblivion, I will not read your destiny to you even if you beg me. But I will tell you that a heavy load will be placed on your shoulders and you will know the loss" - With those words said, Adam does not know He felt comfortable in that place for not a second longer and went out to get some fresh air.
Thinking of the woman's words, Adan puffed on a cigarette while he tried to rationalize everything that had happened. "It's just a game, you shouldn't take these things seriously" - With a sneaky smile, Rafael left the premises to meet his friend, trying to encourage her in the face of that unexpected event.
"Yes, you're right. Although you must admit that that old witch was very scary" - Laughing at the situation, Adan put out his cigarette and went to the car with Rafael to leave it at his house. Although a few hours had passed, while he was driving down the great avenue, he kept thinking about the words of that fortune teller.
"Nurse, how is the patient?" - The voice of a man woke up Yukino, who still dizzy and with a dry mouth raised his head to observe her surroundings. She was in a small clinic in Sapporo, where she was taken thanks to a report from the emergency services.
"She seems that she is already in a position to speak miss" - Right in the doorway, a man with a hard face and bushy eyebrows, gray jacket and light pants. On his belt a shiny plate that seemed to have been polished countless times. It was Detective Takeda Iwatani, head of the detective corps attached to the head of the prefecture.
Already with 30 years of active service, this man was a very capable detective who was rarely mistaken in his judgment. When the emergency services were called to the scene of the incident, the vestiges of the previous battle were still fresh and among them a young woman with silver hair completely unconscious.
Depending on what Yukino told him at the time, it would be either going to the police station or still being considered a victim of an unfortunate incident. Pressing her hand against the sheets, Yukino lowered her gaze and only pretended that she didn't know anything about what happened due to a blow to the head.
Skeptical of the young woman's statements, the detective approached her by sitting on the side of the edge of the bed as he took a small plastic bag of evidence from her jacket pocket.
In it was the shell of a mollusk, one of the creatures invoked by Vanessa in her attack on Yukino. By showing it directly to her face, she could see that there was a change in the dilation of the young woman's pupils. Not the product of a surprise at the strange thing, but as if she had been discovered.
"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing with my niece?" - Just at that moment, through the entrance of the door Hanabi ran to them, forcefully pushing away the detective's hand, who immediately showed her badge to demonstrate her authority.
"Don't worry ma'am, her niece is not in any trouble. I was just trying to make her remember what happened?" With a boastful tone, Takeda stood before Hanabi who could see how tall that big man was.
"Detective, the patient suffered a trauma from the contusion to her skull. Furthermore, the X-rays show that it is not the first time that she has suffered an accident and it is understandable that she still has gaps in her memory." - When the doctor saw the situation, he had to put peace between both parties by handing over the file to the detective. Who being unable to do more in that place, handed a business card to Hanabi to call him in case Yukino remembered something.
As soon as I left the room, the redhead took the card and tore it into pieces that she threw in the trash can. Still outraged by the situation, she turned to Yukino's direction, placing her hand on her cheek.
"I shouldn't have left you alone. You should have called me to come find you when you finished training with Vargas" - With a look full of concern, Hanabi held the stump where the notch of the prosthesis was. With financial problems, it was impossible to buy another prosthesis for Yukino, who, knowing how much her friend cared about her, told her that she would find a way to replace it at her faculty.
Traveling back home, Yukino contemplated her backpack while she decided whether it was appropriate to deliver the box that Vargas had ordered or not. When they got to the apartments, the young woman unlocked the lock to hand the box to Hanabi, when she was suddenly hugged by a little girl.
"Onee-chan, carry me" - Barely five years old, curly hair and chimney, was the very essence of a mischievous childish charm. Saki was the daughter of Ukyou, a neighbor in the apartments, who strangely had acquired a deep affection for Yukino. As was the custom, the girl would run to meet her after coming home from college or her part-time job.
"Saki, aren't you supposed to be in kindergarten?" - The girl who was still in Yukino's arms, lowered her head and whispered that her mother had fallen asleep again. As a single mother with no education, there were few jobs that would allow her to spend time with her daughter and only the convenience store where she was exploited was the only place that allowed her to earn enough to survive.
