Urban Nights in the City of Reinford

A light breeze flushed through the air as the booming sounds and resounding thuds upon the earth wracked Kyra's head. She sighed. Every year, her home city of Reinford would host a summer party, the Urban Nights Festival. While the Council had recently made a push for most every city to host one of these, Kyra was sure Father would mention something about how "they're just copying the success that I've brought them!" Father was always like that. Well, at least this meant that Kyra could see her siblings. While Father despised Kyra, her siblings seemed to at least tolerate her. So Kyra hoped, that was. Perhaps she had been wrong about all of them. After all, compared to the rest, she was such a disgrace. All of them had international success, and Kyra was a cannibal in a guild of what many would consider terrorists.

And it was with two of her guildmates that she was here now. It was initially supposed to be three, with Kyra's mentor Jen leading the way. Unfortunately for Kyra, Jen had left as soon as they arrived at the city, saying something about needing to go on a job for Queen Saraphina nearby. Kyra attempted to protest, or at least did her best at an attempt. She was sure that they were all aware that Kyra wanted to say something, but was unable to, as expected of Kyra. Now, Kyra was left all alone at the outskirts of the town that had long called itself her home. Would the people remember her? She had visited some weeks prior, per Demoiselle's insistence, but she was largely unseen by the masses or really anyone but a few of her sisters. Maybe she would be lucky and escape without being notic-

"My oh my, it's been quite some time, hasn't it, Kyra?" the rich, familiar baritone of the eldest Velkhomme sibling rang out. He likely knew that Kyra was coming. Somehow he seemed to know everything and everyone. "These are your guildmates, no? It's a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is Mercurios Velkhomme, but please, call me Rio. You all are friends of Kyra, and so you are all friends of mine." He approached the two fellow members of Errings Rising. "If you lovely ladies would not mind introducing yourselves, I would wish to know who has been kind to my baby sister. I pray she hasn't been too difficult? Whether with her... rather reserved nature or her..." he coughed as he brought his voice down. "...newfound eating habits."

Kyra was stunned. "H-how did you k-know about that, R-Rio..?"

Rio smiled. "A man with as much influence as myself needs to know things. Especially things that pertain to my family, and you especially, Kyra. Don't worry, I haven't told many. Demi, Tegan, Aria, and myself are the only ones that know. I was hesitant to tell Aria, but I figured it would be best as a safety net should you lose control here." He smiled and turned towards the two guildmates of Kyra's. "Ah, I do apologize, I believe I have been boring you quite a bit. Names you don't know, things that don't pertain to you, all of that. Should Kyra be willing, I'm sure she could introduce you to the rest of our family. As a small bit of a favor for protecting her, I am willing to offer all a free boon from each member of our family. All of us have quite the repertoire of products for you to partake in, so just inform Kyra whenever you want those 'cashed in' so to speak. Now, I am afraid I have some business around town. My work is never finished, you see. The rest of us are around town, if you want to look for them, Kyra. Oh, and please, do inform the third one of these offers." With that, Rio bowed and left, somehow vanishing into the crowd of partying civilians.

Kyra turned to Medeia and Amber. "S-sorry about all of that. M-My siblings are all v-very protective of me, s-so I guess they w-were aware of a b-bunch of stuff about us. S-So... w-what do you w-want to do? T-there's d-drinks and d-dancing and m-music and a-all sorts of stuff... s-sorry if that's n-not stuff you l-like doing..."

Kyra nodded, trying her best to keep up with the two elder Errings Rising members. "O-of course! I-I'm afraid I w-won't be j-joining you for d-drinks. I-I'm not m-much a drin-"

Kyra's voice was cut off by the already hammered - sounding voice of one of her eldest sisters, Tegan. "Heyyyyyyyy! Is that Valkyria there?" the lavender haired Guild Master roared. She draped her arms around Kyra's back, pressing her chest against Kyra's back. "I didn't think you'd be comin' here, Kyra! You're not reeeeeally a partier, and isn't Errings Rising really far from here?" She giggled and hiccuped. "And you two babes are.... wait, I know this... Medeia and Amber Stone! See! I did my research!"

"R-Research?"

Tegan laughed. "Yup! Shame Jen ain't here. She's a real cutie, though..." Tegan removed herself from Kyra's back and rounded towards the other two women. "Ain't you two real cuties? Stone's the sister of Ford so... well, I suppose we can think of somethin to do. As for miss Medeia..." Tegan set a hand on the angel's shoulder, looking her up and down. "I've heard some fun rumors about you! I might have to see if those rumors are true sometime, eh?"

