what kind of vulcan?

Kaori was sitting in the middle of the guilds' armoury maintaining her blade, carefully cleaning it to make sure it didn't rust. She'd gone on several missions that had damaged it, but none had dealt so much damage to the blade as when that barbarian Dmitry had gotten his grubby mits on it. She had been awake for several days getting the kinks out of it, and the sword still had a dent in the side. "HOW THE HELL DID HE MANAGE TO DENT THE SIDE!?!?!" she exclaimed in rage, flames seeming to shoot from the eye slits in her mask. She began furiously trying to work out the dent, the damn thing was three millimeters deep, and on a part of the sword that's not supposed to be used as a blugeon. "Stupid fucking Mitsy using my only sword as a club, I'll wring his goddamn neck!" she muttered under her breath while working the damage.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Kaori was seen walking out of the guild hall on an errand to get some more cleaning supplies. This person who looked like Kaori held all of her qualities. She was the same in every possible way, from her smell, to heartbeat, blood type, hair length, and even finger prints. Even her magical signature was exactly the same. As she was on her way out, a man walked up behind her and hailed to her. Kaori looked at the man and blinked with bewilderment, looking at the parchment. Another Kaori stepped up behind Serenzo and poked him in the back. "You're wide open!" she announced playfully before skipping over to stand next to the other Kaori. "Hey, this guy's got a request..." the first one said with a bewildered tone, passing the parchment to the second one. The other Kaori took the paper and began looking at it before folding it up. "Come with us. Kay's gonna be pissed..." "She's already pissed." "She'll be more pissed." the two Kaori's said to each other while walking back to the castle.

After a twenty minute walk through the large castle, they came to the door that lead to the armory where the real Kaori was. "Ready?" "Yeah... no. But let's go anyways, she's cute when she's mad." the Kaori's said to each other before opening the door. "Hey Kay, we-" "Oh hey, you're both back. That was fast..." Kaori said with surprise in her voice. "Well... actually we ran into one of your friends. He's got a bit of a request." The first Kaori copy said in an awkward tone. "He'd like some help with this." the other one stepped forward with the page and gave it to Kaori. Kaori took the notice "A job...?" she said curiously before looking at it, the notion of Serenzo doing jobs was certainly an interesting on with his self esteem issues. The air grew heavy as she looked over the request. Then it grew heavier as her body began to take on a brilliant violet hue. Then it grew heavier as her magic power exploded from her at dangerous levels, her hair wildly flickering from the amount released as though wind were blowing it. The table and chair she was using before exploded into splinters, sending shards of wood everywhere in the wake of her fury. The other Kaori's looked at the sight with horror "That's a lot less cute than last time!" one of them shouted before they both erupted into smoke, the duration of the clones running out.

Kaori walked past Serenzo, grabbing his hand with godly strength unnatural for a girl of her size while dragging him with her, her sword flying behind and finding its' way to her hip. "Let's go." she said with a stern voice. Once at the entrance to the guild hall, Kaori grabbed her trusty steed, a motorcycle, and mounted it. "Get on and don't let go of me." she said, her tone filled with annoyance. If he did as told, he would be in for a 180 mile per hour ride from Hargeon to the Wakusei portals. If he didn't, then he'd have to walk there and prey the scientists were still alive when he arrived. Kaori was tolerant of many things, but men trying to play god wasn't on that list.

WC: 719

Arriving at the Wakusei portals, Kaori didn't bother to get off her bike. Instead, she blasted straight through the portal and kept going. The bike was extremely silent and alerted no nearby enemies on their way through the lone path. This was due to the nuclear fusion engine within the bike, a feature that was unique to her model. She didn't react to Serenzo's absurd claims of inadequacy as they got off the bike. Stopping at the building, it was smaller than she'd expected. It was dome shaped, and appeared to only be ten or fifteen feet tall. However, Kaori could sense them... the test subjects below the surface. She marched up to the doors, slightly less angry than before; but her psychic energy was still radiating off her like the sun's energy and causing the gravity around her to feel stronger. She punched the door, leaving a fist shaped dent in it. The sound of the magnetic locks engaging confirmed the fate of the men inside... fucked. Dark purple energy radiated from the slits in Kaori's mask, engulfing her hair before consuming a nearby tree. The masked ninja stepped aside as the tree was torn out the ground and lifted in the air. "Move." she said to Serenzo in a grim, cold tone. A warning for his safety, not so much to be condescending. The tree truck then shot forward and slammed into the door, denting it horribly and nearly busting a hole in the side. It began backing up before Kaori made it slam into the structure again, and again, and again until a hole the size of an elephant was torn into the building.

