On the day that Erika and Hana split off from Lucy, Hana said this to Erika the moment they arrived back at their base.
"Let's take the day off tomorrow."
It was so sudden, just as sudden as Lucy's betrayal, that Erika was slightly taken aback.
That didn't mean she couldn't see where Hana was coming from; after all that had happened, she wasn't exactly feeling up to doing anything strenuous.
Hana, however, didn't want the day off because she needed the break.
Lucy lied to us.
Her mind was racing.
The man known to them as Phoenix was staying at the comic book store, and Lucy wasn't stupid; there was no way she would have overlooked whether or not someone had been staying there.
Not only that, but the comic books on the floor she mentioned previously were not covered in dust like she had stated.
Finally, there was the fact that Phoenix was alert and ready by the time they had arrived there.
She could only determine that he was forewarned by Lucy somehow, using one of her clever trinkets.
She couldn't think of what it could possible be, but Lucy usually came up with many unique and interesting tools.
Among the things she made was a speaker-like thing that could allow people to talk a large distance away.
Unfortunately, most of them were burned in a fire that had accidentally started in their old base a few months back, so their current base had little in the way of Lucy's inventions.
So, if she had made another one of those communication devices, then she did so without informing her close friends.
"...She said that she would have betrayed us anyways."
Hana spoke the words bitterly, realizing they were true.
Of course, the reason for said Phoenix being aware of their arrival had nothing to do with Lucy, but Hana hadn't yet realized the potential of Ruri learning things from the spirits.
(Oh, and as for how the spirits got back to Ruri in time before the Valkyries visited, despite having Erika's power, it was partially in thanks to Lucy insisting that they go over a plan, aka, stalling them.)
(Of course, I'm narrating regardless of whether there are brackets or not, but I figure this is a more effective way of saying "Hey, I'm speaking directly to you, the observer.)
Erika didn't bother responding to Hana's words, having come to the same conclusion as her; Lucy had met with Phoenix and was going to help him out from the very start.
Hana had made her way, alone, to the room they used for planning, and sat down on one of the chairs.
"Does she really think that everything we've been through has all been one big lie?"
Hana spoke slowly and harshly, her lips trembling as she thought back to when they had first met.
* * * * *
As far as Hana's memories were concerned, they all met when they were within the chosen.
Hana's parents had been part of the chosen and she was born into the group without much of a choice.
She grew up learning about how she was special; about how herself and other mutants like her were destined to wipe out the lowly normals and claim the city that was rightfully theirs.
She also was made to believe that her power was made to bestow judgement upon the sinful normals, who prosecuted them daily.
Her perspective didn't change until she stumbled upon a certain mutant.
At the young age of seven, Hana was walking in the tunnel near their base alone; her parents had died a month prior.
She was told never to go up to the surface without an adult, and as such, hadn't seen what it looked like yet.
As curious as she was, she followed the instructions her late parents gave her, and simply turned around to go back home when she didn't feel like walking any further.
On the way, however, a group of mutants were bunched up in a corner of the sewers that they called home.
She could see a few of the chosen ignore them completely, but her curiosity made her do the exact opposite.
This event ended up changing her completely, as what the group of mutants were doing, was sexually assaulting a blue haired woman.
"What... are you doing!?"
Hana blurted that out, completely in shock for more than one reason.
She didn't know much about sex, and she had never felt angered by anything her fellow mutants had done.
But when she had seen the woman's pained expression, she knew what was happening before her eyes was wrong.
"Eh? Oh, it's just Hana. Why don't you go run back home, ya? We're just having fun as fellow chosen here."
A response befitting a scumbag.
Hana didn't let up though.
"Why does she look like she isn't enjoying... whatever it is you're doing?"
The group, consisting of three men, started to get agitated.
"Look, if she really didn't like it, she could just teleport away; that's her power, ya? The fact that she isn't mean that she likes it! Now scram!"
"Tela-port?"
"It means she can disappear from here and reappear in another place."
Hana pondered this for a moment while looking at the woman's eyes.
She definitely didn't enjoy it, but it looked like she had all but given up to the assault.
Not to mention, the ghastly things Hana was seeing that were normally behind clothes just made her entire mind scream 'this is all wrong!'.
But what could she have done?
She didn't understand what was going on at all, but she felt the need to yell at them to stop.
That was when someone pulled her away.
Hana's fists were clenched and she didn't even realize.
"Alrighty, that's enough of that. Sorry for the interruption, we'll be going now."
It was a young girl's voice, seemingly sounding not too much older than her, and Hana turned to see a small girl with purple hair and a tense smile.
"Ah, thanks Lucy. You're always so understanding for someone so young!"
"No problem, no problem. ...Come on, you. Are you trying to get yourself hurt?"
The words Lucy whispered into Hana's ear as she pulled her even further away made her even more upset.
Once they were out of earshot of the group, Hana ripped her arm away from Lucy.
"What do you mean, trying to get myself hurt?"
"What do I-? Oy, don't you realize what's going on there?"
"No, I don't, but it doesn't look good."
Lucy sighed at Hana's words and shook her head.
"...Those are relatives of Kenchi right there. If you make them angry, they'll exile you from the group, or worse yet, just kill you without a warning."
"? Why? That doesn't make any sense."
"Oh come- Even if you're young, how could you not understand that?"
"You don't look that older than me. Besides, we're all chosen, so it doesn't make sense for us to kill or harm one another. Our enemies are the normals, right?"
Lucy looked at Hana, suddenly amused.
"That's a good one. If that were true, then there wouldn't be abuse of power like this. Did you know that the last girl that refused them disappeared? Like she never existed in the first place. Nobody even bothered confronting them about it. They didn't care, as long as they weren't involved."
"Thats... a little difficult for me to understand, but what you're saying is that everybody lets them do whatever they want, even though it's wrong?"
"Yup, that's exactly right. And you should follow their example if you want to live longer. ...Oh, and I'd try and stay away from Kenchi, if I were you. He's probably the worst one out of all of them."
"Our leader? Why is that?"
Hana hadn't realized it, but they had already walked all the way back into the home of the chosen; a large dome-like area that can only be accessed by the sewer tunnels.
Lucy gave Hana a tired smile in response to her question.
"He has an interest in... our age-group. I'm surprised you didn't even know that. You must have been protected from the world by your parents or something... Are they dead?"
