Many millennia ago. Patriam-Bellatorum, region in present-day Alexandra. The first Anima Academy.
“Hiiiiiii!” Vi approached her three schoolmates, waggling her twelve little tails. She was carrying a steaming tray of chocolate chip dough, barely able to peek her head above the treats due to her small size. “Want a hug?”
“Ew, it’s Vi.” The classmates glanced over, shooting disgusted glances at each other. The boy who spoke had the ears and tail of a gray wolf. The Anima to his left, with bunny ears, scrunched her eyes and stuck out her tongue. The other Anima had brown bear ears and he wrinkled his nose like the fox girl had stepped in doo-doo.
Vi appeared unaffected by the reaction. She gave them a bright smile and blabbered on. “No hugs? How about cookies? I have baked you fresh cookies!”
She tried to hand the wolf boy a cookie. He slapped it away angrily. “I don’t want a cookie. I want you to fight.”
Her blue eyes widened in surprise, as if this was the first time she had heard this. “What? Fight?”
The cookie plopped on the floor. The other two classmates snickered. “You’re a wimp, Vi,” the wolf boy taunted. “You hear that? Wimp! Weak!”
“Yes, I am weak,” she told them, beaming. “I also love my classmates! Want to make brownies with me today?”
The wolf boy suddenly shoved her, sending the tray toppling to the floor.
“Uwah!” Vi cried out. She fell hard on the ground.
“Why don’t you use your powers?” he shouted at her. He slapped her in the face. “Why don’t you ever fight in class?”
The bear boy and bunny girl sprang up, joining the wolf boy. “Yeah! You suck!” the bear boy roared.
“You can’t even throw a punch!” the bunny girl added.
“I don’t understand,” Vi protested. “Why would I fight? I don’t want to hurt anyone, ever.”
“Isn’t your family supposed to protect us?” the wolf boy snarled. He began to slap her repeatedly. “Come on! Do something! You’re an Azurelane! How can you protect us if all you do is try stupid hugs all day?”
“I—I will beat the bad guys with love,” Vi stammered. She felt the sting of the slaps on her cheek and it began to hurt. Her eyes watered.
“Look, she’s crying!” The bunny girl hooted with laughter, and then kicked Vi in the stomach, over and over. “She can’t even be slapped without being a big baby!”
“Owie! Ouch! What did I do? Am I bad?” Vi sounded genuinely bewildered.
The wolf boy punched her in the face. “Yeah! You are! Pugna! Pugna! Don’t you know what that means? Now fight!”
The wolf boy punched her again and again in the stomach. The bear boy, meanwhile, grabbed her tails and yanked them hard, driving his foot against her back. The bunny girl stood back a little and got a kick in whenever she saw an opportunity.
“Ow! It hurts!” Tears streamed down Vi’s cheeks. “I do not want to hurt anyone. I only want to make friends and make people happy!”
She curled into a ball as the other children beat her relentlessly.
“We won’t stop until you hit us back!” the wolf boy yelled, grinning in satisfaction as Vi squirmed and sobbed in pain.
Another girl’s voice suddenly cut in, an angry yell. “Hey! Stop it!”
A green shield of energy formed around Vi, and suddenly the three students were thrown backwards by the force of their own attacks, landing on the ground.
“Ouch!” the wolf boy said, rubbing his behind. “Who—?”
His voice trailed off as a cat girl stomped past him and knelt down to pry Vi from her fetal position.
Vi blinked up at her savior. Tears trickled down the little fox girl’s face, but she recognized the other girl’s black cat ears and tails, as well as her stunning emerald eyes. “Claire,” Vi sniffled. “Claire, it hurts. I feel scared.”
The cat girl gently patted Vi on the head. “It’s okay, Vi. I’m here for you. Let’s go home, okay? I’ll bring you home.”
Claire lifted Vi up and began to guide her forwards. The little fox girl limped and winced with each step.
The wolf boy sprang at Vi. “I’m not done with you—”
“Shut up!” Claire shouted, her green eyes flashing, and delivered a roundhouse kick straight to his stomach.
“Ack!” The boy flew back and hit the floor, then started loudly crying.
Claire shot him a look of disgust. “Oh, get a grip—”
“Claire Darkwaters!” an adult voice hollered from a schoolroom. Loud stomps came down the hall. “What did you do this time?!”
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“Claire, I can’t thank you enough.” Vi’s dad, Valos, sat at the table with a plate full of snacks, pouring drinks for the two kids. He was tall, with brown hair and fox ears. “I’ve been so worried about Vi, but you’re always there looking out for her.”