Kaori floated over the tree stump and into the room, furious at all the men within. Her hatred increased a hundred fold when she saw a bear in a cage with nothing but a slot in the door to look through. The tree trunk began to creak under Kaori's psychic energy, the machines in the room began flickering and sparking. It was the kind of fury that earned Kaori her nickname back home, Goddess of Passion; Demon of Wrath. It gave strength to the saying 'Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn' and made the saying stick in the minds of anyone who'd ever seen her like that. Suddenly, like the chairs and table from earlier, the tree trunk exploded into splinters. The animals in their cages immediately became grateful for being in a safe place and began backing up further in their homes while remaining silent. Elements formed around her, lightning sparking at her feet and fire at her palms. "Who's in charge here...?" her voice came out in the minds of everyone in the building, but her lips hadn't moved at all. A second passed and no one spoke, only the three assistants in the room quivering their lips in fear. One of them was lifted from the floor and slammed into the wall on the other side of the room, causing blood to spurt from his mouth. "I SAID WHO THE FUCK'S IN CHARGE HERE!?" her voice boomed throughout the building, again, her mouth not moving at all. The man was in immeasurable pain, and Kaori was only getting more an more angry. It was the kind of hatred that even magic couldn't counter. The only thing that could stop it was justice... for trying to play god. The man's arms let out a massive cracking sound and became flat as a board, he personally let out a horrible cry of pain as water flew from his eyes. Suddenly, a small object shot out of a gun-like object in the hands of a man on the opposite end of the room and Kaori passed out instantly, and the psychic energy filling the room had died down. "Sorry about that guys, it took a while to find the tranque gun... and something strong enough to put a pissed off wizard to sleep." the man said. He was wearing a white coat, obviously the head scientist.

WC: 676

Total: 1,395

Just as Serenzo used his spell on Kaori to wake her up, the girl would erupt into smoke much the same way her clones did. Kaori poked her head from behind the opening she smashed with the tree earlier, and blinked a few times. "So that's what triggers you." she said in a quasi innocent tone before walking around the busted wall. She picked up a piece of metal from the floor and began charging it with magic. The metal turned bright red with the fire magic she imbued it with before tossing it at the metal door, heating it up and welding it shut. "Sorry for not letting you in on my plan but I needed you to think I was actually hit. Anyhow, you did a great job taking care of things."

Kaori walked over to one of the nearby computers and placed her finger to where the mouth on her mask should have been if it wasn't a flat surface while leaning over the computer. "Would you mind tying those guys up? I don't want them leaving when this place goes boom." Kaori asked as she looked over the different buttons. "Here we are." she said and poked the button, causing all the doors to all the cages to flip open. The animals all began pouring out from below and leaving through the gaping hole in the wall. Predators and herbivores alike, none of them bothered to fight as they made their way out. She pressed another button and a machine ejected a piece of paper that Kaori took up. "And with this, we should go... unless you wanna experience nuclear fusion up close."

Kaori walked out of the hole to her bike and pressed a button near one of the cores on the motor. She then walked back in with the small cylinder, getting ready to set up the bomb when she noticed that the scientists had begun waking up. "Oh, you guys woke up. Ohayo gozaimasu. Good morning." Kaori said with a friendly tone. She went down below and set up her little present for them. Upon coming back up, one of the men called out to her asking what was going on. Kaori paused, turning her head to the side to look at them sideways through the slit in her mask. "You and your research are all about to die." she said in a cold tone. "Let's go Serenzo, we've got 10 seconds to get out of range." she said before appearing on her bike. If Serenzo didn't get on with her, he would have to escape a nuclear explosion in under ten seconds. Something Kaori was able to do with plenty of time to spare on her bike; even if it was running on just one fusion core. The place that Kaori stopped the bike was just a few hundred yards away from where the vulcans were last seen. If Serenzo had gotten on the bike with her, Kaori would say "If we attack one of them, they all attack. You got any ideas on how we should proceed?"

