Blake

These two are an interesting duo.

Ori Haustoria’s interpretation of her stemata is well beyond the previous user’s limits already. Arno Achebe’s toolkit for battle is relatively basic, but there's a small chance for growth.

Arno Achebe’s body plummeted right past me and raced towards the ground. Ori ran as fast as she could to attempt to save him with stemata in hand but it’s no use. Instead of the luminous blue that stematas give off when they’re ready for use, her stemata has finally reached that colorless gray state. Meaning, there’s no stem energy left. She’ll have to wait until it recharges. Oh. I should probably be doing something here.

I switched to Arno’s stemata and flew down to catch him and put him down easily. Impressive. I knew I messed up Ori’s firebolt and couldn’t make a one to one copy of it, but it was still a powerful blast of flame. Despite all of that though, it looks like he’s simply suffered second degree burns. Just how strong is this guy, I wonder?

I digress though. I’ll wait for Ori to get here before—

Wham!

Huh? Am I…flying? What just happened?

Oh, I get it.

I used Arno’s stemata to stabilize myself and land safely.

“You really are something else, Arno Achebe—” Before I could even finish, another fist came rushing at me. Even though he’s nearing death’s door, he still has this much vigor. I used his own stemata to dodge and counter each and every one of his attacks. It got to a point where I was actually getting bored and wanted to put an end to this already.

That’s when his lovely girlfriend finally joined the mix. I used his stemata to perform a takedown and pin him to the ground, with my hand around his neck.

“If you get any closer, I’ll kill him.” In response to that, she immediately stopped in her tracks with an inconsolable fire in her eyes.

“Aww don’t look at me like that. I’m not used to women giving me those types of looks.”

“Why are you doing this?” She ignored my teasing and got straight to the point.

“Why…” I trailed off before finally saying “Classified!” I already knew my answer. I was just pausing to be dramatic!

“Regardless, you’re screwed. Your Deceitful Depression buddies aren’t going to be able to save you when—”

“Deceitful Depression? Oh yeah that’s the name I came up with. None of that is real, by the way.”

“…What?” Arno’s hoarse voice managed to produce a sound.

“Yeah, no. I’m not part of some group hellbent on destroying zone four.”

“How the hell did you know about the first contact, then? How did you know what the people that attacked wore?”

I then explained how I got such information while using my copied version of the Health Maiden’s stemata to heal Arno’s wounds. After the fall, my team and I opened an investigation on the event. In that investigation, we got a couple of accounts of what their appearances were and managed to assemble the beginning of a timeline of events. This was before terrorism exponentially ramped up though, so I was called back in to help with Holian matters.

“I hate leaving a case unsolved though. Hopefully I get to wrap things up when things die down here.”

The announcer briefly interrupted our conversation to announce, “Our trainees have three minutes left to finish up their battles and secure their badges! Who will end up on top? Who will walk away with nothing to show for it?! We’ll find out in three!”

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“Damn it! What a waste of time! Arno, we’re leaving!” Ori urged Arno to follow her. Just as quickly as I started my encounter with them, they’re leaving just as soon after.

“Wait! Don’t you guys want to know my title?!”

“No!” They both said simultaneously as they disappeared into the forest. Aw man. I actually think the name “Trickster” is a nice fit for me. I could’ve gotten something more lame. Like that one guy “Chef’s Kiss.” Awful. Just awful.

But besides that…I’m glad I finally got to meet them. I tried replicating that moment in which the mysterious stranger came to help Arno, but I guess it really was just a spur of the moment sort of deal. Meaning Arno Achebe and our unknown friend have no connection. The thorough investigation I did on every Haustorian in the country confirms that this person is a new player who snuck into Holia to cause some mayhem. It’s kind of interesting, actually. I’m getting all of these things about this person and their plans, but it’s never enough to paint a full picture. It’s like they want to make us aware of their presence, but not enough to outright tell us who they are. We’re working off of their schedule.

Speaking of schedule…I made the press print out those articles on Vicnine losing their disaster status. If I’m remembering correctly, Sonata’s not the type to just let that slip away. This is a real make or break of his career that he’d fight to keep. Even if it meant the destruction of Vicnine. The expected window of that terrorist attack would’ve been a month ago…

Believe it or not, but everyone thinks that deduction is that image of stereotypical red lines connecting different locales and people on a board. People think you need one hundred percent accuracy before you’re allowed to even point a finger. But there is no such thing as an absolute truth during a case. There’ll always be some hanging thread or question in the air. That’s when a very important part of detective work comes in:

Intuition.

With intuition, all holes in a case are magically filled. And right now, my intuition is telling me that our mysterious stranger has something to do with that disappearance. Honestly, they probably either obliterated Vicnine or commandeered their forces. Safer to assume the latter.

The real question is whether or not he’s going after the rest of the disasters. Samukami? Nah. We aren’t even able to zero in on his hideout after years of analyzing his tech. Anima? HA! As if. Albion Walker? It’d probably be a close match, but I doubt he’d bother. Besides, he’s another one of those types that likes to fly under the radar to accomplish his goals…whatever they are.

Regardless, if he tried pursuing any one of the other disasters, an attack should be expected within the year. That’ll give me more than enough time to track him down. But if he’s just saying screw it and attacking with his current forces…

An attack could come any day now…

Arno

I knew I got a bad feeling from that guy! He made that big scene and have us believe he was an entirely different person when he was just another titled CT! He…He!

“He received us!”

“I love your enthusiasm babe, but it’s deceive. We don’t have enough time, so we have no choice but to foot it and try to find Therese—”

All of a sudden, everything around us turned pitch black. There was only one CT that Ori and I both knew could do this.

“Ms. Natalia! Ori, we should go fight her—”

“Too big of a difference of risk vs. reward. Natalia isn’t a titled CT, but she has the strength of one.”

“Oh yeah.”

The politics behind the titling of CTs goes deeper than I thought. Someone as strong as Ms. Natalia could probably go up against one of the disasters. But because she dresses inappropriately and says some things the government doesn’t like, she hasn’t been given that honor. This dome of hers is one of her most impressive feats. What did she call it again? Eternal Night, I think. It alone…could…

“WAIT!” I picked Ori up and used my stemata to propel us away. Where did it spring from again? I think North, so I’ll just have to make sure we’re traveling south.

“Arno, what are you doing? You need to conserve as much of your energy as possible!”

“It won’t matter if we get trapped! You wouldn’t know this since you were taken out so quickly, but her stemata covers a wide area. We’ll be in her domain for the rest of the time we have left if we don’t make it out!”

“O-oh…” Ori was understanding, but concerned about the situation. I know, Ori, but we have to pick the lesser of two evils here. We have way more of a chance if we fight a trainee over a pseudo-titled CT right?

I saw the dome enclosing the area around as. I was getting closer and closer as the dome was about to complete. I made it by a hair’s breadth as I pushed Ori out and tumbled out of the dome itself. My stemata turned into a simple necklace as the gem turned gray once more. Yeah…I’m finished with this thing for today.

“Looks like you’ll be wrapping things up here, Ori. I’m all out…”

“I’ll…try my best.” Ori said as she stood up battered and bruised. I just had my raw strength to go off while Ori barely had any stem energy in the tank herself. I’m just hoping we can get something extra. Otherwise, there’s a chance only one of us will be becoming a CT.