"Yeah..."
"Huh, but you don't look very sad. For someone so ignorant, that's surprising. I figured you would be visibly upset or something like that."
Hana frowned and crossed her arms.
"Are you making fun of me?"
"Ha... you truly look like you were spoiled. I'm almost jealous, honestly."
Lucy smile then turned into a stern look, and Hana stiffened from the intensity of it.
"I'm saying this because I don't want to feel bad later; Do not get involved with those people from earlier. Stay away from Kenchi as well. Also... even if you don't understand it, this world will be as cruel to you as anyone else. If you want to survive, try to learn more about what's happening around you and try to stay out of danger, okay?"
Hana nodded, completely attentive, and Lucy became amused again.
What an obedient child... I wonder what your parents were thinking when they were raising you?
Lucy thought that as she turned her back on Hana, trying to put her out of her mind.
Hana thought about what she was just told, as well as went over what had happened in her head.
She understood too little, yet she felt like Lucy's advice was correct.
It was an intuitive feeling, much like before when she felt like what was happening with the blue-haired mutant earlier was wrong.
* * * * *
It wouldn't even be a week before she finally understood what Lucy had meant.
Unfortunately, it had been the hard way.
Hana hadn't been able to keep away from the group that was sexually assaulting the woman.
She just couldn't hold herself back from trying to stop them, because it made her angry and she still had a naive mindset; problems can be solved by speaking your mind.
One of the men grabbed her by the wrists when she had gotten to close.
"Eh!?"
"You little brat. I let you go the first time because your parents asked me politely, but you won't freakin shut-up! Do you even know who we are!?"
The man grabbed the wrist so hard that Hana couldn't break free and she was starting to feel complete agony from the pressure.
"Ow, let me go! You're hurting me!"
The words left her mouth and no sooner did her voice leave as well.
She gasped in shock and screamed, but no sound would come out.
In it's place, however, she could hear the high- pitched whimpers of the blue haired mutant she was trying to save.
"Oy, what gives?"
"Give me a break, I can only silence one person at a time! I'll just give this brat over to Kenchi, since she's pissed me off so much."
Lucy had told her to avoid Kenchi.
Hana may not have followed the rule of avoiding the group, but she did follow the rule of avoiding Kenchi.
The reason for this was because she felt a strange sense of fear crawl under her skin.
And now she was about to find out the source of that malicious feeling of despair.
(...Oh wow, this is actually quite dark, isn't it? Well... let's just skip a bit)
* * * * *
After (absolutely nothing happened) Hana was a sniveling, shivering mess, her mind all over the place.
She was locked inside a room, where 'it' had occurred, the lingering crude smell and stained sheets a grim reminder of (absolutely nothing happening).
She was broken.
Everything she knew was shattered mercilessly into a thousand tiny piece and the pain just wouldn't leave her.
But, strangely enough, through her terrified thoughts and quivering body, a monotone, clear thought resounded within her.
So this is what they were doing to that girl.
That thought led to another.
Why would... she endure something so horrible?
Her innocence caved under the weight of reality and more realizations flooded her previously naive mind.
She's a mutant and normals hate us... if she didn't do it, she would have had nowhere left to go, right?
She hated the world so much right now.
She wanted to scream and claw at Kenchi.
She shouldn't have been able to stop shaking so soon after it had happened.
Kenchi leads us. He and his relatives can do whatever they want...
Why?
Because they have power.
Why?
Because people follow him.
Why?
......? Why?
The thoughts stopped and her shuddering started back up again, as though those monotone thoughts of logic were the only things keeping her steady.
Why do people follow that monster!?
The shaking wasn't stopping, her mind racing to find an answer to make everything fit.
Why doesn't anyone stand up to him!?
Why do they do nothing!?
The shaking and terror turned into pure rage, boiling over and overwhelming her tiny frame.
Evil... that man is evil... I've never known anything evil before now, but he is evil.
The light in her eyes flickered, were they were previously dim, and she grabbed onto the bed to support herself back up, ignoring the fact that she had put her hand in the blood and... whatever else was there.
She got up on shaky legs, the pain flaring up, but the fire of her anger kept her upright.
If they are following such a person... then they are all evil as well!
Hana bit her lip and moved towards the door, an intense bubbling pressure inside her head.
She was enlightened.
She was fragile.
She was fury incarnate.
This young child was Hana, and she would not tolerate any evil in this world.
Pounding on the door, Hana screamed a lie, even though she never lied, but she lied.
"I going to die! I'm going to die! I'm going to die!"
They were the words she repeated over and over again during the act, but she said it with renewed vigor and an even hoarse voice, her throat parched.
A stomping noise could be heard making it's way towards Hana and she backed off from the door.
It was at that moment that she realized she hadn't thought about how she would get out.
She hadn't thought it, but she knew.
The door swung open and one of Kenchi's relatives entered.
He cursed and had swung at Hana, who accepted the blow with open arms.
But she didn't let go of the arm that struck.
Since an early age, she was told that her power was the ability to bestow judgement upon the sinful normals.
No one could tell her better than herself on how her own power worked, however.
She knew that it would judge mutants just as equally for their sins.
The man who struck her suddenly lost all energy and didn't move as she tightened her grip around the arm.
First, his eyes widened, then, his mouth quivered.
Then, he fell to his knees and vomited.
Hana wasn't disgusted, but rather, she was pleased, since it meant he was suffering.
Soon the man stopped moving and Hana let go, not bothering to check whether or not he was alive.
She moved through the now open door and made her way through an unfamiliar hallway, but stumbled and fell on all fours.
"Ugh!"
The surge of energy she had seemingly vanished, as though it were merely an illusion, but she kept on moving.
She crawled over to the wall and looked to use it for support, leaning up against it and gingerly stood up.
Her body felt like lead, weighed down from the pain she felt, but the cold wall was like a splash of cold water that kept her conscious.
It was then that she realized she was wearing nothing.
Where... did he take my clothes?
Hana tried to remember, but it was in the middle of that painful memory of what had transpired, so she gave up.
As she was entering the building, however, she did recall coming across a closet at some point.
I'll just take whatever I find in there... I can't kill Kenchi in the state I'm in, so I should escape.
A rational decision, so calm that Hana had surprised herself with how easily it came to her.
But her ignorance and naivety were what brought her here in the first place, so maybe it wasn't all that surprising that it shook her into this type of mindset.