WC: 517

Total: 1,912

Kaori waited, but her question had never gotten answered. It seemed that she and this man, Serenzo, had shared different views. She could sense in him disapproval, mixed with a small tingle of happiness. Kaori didn't know about his spells, she didn't know that he put them all to sleep and even if she did, she wouldn't have cared. "Do you hate me?" she asked in a solemn voice. "Do you think I'm a monster?" she asked afterwards. "I'd like you to answer that truthfully." she said. While it wasn't a solid order, and Kaori didn't know anything about Serenzo's chain beyond it being his choice of fashion, she hoped that he would answer her. "Let's wait till night, it'll be easier to fight in the dark." Kaori recommended while getting off the bike. She looked over to a pile of sticks on the ground and pointed to them, causing the sticks to take on a violet glow and rise in the air. They moved to a central point near Kaori and set themselves down with stones in a circle around them. Kaori touched one of the sticks, filling it with fire magic and causing it to combust, lighting the other sticks around it to for a gentle camp fire.

"You people... the people from the village by the sea. They're afraid of death, afraid to kill unless necessary. You're raised with the notion that you require an armed enemy to justify murder. You all learn such powerful attacks, and fear using them because of that power. My clan isn't like that. Where I'm from, people who live that way don't live for long. We're never afraid to die, because when we do finally die, we go to meet our clan in the afterlife. We're never afraid to kill, because it only means we send our enemies to be with their family. We don't need an enemy to have a physical weapon, we only need a reason for them to be our enemy. While we don't hate them, we will kill them; and, if we do hate them, we wish them peace in their grave. We hone our skills, learn to kill as art, shower the battlefield in crimson paint, and hone our skills further for the glory of our lord... and the promise that our enemies won't do the same to us. The reason I killed those men wasn't because they were armed, or a threat to my physical well being. No, there was two reasons. The first is that they had no consideration for nature. Had I let them live, even one of them, they would have started fresh. They would have acquired more living creatures, and just like before, they would have caged them up, separated them from their kind, and performed more tests. Then, more of us... more people who weren't involved in their creation would have to get involved and murder creatures that did nothing to warrant killing beyond being born. I killed those men to save the hundreds of animals, and possibly humans that would have become nothing more than test subjects." Kaori paused, and turned her face so she was looking at Serenzo's through the slits in her mask. "And I also killed them because they hurt my friend. Something that I'd never forgive without a proper reason."

WC: 556

Total: 2,468

Kaori laid back, pressing her back flat against the grass and looking at the oddly colored sky. She listened to Serenzo's response, not particularly caring for his words of self degradation but still listening. Kaori couldn't help but stifle a bit of laughter when Serenzo said that he'd be able to tell if she were lying. "I'm a pretty good liar..." Kaori said with a half-teasing tone. "My favorite color is pink, salty foods are the best but I really love strawberry cake. I like fire, and detest wind element, and I know a spell that can level the entire guild hall in one strike." Kaori said. If Serenzo was listening to Kaori, he's notice her heart rate didn't change at all, her breathing was the same too. The rate at which her eye lids closed and opened hadn't changed, even the pitch of her voice remained the same as always. Nothing about her had changed, not even her brain waves reacted to the parts that were false. "There were 4 lies in that statement, I'll give you till the morning to tell me what they were. Loser has to buy breakfast." she tossed in with a friendly tone.

"That aside, know that I don't see you as a threat. I have no reason to lie to you beyond playing around, and I have no reason to think you'd lie to me. So you can trust what I say... well, unless it's something blatantly stupid like 'lava won't hurt you' or something along those lines. Then disregard it entirely." Kaori's words were the same as her challenge, nothing had changed. Even then, nothing about her had changed from any other time she spoke. It was the same calm, gentle, somewhat friendly tone as always. "The reason you're my friend is because you think of me as a friend yourself. Otherwise you wouldn't have asked me to help you. You wouldn't still trust me to not stab you in the back, even though I've had plenty of chances. You wouldn't be comfortable being around me even though I could, in theory, make your heart explode with my mind. You give me your trust, so in return I give you mine."

Kaori heard Serenzo's comment about himself, and how he wanted to die. She began standing up and slowly drew her sword. Regardless of their augmentations, the vulcans were still mostly animals so Kaori was perfectly able to hear them coming. She didn't hear them with her ears, but rather, she heard them in her mind. It was Kaori's bloodline, that of someone who was part beast themself and was able to commune with nature in ways no one else could. Just as Serenzo said they were coming, one of them jumped out of the trees and aimed for Kaori. Just as it jumped out the trees, Kaori vanished. Just as Kaori vanished, all four of its' limbs and tail became detached from its' body. It was the most dangerous thing about Kaori... her ability to move so fast that she slips out of the senses for just a moment. Not only was she able to do it frequently, she was extremely accurate while using it.

