Helena

I had been a little caught off guard when I arrived, which is a truly rare occurrence.

This Freya was truly quite hard to figure out, there was the Freya that I had talked to over the phone right before she had gone to plant the swarm, who had been easily flustered and awkward one moment then telling jokes to make me feel better the next.

Then after I had found her in that hive in a sealed off cocoon her small body was broken and mostly gone looking extremely fragile.

When she had woken up and I talked to her yesterday, she was now apparently crazy, but she had still been easily flustered and I had enjoyed toying with to see how red I could get her to turn as it was incredibly cute.

Then from my sources in the police she had apparently killed two people who had meant to ambush her last night. Today she had torn through a gang of thirteen leaving no survivors, and had killed the CEO of Lively Corp and bankrupted what was left of the corp. None of which I had a problem with, in fact I had been meaning to deal with Lively Corp but had yet to get around to it.

But this was all a bit hard to fit with the person who had been waiting for me on the roof. I am not one who gets flustered but I was glad for the fact that landing gave me a moment to prepare myself.

She had been waiting for me in a dress that while its style and the wolf ears might have emphasized her cuteness, the shape of the dress and the fact that it was strapless showed off her ample curves. Then the leather jacket, combat boots, and streaks of purple in her hair in combination with her massive wings all came together to look like some sort of punk rock angel of death, which had been enhanced when she smiled revealing her fang like canine teeth. All of this meant that she was extremely my type.

So especially after her struggles of fighting into my car which had been followed by the adorable cheer of triumph, which despite my best efforts had been too much and I had found myself laughing at the situation, which had been met by good humor.

All in all this girl had held my slight curiosity enough to be worth meeting as after all I had never met another lesbian vanguard, so even if nothing had become of it romantically I had been hoping to gain a friend. But now after learning more about Freya and meeting her I admit I was already quite interested.

Now that we were both in the car, I took off and said

“It seems you had an eventful day. I should be thanking you for taking care of Lively Corp as I have been meaning to take a look at them for a while.”

I couldn’t see Freya through the mass of feather that currently occupied my passenger seat to judge her expression as she responded

“Eh, kinda nothing too much fun. Do you deal with a lot of Corps?”

I made a note of the use of the word fun, before replying

“You could say that when I am not busy doing vanguard work, I run a company of sorts that makes sure none of the corporations are doing anything too bad. Especially nothing that would impair the cities defensive capabilities as well as making sure that they don’t mess with vanguard equipment, much like what you did today. However it sticks more to providing information.”

To which Freya chirped back slightly muffled by her feathers

“That sounds pretty awesome! So when you aren’t doing that or vanguard stuff what do you like to do?”

To which I replied

“I like to read a lot and study, I also still enjoy working out even though with all the physical enhancements it probably doesn't make that much of a difference but I find it helps me clear my head. How about you?”

To which Freya happily responded

“That is nova!”

I noted the word nova it was slang primarily used in the slums which reminded me that Freya had grown up on the streets with Stitch so I was surprised when she continued and said

“I like reading too, especially real books. What do you like to read?”

The reason for my surprise was in all the information I had gathered on Freya and considering my resources was a large amount I had never found any recording of Freya attending any sort of schooling. So to learn that she not only enjoyed reading but physical books was a pleasant surprise.

In response to her question I answered

“I read a lot of informative books to learn new things from but I also enjoy a well written mystery novel. How about you?”

Freya replied in a excited tone

“Growing up, most of what I learned came from reading! You see this one time I broke into a rich kid's school and I stole some text books thinking it would be funny when they got to school and were missing their books… er… I mean I was walking along minding my own business walking along and stumbled across some books and since I had them decided to give them a read. From there I just started to read anything I could get my hands on, some of that stuff stopped me from getting tricked a few times. But recently I haven't been reading that much informational stuff, I like to read a lot of fiction especially action romance.”