She moved slowly down the hall, not knowing where the exit was, but she couldn't simply ask for directions.
With luck, she rounded a corner at the end of the hallway and saw some stairs leading up.
She felt as though the entrance wasn't too far away from the stairs, since she recalled moving downward shortly upon entering the building.
Gratefully, she took the handrail that accommodated the stairs, and walked all the way up to find the entrance in her sight.
She didn't even bother looking anywhere else with her goal dead in her sights.
Opening the closet, she found a few men's coats hanging.
She grabbed the smallest one and put it on; it covered all of her, but still left some room for her feet to move freely.
The sleeves were too long however, so she didn't put her arms in them; she simply draped the coat over her shoulders and left like that.
She left the building and found herself right in the middle of the base; the buildings inside the base was made using someone's powers, she had vaguely recalled from... somewhere.
She had a passing thought to take some time and appreciate how purely white the building was, for something so tainted.
But now that she was free, she had a new goal; there was no time for standing around idly.
I need to find a safe place to rest. I don't think I have the strength to leave the sewers altogether, and even then, I don't know where to go once I'm up there.
Calm and calculating, yet the anger she had earlier was no lie.
She truly wanted Kenchi... no, for every evil person to die, but she couldn't do that if she ended up getting captured again or killed.
She was no longer going to make a rash decision that she would regret later.
Never again.
But she wasn't sure where to go.
Her usual spot might not have been safe, as the group recognized her when she tried to stop them the first time.
So where did that leave for Hana?
...I can't sleep on the ground, they'll just find me straight away.
Hana looked around desperately in the glowing light, produced by some lanterns here and there, and came across another building, probably made with the same power as the previous one.
It was still relatively close to where she had escaped, so she was about to dismiss it before her eyes looked at the roof.
Ah! If I can somehow get up there...
There was no ladder leading to the roof, so it was a pretty safe spot to be if she stayed in the middle of the structure.
There also wasn't a vantage point to the top other than another roof, so if she found a way up, then it was probably her safest option.
That being said, getting up there was the issue for Hana.
She looked around the building and found some chips in the wall, wondering if they could be climbed.
She tested by putting her fingers into the slots, and found that they fit.
But.
"Ah! ...Ow..."
She had little strength remaining and dropped to the ground.
It wasn't as though she wasn't able to do it; she had climbed up things before.
But she was still hurting, not to mention her mental exhaustion from keeping sane amidst all of this.
And, there was the fact that the building looked rather tall, despite how hard it was to tell in the dim light.
She didn't think she could move around for much longer though; it was no longer a matter of finding a better option, she had none now that she felt a black void threatening to consume her consciousness.
She just had to do it.
"Haaa!"
She mustered up whatever strength that remained and then some, tying the coat arms around her wait so it wouldn't fall, and pulling herself up by the fingertips, chip by chip.
To her amazement, she had reached halfway up the wall in a minute, despite the screaming pain in her arms and everywhere else.
!!! I can do this...!
Renewed hope at the promise of safety moved her hands forward, the coat hanging lazily as she did all the work.
She felt as though it was mocking her, despite how impossible that was, but she didn't want to leave any evidence that she had been there, so she didn't try shaking the coat off.
With only less than a quarter of the way left, her left hand went numb as her index finger sunk completely into the indent.
"Ah, ahhhh....!"
She bit her lip as she saw the blood trickle down her hand.
She wasn't sure what had happened, but she didn't have the luxury of of observing her hand so she just kept climbing.
The pain whenever she used her left hand to dig into the cracks was unbearable, but compared to the pain from earlier, it was nothing.
She ignored it and kept going, and was right there at the roof.
Now I just need to pull...... mysel.... Huh?
Hana blinked as her vision wobbled and found that her left hand was outside of the cracks, the nail of her index finger nowhere to be found and the skin underneath cut open.
It took her a moment to realize that her other hand was about to follow suit.
She had finally reached her limit and that darkness was about to lull her to unconscious rest.
There were no thoughts about how it would've hurt, or possibly killed her to fall from that height.
The last thing she thought was, Oh. when she realized she was about to fall.
She watched her hand slip out of the crack.
Then, a sudden weight held onto her wrist, quite painfully tight, but keeping her suspended.
"You have to be the dumbest... and luckiest person I have ever met."
Hana didn't see who it was that saved her, since she couldn't even manage the strength to open her eyes anymore.
* * * * *
It was impossible to tell whether it was day or night in the sewers, yet when Hana opened her eyes next, she felt like it was, without a doubt, daytime.
She had slept quite soundly, perhaps because that grip she felt around her wrist before she nodded off gave her a sense of security.
She was saved.
Just that fact alone let whatever pain and stress she had leave her mind, giving her some of the peaceful dreams she's ever had.
Hana rolled her body over to the left, then the right, to look for who saved her, and found her sitting not too far off.
With long purple hair and a curious expression, Lucy stared back at her.
"Hello, good morning, and whatever else. I take it you learned a thing or two yesterday?"
Those words were spoken so casually and without tact that it would've made anyone else lash out at her.
Hana, however, just nodded.
"Oh, that's good. Well, I mean, obviously not good, good, since... you know. But at least you know now. Hey, why didn't you listen to me the first time?"
"I... Just wanted to save her."
Hana originally thought it was because she wanted to have everyone get along that she confronted the group, but it was much more simple than that.
She didn't want that blue haired mutant to suffer.
Lucy gave a questioning hum after that.
"You... How are you not broken?"
"Broken?"
"Yeah. I can't speak for myself, but... it seems like a pretty traumatic experience."
Hana bit her lip again trying to remove the memory out of her head.
"I'm just... trying not to think about it."
"Huh... is it really that simple?"
"No, not really... but if I let that stop me, then I couldn't plan on killing him, now could I?"
Lucy's eyes widened and she gave a grin.
"You... are seriously messed up. How can you act like this after all of that?"
"I don't know, to be honest. But no one is going to stop Kenchi, or anyone else that's evil right? Then... all I have to do is be the one to stop it myself, since everyone else is too scared to."
"Evil, huh?"
Lucy muttered the word as she laid down, looking up at the concrete ceiling of the area.
Hana felt like she could have sat up if she wanted to, but she was still a little tired, so she stayed where she was.
"What were you doing up here?"
Hana asked.
