NEW SLAVES [FEAT. MINERVA]

It was quite boring, really. Minerva had never found much interest in things like television, although she did leisurely zapped through some channels, in hopes of finding something interesting. She did not like being alone at home much, but it just could not be helped sometimes. With both her parents off to visit some boring old library, Mina preferred staying in the boring old home. Besides, someone had to stay, as some Quincy person had announced a messenger coming over or something. Her parents had not really explained it to her beyond ‘wait for that person, tell them we are not home, and take the message they give you’. Then they left with that sappy lovey look in their eyes that meant they wouldn’t want her around anyway. Whatever the reason might have been for that.


In either event, she had been home, dressed in a simple combination of shirt and skirt, when she eventually did feel something. Being the child of book-quincy who were Echt, but at the same time had little power of their own, there had never been much spiritual presence around for her to feel. She had tried it a bit, of course, due to the lessons she had been given, but her parent’s ability was insignificant. There simply had not been anything to feel.


But now, there was something. Obviously, she could not tell what exactly it was. But it was definitely there, and she could tell a rough direction. Somehow, she simply felt more alert by feeling this, not just curious, so she did not immediately get out, but instead grabbed her cross on the way out, not bothering to take a door, but instead deciding to rather use the nearby window, after checking for possible onlookers.


With none in sight, she rode the spirit particles over to a nearby rooftop, scanning the area for whoever was behind this odd feeling. And then she saw them. Well, some people, doing something. One was shooting arrows at another, one being dressed in black, one in white. Sooo who were these guys?

No clue. No clue at all. Which of them was the bad guy, which the good guy – she truly could not tell. But, she did know that one of them was shooting at the other like that, with apparent disregard to the city.


So she did the feasible thing, and while he was busy shooting at the other guy and not caring about Mina behind him, she picked up speed, ran over to him, jumped and…

…kicked him in the back. Because, what else?

“Hey, don’t shoot around like this in the middle of the city!”

Wellll, that was going overboard. Had she put too much power into the kick? It most certainly seemed to be the case, with that man suddenly over the rooftop, leaving Mina somewhat dumb footed. She landed almost mechanically, not giving it much thought, and stumbled forward, towards the ledge, in order to look after that guy. This had not really been an attack to damage, after all, just an attempt to get these guys to stop fighting. So she immediately felt bad for having done this, such a fall could cause serious damage after all. Worried, she gazed over the edge, not really daring to show herself well due to feeling bad about it. Relief flooded over her when she saw him being well enough to get up again, only to immediately switch into annoyance, when she saw him trying to resume his petty fighting again.


Only to then switch immediately into a surprised yelp, when she noticed the friggin corpse right besides it. She did not even register the weapon being primed at her, just stumbled backwards, falling onto her rear, eyes still widened, even though she could no longer see it. It was the first corpse she had ever seen, so bloody and contorted. And she simply had not expected anything at all like this. The picture occupied her mind, even when it was replace by roof tiles. It wasn't until someone's face was almost pressed into hers, that she really returned to reality.

For just a few moments, she forgot the grisly sight, yelped again, but this time more in surprise. She really had not expected that man, who had appeared to be in peril before, to just randomly appear in front of her, if anywhere. In fact, she kind of had forgotten about him altogether.


And then she noticed the other man, the one she had kicked down, also on the rooftop, but already having been stabbed by the red-haired man. That was just surreal. So much stuff had happened so quickly, she truly did not know where her head way anymore. The only thing she did know was the guy in front of her being a murderer. She stared at him with open eyes for a few moments, and then had processed things enough to react.

“Sorry!”

She yelled that at him, but actually meant the man she had kicked, for causing his untimely demise like that. Then she, from the half sitting position she was in, used all her speed and power to kick that man in front of her between the legs.

That felt weird. Minerva had – for obvious reasons – never before using this technique. Upon reflection, it was actually quite the gross thing to do and made her blush, but it had never looked like that on tv. First, it hurt a little in the foot doing it, second it was kind of…squishy.


Icky, icky, icky. Minerva crawled backwards a little after hitting him like that, and then got up slightly. She wasn’t exactly thinking ahead there, so she hesitated and refrained from doing much of anything, and instead watched the man cringe. However, she did notice those, well, arrows protruding out of his back there, making her even less insecure. This hadn’t been some kind of friendly squabble there, now had it? And if someone had shot at him without pulling any stops, maybe he had been right to strike back. Heck, he could have gotten those just a moment ago. That guy downstairs had readied some kind of ranged weapon at her, had this man taken them for her?


Mina was obviously confused, especially when some other woman suddenly appeared. She looked frantically from one to the other, trying to make sense of this at all. This was just too confusing, every little thing about it. Minerva gave up trying to think about it. That would not lead anywhere, either way. No, there was only one person who could help here. Well, two, technically, but who cared?

“Argh, this is just too much! Just explain all this, reddie, so I can decide upon being sorry for this or not!”

A finger pointing at him, she yelled that, still utterly confused, but also quite tense. Just in case he was an enemy. She did not have any combat experience yet whatsoever, so she was at a loss regarding what she should do in the first place. Her only source so far was video tutorials and lessons she’d gotten, fighting imaginary foes. But this was different. If he proved to be an enemy, she would have to give it her all.

