Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 114: Arc 3, - 24: Fine, I’ll Do It Myself

No dreams; and if there were any, none that left a scratch on her waking memory. The curtain bathed in sunlight, the room itself made her sweat under her covers.

"Ngh..." Jotou grunted out of bed. Perhaps the myriad of emotions that swirled in her yesterday blocked the feeling of her sore legs. Dark circles, and her eyeballs felt an uncomfortable warmth.

Jotou sat, looking across. She took a deep breath and wiped her face. The watch ticked past noon, "Shit," Jotou threw the sheets aside in a daze.

’Calm down Jotou... No mistakes. Everything must be perfect if I have any chance of bringing them back.’

Soon, she found herself in an empty shower room; most people having used it long before her. The warm water against her bangs, trailed down her eyes—a momentary comfort.

The water rained down into the drain as Jotou absentmindedly stood under it. The blonde peered down her skin, much paler than her face in the current circumstance.

Jotou raised her leg, grabbing her feet with both hands to gently massage it. A breath escaped her lungs, massaging up her sore leg to give some relief before switching to her other leg.

’Ignore the aching. Today’s our only chance. We’ll take them on and get to Eli Frye... and this pain will all be gone.’ Could something truly remove the pain of seeing her friends dead, over and over?

’I won’t know till I try.’ The water rushed past her ears, falling like rain against her back, breathing to ignore the stress. Oh how she wanted to fall down onto the shower floor and cry... ’Not now.’

_

"Major Rashaad Schroeder?" Jotou smiled.

The major turned, "Oh, hello. Yes, I am Major Rashaad Schroeder. Is there anything I can help you with madam?" he took his hat off.

Major Schroeder looked behind the blonde, two soldiers that had accompanied her into the building. His brows furrowed. No one would be allowed entry; especially at a time like this...

"Hello, I’m Jotou Howllett."

His face twisted completely, a hint of recognition as that name stood on the tip of his tongue... Long blonde hair, yellow, black and white garments and a noble’s beauty. Perhaps? "I may have heard of such a name..."

"You may know me as the Thundering Blade of Kria."

Major Schroeder stood up straight from his seat, his desk with mapped out plans and paperwork. "Thundering Blade; to what do I owe the pleasure? My apologies, if I were notified of your arrival, my office wouldn’t look so, disorganized."

Jotou smirked in a hum, "No worries at all. I came here without notifying anyone either. And I can understand such a mess in a time as stressful as this."

"Oh? So you’re aware of our situation?"

"Quite. I was hoping to aid in your battle since both our goals are aligned. I have a, coarse, relationship with the Trailon Regime. I’m stuck here for the ban anyway."

"Well," the major tilted his head, "If you’re offering to aid in battle then I’m not denying it. But we’re not offering any rewards or compensation-"

Jotou shook her head, "That’s completely fine with me. Fighting them would be reward enough; call it a, personal quarrel of mine if you will."

"Alright then," the major put his hand out, "It will be a pleasure fighting beside you. We will leave in a few hours."

Jotou shook his hand, "I’ll be counting..."

_

"I’ve been getting reports questioning our experiment Professor!" Lieutenant Frye threw the papers onto the table. "We have used up more time then we’ve noticed. How could this happen!?"

The professor turned from his pipette and a metal dagger; the silver on the metal shifted hue with each drop. He took off his goggles, "OH! Yes, yes, I almost forgot, the counter said THREE!" he put up five fingers.

Frye pinched the bridge of his nose, "How, could you, FORGET SOMETHING LIKE THAT!? We should be reporting when the counter went up to two!"

"Eh? Maybe I forgot. The two and one look very similar. It’s not like I remember," the professor pointed fingers like a gun to his head, "BZZ!" he sounded.

"This is why you got fired from your station Professor Alano..."

"FOCUS ON DA FUTURE-A! Now we know we didn’t win," he replied to the roof of the tent.

Frye inhaled, "We seem to be facing an obstacle each time then. We need to find this obstacle and notify home base; then we can request assistance."

"May I continue on my work then? Seems you’ve got a handle on this," the professor’s goggles snapped back in place, eyes like giant bubbles.

"Whatever you’re working on won’t be complete if we have to do this again you old kook."