"I usually sleep up here, since no one has a reason to climb up here... well, until last night. I thought I heard some noise over at the wall, and sure enough there you were, about to fall down to your death. Just what were you thinking anyways, climbing up here in that state?"
"I just wanted to make sure I wasn't found... so I climbed up."
"And almost got yourself killed, but hey, at least you would've had a nice view."
"I was going to pass out anyways, so I didn't have much time left to consider my options."
"...Hm, that actually makes some sense. Good job, you might not be as dumb as I thought. And I guess it worked for the most part, since they've been looking around for you with no success, obviously."
"They've been looking- of course they have."
Hana spoke with surprise, but sighed, realizing that was the reasoning behind her climbing up here to begin with.
"Yup, and they've been scary about it too, threatening other mutants and barging anywhere they pleased. Just what did you do?"
"I used my power on one of Kenchi's relatives. Not sure if he's dead or not, but he definitely suffered from it."
"Your power?"
Hana gave a quick rundown of what her power did and Lucy started laughing suddenly, to which Hana was taken aback.
"About time one of those bastards felt what it was like! Ah, that puts me in such a good mood..."
"U-um..."
Hana didn't know what bastard meant, nor did she understand Lucy's character at all.
She was kind enough to warn her about Kenchi and the group, yet did nothing about it herself.
"Have you thought about doing anything to stop them?"
Lucy stopped laughing and smiled.
"I've thought about it many times, but I never really had the courage to do it. It felt like a stupid thing to do; putting myself in danger simply to kill one, maybe two of them. So I chose to hold my tongue and get on their good side, well, minus Kenchi's since the way to getting on his good side would be tantamount to suicide for someone like me. I was hoping that if I did, maybe more opportunities to kill them discreetly would come up, but... they never did. So I just kept waiting."
Lucy wasn't okay with the way things were either.
In her own way, Hana thought, she was trying her best.
That when another thought came into Hana's mind.
"If... our group is like this, then does that mean the normals aren't as bad as we thought?"
Lucy turned towards Hana.
"What makes you say that?"
"Well... I always thought that all of us were the chosen, the rightful rulers of the world and that everyone else was evil, but... if our leader is so evil, then maybe it's the other way around?"
"Hm, I wouldn't say that the normals are exactly good either. I mean, they do hunt us down at any available opportunity, if what we're told is to be believed. But you're right to think that it isn't as simple as one group being completely evil."
Hana let that information sink in; everything she had been told was a lie, or not the entire truth.
Of course, it wasn't that hard to figure out after what had happened yesterday, but the problem was that most of what she had learned came from her parents.
It was difficult to accept, but...
"...even they were evil."
Hana muttered that and finally sat up, to Lucy's surprise.
"...You're strange. I can't even see a single problem with you except for an absurd amount of anger."
Hana looked at Lucy with questioning eyes, to which she explained her power; she was able to tell that Hana was boiling with rage inside.
"...It would be even stranger if I wasn't angry."
"I know, but... I can't even see any other hints of stress or inner turmoil aside from that. Your body should be reacting to the trauma of what happened yesterday, and there are physical signs of it, but... there's no sign of you pushing yourself mentally, as far as I can see. That's what makes you so strange."
Through observing the physical changes of a body and mind, Lucy can ascertain someone's mood down to the tiniest detail.
For there to be nothing but anger, yet for her words and actions to be coherent and seemingly calm was beyond odd, bordering on near-impossible.
Hana considered this for a moment, but shook her head.
"It's not odd. I want to kill them, which is why I won't bother doing something that will get me killed before then. If anything, it's this anger that's making me calm."
"....It doesn't even work like that."
Lucy's growing smile was becoming bewildered, and she became completely fascinated by the girl in front of her.
Hana smiled back for some reason and extended a hand to Lucy.
"Want to come along?"
"Where to?"
"I'm going to save that blue-haired mutant and go to the surface."
Lucy became wide-eyed, but her smile didn't leave as she took the hand.
"You're not going to try and kill Kenchi?"
"Before that, I'd rather find a place to live, since I doubt I can come back here after I kill him. Also, I figure that woman would be able to leave if she didn't do it alone."
"...Why invite me?"
"Because you want to kill him too, right?"
"Not as badly as you... but what the hell, I was starting to get sick of all this anyways. Let's do it!"
As Lucy pulled on the hand to pick herself up, Hana realized that she was using the same hand that was injured.
After letting go, she noticed her finger was wrapped in gauze, with tape holding it together.
She then paid more attention to her state, finally noticing that she was clothed; a t-shirt and shorts underneath a warm poncho.
"Thanks for saving and taking care of me while I was asleep."
Hana didn't hesitate to thank her once she realized to what lengths Lucy went to help her out.
Lucy just shrugged, saying it was 'no big deal'.
"It was a pain to disinfect your finger though. Whatever you cut it on was pretty dangerous."
"It was one of the cracks on the wall as I made my way up."
"Ah, are you serious? Guess you're not the only lucky one if I didn't cut myself on it, but we need to use those to get back down... no wait, there are some more cracks on another wall that are climbable. Can you manage getting down on your own?"
"I think I can manage. Can you go down first just in case? You can break my fall if anything goes wrong."
No such thing happened, fortunately, and they made it down safely.
Hana flipped the hood of her poncho and tucked her hair inside it, remembering that she was still being looked for.
"Do you know where that mutant is?"
Hana asked Lucy, to which she nodded.
"Yeah, they've been.... Using her for a while, so I have a general idea of where she stays."
It was the first time that Hana detected some disgust in Lucy's voice.
She just took that as a sign that she was really good at hiding her feelings.
"Okay, lead the way."
Lucy nodded and the two walked, cautiously, as Hana was still being searched for.
* * * * *
They stopped in front of another large building, near one of the tunnels leading outside.
It was almost indiscernible from the other buildings, but that was to be expected when they were all created with the same power.
"I don't know which room she lives in, but whenever that group comes in here, they leave with her."
"That reminds me... why don't they do these things inside?"
"I dunno, maybe to make everyone else uncomfortable? It's not like they need to worry about being stopped... for now."
Lucy added that last bit with a small hint of satisfaction and went through the doors to the building; Hana followed shortly after.
Hana vaguely recognized the layout of the entrance, as it had been the same as the building she had escaped, and had an idea.
"This is just a guess, but let's start in the basement."