“No problem, domine Azurelane,” Claire replied cheerfully. She ate a cookie Vi had baked while the fox girl alternated between drinking tea and cuddling the cat girl. Claire normally wasn’t a touchy person, but she never minded when it was Vi.
“I’m not sure how I’ll deal with her in the future, to be honest. There’s almost a one hundred percent possibility she keeps her base personality years from now. Can you imagine?” Valos shuddered to himself. “A full-grown woman walking around trying to hug everyone she meets. She’ll drown in accusations of harassment and legal fees.”
“Mm-hm,” Claire answered noncommittally. She munched another cookie. She didn’t completely understand him, just his general meaning. Sometimes the Azurelane family used strange terms, like words and concepts that they said hadn’t been invented yet.
“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” a voice said behind Valos, and a fox woman’s arms wrapped around his shoulders. She had long black hair, black ears and tails like Vi, and sky blue eyes. She had a small smile on her face.
“Arienne!” Valos nearly jumped in surprise, before recovering himself.
Arienne stroked Vi’s cheek. “Such a good little honey pie.”
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“Don’t encourage her,” Valos growled to his wife as he watched Vi blabber to Claire about how to make brownies. “You know I don’t have nearly enough time to spend with you and Vi now that I’m busy finishing the System.”
“The System? Will it come on-time soon?” Claire asked, suddenly excited.
“Online,” Valos corrected her, with a chuckle at her expression. “Yeah. It will. After your class graduates from the Academy.”
“I can’t wait! I’ll be the best adventurer ever!” Claire cheered. She pumped an arm in the air. “Initiis herois! Look out world, here I come!”
Valos grinned. “You’ve been practicing the common tongue, haven’t you?”
“Yeah!” Claire replied enthusiastically. “Is it true our partners will be able to speak the same language as us? That’d be so great!”
Valos nodded. “That’s the point. Our native languages are too varied. But the common tongue will evolve over time as well, so I guess we will need schools to learn it for each new group that shows up.”
Arienne spoke, putting a tail around the cat girl. “You’re already a hero without a partner, Claire. Especially after all the little missions you’ve done outside of school, and that’s not even mentioning your help with Vi.”
“They’re not little, domina Azurelane! They’re big missions,” Claire corrected her with a confident air. “Big missions, leading up to even bigger missions! I’ll be the best Hero one day. I’ll work with everyone and make a world where all the races can live together in peace.”
Valos smiled at that, a hint of weariness in his voice. “That’s our family’s dream, too. For too long, the world has been in an endless cycle. War, death, then peace, then conflict, and war once more—it never ends. Maybe it’s a foolish dream. Maybe unachievable. But it’s a good goal for a hero to strive towards.”
“The System will change all that,” Claire declared.
Valos shrugged. “Who knows? We need some kind of protection, at least. We knew even in the old days, before the civil war, when House Crimsonway and Violetlight were shattered. That’s why the leaders from each of the Jewels started planning and building the System, a long time ago. The Four Houses wouldn’t be enough.”
Arienne looked at Claire with kind eyes. “You and Vi will be part of the first generation to ever use the System. You two will carry the hopes of the Four Houses with you.”
Vi, who had fallen silent, blinked down at her cookie, then at Valos. She asked, shyly, “Um, Dad? What will my role be?”
Valos looked over. He reached out and smoothed her brown hair. “Whatever you want, sweetie. You don’t have to worry about being an adventurer. My plan right now is to have you down as a solo healer and you get to help partners with their medical problems. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah!” Vi nodded her head, sounding delighted. “I love helping people!”
Arienne looked thoughtful. “Solo? Are you sure you can hack that in? Valos, maybe tell her the truth. If she gets a partner—”
Valos shook his head. He fixed Arienne with a stern glare. “No. It’s not time yet. I only have a short window of possibility, and I can’t forgive myself if I mess up.”
Vi gazed at her parents with curiosity in her eyes.
Valos smiled at Vi for a moment, hesitated, and then added, “There’s a pre-existing problem with your profile I still need to sort out. It’s been keeping me awake a lot of nights. Maybe I’ll explain it to you when you’re older. I’ll have it fixed by the time you graduate, I promise.”
“Okay!” Vi beamed. She gave him a hug.
Arienne sighed. “Our little dumb-dumb is so sweet. I think Valos would have a heart attack if she ever ran into a monster.”
“If you’re going to be a healer, you can set up shop in the capital,” Claire jabbered to her friend. “Then I can visit you anytime after my missions! And then when I get kids, I’ll send them to your place! And then they’ll send my grandkids to your place! And then they’ll send my great-grandkids! And then—”
“Okay, enough with the infinite longevity jokes,” Valos half-growled, doing his best not to sound amused.