Another seemingly contradictory aspect of Freya’s personality, she had been the kind of kid to break into a place and steal books. Which means that she had taught herself which was very impressive. I was genuinely curious in her taste in books so I asked

“What are your favorite series?”

She began listing off a few titles, a few I knew and few I didn’t, but we were soon arguing which was better which I was thoroughly enjoying so I was quite disappointed when we arrived at our destination.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

The destination was, I will admit, a rather famous Japanese restaurant named Fujiyama which normally one would need to make a reservation at least a month in advance. Funny enough I had found that to not be the case when the people wishing to eat there were two vanguard, one which may or may not have been a partial owner.

As soon as her door was open Freya practically sprung out of the car, and as soon as she was out she spread out her wings revealing just how large they were. When she was done stretching and folded her wings again, because I just felt like it, I grabbed her hand which seemed to surprise her as she turned red but after a moment she gripped my hand back so I didn’t let go but instead led her inside.

Inside we were greeted by name and shown to our seats, once seated I asked

“So do you like sushi?”

To which Freya enthusiastically nodded and answered

“Yep! It is actually my favorite food if you can believe it.”

I could, one does not simply have the best information gathering networks in the city and not use it to impress a date. I didn’t say this instead I simply let a grin spread itself across my face and answered

“Oh really? What a coincidence.”

At this freya grind back and narrowed her eyes but before she could say anything, at that moment our server arrived and after a short bow said

“Hello my name is Tyler I will be your server today. May I start you off with something to drink?

Miss Kitsune, would you like your regular or will you be switching it up today?”

Tyler had been her server here for years; he was slightly older into his forties and was always an excellent server. Sometimes it was like he was barely there other times we had had lengthy conversations that had left me finding him a brilliant conversationalist, and he always seemed to know which I was in the mood for. I responded to him with a nod and saying

“My normal would be excellent.”

He turned to Freya who looked up from the drink menu and said

“I’ll take an old fashion.”

Which I smirked at, the reason for my smirk was revealed when Tyler returned a moment later with two old fashions. We cheersed then I asked

“We both like books and whiskey. What else do you like?”

To which Freya put down her drink nodding apparently happy with the taste and said

“I also like music, blades, hoverbikes, and naps.”

As the dinner continued and we ate and I found out a bit more about Freya, I couldn’t deny the fact that she was most likely crazy as she was obviously quick to switch emotions, most likely schizophrenic as she would often seem to be watching things that were not there.

However I couldn’t keep from liking her because she was funny, and could go from looking extremely confident and laid back to adorably flustered and blushing with just a single comment. She was also just an incredibly interesting person who was extremely multifaceted and complex.

Throughout dinner I noticed her hand tapping on the table in perfect rhythm with the piano playing in the restaurant, but when the piano was replaced by an acoustic guitar she perked up both her ears turning toward the sound, which made for quite the cute image. Remembering that she had said she liked music earlier and what I knew about her I asked

“Do you play an instrument or sing?”

Like I didn’t know that she had been making serious waves in the music industry with only a little bit of help from Stitch. Though she had never done a live song or revealed what she looked like, instead releasing songs under the moniker Ghost. I am actually a big fan of her music, so it was quite interesting to learn that she was Ghost.

She nodded in response to my question and said

“I sing and can play a few instruments.”

Which was quite the understatement as I knew very well that she could play way more instruments than just a few instruments.

“Would you like to come to my home and play something for me? I could give you a reward if you do.”

I could tell I had her with that, then she instantly gave a jerking nod and shot up and said

“Th-that sounds nova.”

She was blushing furiously and, having already paid, I grabbed her hand again, which made her turn even redder which made me laugh, and led her to my car and once she finally managed to fit inside again, I really would need to do something to make that easier for her, took off. Once we were in the air I asked

“So when did you get into music?”