The staircase was just off to the side, much like the other building, so Hana strode confidently towards it and downwards, and walked almost automatically around the corner and towards the room she was kept in.
"All the rooms have locks on the outside..."
Lucy noted this as they continued walking down, and it only made Hana more confident in her guess.
The locks were more of a decoration, however, if the mutant they were saving truly could go anywhere she desired, so they must have been for other mutants who had no such problem.
It was then that Hana stopped moving, realizing that just because the basement felt like the right place, didn't mean that she would've been in the exact same room; all of them were 'cages', so to speak.
She started peeking into the small windows, and almost laughed with surprise at finding the mutant on the first one.
"She's here."
Hana unlatched the pointless lock-she wondered why they even bothered with it- and was about to enter the room when a screeching intruded into her ears.
"Nooo, no more, no more, no more, no more! Just leave me alone!"
The voice was hoarse and shrill, the words as pleasant to listen to as fingers scratching on chalkboard
This wasn't the sound of someone who put up with something so that they didn't have to worry about shelter, but rather, one who was genuinely forced to do something with no way of fighting back.
Were they lying about her being able to escape?
That thought was the first thing Hana had, but the second one was to show herself to the mutant.
She was curled up in the corner on the bed, farthest away from the door, and looking freightendly at the door.
She wore no clothes and there was some clear bruising all over her body.
Even as Hana's profile came into view, the mutant still regarded her with terror.
"Wh-what do you want?"
Hana kept her distance away from the mutant and showed her hands.
"Don't you remember me? I was the girl who was taken away yesterday..."
The mutant's eyes twitched, and focused more on Hana; they still held fear, but for a brief moment, the tiniest amount of hope could be seen in them.
Then they became suspicious and her eyes became wild again.
"No! They made you do this, didn't they!? They always play with me, trying to give me false hope, then ripping it away, again and again! I'm sick of it! I'm not going to fall for it!"
"Wha- no, that's not it at-"
"Liar! Go away, go away!"
Hana could see it; her despair, her hatred, her fear....
But those eyes, which she had mistaken for brave ones that relented for a reason, were now clearly terrified ones that had given up.
Hana couldn't possibly get angry at someone who had gone through all of that, but she was frustrated.
Frustrated at herself, because the only thing she could think of to convince her was naive indeed, but she couldn't think of anything else.
Hana slowly approached the mutant, and her shrieking got worse.
She didn't stop moving towards her, even as the curses and violent screaming were on a threatening level; it was clear that this mutant was going to lash out the moment she got close enough.
Even so...
Hana kept moving slowly, and the moment she got within reach onto the bed, the mutant swung at her; her nails scratching along the neck of Hana, who winced, but continued forward.
She had the vague thought of wondering what Lucy was doing while she did this, but threw it away as she took another attack; a fist crashed down upon her head and she fell face first into the bed.
The mutant was at least eight years older than her, and her fists, without regard for how much it would hurt herself, hurt.
...But it's nothing compared to the pain she must be feeling.
That was the reason, the reason why she was able to move forward yesterday, even if she wasn't aware of it before now.
This stranger, who was nothing to Hana, was someone she just couldn't leave alone.
The reason why was simple, and stated earlier.
I'm going to save you.
The mutant's fury halted as Hana got up, face bruised and neck trickling blood, smiling up at her.
Hana then took her stiffened body and held it tight, stroking her head lightly.
"Ah...... ahhhhhh....."
"Shh, you're okay."
She remember her mother, warm and gentle, saying those same words to her and consoling her like so whenever she was upset.
What she was upset over then seemed so small now, but no matter how upset she was, she always felt soothed by those words and actions.
That was why it felt so naive, for her to do the same thing to someone who had gone through so much more than a whiny child's problems.
"Hic....hic...."
Still, if she could alleviate some of the pain, if only by a little, then she was willing to accept doing something naive again.
* * * * *
"...Thank you."
The mutant was still clinging to Hana, a child only slightly above half her size, and spoke those heartfelt words after she stopped crying.
No words, just feelings, lingered in the air, but then-
"Are you calm? Good, good."
Hana and the mutant looked at the entrance to see a frowning Lucy.
"Lucy-"
"I know, I'm not exactly the best at these moods, but it's not like we have all the time in the world here. You, what's your name?"
The bluntness of Lucy's question made the mutant stare blankly at her before she answered confused.
"Erika...?"
"Hello Erika. Lucy. Hana."
Lucy pointed to herself and Hana as she spoke the names, and Hana pouted, getting angry with her seemingly dismissive attitude.
"I'll get right to the point; there's something embedded in your leg."
Those next words halted Hana's anger, and made her look at Erika, who looked down at her leg respectively.
"There is? But how do you-?"
"My power. But for some reason, I can't identify it at all... it's like a void. Do you know what it is?"
"No, I don't. I didn't even know it was there..."
Lucy made a thinking hum as she strode over to the bed and gave Erika a studying look.
"You... Is it possible you can't use your power right now?"
Hana blinked in surprise, and Erika looked blankly at Lucy for a moment, before her lips quivered.
Lucy then pulled a scalpel out of her bag and both her and Erika seemed to regard each other with understanding.
"...Take it out."
Erika spoke the words quietly and Lucy nodded, putting the scalpel back into her bag for a moment..
Hana, who was still lost, didn't receive any explanation as Lucy gently pulled her away and Erika laid down onto the bed.
"Ah, Hana, you don't have to look if you don't want to."
Lucy said this but Hana shook her head, despite her confusion.
Shrugging, Lucy fully turned her attention to Erika and took out some sort of gel from her bag, rubbing her hands and a part of Erika's leg with it.
Then, after retrieving it and without flinching, Lucy made a cut into Erika's leg with the scalpel.
Erika gripped the bedsheets tightly, but didn't make a noise.
It took a little over a minute for Lucy to take out a pure black shard of... something out of Erika's leg.
"...Woah... that is disturbing..."
Lucy muttered that as she held the shard in her hand, then put it off to the side.
"Much better."
Lucy offered no other words of explanation as she stitched and bandaged up Erika's leg.
Hana watched the entire scene unfold, and seemed to understand what was going on; Erika supposedly had the power of teleportation, yet she also seemed like she was being held against her will.
Hana guessed that the shard was preventing Erika from using her powers for some reason.
"So, can you use your powers now?"