"Don't worry Saki, I'll talk to your mother and ask her permission to take you to school myself. Is that okay?" - With a radiant smile and eyes full of happiness, Saki moved her arms, happy to hear that she loved her, her older sister would take him to school every day. She gladly ran to the door of her apartment leaving the two women behind.
"Do you think you did the right thing after what happened?" - With a severe tone, Hanabi reproached Yukino's light behavior in the situation, who, realizing her behavior, sincerely apologized.
Inside her apartment, she took out the box that Vargas had given her and extended it to Hanabi. Who upon seeing it, just took it like anything else and threw it on the couch in the living room.
"What are you doing? Vargas will kill me if he realizes that that thing has a scratch" - Hysterical to the point of screaming in panic, Yukino was silenced by the hug of Hanabi who would not stop crying on her shoulders .
"Two more experienced guards than you have died at the hands of the enemy and you were hardly lucky to get out alive. When I received the call from the clinic I felt that my soul was plunged into an abyss. Look at you, I don't want to live that one again. nightmare from two years ago. " - Inconsolable, Hanabi's fear reached Yukino's heart. Who thought about Vargas's words when giving him the box.
"Hanabi, why are you wearing a band-aid on your finger?" - Being Loa guardians, their passive power allowed them to heal from any wound. So that detail was not overlooked by Yukino, who held tightly to Hanabi's hand, who was quickly trying to get away from it.
"What's going on? You've been behaving stranger than usual lately and now I see this. Both you and Vargas have been hiding something from me and I have a right to know, stop treating me like a fool." - Before she could continue rebuking her, Hanabi exploded in a loud scream that left Yukino frozen with a single blow.
"I am no longer a Loa Guardian! I am an ordinary human like Kaoru was! Happy? Yes, I became weak and afraid. Satisfied?" - Lying on her knees on the carpet, Hanabi covered her face bathed in tears while she shook helplessly at being discovered.
Whoever was a powerful and proud warrior, she was completely helpless before Yukino's astonished eyes. Who could not even believe what was happening.
When they both calmed her emotions, the redhead revealed that Vargas had worked the last few months on a weapon that would allow Hanabi to protect herself from voids. Even if she had become an ordinary human, the essence that her soul gave off from her was still that of a Loa guardian and that was like a bait for the enemies that constantly stalked her.
Talking about it with a calm as if she was stunned by her emotions, Hanabi told her about the times that she had to escape for her life while she returned from work. Which made Yukino feel miserable, who had not realized the situation since Hanabi always hid her weakness behind a smile. Although seeing her in the eyes felt as if something did not fit.
Inside the wooden box, a six-shot revolver and a box of ammunition rested on red velvet. The ammunition could be recharged with concentrated spirit energy from a Loa guardian. Which allowed anyone who wielded the revolver, could harm or even eliminate a void. The only problem with the weapon was that instead of using gunpowder to project the warhead, it used part of the user's life energy. Which was an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. The more energy used, the greater the distance of trajectory the projectile could travel and with it the force of the impact would be greater. But that was a disadvantage if the opponent managed to notice and attack.
"Why did Freyja take away your Hanabi powers?" - The question that had been drilling Yukino's mind for a few minutes could not be contained any longer. What had been the reason why the Arcana herself summoned the guardian to the astral plane to take away her powers? That rampant doubt was soon answered with a simple warm gesture from the bottom of Hanabi's heart, in the form of a kiss.
"If I had to summarize it, it was because I did the same stupid things that Kaoru did. The same things that I consider silly, but I could never regret them: I fell in love with you" - Holding Yukino's right hand firmly, bringing it to the height of his chest where his heart beat. Hanabi's eyes met hers, revealing through her tears the sincerity of those words that had been spoken.
The pounding of a racing heart could be felt on her fingertips as they touched the skin of her chest. There was no lie, but that was a truth that could not be digested in light of the events to come.