"Oh! There you are, Tegan!" a lighter, significantly less drunk voice, chirped. "How many times are you just going to wander off and flirt with everyone you see!? Oh, Kyra!" her sister said, hugging the youngest Velkhomme. "And these are your friends? I'm sorry about Tegan. She's somehow the Guild Master of the biggest guild in town, Goldheart. We've really helped out setting everything up, and Tegan gets a bit... into her partying. Oh! I should introduce myself! I'm Kairi. Well, Kairessandra, technically, but that's a mouthful. Just Kairi is fine. I'm Goldheart's Ace. Well, one of them. So, in a way, Tegan's my boss. Terrifying, I know."

Tegan made an insulted scoffing sound. "Somehow? C'moooooon, Kairi you know! Ooh! I got a great idea for you, Kyra! Let's dance it up!"

Kyra was ready to protest when Kairi dragged her aside. "That's a great idea! You still remember how to do ballet, correct?" Kairi turned towards Medeia and Amber. "Sorry about this, we'll be stealing our sister for a bit. Don't worry, we won't be long."

Tegan smirked. "Okay! I wanna make sure I see you two cutie pies before you leave, 'kay? Maybe we can help sober up together, huh~~"

Kairi sighed, taking her elder sister by the collar of her shirt, and her younger sister by the hand. She led the two sisters through the crowd, the masses slowly but surely making way for the trio of Velkhommes rushing through the crowd. As expected, most of the sober ones recognized Kairi and Tegan, while the drunk ones just seemed to recognize Tegan, though it took some time for it to spread that the one being dragged along by the hand was the youngest child, the lost mystery that was Valkyria. People heckled the three sisters as they passed by, Kairi telling Kyra not to worry about the issue in the slightest. They'd be settled down soon enough, but for the time being, having the lost Velkhomme return was certainly news. It had been months since the former only non - magic user within the entire Velkhomme family, including uncles and aunts and cousins. Surely some people who were more magically attuned or had some of Demi or Alisa's technological wonders would recognize that the youngest one now possessed magic when she once had not. Powerful magic, at that. Demi and Alisa were masters of making tech like that, and it would expose her. Kyra wondered what she was to say in the event someone asked her about her magic, but she was far too shy to admit her worryings to Tegan or Alisa.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was merely a two minute span, Kyra found herself thrusted into the middle of a ring of people, Kairi beside her. The only others in the ring were two identically dressed girls, both with long pink hair and strange black jumpsuits with neon lines running across their seams, the left one's blue and the right's pink.

"W-What is this, K-Kairi?" Kyra asked, slinking behind her elder sister.

Kairi smiled, pushing Kyra away. "This is Shanna and Sadie. Both of them are members of Goldheart, and they've been dancing up a storm.  As you'd probably expect, Liz made their clothes, but their moves are all theirs. Don't worry, I'm going to be certain to help you out. I'm sure Errings Rising doesn't have much opportunity for ballet dancing, does it?"

Kyra shook her head. "It's not so much the time issue as much as..."

Kairi placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Kyra. I'm here, I'm sure the rest of us are watching you, whether or not in spirit or not. No matter what you do, we're proud of you." Kairi smiled, slowly rising to her toes. "Now, if you could?"

Kyra sighed, getting up to her own toes. It had been quite a while since she last had been dancing in any capacity, only having the ballet experience from Father's insistence. Of course, her teachers were great. All of the external teachers Father brought in to try to make Kyra, as she could have sworn he said, "Useful for something, at least." All of the extra sessions Demi and Rio gave her when it was close to a recital for Father... She seemed to float in the air, her legs stretching and tapping and her entire body spinning, Kairi moving in to keep a constant action going. Sadie and Shanna were both good dancers as well, for sure, their style matching each other's moves with a certain flair to them. Their lights lingered behind as they moved, causing the crowd to ooh and ahh. Kyra already could see Liz's smug face at knowing her self-made clothes were causing such a ruckus in such a good way. If only Kyra could do that...

Kyra's mind wandered back into position as she realized she was all of a sudden rolling Kairi off of her back, the duo's dancing slowly but surely getting more and more combined in nature. The twins seemed to struggle until a fatal slip up as the pink one tripped, causing the blue to sail over. Immediately, Kairi rushed over to check on the state of her fellow guildmate, leaving Kyra behind. The crowd slowly began converging into dance, the music beating and booming and blaring into the sky and rumbling through her feet. Why did people like this loud of music? It was tearing at her ears, the beats of the song arrhythmic with the beats of her heart. Each drop of the bass rumbled within her lungs, and even began to upset her stomach. Dipping her head into her sweater, she slowly began making her way through the dancing crowd, her constant apologies completely inaudible from the combination of her own voice and the thudding sounds of the music ahead. She struggled her way to the DJ booth, seeing a familiar face on it.