Lucy asked that and Erika slowly got up off her bed.
Correction, she teleported into a standing position, catching Hana off guard.
"...I can teleport..."
Erika spoke the words with disbelief, then again, with joy.
"I can teleport!"
She vanished from their sights so suddenly, a few seconds passing before she reappeared back into the room, flopping back onto the bed.
"I can leave!"
Her previously despair ridden face was filled with child like joy, and tears once again rolled down her face.
Hana couldn't help but smile at this as well; this one moment filled herself with joy as well, and made the hardships of yesterday seemingly fade away.
Lucy, however, didn't have a smile on her face.
"This shard... the moment I touched it, my power vanished."
It explained why Erika was unable to leave; the shard prevented mutants from using their powers.
But the next question was where it came from?
"Oh well."
Lucy dismissed the question she brought up herself, and turned to Erika.
"Hey, do you want to leave?"
"Do you even need to ask that? Of course I want to leave!"
"Then is it possible for you to teleport all of us up to the surface?"
Erika's face then turned sour.
"...No. I mean, I can teleport anything I'm touching if I will it, and it's technically possible for me to go places I've never been before as long as nothing's in the space I'm trying to go, but... if we teleport in the middle of a street with people on it, it won't turn out well."
"Ah, fair point."
Lucy nodded in understanding and turned to Hana.
"So we'll leave through the front entrance, okay? ...Is what I'd like to say, but they might be stopping mutants from leaving if they're really trying to find you."
"Um... I'm grateful for what you two have done, but can I get an explanation?"
Erika interrupted before Hana could respond.
The two gave Erika a basic run through of what was currently happening and she listened intently, not bothering to ask questions until the very end.
"So... You're going to find a place to live on the surface before coming back to kill David and the others?"
"Yes- wait, who's David?"
Hana cocked her head, having never heard of a 'David'.
"...One of the men who kept me locked up in here."
"Ah, then yes."
Erika then grinned a wide grin, her face completely lighting up.
It was a little unsettling to see how happy Erika was with their plan to kill somebody, but could you blame her?
Erika bounced up onto her feet and wrapped the blanket on the bed around her body, tying it up like a toga.
"Well, let's get going! If there really is something blocking our way, I can teleport us past them."
"Oh, that's true as well. We'll be counting on you, then."
Erika nodded, as if to say, 'Leave it to me!', and made for the door before stopping dead in her tracks.
There were footsteps outside and an angry voice mentioning something about 'taking his frustrations out' on something.
It wasn't too hard to figure out they weren't friendly.
Without a single word of warning, Erika grabbed Hana and Lucy, who soon found themselves outside the building in front of the entrance, a few surprised mutants looking in their direction.
"Woah..."
"That's.... really cool."
Completely forgetting the fact that they were almost caught, Lucy and Hana were awed by the lingering feeling of the teleport.
It was a disorientating, fuzzy feeling, but it didn't feel sickening or uncomfortable; it left them with some pleasant tingling along the edges of their skin, almost ticklish.
Erika didn't have the same giddiness she had before though.
"I'm going to do consecutive teleports so we can get outside quickly. Okay?"
"Mhm."
"Ready!"
At the two's affirmation, Erika activated her power numerous times, their surroundings becoming the inside of the tunnel next to the building Erika was kept in.
The scenery didn't change for a while, simply remaining a bunch of old stones covered in moss and filth, but Lucy and Hana caught a glimpse of a line of people for a slight moment, right before they teleported for the last time.
They both caught their breath, as though they were holding on to it during the ride, and Lucy turned on a flashlight, as it had become pitch black and they saw that they were in another tunnel, but there was a ladder right beside them and behind them was a wall of solid concrete.
"Can you give me a minute before we do anything else? I'm a little dizzy."
Lucy mumbled that as she slowly pulled out a canister from her bag with her free hand, drinking from it.
Hana, likewise, was a little out of it as well, placing her hands on the dirty wall for support, before looking at the concrete wall; it was white and stood out, as it looked like it was made out of the same stone the buildings were created from.
"Did we... come from beyond that wall?"
"Yeah. I saw some guys guarding that wall, so I tried teleporting past it. They wouldn't have been guarding something if there was nothing behind it, after all."
"I thought I saw something like that..."
Hana said that absentmindedly as she looked back to the ladder.
Tracing it up all the way, she made out a manhole in the 'roof'.
"...Erika, can you climb up there and see if it's safe for us to enter? You can teleport back if there's anything dangerous, after all."
"Huh? ...Uh, yeah, I can do that."
Erika nodded and did as Hana asked, climbing up and peeking out from the manhole.
She looked around for a bit before pushing the manhole completely to the side and teleporting down.
"It looks like we're in the middle of an alleyway. Should be safe."
Erika then teleported back up to where she was on the ladder and climbed onto the ground.
Hana and Lucy shortly followed after, and the moment they reached the surface, Hana blinked in disbelief as she looked up.
"...Blue and grey streaks...?"
Hana had never seen the sky before in her life; all she had known was the underground base of the chosen.
The sight of the sky was a little surprising to her, but she calmed herself at the realization that everything above was going to be new to her.
She decided not to be surprised anymore, since it wasn't like she knew how things were on the surface, other than normals living there, after all.
Lucy was not Hana, however.
"Ah, it's the sky! And all of those numerous particles that compose it! How do I name all of them...?"
Lucy seemed completely overwhelmed and had a smiling face of pure bliss plastered all over her.
Hana knew she was weird, so she just shrugged it off.
"So next... we need to go somewhere that isn't being used by someone already."
Hana stated this plainly, and Lucy seemed to snap out of her enjoyment.
"Hm... For someone so interesting, I never knew you could be so boring. Yeah, I guess finding a place is next."
Erika had finished putting the manhole back where it previously was, and turned to face Hana.
"Most of the rooms in these buildings are abandoned, so we shouldn't have too much trouble."
"Erika, you've been up here before?"
Hana asked, curious.
"A couple of times. My power was useful for escaping normals, after all, but..."
Erika trailed off and her expression became pained, to which Hana shook her head at.
"You don't have to tell us what happened if you don't want to. What matters now is finding a place to live."
Hana had already begun to talk assertively, her confidence driven up by their successful escape, as well as her self-centered impression that she was the one who drove them to leave.
That being said, she was absolutely right that it was because of her that they all came up here.
