CHAPTER 4

Suu.

Suu watched the dangerous dark skinned man who called himself William carefully. Like all the men with power she'd ever known, he was not to be trusted.

And this one had more power than any one man should have a right to.

The casual ease with which he had disarmed, and commanded her to sleep, still smarted. Clearly he was a bully, and one who had no qualms flaunting his strength against those he considered weaker than him.

But she was only biding her time, when he tried to betray them, which he inevitably would. Then she would show him that strength wasn't necessarily force, but also guile and cunning. He would look upon the face of true strength, and it would be the last thing he would ever see.

Her mother used to read her stories of the nogitsune; dark trickster cousins to the noble kitsune and how they deceived and brought ruin to those who crossed their path in the guise of well meaning intentions.

Those were some of the few memories she had of her mother, huddled together in a public shelter, trying to ignore the explosions and rapid staccato of various repeating weapons outside, trying to ignore the sounds of their world falling apart.

No, she wouldn't think of those times, that was a long time ago, and she was no longer the weak little girl that desperately clung onto magical fairy tales, hoping they would somehow change all that was wrong with her world.

But this world held evidence that some of the fairy tales held merit. Who knows, maybe the noble kitsune truly walked this strange new world. What would her mother say if she could see this magical place for herself.

Suu let the moment of nostalgia wash over her for a few moments, before ruthlessly squelching it. As much as she missed her mother, she had no intention of looking back.

She noticed how the cop kept making plans on how to lead the rest of them out of here and back to Earth. Or how the little one cried herself to sleep, mumbling about family or friends from her own Earth.

Although she still had trouble accepting the idea of multiple Earths, as far as she was concerned, there was nothing left for her back on her Earth. She owed blood to far too many dangerous people, and some wanted to settle those scores in long and extremely painful ways.

No, she wasn't going back, maybe what she needed was a fresh start, a chance to reinvent herself. But first, she needed to know what the strange dark man knew.

While little Suu was fascinated by the pure hearted kitsune, battle hardened Suu, ranked assassin of the order of knives, was more interested in the cultivation myths of her ancestors.

She had heard during a conversation between Melody and Minnie while they were still trapped in that damned chamber, that it was offensive to call people of his colour negro, nigga, or any other racial slur, so she tried to avoid using them in his presence to better ingratiate herself with him.

At least she was trying, the old her would have strung him upside down and begun to cut until he spilled all his secrets.

But she was trying to be different this time, trying to be nice to these weak and soft people from worlds where peace more or less was a norm.

But it might also have something to do with the fact that he terrified the hell out of her.

The man was just too strong and she didn't believe in his whole, 'I'm only here to help you and make you stronger nonsense'. Men with power never shared it with women, at least not the power and authority that really matters. Sooner or later he would show his true colours and she would be ready.

His strength of resolve to face a demon he had no chance of defeating was either unyielding courage or absolute lunacy. His rate of recovery was almost miraculous and the casual ease with which he dispatched a spy that only he could detect was nothing short of impressive.

So far, he seemed open and honest with his information about cultivation, and apart from a few clearly unspoken secrets, it looked like he was actually being honest with them and for a moment, she considered letting her guard down.

Then he nearly killed one of them and she knew that once again, she'd been proven right.

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Just as quickly as the little one began to convulse under his ministrations, she quickly jumped on him to unbalance him, and plunged her stolen blade with all her might into his neck.

It was at this moment, that she was forced to revise both her estimation of her abilities, and the strength of her current nemesis.

Her attempt at unbalancing him with her weight did nothing but leave bruises on her pale skin, and her blade merely stopped against his impossibly tough skin.

He didn't even seem phased by her attempt on his life. He merely opened his eyes and stared calmly at her.

Then his gaze turned to Minnie, and the look of guilt on his face would have been very difficult to fake. For some inexplicable reason she couldn't begin to fathom, she could tell that he really did care.

He looked contrite as he stared at Melody's tear stained face and made promises to do better.

Meanwhile, Suu was lost in a world of her own.

Until that moment, despite what she'd seen him do, all she'd seen him survive, she had truly believed that she could handle William easily.

After all, no matter how strong he was, she could always rely on her ability to find and exploit the vulnerable points of men, no matter how powerful they may be.

But when her blade failed to pierce his skin, for the first time, her confidence in her skills faltered.

All her efforts to apply pressure to his vulnerable points were met with resistance.

And the worst part of it all was that he didn't even seem to notice.

What kind of monster is this?

Suddenly, Suu wasn't so certain of her ability to protect herself, much less anyone else, if this was how strong all the cultivator's of this world were, then she stood no chance against any of the half orc guards that guarded this place.

While all her focus had been on William, William's had been on Minnie.

After a bit of finagling with Melody, he was able to gain access to Minnie and fix whatever he broke in her.

There was so much she did not know, so much power outside her reach.

Suu kept her gaze on William while Minnie rested in Melody's arms, the gears in her head turning furiously.

She'd seen the way he looked at her, she was not blind to the interests of men. She just had little to no use for their attention and most of the time it was more trouble than it was worth.

But maybe with this one, it may be more valuable to play the wilting rose and gain both knowledge of cultivation and whatever hidden secrets he still kept from them.

She promised herself that she would make an effort to be nicer to him and even act a little suggestively around him.

The little one was fast asleep and Melody watched her like a nervous mother hen.

Suu still watched William, that was why she noticed when his focus shifted to a point at the edge of the ceiling.

His gaze remained unmoving, staring into seeming nothingness.

What was it that was taking his attention, Suu wondered? She could see nothing but cobwebs on the ceiling.

She was about to write it off as one of his odd quirks when she saw the smile on his face.

It was this smile that she saw when he was fighting the head demon, and it was the same one he had when he began his mad experiment on Minnie.

It was the smile that kept her on guard around him, one of many reasons she refused to trust him.

As someone who had dealt with the worst that humanity had to offer, Suu had seen and dealt with all sorts of people.

From the patriotic to the fanatical and even the maniacal, she'd seen them all.

It was the last category that caused her guard to go up.

She may not know who William was, but she knew the budding signs of madness anywhere, no matter how controlled it may be.

It was this attribute that made him unpredictable and coupled with his strength, it made him a possible threat that she had no defense against.

Still holding that small smile on his face that would have been charming to the inexperienced, he pointed fist raised, at the location his gaze had been fixed on and a pulse rushed out of his fist and slammed into nothing.

But to her surprise, the pulse was obstructed by something that looked like a clump of air.

It must have been invisible, but as soon as the pulse hit it, it became visible.

William twisted his fist in a bending morning and the pulse began to attack and rip apart whatever the air thing was.

Suu could see the concentration on William's face as he struggled with whatever entity was controlling the spy.

Even Melody now watched the scene with rapt attention as the struggle between William and the unseen force played out before them.

Suddenly the clump of air was disassembled and William slumped back on the wall behind him in fatigue.

"Whew, that was surprisingly difficult, I would need to figure out how to gain better control of my essence effects. Too bad that whoever was behind that magical listening device got away."

Then he turned to Suu and Melody who were watching him guardedly.

Suu was stunned by his display of power. It had never occurred to her that a world as seemingly medieval as this one clearly was would have access to listening technology of some kind, magic notwithstanding.

Just his casual display so far was enough to confirm that he was a treasure trove of knowledge on this strange energy known as essence and she was going to find a way to gain all his secrets from him.

And soon, because if there were cultivator's as powerful as William in the tournament William foolishly bet all their lives on, then she was going to need as much of this strange energy as possible just to level the playing field.