She wailed, a horrible, screeching sound. As she did, the lights above shattered in a rain of glass. Theta watched, unable to move. What was happening? Why is she so distressed? Is this Tserriednich's doing? Is his Nen causing this?
The whole upper deck was shaking, pipes above groaning loudly, the ship's hull straining under stress, bending and cracking in places. The girl was bent on the floor, in a heap facing the other way so that her face was concealed. She was carrying on conversations all by herself, as if she could hear the dead speaking to her from the great beyond, though Theta couldn't hear what she was saying. Wisps of vapor were coiling off of her, waves of heat emanating from her body. Her Nen was drifting off in fast ripples, being consumed at an extraordinary rate, a phenomenon she has never seen before, causing her body to grow hot. She could feel the warmth from her considerable distance.
Guards came in to investigate the source of the ship's dysfunctions. Most of the princes were already at the banquet, only princes 4 and up were still in their quarters. First prince Benjamin's militia constituted most of the guards present on the living quarters deck. They approached Waif carefully. Was Waif her real name? Or just a nickname given to her by Tserriednich? Theta wondered, staring at the skinny girl, who was indeed rather waifish-looking, so small and vulnerable. The power coming off of her, however, was anything but...
"Stay where you are!", a soldier shouted to her. "Don't move!"
She lifted her chin, and they all raised their guns at the same time. A well-oiled machine. Her boiling hot skin was shedding off her clothes, melting her shoes. The remainder of it clung to her like rags. Even the ones who weren't Nen users must have seen the danger she presented.
Waif raised her body slowly, mechanically. That was enough to trigger the more nervous of the guards, who sent a barrage of bullets her way. Theta closed her eyes, taken aback by the loud cracks of the multitude of guns being fired simultaneously.
The smoke from the guns lifted from the scene and the girl was left unscathed, the bullets floating in front of her. She raised a hand in the direction of the men, and abruptly, they all started yelling and groaning loudly, the sounds of a massacre. Blood was seeping out of their nostrils, eye sockets, pores and whatever other orifice might be hidden from view. Their blood was being absorbed into her through her elevated hand, creating tendrils, a branching of bright red veinous ramifications within her pale skin. It came up through the back of her thorax in two branches, pulsating and alive, like a grotesque imitation of wings. The bullets have melted into a chrome pool, twisting in a spiral around her, moving tighter around her until it enveloped her in a cloak, forming a steel wrap, taut against her body.
Theta cowered in the corner, watching the girl as she used the last of the metal to encase her head inside a helmet... she's seen those helmets before, they're the ones they use on the Royal Dogs.
The ticking time bomb Tserriednich spoke of... she thought, shaking. Heaven save me. He was right... this thing... it's going to kill everything in its path.
The prince approached her, utterly fearless. "Good job, 47", he exclaimed, ecstatic. "Now make the people responsible for this pay for what they've done".
"47?", she asked, her voice raw. "Is that my name?" Her eyes were obscured by the helmet, but Theta saw the dangerous red of her eyes shine through.
Tserriednich paused, the enormity of his mistake rushing into him. Waif took a step forward.
"You better back off", he threatened, his voice measured if not calm.
She stopped, her face like a pool of still water. Finally, she turned away from him and headed to the first prince's quarters to finish the job. Tserriednich didn't have time to let out a sigh in relief before his decapitated head hit the floor.
"One down", she said. Theta stayed motionless in the corner until she was out of view.
-
Eleven to go.
Third prince Zhanglei came out of his quarters, surrounded by two guards, wondering what the commotion was all about. Instantly, she pinned them to the wall opposing her, pushing and pushing, her hand raised palm ahead.
"Oh god, it hurts! It hurts! Make it stop!", one of them screamed. But it was quick, they flattened like bugs under a shoe against the wall. The Nen Beast didn't even have the time to react, as she took in their blood, as if it was sustenance, a network of veins branching inside of her. She cannot stop. She will continue until she kills them all or die trying.
With her Nen she ripped second prince Camilla's four-inch steel door out of its hinges. A few cowering servants were huddled together, backing off away from her. She looked around and found no guard and no prince.
"Where?", is all she asked, her voice a croak she didn't recognize.
"S-She was arrested", one of them ventured, clearly prizing their own life before that of their employer. "They keep her in the holding cells". She left without a word. There was no reason to harm them. Her fury was reserved for the Kakin royalty... or anyone standing in the way of her obliterating them out of existence.
There's no tomorrow for the Kakin Empire. Today, the Hui Guo Rou line ends.
-
The finality of Kurapika's death was leaden, suffocating. She advanced slowly, and more coldly in every step, as if all the warmth and humanity was being siphoned off by an unknown force. Every kill made her stronger. Every kill made her angrier. First prince Benjamin had been a problem. He was powerful, very powerful. His body was strong, his Nen was strong, and his Nen Beast was too. She almost lost her life in the process. It would have been a shame if she had, after only killing Tserriednich, after placing all those conditions on her Nen. But in the end, her will to kill him was stronger than his will to live. Camilla had been a problem for different reasons. She had to be killed over and over, as her Nen reanimated her, breathing life into her corpse every time she was murdered. But her Nen was limited. Thirty times she had killed her. The thirty first, her Nen was gone - her humanity debased by the sewage stink and formlessness of death.
All the other princes, as well as the king, were gathered in the Banquet Hall. That made things easier for her. She didn't know how much longer she could hold it before dying herself... it took a lot of her lifeforce to maintain it.
They took everything away from her. Everything. They thought themselves gods, and soon, they will face the consequences of this blasphemous transgression. They annihilated her reason for being alive again. For the second time. Her emotions were beyond sadness, beyond rage. She had been elevated to a state where nothing mattered except exacting retribution. Moreover, she was no longer herself – her sense of identity reduced to a hand of justice, a tool for delivering death. There was no more Kakume, no more Shuri, no more 47. There was nothing left. She had nothing left. The only solace she could get was in their demise.
Her steps fell lightly on the floor, her feet bare, shards of glass sticking out of her arch and heel, leaving a trail of bright blood. She took no notice. No pain could equal that of finally losing everything.
She ultimately arrived to the hall. They were socializing, laughing merrily as if nothing happened. I'll make trophies of their spines, she thought, unable to think of anything else. Maybe it will help erase the ache that coiled within me.
But they started taking note of her presence, great and terrifying as it was. She had a wild, vicious aura which alerted every Nen user. Most of them had never seen their Nen Beast, however, let alone Nen, and had no notion of it beyond what was taught of the Sorcery in Kakin. The lights in the reception hall flickered, and a sudden ominous silence installed itself in the room. As all the eyes turned to her, she lifted her hand again, her movements languid, as if underwater. A thick metal beam was projected fast to the back of the room.
King Nasubi toppled, impaled... dead within the second. Chaos erupted in the hall like wildfire.