If she hadn't been stupid enough to change something she didn't understand.
If she hadn't been able to get back up from her mistakes and escape with all of her strength.
If she hadn't convinced Lucy to come along.
If she didn't search and offer help to Erika.
If none of those things had happened, it was highly unlikely, nearing improbable, that this trio of girls would have left the chosen's base.
Her choices were what made them escape on that day, so there was some good reason to the confidence that seven year old Hana had.
Lucy and Erika agreed with Hana and they set out to find a place of their own.
* * * * *
They took a day in their new home, which would be later called their base, so that they were well rested and prepared for when they went back down to kill Kenchi and his relatives.
When they reached the area where the pure white wall should have been, however, there was no such wall.
"What...?"
Hana was unable to form a question, because she had no idea why they would have removed the wall.
"A trap?"
Lucy suggested that and Erika, now dressed in some real clothes (some baggy pants and a t-shirt) shook her head.
"Why would they let down the wall for us? Wouldn't they have just assumed we wouldn't come back, since we put so much effort into escaping?"
"So you're saying they wouldn't have guessed we would come back to try and kill them?"
"Yeah... that's what I'm saying."
The suggestion of there being someone who could predict the future being in the mutants was brought up by Lucy, and shot down by Hana, who pointed out that letting the walls down would simply have alerted them to that knowledge, and dissuaded them from coming back.
"You're... pretty sharp too, huh?"
Hana tried to hide the blush on her cheeks at Lucy's compliment.
"A-anyways, they must have had another reason for lowering the wall. Erika, can you start teleporting us?"
"On it."
The reason they had been where the wall was, rather than teleporting straight to the chosen's base, was for the exact same reason to when they were trying to reach the surface; they didn't want to be seen by anyone, and teleporting in the middle of the base without any knowledge of who may have been in that location would have been problematic.
Lucy, Hana, and Erika all laid down onto the dirty ground, draping a blanket with colors similar to the dirty stone path, and Hana shut off the flashlight that was their only source of light.
Then, Erika started teleporting, bit by bit, Lucy keeping her eyes out for any figures in the distance with her powers.
As it turned out, she could 'observe' particles different from the darkness particles, even when there was no light particles...at least, that's what she told Hana and Erika.
They kept teleporting like this, but never saw anyone, even as they reached the entrance to the base.
Erika didn't teleport into the base, however, because Lucy told her to stop.
"...The entire base is gone."
Lucy spoke that in slight disbelief and the two who were unable to see stiffened.
"What? What do you mean it's gone?"
"I mean I'm not seeing anything; no people, no buildings, nothing!"
Hana turned on her flashlight and it cut through the darkness, shining past the entrance, and she also saw nothing.
She still ran forward, to make sure, since they were still outside of the base, but even as she ran a good minute into the vast space, there was still nothing, as though no one had lived there to begin with.
"Wha- What the hell is this!? Weren't we just here yesterday!?"
Erika yelled, half shocked, half infuriated.
Hana was completely bewildered, turning every which way, shining her light everywhere, but she could see anything.
"...How is this possible?"
She mumbled that and continued forward, walking this time, in a daze.
That was when Lucy made an 'ah' sound of realization and Erika turned to face her, more than a little upset and ready to punch Lucy if she realized something she should have earlier.
"Nobody's ever 'escaped' the base before; only trusted mutants have ever gone to the surface. The only reason we were able to leave is because of your power, which they thought they contained with that shard thingy. With that in mind, how would us escaping put the entire base in danger?"
Lucy posed that question to Erika and, although she was upset that Lucy didn't just come out with the answer, she thought about it for a moment, and then-
"...You have got to be fucking kidding me."
She slapped her face hard, almost comically, but the sound it made caused Lucy, who could see how it affected her, wince.
"The normals who we tried our hardest to avoid when going up there... they think we went and outed the whole damn base to them!?"
Three mutants; two who were wronged and obviously held a grudge against the leader, and one who went with them.
Their next move would be to get revenge, yes, but aside from sneaking in and trying to assassinate them, what would be another way to kill off those who wronged them?
"They think that you two hated them so much that we would sick the normals on them and hope they died in the crossfire, regardless of the innocent mutants that had nothing to do with them. ...And the powers that made those buildings and walls could just as easily been used to make them disappear, from my understanding. Once they thought they were in danger, they evacuated right away and destroyed all evidence of being there... probably to make the normals be more sceptical of information regarding their base from then on."
Lucy spoke that calmly and apologetically, but still annoyed that she hadn't thought of it before now.
It was true that they hated Kenchi, David and whoever else was related to their suffering, but never once had they enraged to the point where they wanted those who had nothing to do with it involved.
Their rage was overestimated.
That fact alone made Erika even more infuriated, ironically enough.
"Dammit!"
Erika punched the ground, solid stone, with all of her might, and was rewarded with a crunching sound of her bones, unable to break through.
Despite how happy she was yesterday, what fueled her was the thought of being able to kill those who had wronged them.
For them to have moved completely, there was no telling where they went; were they still underground, or did they move above ground?
Did they all live in the same place, or in several different locations?
They were possibilities, and that set back Erika's plans for revenge for the foreseeable future.
...But there was one more thing they needed to get revenge for.
Lucy turned to see where Hana had walked off, and saw her light in the distance, as well as something else.
"Ah, there's actually something over there!"
Lucy spoke in an energetic tone purposefully, to get Erika's spirits back up, and she seemed to take the bait.
She looked up at Lucy, then over to Hana, and got up, her left hand a crumpled mess.
"Ah, don't worry about your hand, I'll fix it later, so let's just go see.... What..... Oh no..."
Lucy was moving towards what Hana was shining her light on, but that was when she decided to observe it with her powers, to see what it was earlier than Erika.
This was a mistake.
Erika, seeing Lucy turn pale, rushed over to Hana in the distance, to get a better look at whatever it was in the distance.
When she finally got close enough to see what it was, she stopped, just short of Hana, and stared blankly at what was piled up near the edge of the wall.
She didn't understand what she was looking at for a moment; It was absurd to think that they would find that piled up where they expected to find a base full of mutants.
Hana had been staring at it for a while, motionless, but turned to face Erika, her eyes showing the same fire she had when she escaped the place where Kenchi assaulted her.
"Erika, we're going to kill them."
Was it because she was child that she could speak those words so sternly, without hesitation?