Parents? In danger? How? And why? Somehow, mister redhead over there had a drastically different understanding of the word ‘explain’ than her. Instead of answering any questions, he only created more, as he proceeded to get rid of those arrows. Apparently, those were more a nuisance than a danger to him, so there wasn’t all that much need to worry. At least about his health, that was. Concerning the potential danger her posed….a bit less.


Mina actually tensed up when he retrieved his blade, but sighed audibly when he put it away. She did not want to fight, after all, especially not without knowing anything about who they were, or why those Chinese people had been fighting them. Oh and why the gosh she and her family were in danger.

“I am fine, unlike you. But that’s besides the point. Spill it, what is going on here? I don’t know who these weird guys were, but you can’t go around just killing people without a good reason, so what is it? Were these guys the danger? Or is it you, reddie?”

She only said that for completion’s sake, but she was not yet trusting that man fully. After all, he hardly had given her a reason to do so, now did he? She had kicked him like that, so she figured she could at least do something, if he came after her, but she still preferred that not to happen. Especially not with someone who obviously was ready to kill.

“And anyway, shouldn’t someone notice this by now? I mean there was fighting and death, why isn’t the police here already?”

“Pah.”

Minerva pouted again, just for a few moments, for he had just doubly annoyed her. Not only had he once more not really answered her question, no. He had also implied that she was clueless, simply because she had made an observant question. As a matter of fact she knew that she was a quincy, and if anyone else around her was one too, then they were humans as well, thus it would be in the jurisdiction of mortal police. Although the only other quincies she knew were her parents, of course.


Still crossing her arms, she slightly squinted her eyes in hopes to make him more talkative, although she kind of already knew that she was not threatening in the least. Sure, she could pull out her talent to intimidate him, but she was still not sure what to do in an actual fight, so she did not want to provoke one. Showing off should be reserved for less ambiguous situations.

“I know that I am a quincy, and so are my parents. Beyond that, I have not met any of my own just yet. But who would even want us harm? We are quincies, yes, but my parents do not have much to distinguish them from normal, and I may have talent, but due to those rules that are apparently in place, I can’t use it much anyway. So why bother? Who could we threaten? And don’t give me that elusive crap anymore, I would like some answers as to why you are killing people in my town.”

Hopefully, that would get him to spill the beans for once. It likely wouldn’t, of course, but a girl could still hope, couldn’t she?

“Gesundheit.”

She replied like that on reflex, after hearing that word. Gemischt grudge- that sounded nasty. Like something you got from eating too much seafood. Sure, it apparently had some kind of relevance, but without a proper introduction, he could have talked about purple elephants for the same effect. No, wait, she would have at least been able to visualize those. She still gave him that pouty look and waited for him to finally lodge the arrow out of his rear, which apparently he had overlooked, but before it could come to this, that other woman talked again, calling him away. Of course, he would now tell her that she had to wait a moment, so that he could explain everything properly.


Or, well, a decent human being would have said that.


That….person over there, however, would not have any of that. Instead, he just gave her some kind of cryptic nonsense and got off the roof, apparently expecting her to just follow him, like some trained doggy. But this time he was wrong! As if she would do something like that. She did not need to follow some random bloke, just because he talked big like that. And technically she wouldn’t really have cared about him, but being left standing there with two corpses did kind of make her uneasy after all. She only struck a pouty pose for a few more seconds, and then she ran over to the ledge again, looked to see If anyone had shown up, and then rode the spirit particles down to the ground, jogging after them.

“Hey, you, what do you think you are doing? I asked you a question here, so don’t run away like some kind of big-shot.”

It was favorable that she was sufficiently dressed. For a bit, she had contemplated to just not change out of her pajamas, but now the decision to do so really paid off. Because she would have told him to go to hell, had he forced her to work around in those.

“Not running away, heh? And what are you calling this, taking a stroll?”

She yelled after the man, not caring if someone was listening, but then she had to make a decision. And it was an easy one. She wasn’t going to simply walk back and go watch tv or anything, gosh no. The desire to actually understand all this was burning hot in this young woman, and she had wasted enough time already. Her perception was weak, so she just knew she would lose this man if she could no longer follow him the usual way, so once more she begun to manipulate those particles that she did not even know that well.


It was pure talent and exercise, this being one of the skills she could train with impunity. She had taken the city like this quite often – though usually at night – so she knew exactly where she could stop for a moment, and which roof would offer her the best view. Yet, it still was not easy for the light haired girl to actually follow him. Her first real chase, and she already had someone much faster on her hands. But she was annoyed and challenged enough to simply ignore that notion and giving it her all, trying her best to keep up or at least not lose sight of him.

By the time she had caught up with him, he had released that weird woman and stopped. Facing some kind of office. Coming to a halt as well, she landed less than graciously, but at least without embarrassing herself. Still, she was panting slightly. Yet, when she noticed that, she quickly tried to cut it off, to not appear weak in front of that guy.

“It’s not like I followed you, but since I ended up in the same neighbourhood, why not use that chance and finally tell me what is going on? I am getting sick playing the coyote to your roadrunner, reddie.”

And yes, she did resume her pouty, arm crossed stance again. Because why not?