HAIRIONETTE VS. ALK

“The first fighter only cares about one thing, and that’s hair. Cutting it, styling it, smelling it, as long as she’s around it. She might not be all there, but you can’t deny her passion. She’s the head stylist at the Wandering Souls Circus and makes sure we’re performance ready every night. The Hypnotized Hairdresser, Hairionette!”

Hairionette was carried into the arena by her hair. Her feet only touched the ground once she was up on the stage. Her powder rose locks then wrapped back around her, hugging her like form-fitting clothing.

“Our second Fiend is a master of medicine, but not to help others, to harm those in her way. She’s actually banned from Drome Coli, but a special exception was made for this tournament. In her hands, not even a Fiend is safe from disease. What will she concoct for us… Maybe a love potion? Word is, she’s got a crush on a certain someone. The Pestilent Plague Doctor, Alk!”

“Slander me again and I’ll turn your skin inside out,” Alk made a very real threat as she approached the stage.

Rallie didn’t try to banter back and made herself scarce. “No obstacles. Fight!”

《Kada: Hey there, Alk. I’m glad you came! I wasn’t sure if you would. Hope you’re doing well since everything happened. If you ever need someone to talk to, you always have a friend in me!》

“We’re not friends!” Alk shouted up at the spectator booth.

《Rallie: It seems my fellow commentator is a bit biased towards one competitor, but I suppose I’m the same. Let’s just hope for a good match.》

《Kada: Sorry, just been worried about her, is all. I hope you both do your best!》.

“I like your hair,” Hairionette broke the ice back down in the arena, gently smiling at her opponent. “It must be a lot of work to keep it styled like that.”

“Can we not waste our time with this pointless jabber?” Alk snarled beneath her mask. “You’re just an obstacle in the way. So shut up and fight.”

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“Okay,” The Hairdresser was amenable, no animosity in her words. But she still took the first move.

“What the? Ahgaga, that hurts!” Alk suddenly found herself being dragged back by her spiked pony-tail, quickly pulling her to the edge of the arena. If she didn’t do something immediately, the fight would be over in seconds. The Plague Doctor jutted out both blades from the tips of her boots and dug them into the arena floor, managing to stop herself in place.

Alk then reduced the pain in her head. It didn’t stop her opponent from tugging at it, but it let her focus a bit better. The woman reached into her pouch and dug out a few needles, jabbing them all into her arm. “Let me make something that will end this quickly!”

While she worked, Hairionette increased the strength of her power, forcing Alk to further negate her pain and lean forward more to balance the pull. Even though it didn’t seem to be bothering her, Alk’s skin on her head was visibly being tugged away from her skull.

“If you don’t do something soon, I’m going to rip your hair right out of your head,” Hairionette did her best to taunt her opponent.

“Funny,” Alk breathed heavily through the torment, finally drawing her concoction into a syringe out of her arm. “I was thinking the same thing.”

She flung the needle right at Hairionette, but the woman effortlessly blocked it with a fist of hair, batting it away. But it also broke the vial. The hair that touched the liquid died and dissolved instantly. But it didn’t stop there. The disease trailed up the strands, all the way to Hairionette’s roots, infecting her scalp.

It only took a second, but every last strand of the woman’s hair crumbled away, leaving her bald and shining. The moment Hairionette noticed, she collapsed to the ground into a blubbering mess. Tears streaked from her eyes, and she sobbed at an alarming rate, quickly creating a pool around her agonized face.

《Rallie: How horrible!》

“What’s the problem?” Alk addressed the crowd that was quickly turning on her. “Her hair will be back to its full length tomorrow. That’s how Fiends work in case you’ve forgotten.”

《Kada: Sorry Alk, but even I think that was too cruel. You just destroyed her whole world.》

“Ugh, fine!” the woman relented. “If she surrenders, I’ll help regrow her hair!”

“I-I-I suwwenda!” Hairionette barely got out the words between her sobs. Alk kept her word and applied a new concoction to the woman’s scalp, a hair-growth tonic. It wasn’t enough to get it back to where it was, but it gave the woman a wavy shoulder-length bob—enough to placate her as she wrapped the new hair around her face like a mask and wandered off the stage.

“Alk wins… but at what cost.”

~Unfulfilled Wish~

Hairionette: A stipend of hair from every Fiend in the world. Delivered weekly.