Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 255: Arc 4, Act II, - 100: Past and Present
Papers were being signed, another person shuffling the papers in front. Daiyu stared down, a pen in- her hands? It was not an image... More like, a recording made of pinkish light.
Daiyu looked up from the papers on the desk; she was sat in some sort of office, white sleeves down her thin arms till her wrists. She was seeing through, circular spectacles?
That doesn’t make sense, Daiyu never needed glasses. Daiyu brought her head up and looked to her left... Daiyu blinked, but whatever she was seeing blinked a second after.
Next to her, a man much taller sat down as well, signing documents. He looked to her and gave a wide smile, dressed in a suit. The papers in between were all a part of a marriage licence it seemed...
Daiyu could feel her brows furrowing; wait a minute, wasn’t she down one eye? The man leaned into ’Daiyu’ and she closed her eyes; all Daiyu could see was nothing now.
The pain in her eye caught up with her, but her voice was lost when she tried to speak. Slowly, another image came to give light. In front of a mirror stood a slender woman, chestnut hair, a pointed nose and mesmerizingly pink eyes...
Cradling an infant no older than a month. The woman smiled and peered down, allowing Daiyu to see the healthy baby boy she kissed on the forehead, before the woman paced around. The ’recording’ ended, leaving Daiyu in the dark again.
Memories; that’s what these were. Daiyu figured it out. These were the Psyching Dread’s memories... Daiyu wanted to scream: let me out, I don’t care to see this, but her voice could not even reach herself.
Pinkish light shifted hue to match the colours of her memories once more; a boy, blowing out his five birthday candles. The memory flashed to sending the boy off to school.
Daiyu’s vision followed Dread, a briefcase in her hand and a coat. A dreary city of brick roads, buildings left and right; somewhere in Trailon she could assume.
The memory flashed and she stared to a clipboard, writing down notes. She peered to her right, seeing another woman lying down on a chaise lounge; Daiyu better knew it as a psychiatrist’s chair.
Dread peered back to the clipboard and blinked once before pinkish energy poofed out like haze from her eyes. She saw spiders, the patient’s parents, some ugly argument from the patient’s much younger days.
Everything Daiyu could hear was muted, creating some indistinguishable bumble in her ears. Dread wrote down what she saw, then looked to the patient.
Dread lifted her fingers and pinkish energy formed around the chair, engulfing the patient. The memory flashed to the patient handing her a large sum of money and then thanking her.
The memories flashed quickly, going through many patients over the course of months. And yet somehow, Daiyu could comprehend what went on in each case to summarize.
Another memory. The boy had grown, a few teeth missing; he was throwing a tantrum in the living room. Daiyu saw the clenched fist of Dread before she blinked... and a pinkish haze poofed out her eyes and pinkish energy engulfed the boy.
The memory flashed to the same boy, sitting quietly to read a book. He would side-eye his mother, but then quickly look back to his book.
Daiyu was left in the dark once more and the next memory she saw, was Dread’s husband with furrowed brows and a scowl. Spit flew as he yelled something at her and Dread’s glasses shook as she yelled something back.
A pinkish haze poofed out her eyes. The husband got angrier, protesting what Dread had just done. Before he could say anything more, he was engulfed in pinkish energy...
What she saw... was all of her husband’s negative thoughts. The idea of Dread being overly manipulative, the idea of her screwing up their son, the idea of leaving, the idea of calling the authorities, the idea of divorce.
That’s all she could see; just the negativity. But that was enough of a conclusion to her. Over the course of months, every argument, every tantrum, every little nitpick; she would lift her hand and pinkish light would glow.
The memories flashed... Two bodies lied still on the floor; one of a young boy and another of a man. No blood on either, but the boy drooled onto the floor; the man had a bruise to the head. Through glasses she stared to the dead bodies of her son and her husband...
Nothing in her hands, but a pinkish energy was present in her view, around the minds of the two deceased. The memory flashed, her wrists in cuffs, in a dark room.
Two officers entered, carrying documents. She glanced to them and blinked before a pinkish haze poofed. The memories flashed and she stood in a much, much darker room.
She looked up to a figure with wolf-ears and in armours of blues, oranges, golds and blacks. The face was obscured by the lack of light; she was handed something.
Dread took up the uniform of dark pinks and brownish-blacks. Dread turned to something in the corner of her eye, but nothing was there except traces of bluish frost.
She turned back to the figure and before she could, a small green finch flew past her head... The memory flashed, to nothing. Her memories; her regret. A happy event gone so south it couldn’t ever be turned; or at least, she never tried.
By no means could she manipulate anyone directly; but show people what they may or may not want to see and then, it’s just a matter of direction...
Daiyu opened her eye, "Ow, fuck!" she flinched, her right eye not opening so well. The sunlight glared down on her and beneath her was the corpse of the Psyching Dread, her greatsword through it.
She held her right eye, panting. "BLASTT!!!" "The shit’s happening!?" Daiyu swivelled her whole head to look right. Lightning blasted into the sky, sending a tank barrel flying into the air alongside it.
It seemed like they had won. Most of the forces were down; Daiyu stared back to the body in the meantime, feeling like barely a few seconds passed.
"Didn’t need a clip show of your life bitch, no one needed to see that..." with each breath she exhaled, it was a bigger sigh. She pursed her lips... then shook her head, lifting her greatsword up.
_
The princess sauntered back, the Trailonian soldiers in Cravoltan uniforms all either dead, paralyzed, unconscious or surrendering.