She reappeared with her back towards Serenzo, sword out and waiting for the rest to come. In his mind, Serenzo would hear Kaori's voice. 'Since you can't refuse orders; I have three for you. Don't ever submit to fate, always fight to see the light of the next sunrise. You're only allowed to die when your old, and filthy rich with all the wives and children you want. Fight every order you're given that you don't want to follow with all your will, as though your life depended on fighting those orders.' Another vulcan lunged into the gentle glimmer of the camp fire, Kaori blocking its' massive hand with her sword. "Lastly... find a way to remove that damned collar." she said just before vanishing and reappearing behind the vulcan. A second later, ten cuts appeared all over its back and blood sprayed from it. Just as Kaori said, her clan learned how to paint a battlefield crimson... What she didn't mention was that they did it without magic.

WC: 704

Total: 3,172

Vulcans Killed: 2/20

Kaori felt herself slowing down, her perception of time being untouched by Serenzo's spell. She could tell by how fast she closed the gap between one of the vulcans and herself, or rather, how much slower. Kaori didn't find any signs of magic in the list of known enhancements she 'borrowed' from the scientists just before obliterating them. Because the vulcans had no known magical capabilities, Kaori defaulted to assuming that the reduction in speed was due to Serenzo. That, and the annoying sound she was hearing suddenly. Kaori vanished, reappearing behind the vulcan she was going after and slashing its' back open before cutting it a second time in the opposite direction. It was just as she thought. The effect was also applying to her speed during all movements, magical or not. While it was a slight change, it was something Kaori could still notice.

After Serenzo had taken down his sixth enemy, Kaori closed her eyes and began searching. Serenzo would feel a wave of energy moving through him, and see the trees rustling briefly as the energy continued its' path. The vulcans all stopped their attacking, standing in place to look around. While they were altered by the scientists, they were still animals. They still felt Kaori's influence pulling at their hearts, and, knew what the order was. The alteration made them able to resist it, but with all the animals nearby, it made it so their fight would get increasingly more difficult. The vulcans began targeting Kaori directly, hoping that they could take her out before the entire animal kingdom came down on them.

Taking advantage of their reduced speed, Kaori vanished and got near Serenzo again. "Stay still for a moment. You don't wanna move from there, not yet at least." Kaori said calmly, resting her sword down and waiting. Just as one of the vulcans got within a few feet of Kaori, getting ready to lunge at her, an elephant blasted through the trees nearby and rammed into the overgrown monkey. The creature was taken to the floor and trampled by the elephant who then began stomping it in, trumpeting angrily. Moments later, birds, bears, deer, and even rabbits began joining the fight and attacking the vulcans. Serenzo would hear Kaori speaking in his mind 'They'll distract them for us and weaken them a little.' After which, Kaori vanished again and began repeating the action while moving from vulcan to vulcan to deal small hits of damage. She and her animal friends had taken down eight more of the vulcans, leaving the last four for Serenzo to take care of.

WC: 437

Total: 3,609

Vulcans Killed: 10/20

The enemies were all taken care of, and their creators were no more. The only thing that remained was to collect the bounty from the office in town, a task that was fairly boring. Kaori had heard Serenzo muttering to himself, but she didn't listen fully since she was still calming herself from the fight. While she didn't like fighting, Kaori always got a rush from combat. The fact that her life was normally on the line made it so her body instinctively started forcing adrenaline through her veins. She stood in place with her mask angled to the floor, and eyes closed while slowing her own breathing back down to a normal rate. Afterwards, Kaori turned to her bike and got on. "You did an amazing job Serenzo. Much better than I could've done alone, and far better than any slave could do. You're a special person, a mage, nothing less. Hop on, we'll need to let some officials know the job's complete. I saw a city off in the distance, so that'd be our best place to go." Kaori said in a calm, friendly, and sincere voice.

Once Serenzo was on, Kaori got the bike going at a fast, but leisurely speed to get the to town. While in town, Kaori mentioned what she did to the scientists. She knew her actions were technically a crime, and was fully prepared to face the consequences. However, she didn't expect the general of the city guard to react the way he did. "Nuclear reactor, huh? I hear those things are pretty dangerous when they destabilize, you were right to get it off your bike. It's regrettable that the scientists were caught in the explosion, I'll be sure to alert their families of the accident." To which Kaori replied "S-sir, I did-" "It was an accident." he interrupted in an assertive manner, establishing that he was re-writing the case to put Kaori in a position of innocence. "You two should go home, take a rest and get relaxed. Those mutant monkeys weren't your every-day fight." he added in a friendly tone. Kaori decided not to argue further. She took her reward and left, thanking the man for his kindness on her way out.

WC: 373

Total: Done

Vulcans Killed: All