The Red Hand

Hishya's interview continued for a while longer with Kirika trying to return to less tense topics. Hishya's declaration that she wouldn't fight Akagi caused the net to catch fire as message boards and SNS filled with panic, praise, anger, and a variety of other comments. Though the person who was most surprised by her comments was Akagi herself. She was prepared to fight an all-out war against the other players if necessary, and she assumed that Hishya would be at the center of any action. Hearing that she was not only afraid of Akagi but that she would be actively avoiding confrontation was a surprise. The entire time she knew the girl, she'd always had her pegged as a massive egotist and someone who would do anything for attention, so to see her act completely against those assumptions threw her for a loop.

{Is it a trick to get me to let my guard down?} Akagi didn't understand Hishya's actions.

"Onee-chan." Kana looked at her sister. "What did you do to poor Hishya?" her eyes looked quite judgmental.

"Oi!" Akagi exclaimed. "Why are you assuming that I did anything to her? Just what do you think of me, Kana!"

"I think that I know you very well, Onee-chan." she sighed. "You have a tendency to take things too far and that you have a sadistic side, which has only gotten worse I might add." she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Didn't you tell me that Hishya is actually a very vain person under her heroic exterior? That she was actively seeking praise to boost her own ego?" Kana pressed Akagi.

"Well yeah she is but-" Akagi's response was cut off.

"Then what does it tell you that she just threw all of that away on live global television!" Kana was annoyed that her sister wasn't getting her meaning. "She just threw away her status as a hero and is likely going to attract a lot of negative attention because she refused to fight you! So sorry for assuming you did something so bad it caused this girl to break character!" Kana threw her hands up.

"I didn't exactly do anything bad to her per se Kana." Akagi searched her memory until she recalled something that might have caused this. "Oh... that might be it."

"So you did do something to her!" Kana's stare intensified.

"Well, I might have shown her everything regarding my new form when I battled her in Hassan. And that might have caused her to pass out in fear....." Akagi scratched her cheek in embarrassment.

"???" Kana's face looked confused "I mean, sure you're scary in that shadow form, but I wouldn't say it's that bad." She looked at Naomi and Mika who agreed.

"Yeah I've seen worse things in horror movies." Mika chuckled.

"Strange, but not so bad to cause such a dramatic change, at least in my opinion." Naomi shrugged.

"Uhh... About that." Akagi stammered. "So you see. What I showed Hishya and what I showed you were not the same thing...."

"What does that mean? I thought you said that your real body was that shadow?" Kana was both annoyed with and confused by her sister. "Don't tell me you lied?"

"Don't get all mad, Kana." Akagi moved to placate her. "I was not lying to you. What you saw was my real body." she continued. "However, when I showed it to you three, and when I was in the press room, I restrained my presence." Akagi didn't really have the right words to explain what she meant.

"Presence?" Naomi jumped in. "Do you mean like how everyone freaked out when Hishya transformed? Like that?" They might not have felt it, but they could tell that Kirika was made very uncomfortable by whatever Hishya's ability was.

"Yeeeeeahh...." Akagi's eyes began to dart back and forth. "So it's like that but only.... like a thousand times worse for people that don't have resistances to such things." Akagi began to circle her fingers in embarrassment. "I may or may not be a being of pure darkness and death, and well.... people really don't tend to like that, Kana." Akagi gave a nervous laugh.

"Can we see it!" Mika was excited to hear about Akagi's ability.

"That is not a good idea!" she quickly refused. "With proper resistance and mental preparation, its effects will be minimal. But on regular people, like you three, I suspect it would break your mind." Her eyes turned serious. "Since we got back from FWO, I have never used it as I would rather not walk around mind-breaking people." Having people froth at the mouth from simply laying eyes of her was amusing, but not really something she wanted to do on the regular.

"But wait. Why was Hishya affected by it." Naomi asked. "Shouldn't she have enough resistance since she was a high-level player and a dragon?" Based on what Akagi said, it didn't make sense that Hishya was impacted by the ability.

"Later on she wasn't. However, suddenly having all of your senses overwhelmed by such an ability with no warning meant that she was vulnerable at that moment," Akagi explained. "Hence her passing out."

"But still, was that enough to make her do a complete one-eighty on her character like that?" Kana asked. "Are you sure you didn't do anything else?" A game ability shouldn't have such long-term effects like that.

"I think you might be underestimating the damage, Kana. Hishya was basically out of action for almost an entire day after taking my mental attack, and she was in a weakened state for almost a week afterward." Akagi chuckled remembering the girl's crazy babble when she woke up. "On top of that, remember Kana, my abilities were not limited by the game anymore. Such an attack should have just been a status effect, but in my case, the damage it inflicted was far worse. There's a reason why I never did something like that again." Akagi looked at Yumi. "Yumi, do you want to tell these girls what can happen to a person when their mind is absolutely destroyed, or should I?"

Yumi decided to jump in and explain more about trauma and its effects on the mind.