"Good dance, Kyra!" Corbyn's voice calmly said, louder than even the music.

"C-Can you turn it d-down, C-Corbyn?" Kyra mumbled.

Corbyn shrugged his shoulder. "'Fraid not, sis. These people are here to party, and nothing says partying quite like a killer beat and a loud song. Plus, we need to make sure that everyone can hear it. Yeah, Dad installed speakers everywhere in the whole city, but he's not allowing us to link the booth to the speakers. So, we just gotta make do."

"I-It's this l-loud just from h-here?"

Corbyn nodded and gave a smile. "Leave it to Alisa and Demi to make some wonder of technology. No clue how they did it, but I at least know what they used to make it. I had to do all the shipping. Honestly, I have no idea how they come up with some of these crazy things. Like, why in the world would they need a lacrima from a dragon for a DJ booth?"

"T-There's a d-dragon lacrima in here?"

Corbyn gave a thumbs-up. "Yep! Probably the reason it can be so powerful. Of course, Tegan was the one that killed the dragon, Alisa is the one that made the design and all that, and Demi just kinda did a bit of everything. Of course, all a secret from Dad."

"Y-You kept it s-secret from dad?!"

A goofy smirk painted Corbyn's face. "We tried to. Of course, when you own the whole city, nothing really gets past you, huh? After all, all our business reports get a copy sent to him. One to us, one to him, he gets some royalties for being the benefactor to us starting our companies. Heck, even Tegan's gotta send a report to Dad. I guess Goldheart owes a ton of money or something? No idea. Anyways, can't really get anything past Dad."

Kyra tilted her head groundwards. "So... F-Father hasn't c-changed..."

Corbyn finally showed a bit of less than stellar mood. "Yeah. Dad's still the same ol' Dad. Same grumpy Dad, same money man himself. Even though you've got magic now, he's not gonna let you come back. I don't know why. Maybe it's just because you ran away? Dad's always been a bit of a butt like that. He was a bit pissed that you ran off, and apparently Tegan and Kairi got in HUGE trouble for helping you out. I don't really know the details, but that's not really my job to know the details."

So. Father knows about the Cannibal Slayer. Of course he does, Rio and Demi and Tegan know, which must mean that Father knows.

Corbyn must have seen Kyra's downtrodden face, as he soon was dragging her up to the booth. "Try it, Kyra! You got this!"

Kyra felt a bit of a panic, unsure as to what to do. Corbyn told her the instructions, and Kyra followed them perfectly, garnering cheers and roars from the crowd. They liked the music getting even louder!? How!? It was already ear shattering before, and now the music was getting louder and louder and these people cheered it! At this rate, Errings Rising probably could have heard the music. Kyra retreated from the booth quickly, Corbyn taking over as soon as she left. "Good work, Kyra! Now, if you're not liking the music, you'd best get away. I'm about to crank the music past the point where the barrier protects us."

Kyra nodded enthusiastically, dashing off of the booth and trying to make her way through the crowds once more, looking for her fellow guildmates.

The music blared into the sky, the worrywart Velkhomme doing her best to cover her ears as she shuffled through the crowd. People consistently bumped into her, Kyra apologizing each and every time that it happened, regardless of the fact that it was not her fault. She just wanted to be back to somewhere familiar. She wanted to be back to people she knew and not just stuck in this crowd of hundreds or thousands or... well, who knew how many people were here! Reinford was the easternmost city in Fiore! How many people crossed the border to get here? How many people from Iceberg or Bosco or whatever other countries were running around the city of the Velkhommes for this Urban Nights Festival?

Her inner musings were interrupted by her quickly being dragged away. She was brought into a dark alley, where she found herself by glowy neon people.

"God, this little turtle is that boomer's daughter?" a girl mumbled, looking at her iLac.

"Aye," one of the two skull-masked ones responded, his deep voice rumbling deeper than the music. "So what we need to do is just hold her hostage until this festival's over then we can ask the old man for ransom money."

"Whatever is necessary for Evie." the samurai-looking one mumbled.

The girl rolled her eyes. "Ok, simp."

The samurai gave a disappointed look towards the girl before turning towards Kyra. "This is nothing personal, dear Velkhomme. You are merely a victim of your fate, of your lineage. I apologize." He unsheathed a katana, made entirely of pink flames, and held it to her throat. "This will not kill you, merely sedate you until we apply an antidote. Or we decide to kill you. Whatever your father deci-"

His words were interrupted by a barrage of arrows flying into the alley. The skull masks dodged out of the way easily, but the girl did not seem to be so lucky. The arrows riddled her, crashing her against a wall, knocking her unconscious.

