Lily
Upon returning home with my still fairly depleted mana reserves, the first thing I did was to sit down in my office, drink a soda to improve my mana regeneration and then try to convert a bit of mana into aura. Interestingly enough, that worked, giving me more aura than I’d used up in the process though I felt like it could’ve been more efficient.
Every subsequent test just proved the same thing: To my aura, all sources of supernatural energy were able to be converted into each other. My semblance, simply named Conversion, didn’t care that they were meant to be different energies.
It made me wonder about some things, though. The very fact that this worked either meant that it was already possible or that my soul’s ability to begin producing a specific supernatural energy after encountering it had been the origin of my semblance but I felt like the former was more likely. If it had simply been my soul, that wouldn’t really have explained Conversion’s existence since I didn’t naturally convert one supernatural energy into another.
“How interesting.” I muttered to myself while taking out a mana crystal to once again attempt what I’d failed to do in my battle against Godrick.
The issue with absorbing a mana crystal’s mana, I knew, was that the mana inside it wasn’t one’s own and, unlike dust, it wasn’t an energy that could easily be harnessed. Dust was volatile in ways in which mana crystals weren’t, hence aura and mana alike being able to make it explode quite easily. Machines could make use of the mana inside a mana crystal but living beings couldn’t without first being skilled enough to convert that mana into whatever kind of mana they needed.
For me, it was now as simple as touching it with my aura and willing it to convert into my mana.
“To think I could’ve simply used my aura and I wouldn’t have run out of mana against Godrick.” I smiled despite the annoyance I felt, amused by how simple things would’ve been if I’d bothered to make such an attempt.
And, with Conversion, it was just as simple of a matter to convert a mana crystal into any type of dust I desired and vice versa. It also let me turn my mana into a mana crystal. With the insight of watching the conversion processes, I even knew enough to repeat the same feats via sith alchemy.
Doing anything with my reiryoku or aura was more difficult since I didn’t have anything resembling the fine control I had over my mana when it came to them but, then again, fixing that didn’t have to be far more difficult just because I couldn’t see or sense them quite as easily.
Within my soul, aura attached mana to every part of itself. There simply to be there, existing solely to let me see my aura in greater detail and fix the inefficiency of my Conversion as quickly as possible.
This semblance of mine was simply too interesting for me to let it remain inefficient. Fixing my reiryoku control could wait until after I was done with my aura control.
Melanie Fitts
There were many open secrets in the hunter scene. The PRT’s most feared failed to kill Jack Slash because he somehow talked her out of it and had since been ordered to stay away from him just as she was forbidden from approaching human masters or the Endbringers, if you committed crimes in the Gates, the PRT wouldn’t investigate too much as long as you helped fight the Endbringers and whoever pushed the line too hard was repurposed.
There were many more local ones, too, and the only thing they all had in common was that no one ever confirmed them. They were something every hunter and many non-hunters knew but none of them had ever been confirmed so as to maintain plausible deniability.
In recent times, most of the open secrets I’d learnt had all been centered around the leader of the Travelers Guild.
If one believed everything they heard, she was capable of predicting the Endbringers, travelled to other worlds whenever she pleased, empower others, held an understanding of magic that was unmatched in our world, wielded a lightsaber and, more recently, was the reason behind the Travelers – the roaming group of hunters, that is – having been seen in their entirety for the first time in two or so years.
Everyone who’d heard of them had known that one of their members had suffered some kind of horrific mutation from her magic almost like a Case 53 and yet, shortly after joining the Travelers Guild, she was out in public again, looking as if that had never been the case.
I had been ready to abandon Brockton Bay before this point. My guild travelled across the country a lot, anyways, so it wouldn’t have been much of a loss. However, the chance of giving Gregor and Newter a chance at some semblance of normality was too good to pass up on and they’d agreed with me about it.
And so here I was in Lilian Biron’s newly repaired office, ready to figure out whether or not she truly had the ability to help the people who might as well have been family to me at this point.
“I’ve heard many interesting things about your guild lately.” I began after getting the greetings out of the way. It was strange to be walking on eggshells around a teenager but the girl with glowing eyes – which she hadn’t had the last time I’d seen a picture of her – was important and powerful in a way that meant the PRT would likely even look past her murdering me if she felt like it.