Erika wasn't sure if Hana understood the weight of what she was saying; killing those bastards was one thing, but killing... what remained there was another thing entirely.
* * * * *
Hana awoke in the chair she had sat in last night, having nodded off sometime without realizing.
Her recollection of what had happened had transitioned seamlessly into her dreams, and she woke up, feeling as though she relived what had happened years ago.
It was the start of the valkyries; named after something she vaguely recalled hearing during even earlier in her life.
All she knew was that it was a term referencing a group of women, but nothing beyond that.
The only reason they even had a group name was because the chosen had one, and so did the normals.
They wanted to be known as something different, so they just went with it.
But, after all the pain they've shared and all the hardships and evil they've faced together, Lucy would dare doubt whether any of that happened?
Eyeing the scar underneath her left hand's index fingernail, Hana gritted her teeth.
She had evidence of her climbing the building during those days.
Not only that, but she remembered Erika's fear of men and how hard it was for her to overcome it.
She could handle it when they were with her, but when she was alone, she just... seized up.
Well, that was the truth until... about a month ago.
"...Ridiculous."
Hana dismissed that coincidence, not willing to accept that as a reason to doubt everything they've been through as one big lie.
She got up from the chair, brushing off the blanket that was draped around her shoulders; Erika had probably come in and saw her sleeping; and walked out of the room.
Laying on the couch in the living room with a blanket of her own was Erika, looking peaceful.
Hana almost had a mind to wake her, simply out of spite for looking so calm while she was here worrying, but she knew that was incredibly selfish of her.
Erika was probably just as affected by Lucy's betrayal as she was.
Just as Hana turned to go back into the planning room, she heard Erika's voice.
"Nnh... I'm awake."
Erika muttered that to Hana, who had thought she was quiet when she walked into the room.
"Did I wake you?"
"Most things do. Don't worry about it."
Erika sat up groggily and stretched out her arms, turning to look at Hana.
"Sleep well?"
"So-so. Thank you for the blanket."
"No problem."
A brief moment of conversation focusing on something other than what was happening.
It didn't last long.
"...I'm feeling very impatient right now. Can we go over what we know?"
Erika nodded in response, wiping her eyes.
"Phoenix was expecting us at that store, so Lucy must've warned him about us."
"Mhm..... hm? Wait, what are you talking about?"
The previously waking up Erika was now alert, having heard something she didn't make sense of.
Hana brushed it off as her simply still waking up, and explained.
"Lucy made a communications device and had Pheonix listen to our conversation before we went over there. How else would he have known we were coming?"
Erika blinked blankly, and retorted.
"No, that's not right."
"...Huh? What do you mean?"
"Well... that device requires her to hold down the button, right? I didn't see her holding down the button of anything..."
"...She held it down with tape and put it in her bag?"
"Would it have been able to pick up our voices in that case?"
"That's..."
Hana stopped, surprised that she hadn't thought of that before.
The impact of Lucy betraying them made her believe that she must've had something to do with Phoenix being so alert.
It had never occurred to her that it was another reason entirely.
"But how else would he have been able to know we were coming?"
Hana thought about what little they knew of Phoenix.
He could manipulate a blue flame that Lucy can't observe with her powers.
He tried to convince Gregory to stop killing through words.
He stayed in a comic book store, wears braces, was in contact with Birdy and her sister....
"Ah, ah!"
Hana's eyes became wide as she recalled Phoenix's words about how Birdy's sister couldn't find any spirits who died prior to a month ago, but what was important was what she heard when they were tailing him.
What was it Birdy had said about her sister; something about being able to communicate with them?
"...So that's what it was. Erika, teleport us!"
"Huh? Why?"
"Just do it! Act as you would if our base was about to be overrun by chosen!"
Erika could tell Hana wasn't joking, so she grabbed hold and soon they were up in the sky, looking down on the city.
Hana had gotten used to the feeling of Erika's teleportation over the years, another sign she took that her memories weren't false, so she wasn't freaked out about how high up they were.
If they didn't get so high up, they wouldn't have been able to keep out of sight from the normals below.
Anyone looking up would've doubted they saw actual people, especially from so far away, and even if they thought they were mutants, it was hard to make them out from that distance.
Erika was looking for a place that they could teleport to without being seen.
A few moments later, Hana felt her feet land on something solid; a rooftop that was completely empty.
She didn't waste time explaining herself to Erika.
"Birdy's sister, couldn't she have had spirits spy on us and bring back information?"
Erika finally understood, her mouth becoming agape in understanding.
"Oh, and if Lucy told Phoenix where we made our base..."
"Phoenix would have asked Birdy's sister for help and they would've been able to see exactly what we were doing."
"That's why you wanted to suddenly teleport... you didn't want them listening to this conversation."
Hana nodded.
"I don't want them picking up on our plans from here on. Erika, you should go look for another place for us to stay, and in the meantime... you should teleport me back to base. I'll pretend like I'm coming up with a plan for us to attack someplace as a distraction."
"But won't they already guess that you've figured out we're being watched from our actions just now?"
"If I act like I still think it's safe to plan at base, then I'm hoping they mistake our actions as something else. It's not much, but there's nothing else we could do."
"Why don't you just come with me? Is there any reason to distract them if we're going to abandon our base anyways?"
"That's... "
Because I want to be there in case Lucy comes back.
Those irrational words stuck inside her throat and she coughed to clear it.
"...because when we leave altogether, I want to have them investigate somewhere that has absolutely nothing to do with where we are going."
"A distraction... to create a distraction?"
"Something like that."
It was a weak excuse to cover up an even weaker reason.
Hana knew, deep down, that Lucy coming back and apologizing for what she had done was a slim chance at this point.
Even so, a part of her wanted Lucy to come back, despite how hurt she was from her prior actions.
After all... she's my sister.
Not by birth, but through hardships.
To her, Erika and Lucy were her sisters, and she felt strange whenever one was missing.
But, in the same breath, she also had the contradictory feeling of wanting to shun Lucy.
She wasn't acting like it now, but it most certainly shook her up when Lucy supported Phoenix over them.
That's why, more than anything, she just wanted her to come back, so that they could move on from this.
"...Erika, let's start."
Erika nodded and teleported Hana back to base, who hoped for the best.
What followed, however, was a very long, painful day of Hana waiting for someone who would never arrive.