The mass of feathers in my passenger seat responded

“I have alway liked it for as long as I can remember. I got a guitar when I was young and would just kind of do my best to play and sing along with songs. It was not until four years ago that I got more serious about it.”

Four years ago also just happened to be the same time that Ghost had begun to release Music, what a surprise. Before I could ask any more questions Freya asked me

“Do you play any music?”

To which I replied

“No but I really have always enjoyed listening to music as a pastime, especially this one artist who popped up four years ago.”

Freya’s voice voice came out more as a squeak

“R-Really?”

Not even bothering to hide my smirk at her question as she couldn’t see me through her wings. I replied

“Oh yeah, they do every part of their songs by themselves, all the instruments and all the vocals everything.

Freya’s voice still a squeak said

“Is that so?”

It took a colossal effort to keep from laughing at that but instead of laughing I kept laying it on

“Definitely, also they do a lot of different genres. One song from them might make you feel like you could fight an army while the next will have you in tears.”

To which freya responded in an even higher pitch voice

“You don’t say.”

Having an incredible amount of fun I continued

“I do say, she has an amazing voice but she has never revealed her real name or what she looks like instead she goes by a moniker.”

To which Freya asked in a voice that was trying way too hard to sound casual

“A-and what might that moniker be?”

I grind even wider as I said

“They go by the name Ghost.”

From Freya all I heard was what sounded like a muffled yelp like she had her hands clasped over her mouth. So I twisted the knife by asking

“Do you know any of their songs?”

To which freya eventually managed to respond

“A few.”

To which I replied

“Do you think you could play them for me?”

To which freya who was back to squeaking again said

“Y-Yeah”

Freya was so preoccupied freaking out about that, that she didn’t react when we arrived at my home. The entrance looked like a construction project on the beach but where we should have hit solid ground we passed through, into my garage. As we landed the opening we had come through closed so that someone might stand right on it and never know what was below them.

The opportunity to get out is what partially shook Freya out of her stupor, she immediately jumped out and stretched, this time when she was done and I took her hand she was still too out of it to get flustered.

I led her over to the elevator which went sideways instead of up or down. We came out into the main living space which had a glass roof and sat below a coral reef. I led Freya over to the living room, her eyes glued to the view above the entire time. When we reached the room she finally spoke

“That is so nova!”

To which I simply smiled back, I didn’t get to share this place often so it was nice to have someone else appreciate it. A little bit latter Freya finally asked in the same voice that was trying way too hard to be casual

“You said earlier you wanted to hear something by Ghost? Any specific request?”

I may have slightly under sold how much I liked her music earlier the truth was Ghost was easily my favorite artist so I will admit that I was quite excited when I asked

“Can you do Creature Of The Night?”

In response Freya just nodded then her expression turned thoughtful and she nodded and a box appeared in front of her inside was a beautiful wooden acoustic guitar.

Which she picked up strummed, and turned a few of the dials on its base, before strumming it again this time nodding apparently satisfied with the sound.

She sat down on a coach and I pulled a chair over to allow me to sit in front of her. She looked at me and asked without any of the overly casual or strained tone from before

“You wanted Queen Of The Night right?”

I felt like a fangirl but just nodded enthusiastically

Freya nodded once in return then began the guitar beginning the tune she had listened to dozens of times then she inhaled and her voice began and it filled the space immediately without any sort of amplification. It took on an almost haunting tone that left shivers running down my back. I found myself unable to move as I was totally enraptured by her singing

The song is about a monster that was too weak to fight the other monsters in the light of day, so they took over the realm of darkness and would hunt the other monsters when they couldn’t see. During the day they would flee and then night would fall and they were a queen again.

I had always liked it as someone who used illusions and trickery. I had always felt I could relate to the queen of the night.

It also provided a good reminder to her to stay careful as it mentioned that one day the queen of the night would get caught in the light and meet her end.

When Freya was done I clapped and then said

“That was amazing! It was so much better in person! The recording doesn’t do you justice at all!”