“I’d normally enjoy these word games but I still have multiple things I have to do today so let’s get straight to the point. You’re here about Noelle Meinhardt regaining her humanoid form, aren’t you?” She asked, her tone making it clear that she was already certain of the conclusion she’d reached.
Rather than showing surprise, I kept my composure and nodded. “Then let me ask you: Are you responsible for that and can you replicate it?”
Lilian nodded in response. “Whenever I feel like it.”
“And do you believe it’d work on Case 53s?” I pushed, wanting to hear the words from her lips before I even considered negotiating for her to make the attempt. I was under no delusions that she’d do it for free, after all. Lilian Biron was already starting to develop a reputation for greed on par with Thomas Andre only, rather than offering her assistance with disasters, she offered power and took as much as she could get from those desperate enough to accept her prices.
With others, she claimed their services instead, the Travelers being one of the examples one could point at.
“There’s a decent chance it could fix their bodies but almost certainly not their memories.” Lilian answered with far too much certainty.
“Do you have knowledge on the Case 53s, too?” The question had to be asked. The origin of the Case 53 remained one of the mysteries I’d sworn to solve if just to give those close to me some peace of mind.
“A decent amount. Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d die for knowing it.” Her eyes flashed brightly for a moment before a smile formed on her lips. “Scratch that, I’m now certain telling you would see you getting killed before you could even tell anyone.”
‘Of course she can also see the future.’ I wasn’t going to just believe her but the smugness she emanated as she spoke seemed genuine and I wouldn’t discount it for the time being. It’d also explain why none of my leads so far had gotten us anywhere and yet she knew about it. If anyone in the know who’d be willing to talk about it died for it, there’d be no one capable of telling me what I needed to know.
And her amusement at how knowing the answer to what I desired to know more than anything else would kill me was not a good sign of her willingness to help.
Still, I had no choice but to turn towards her in this situation. “Ten million. I can offer you ten million each if you can help Gregor and Newter.” Asking for the information was worthless. If Lilian could protect me, she’d need an incentive to do so and I had nothing worth my life aside from offering to work for her and I couldn’t make that choice without consulting the others.
“I’d consider it but, frankly, what I’d give them would be worth a lot more than a mere ten million. It’s something that has a lot of benefits, you see? So, at minimum, I want five hundred million.” She explained calmly as if her offer were reasonable.
The government balked at her prices just as they balked at Thomas Andre’s despite rumours placing her original prices at an even more absurd amount. The issue was that no one else could empower people in the same way as Lilian Biron and she knew it. What did it matter if she asked for prices only a handful of people could afford when the government was forced to accept them just so their hunters were better.
“You know I can’t afford that so let’s be reasonable here. Twenty million each.” I offered, hoping desperately she’d take it because, frankly, I didn’t have too much more to offer. I was not an S-Rank who could clear A-Ranks as easily as breathing and neither did I have six or seven raid squads working for me. And my search for answers meant that, while I’d gotten very good at making money as quickly as I could, I also had to spend quite a lot.
Elle could, on a good day, make clearing an A-Rank Gate trivial but that first required her to have a good day and I didn’t want to stress her by rushing Gates when she was actually doing well for once so we’d only do at most one or two raids those days.
“No deal.” Lilian replied casually as if the money I’d offered was less than nothing to her and, considering the fact that even several foreign hunters had purchased seats for her first lecture tomorrow, it probably was. One lecture about powerful magic, despite vows being involved to not share any of what was learnt or make any recordings alongside various other vows to ensure that the knowledge wouldn’t spread without Lilian profiting from it, earnt her five hundred million just by charging one million per seat and offering five hundred tickets.
Lilian Biron could throw as much money as I had into a river and not even blink at the act.
“However,” She began and I already knew what she’d say next, “If you and your guild members were to join the Travelers Guild, I’d be more than willing to do it for free provided you offer me ten years of service each. Twenty, should it return them to humanoid forms.”
“…I’ll have to discuss this with them before making a decision.” I told her, ignoring how it wounded my pride to even consider working for a teenager.
“Then go ahead and let me know once you’ve made your choice. I do have other things to do today, after all.” Lilian told me, her expression and body language making it clear that she was already certain of what our answer would be.
She was wrong, though. Gregor and Newter were problematically likely to be willing to not take the chance at looking human if they felt like it was what I’d want. And I certainly didn’t want to work for Lilian Biron. Not when our independence was something I enjoyed.