“I’ll make a cafe,” Vi piped up to her friend. “Then you can stop by and I can make you food and drinks too!”
“Good idea!” Claire agreed with enthusiasm. “You’ll make a cafe and I’ll fight monsters and save princes, and I’ll bring members of every race in it, and it’ll be a place where everybody can be fed and sort out their problems in life! It’ll be the base for my master plan where I learn diplomacy and negotiate with all the empires!”
“Free hugs! World peace!” Vi cried, throwing her hands up as they both grew excited at their growing imagination.
Valos sighed, shaking his head with a rueful expression on his face. “Kids.”
“Will you really go out and fight monsters?” Vi asked Claire, her eyes wide.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you! I’m a cool cat. Won’t let anyone shake me. Even a den of dragons would be scared of me after I’m through with them. Haven’t you been listening?” Claire asked with a smirk.
“Claaaaaire! You’re so brave! You’re the best!” Vi clutched the cat girl, her eyes shining. “I wish I could be like you!”
Claire laughed. “You, be an adventurer?”
Vi shook her head. She gazed down at the table, her ears drooping. “I—I know I’m not very brave, or smart, or strong like you. I don’t even like fighting. I want to support you and the other adventurers so you can do your best. Everybody’s right. I’m only a weak and silly fox.”
“Hey. Don’t talk like that.” Claire’s green eyes grew serious. “I was surprised, that’s all. Listen to me. You know what’s most important about being a hero?”
Vi shook her head, a little caught off guard by the sudden change in tone.
The cat girl poked Vi in the chest. “This. Amor est maxime momenti. And you’ve got the biggest heart of anyone I know, Vi. You could be a great hero, if you ever wanted to be. Keep doing what you’re doing, alright? Age quod agis. Don’t let anyone change who you are on the inside.”
Vi’s mouth trembled. She looked ready to burst into tears with gratitude.
Valos and Arienne exchanged a knowing glance with one another. “Well spoken,” Valos murmured quietly.
“Aaaaaaah! Claire!” Vi hugged the cat girl tight as the waterfall began and she bawled.
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The present. Alexandra, capital of the Anima Kingdom.
“What are you looking at?” Alicia glared at Vi, arms folded.
Vi stared at the cat girl. The resemblance was uncanny. Alicia’s cat ears and tails were the same shade of black. The eyes were so similar. She looked the same size as Claire at her age, too, if a little shorter. Her voice was a tad colder, her tone a bit more rough from lack of school. She even had the same expression on her face, a slight pout in her lips when she got mad.
As memories ran through Vi’s mind, the king and queen’s rebukes echoed in her head. She recalled images of dead bodies. Expressions of fear, pain, anger, and even betrayal.
“You reminded me of a good friend.” Vi spoke quietly, very softly. “Her name was Claire. You’re her descendant, did you know that?”
“You mentioned something like that, I think,” Alicia muttered.
“I…I’m sorry,” Vi said. Her voice trembled as she looked into the cat girl’s eyes. She didn’t seem to be only apologizing about making Alicia wait, but rather something deeper.
The assassin narrowed her eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“I wanted to make her proud. She…” Vi’s voice hitched. “She inspired me on how to be a hero, you know.”
Alicia snorted. “A hero? Didn’t you try to kill me?” Twice, she added in her head.
Vi flinched as if she’d been physically slapped. “Are you—are you mad at me?”
Alicia made a humph. “It’s whatever. Just stop staring.”
“Okay. Sure.” Vi turned her head away. She silently gathered the cat girl and Enrique with her and began to walk home.
Alicia knew she should feel elated. Her mission had been a complete success. Not only had she eliminated the threat and ensured Master’s faith in her for at least a good while, but she had also succeeded in distracting Azurelane from his plans.
But she didn’t feel good at all. The memory of her last job and the carnage had made her feel sick to her stomach. She watched Vi in silence, wondering what had happened between her and the royal family.
Vi seemed to have taken Alicia’s annoyance with her personally somehow. Azurelane wasn’t an idiot—surely she knew Alicia was merely annoyed at waiting for half an hour at the front of the palace, while the guards glared at her and Enrique. Merely looking at Vi had created some sort of effect. Alicia knew, logically, that it made the most sense to capitalize on the fox woman’s emotions.
“What did you talk about?” Alicia asked, as Enrique looked at Vi with concern. Maybe the question would draw out her vulnerability.
Vi shook her head and said nothing.