"Then what do you expect me to do!? Stick a thumb up my ass!? Actually..."

"What? No! I regret ever signing up with this damned mission," Frye sighed, "All we can do is, strategize and wait until that obstacle arrives. Whatever it is..."

_

She sat, watching the handle of her blade—the grey cord tied around it. Sitting still, waiting, waiting, the gunshots behind her. Her nails crawled over the handle; Jotou’s eyes sunk.

"Spite really does run that mind of yours..."

"It does, doesn’t it," Jotou replied to no one. "It’s always fun to piss people off. Why am I like this?" a soft chuckle.

’So, I need to focus on my spite. Or else I’m gonna end up bleeding out with shattered bones. And I’m missing a healer... I can’t afford mistakes. I need to make Eli Frye do whatever he did again.

Then I’ll have no reason to be sad anymore. So, cry-baby Jotou, just hang in there. Pissing off Trailon? Should be easy enough.’ She snickered, louder and louder.

"Ahem," she knitted her brows and took a breath. She squinted to the ground, then to her sword. A hand placed on her throat gently.

Jotou sheathed her sword and took a deeper breath before sitting up straight. She sensed in the corner of her eye, someone approaching to sit beside her.

First lieutenant, tanned skin and a hat with a gold circle and two points. "Hello there. I’m First Lieutenant Cayson Knox. I was with the major when we escorted you here?"

"Yeah," Jotou looked up, facing him. Brown hair under the hat, a light beard and broad shoulders. "Jotou Howllett, Thundering Blade." ’He already knows that dumbass.’

"I’m quite a fan of your work; the Velatos Case was no small feat," he smiled, a moment for him to talk whilst the battle waged on.

"Thank you," Jotou smiled back, "I didn’t do it alone of course. Lot of people; I stayed dormant for a while through it too."

"Hey, you did something to change that secret invasion. I’m sure you’ve changed the lives of many people in Kria," an amused voice from a low tone.

"Maybe. I guess it is my claim to fame. I did do all those things; because I wanted to win and show that I could be someone," Jotou closed her eyes, "Sorry," she grinned to him, "Let me stop before I start rambling."

"It’s quite alright. You have a pleasant voice."

Jotou chuckled... then placed a hand over her lips to stop in case she giggled too much, again... "So, why d’you actually come here to talk to me?"

"Well, I realize it’s a long shot. But if we make it out of this battle," he scratched the back of his neck, "Could I perhaps, take you to dinner?"

The blonde blushed, "Is this really where you’d pick up girls?" Jotou raised a brow, a grin from ear to ear.

"I did say it’s a long shot. Where else would I get a chance to talk to the Thundering Blade one-to-one?" he smirked. "I can take a no just fine, I understand."

"Sorry, I think my heart lies elsewhere," the purple headband in her hair, the wand in her coat and two bluish sleeves that spiralled down her arms—unsure where her heart lied if anywhere. "You won’t remember anyway."

The lieutenant cocked his head, "I think I’d very much remember if I had a date with you. Alas, that won’t be so."

"Sorry, words slipped out," Jotou shook her head. "Actually, could I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"If say, a government official, someone in a really high position, like a minister, was doing something illegal and corrupt. And IF I knew about it, who would I go to?"

He furrowed his brows, "Oh. Well, hypothetically, if it’s someone like the minister, then the major would be the one to speak to other than the Council of Cravolta. The police of Hartamat would be in his favour—the major serves Cravolta as a whole. Do you wish to speak to him?"

"No, no. Just a hypothetical. I’m planning on doing it next time. Will I? Probably. I have to kill Eli Frye first," she mumbled.

He squinted, "You’re... quite the curious one Ms Howllett..."

"Did I say that out loud? Sorry, forget what I said. Let’s win this battle. And I’ll talk to you again."

"Sure... I’ll see you around Thundering Blade," he stood up and walked away.

Jotou took a breath, what was so funny? "Hell. Keep it together Jotou. Everything will be fine in a few minutes," Jotou pressed her forehead, awaiting those moments she crucially needed.

_

"Thundering Blade! Move out!"

"Spark," her blade glowed in her grasp as she held the wand in her left hand. The glow, so bright that her eyes fluttered.