Dust still permeated the air, in where two tanks were decommissioned and a tent was collapsed. Fumeko blinked towards Daiyu, her hoodless cloak fanned out around her, "Did you get her?"
"The Psyching Dread is lying dead."
Fumeko sighed, "Another one gone then. Eugh, your eye," the brunette shrunk her own eye.
"Eh, I’ll walk it off," Daiyu went further in, Fumeko followed behind her with a grumbling stomach and waning eyes.
Jotou’s face was being cupped by the redhead as glowing blue waters caressed her clawed face. The blonde winced to the sting the spell had. Asobi sat down next to Feyan who was in the process of realigning Arabella’s nose.
Fumeko stopped and gripped her dagger; she kept an eye on the surrendered soldiers around all of them. Shadows swept over Arabella’s face before Feyan felt a twinge in his nose and a pain against his skull.
Suddenly waxing her eyes directly into the Sun, the Ashen Whisper shut her eyes again. Her dark hair was unfurled across the fallen tent. The next time she opened her eyes, a head covered the sunlight.
The princess she swore to defend loomed over her, one eye covered by a hand and a tight-lipped pout. The purple hair in a side tail drifted down, "Hey sleepyhead, had good dreams?"
Arabella squinted... She attempted to lift her arms. "Admiral, you are in no state to function right now, please refrain from moving too much," Feyan ordered.
A dry cough escaped her lips first, "What," she coughed, "happenth?" in a rasp she replied.
"The Dread lady made you see things and you attacked us," Asobi told. Arabella furrowed her brows to the news...
"Told you to take the fucking tiara; but you had to play stoic protector huh?" Daiyu stared down with an amused grin.
"Be nice please," Asobi requested.
"Oh, I’m never letting her live this down after she called me reckless."
Feyan squeaked, "My lady, you nearly bashed her skull in."
"Nearly," she reaffirmed.
"Hey," Hotaru laid a hand on Daiyu’s shoulder and faced Feyan, "I can take it from here, let me help heal. Jotou and Fumeko went to the tents to free any Division Four soldiers trapped in there."
"It would be wise to find the Division General; if not, then the highest officer in command." Feyan relayed.
"I’ll find a tent to heal Arabella and Daiyu, you and Asobi can go find them; Rejuvenate," Hotaru threw into the air, splashing it across all of them. Asobi sprang up onto her legs. "Daiyu, could you lift her?"
"Yup; with that rejuvenate, no problem," Daiyu dropped her greatsword and removed the hand covering her eye. Everyone recoiled and gave her a peculiar look... "What? Oh."
A slash caused by a scattering of ash and the eye still being present afterwards... It wasn’t too pretty... "Hmm... I think we’ve seen worse," Asobi examined from a distance.
_
"You held up yourself pretty well there. Shame it was against us," Daiyu remarked. She was laid onto a medical bed; multiple bloody gauzes and bandages were in a waste bin to the side.
Hotaru tended to the wounds of another, in a bed across from Daiyu. Her ears twitched, "Thanks." With a brief reply she focused on finishing up healing Arabella’s injuries.
Arabella stayed silent, not even the movements of her hands. "And done. You should be fine other than some soreness. Take it easy for now, try not to move your eyes too much." She glanced to Daiyu, "That goes the same for you."
"Gotcha doc," Daiyu gave a thumbs up. Her eye was as good as new and her left ear was completely healed. Both of them were in less attire, sprawled across the beds to stare at the ceiling of the tent.
Arabella took a deep breath and moved her neck down slightly to nod to Hotaru and signal a thank you. Her hands shifted up towards Daiyu and she signalled something with a sigh...
Daiyu’s eyes rolled before they gave a soft glance to Arabella, "Water under the bridge and all that. You ain’t my bodyguard, alright? Take care of yourself too."
Those words... What else was Arabella to do, other than take it to heart? She nodded and signalled something else.
"Yeah. You better tell me what Dread made you see. We can do that later though, just don’t go throwing a pity party for now. Besides~ This wittle wone clawed her gwirlfwend," Daiyu snickered to herself.
Hotaru’s ears bristled and she let out a groan, "Don’t bring it up..." she whined. "I didn’t mean to and I apologized."
"I’m sure you’ll be doing plenty of apologizing later. Need a private tent, just ask~"
"I healed your eye and helped your country to function, I can nullify both," the wolf-girl glared daggers.
"Hey, hey, don’t claw my face now."
Hotaru’s shoulders slumped and she sighed, "How did Jotou ever put up with you..."
Daiyu cackled.
"Well, I should probably stay away from any major fights for now. My fighting skills aren’t anything to boast about."
"You’re not too bad, a bit of training and you’re good."
Hotaru gave a chuckle, "Maybe. But I’m better off staying back for now."
Arabella moved her hands wearily, signalling something. Hotaru paid attention, she could make out at least a few words.
"Hold your horses," Daiyu eyed Arabella’s hands. "Someone needs to be here for us, while we’re in the fray. We branch out, from you; our foundation, that we come back to. Your position, is the, most crucial and I respect you for being this exceptional."
The redhead tilted her head and her ears folded back. Her tail wagged and she gave a bright smile, "Thank you, so much." She wiped a loose tear from her eye, "Then it’s true; I’m better off here."
Arabella smiled back.
"Hey, don’t think it’s lesser to be here or something. None of this shit would work without you to rely on," Daiyu half-closed her healed right eye.
"I, knew that..."
"Good."
Hotaru shook her head, happier than before and gave the two a couple of hours to rest. The battle had been won, but there was still much to progress...