"From my personal experience, after someone's mind is damaged in such an extreme way, it can cause considerable changes in that person and/or their personality. I experienced a personality shift myself, so I ask that you believe me when I say it can be quite serious." Yumi was practically a different person than she was before the death of her family. "So it wouldn't be strange if Hishya actually developed a trauma-related fear after that day which caused her to change somewhat." She looked at Akagi. "After Hassan, how much did you interact with Hishya compared to prior to that night? Was it more? Less? And what was she like?"

Akagi took a moment to think before answering. "We interacted less that's for sure, but she always seemed normal. Though now that you mention it, she did seem to be skittish around me." Akagi had met Hishya quite extensively over the four years they spent in FWO. They would go over findings, discuss strategy, and sometimes Hishya would use the time to vent her frustrations to someone with who she could confide.

"I noticed she seemed off the few times I spoke with her. Talking about you always made her nervous, especially if you were around." Yumi had subtly used the threat of Akagi to shut Hishya up on more than on occasion. "If we assume that her change in attitude and behavior wasn't just stress-induced, then it's likely that she was negatively impacted by your ability that day." Yumi's logic was pretty sound and both Kana and Akagi agreed. “Being forced to experience something so traumatic likely damaged her mind considerably, and she probably developed a fear of you.”

"But then why would she still meet with Akagi if she was afraid of her?" Mika asked a pretty good question.

"Probably because her trauma was enough to make her afraid, but not so extreme to prevent all contact, especially when she needed my Lord's help." Yumi guessed. "Either that, or she feared retaliation for suddenly ghosting." she shrugged. "The only one who can really answer this question is Hishya herself, but I would suspect that any trauma is subconscious. If that's the case, you'll never get a conclusive answer."

Yumi's explanation seemed convincing to the girls.

"One other thing." Yumi continued. "I would also add that Hishya did say that she has something to live for now during her interview. Being cured of her disease likely caused her to value her own life more." This was much more accurate than any of them realized. "So if you combine a fear caused by seeing my Lords full glory and the new found value in her own life, her change in attitude makes sense."

{Full glory?} The three girls all found that phrase funny.

 

Taking a moment, Kana recalled something Akagi told her over a month ago. "Onee-chan, isn't she suppose to come here tomorrow to speak with you?" Kana asked. "You should apologize to her when she does!"

"No," Akagi flatly refused. "You do recall that she was trying to kill me in that fight, right?" Hishya was tasked with her elimination so that the Hassan defenders didn't have to worry about a knife pointed at their back. "So why should I apologize for using everything at my disposal to stop her? Even if I do get along with her, I knew why she was there that night, and I was prepared for a battle to the death. The fact that it ended so anti-climatically doesn't change the context around the battle." Akagi scoffed at her sister's demand.

Her statement caused Kana to flinch, she'd forgotten that it was a battle to the death.

"To be honest, Kana, she's lucky I didn't take the opportunity to kill her right then and there." Akagi pointed out how vulnerable Hishya was after she blacked out. "The only reason I abstained from doing so was because of my own sentimentality and the absurdity of how things ended. If things had continued normally, I intended to kill her that night." Akagi grinned.

{I guess she's right. If Hishya was there to kill her, I can't exactly get mad that Onee-chan was prepared to do the same, now can I?} Kana mentally scolded herself.

"Your right. I guess I forgot just that things were pretty tense in FWO. It wasn't just a game, and you fought with your life on the line every day. Sorry." Kana apologized.

"It's fine, Kana." Akagi shrugged. "Now that I think about it, that would explain why she pushed so hard for a truce between me and the assault team. I guess she was afraid of pissing me off, which I can understand." Akagi laughed. "If only the Empire learned not to fuck with me as quickly as she did, perhaps the crown prince would have kept his head." Yumi let out a giggle at this comment.

{Just casually mention that you assassinated a member of Royalty why don't you.} Naomi wasn't sure whether to laugh or sigh at Akagi's statement.

"Well, whatever her reason, if she doesn't want to fight, that's fine by me. It just means one less person to cause problems." Akagi chuckled. "Perhaps seeing their great hero tuck their tail between their legs will cause the others to reconsider their actions." Akagi doubted this, but it was nice to hope.

"It seemed like people wanted to use Hishya as a trump card against you." Naomi understood just how powerful the girl was. "Even still, can you really beat the other players if they attacked together? I mean, Hishya was powerful, but I'm skeptical if they even needed her."

"What, you don't believe in me?" Akagi looked at Naomi.

"It's not that I don't believe you're strong; it's just that I find it difficult to believe you can beat 97 other people, each with their own powers, all at the same time." Naomi stood firm.

"If they came at me all at once in a locked room with no way out, that might be tricky." Akagi conceded. "However, they won't have those numbers or the coordination to pull something like that off. Besides," Akagi smirked. "Don't think you've seen every trick up my sleeve. If they try something like that, I've got a few plans in place."

"You've always got a plan, don't you Onee-chan." Kana sighed.

"I wouldn't be alive today if I didn't; in this line of work, planning and preparation are 90% of what I do." Akagi stuck out her tongue. "Hopefully, I don't have to dip into my plans, and these idiots stay away from me." That was the best-case scenario, but unfortunately, the chances of such a peaceful ending were low.