"The hell you doing with my little sis?" Tegan's enraged voice asked, the drunkenness completely gone.

The two skull masks looked at each other for a moment before rushing ahead, loud music blaring from their chests, overpowering the already powerful music from Corbyn's DJ booth. Tegan raised a hand casually, a wall of sponges absorbing the sound waves. As soon as the sponges retreated, Tegan's shirt transformed into the same sort of copy as the skull masks', and it too fired a loud blaring music, knocking the skull masks out. The samurai raised his eyebrow, surprised. He slammed the katana on the ground, causing five elementals to rise from the ground, flickering and sparking haphazardly.

"You are a Memory Make user, I see," the samurai noted.

Tegan was obviously too angry to respond, her shirt returning to normal and a spear materializing in her hand. She rushed towards the samurai and his elementals, the elementals rushing to meet her as he swung his sword towards her, firing beams of light towards the Guild Master of Goldheart. Tegan easily pierced through the elementals, stabbing two of them in one thrust of the spear before delivering a hearty punch to another. After parrying the other two's attacks, she tapped the ground with her hand as five identical elementals formed up. Tegan ordered them to rush the other elementals as she attacked the samurai. He seemed prepared, swinging his sword of light at Tegan.

"T-Tegan! M-move!" Kyra weakly shouted, her voice barely escaping from her sweater.

Yet, to Kyra's surprise, Tegan had caught the blade. With... her teeth? Everyone except Tegan seemed to be shocked as Tegan ate the entire sword. Her hands lit up in a bright whitish - yellow light, slamming the samurai in the face, knocking him and his elementals out. Tegan looked at Kyra for a moment, before sighing, stumbling over to her, and hugging the sister.

"Ugghhhh it's so boring having to focus," she drunkenly moaned.

"D-Do you n-need some w-water, Tegan?"

Tegan ruffled Kyra's hair. "D'awww you're suuuuuuuch a cute li'l sister, Kyra! I'll be fiiiiine, just as long as you're safe. Oh! By the way! I knew his sword was just a big lasery thing. I wasn't afraid."

"W-why not?"

Tegan gave a confused look towards the cannibal. Then, a smile burst across her face and she laughed. "Riiiiight you didn't know! Well, Dad gave some Slayer Lacrimas to Rio and Demi, and I ended up finding one somewhere. We're juuuuuust like you, Kyra!" Kyra was shocked. Her three eldest siblings were all Slayers, just like her? It seemed too impossible to be true. Tegan giggled again, resting her head against Kyra's chest, embarrassing the young prodigal daughter. "Aria was lookin' for these people for a while anyways. PL4GUE, or something. I think we had a few jobs about them. Their leader's girlfriend or something got arrested on drug charges by Aria, but now we can arrest them too. Don't worry, Kairi's on her way here with Aria and some other police people."

Kyra was still slightly stunned. In the midst of all the exceptional people her family had, the likes of the perfect human in Rio, the master businesswoman in Demi, the smart brains, the keen eyes, the perfect personalities all her siblings had, Tegan was so strange. She was just... different. So aloof. So in her own world. So... irresponsible. She was the Guild Master of a respectably sized guild, and yet she acted like this all the time.

"Now, I thiiiiiiink your friends were at the bars, riiight? I think they liked me, and they were reeeeal cute, huh? Let'sh go towards them! C'mon, Kyra!"

Tegan began to drag Kyra around once more, though it ended up turning into Kyra dragging Tegan back to the bars, mostly with Tegan's direction. Honestly, Kyra should not have been surprised at Tegan's knowledge of all the bars, and she already knew that Medeia and Amber would be at this one. They came into the scene just in time to see Amber's arms light up in green rings and something on Medeia changed. Amber took her own drink before Tegan spoke up.

"Heeeeee-eyyyyyyyyy~~" she chirped. Tegan broke away from Kyra, immediately wandering over and planting her face into Medeia's chest. "Mmm, that's nice~. You got the exploding, huh? Those are aaaaaaalways, fun, but I think you'd've looked juuuuuust a bit cuter with it still on.~" Tegan removed her face from Medeia, only to immediately turn around and plant her face into Amber's. "Kyyyyyrrrraaaaaaa why do you have so many cute friends with such soft chests?"

Kyra's face was beet red at this point. "S-s-s-s-s-s-s-sorry about T-T-T-Tegan, M-M-M-Miss Medeia a-and A-Amber!"