"Time to screw up all your plans Frye," she uttered in a little laugh before dashing forward. The battle was at a stalemate, nobody could tell who was winning and who was not...

Though, caution was with the wind as Jotou ran into the fray, glowing like a beacon of lightning. Sparks webbed across her forearms and hair, from feet to her knees; even her eyes gave a golden shimmer.

The soldiers taking cover, watched as Jotou ran past every cover while muskets were being reloaded by the enemy.

"SHLICK! TANG! TUNG! SHTICK!" Jotou stabbed through one’s neck and quickly moved onto the other, denting a musket before she stabbed the sword edged with electricity into another soldier’s chest.

Blood alike flat bits of crimson chocolate on the blade. Another aimed a gun from behind a wall made of sandbags, then five others poked out to aim.

Jotou rushed forward, all with a smile on her face, "What’re you gonna do!? Shoot me!? Go on! Kill me already!" in a sneer she raised her sword.

"BLAST! Blast! BlAST!" A barrage of smoke and bullets pinged off her body. She simply raised her sword to her head, to block anything coming for her unprotected face- "TING!" Fortunately one did.

Jotou grunted, still smiling—black marks across the white and yellow, tearing upon impact. The bullets fell into the sand, damaging her armour that was lightly protected by the sparks surrounding her.

Jotou ran forward to the six reloading—her sore legs not caring one bit that they could falter any second. "ZAP!" She leapt, pushing her sword forward into one of them.

The electricity arced through his body, then- "ZAP! ZAP! Zap!" Three more arcs of lightning formed a ’Z’ pattern, sundering his body and making the electricity jump onto his two comrades.

Jotou landed on the other side, kicking up sand; she stabbed the two immediately as they spasmed. She killed another two with ease, their dainty combat knives stood no chance.

"BLAST!" "GAH! Oh, you got me there!" Jotou smiled at the light blood bruising near her collarbone as the bullet fell over. "Zap!" she stabbed the last one as the spell seemed to be... heightened again.

Jotou looked to Asobi’s wand in her hand, "Right..." the smile never wiped away. Piercing eyes faced where the rifle shot had come twice before—a small barricade and behind it, Eli Frye aiming his rifle.

’Finally. This sad day can come to an end.’ Her teeth glistened in the night, "YOU IDIOTS LINED YOURSELVES UP FOR ME!" she sprinted.

One target, one mission. "THUNDERING STRIKE~!" her eyes lit up with lightning, a flash of yellow—"BLASTTTTTT!!!!!!"—crystalizing the sand to look like sprouting coral.

The barrier blew apart, about ten or eleven bodies lied behind, spasming or crushed by the fallen pieces; blood seeped into the sand from coughs of internal bleeding and shattered bones from the echo of thunder.

Jotou panted, snickering, giggling, till she laughed to the sky. The dust fell like confetti; that elegant voice, cackling like a witch on Halloween.

"BLAST!" Jotou put a hand up to her face as the rifle shot. "NGAH! Hehe, hehaahAHAHA~!" the blonde looked through the hole in her palm—Asobi’s wand blown away with three of her fingers. The bullet pierced across the left side of her lips.

"Oh, you’re so getting it!" Jotou wiped the palm that stung like hell across her face. The crimson wiped across, blood adorned like lipstick as tears leaked out of her dilated eyes.

Jotou ran forward, but the lieutenant threw the gun away immediately once he realized he couldn’t get a second shot. He took out his transceiver and talked into it.

Jotou was a couple of feet away. "WHY DON’T YOU STAY DOWN!?" Frye scanned over the bullets and damage on the woman; was it even a question who was the obstacle?

Frye didn’t resist as- "DUH!" A sparking blade pierced his chest, twisting and turning slowly, going up his body, like carving a sweet fruit for its pulp.

"That pissed off look on your face," Jotou grinned, "That’s more than enough a reason to keep me up," Jotou pushed the blade deeper, "Now, be a good bastard and BRING THEM BACK!!!"

Jotou had not realized Frye’s hand had already touched the device on his belt. "Beep!"

Jotou looked to him, slowly beginning to laugh, "Good boy. I can’t wait to stab you again. Shall I go slower next time?"

Frye’s eyes widened, "You... remember?" before a flash of bright white light took over.