Just as I stood up, though, Lilian added something almost as if it were something unimportant she’d forgotten about, “Oh, you should also know that there’s quite a good chance I can get rid of the mental side effects of Labyrinth’s magic. And I’d do so for free if she were in the Travelers Guild.”
And, just like that, Lilian Biron had already won. She knew we’d agree because Elle’s condition was something all of us wanted to see improved and the fact that Lilian hadn’t put a price tag on it would only make it more appealing. No extra years of working for her, no conditions – just a promise that she’d likely be able to solve one of Elle’s major issues if we joined.
I could now truthfully say that I didn’t like the teenage S-Rank but I’d tolerate working under her. For the people I’d come to call family, I’d swallow my pride even if I hated it.
Missy
“So I finally get to meet you.” I’d just been about to enter Lily’s office when the door opened and a behemoth of a man walked out of it, being large enough that he had to duck to pass through the door. And I’d have to have lived under a rock to not have recognized Thomas Andre, the man whose attempts to reach out I’d ignored because Lily’d told me he just wanted to recruit me and I had just befriended Ruby, meaning that I didn’t have the time to deal with someone like that.
Just by sensing his mana, I knew why Lily’d been in such a foul mood when telling me about him. His reserves dwarfed mine. Before she’d gotten all that mana she now had, Lily’d have been in the same boat and she didn’t take being outdone like that well.
I didn’t need to know more about him than that to know that he’d probably kick my ass if we fought and he didn’t underestimate me because he was almost certainly too quick to get caught in my spatial traps.
“Say, how’d you like to join the Scavenger Guild? We offer some great benefits.” The grinning giant offered me.
I shook my head without hesitation. “No thanks. I’m just fine here.” Despite the slight strain in our relationship after our argument, I still loved my sister and, really, what could Andre offer me that Lily couldn’t? Money? Power? My twin could give me both better than he’d ever be able to.
“Shame.” He said insincerely, still grinning as if it didn’t bother him in the slightest. “Let me know if you ever change your mind.”
“Andre, get out of here already.” Lily called out from inside her office, sounding annoyed. “You’ve discussed what you wanted to and gotten a chance to recruit my sister. And I need my office empty for further meetings.”
The National-Rank laughed in response, seemingly not caring much about how rude my sister had been. “Sure. I’ll get out of your hair, Biron. See ya tomorrow.” He called out, before casually walking off.
‘How strong has Lily become that she can do that?’ Even if Andre really wouldn’t have cared either way, Lily wouldn’t have done it unless she was confident he’d never be able to punish her rudeness.
All I’d been able to think about while Thomas Andre had been in front of me was how outmatched I’d been while Lily shooed him off like he was a fly that was bothering her.
“Let’s spar.” I demanded after entering Lily’s office, my tone leaving no room for arguments. I’d already come here to do that since Ruby was kind of busy with the entire ‘early admission to Beacon’ thing but now I wanted to see just how I matched up against Lily.
“For any reason in particular or just out of a sudden desire for violence?” My twin asked, sounding amused but not leaving her desk chair.
“Ruby’s too busy to spar with me right now and, besides, I can actually use magic and go all out against you.” With Ruby, I always had to hold back to some degree. I wasn’t as strong or fast as an S-Rank warrior but I could still fold any B-Ranks and several A-Ranks without even using magic.
Lily sighed but got up. “Alright then. Let’s just do it in my Traveling Home but outside the castle.” Before I could even respond to that, she warped away, leaving me to guess where exactly she wanted to spar.
It took me about twenty minutes to find her and I only managed it because she let me sense her mana instead of suppressing it. “You took your time, huh?” If I had any doubt that she’d done that on purpose, her smug smirk erased it.
“Let’s just get started already.” I said through gritted teeth, Aegis Sword appearing in my right hand.
In response, Lily took out a katana out of all things. One that felt weird to my senses. “I’ll be fair here. I haven’t given you reiryoku yet so I’m not going to use that. And we both really shouldn’t use lightsabers against each other. So that leaves aura, magic and the Force. You fine with those rules?”
“Yeah.” I nodded, still annoyed.
“Then we can begin now.” The words had barely left Lily’s mouth by the time I started rushing her, trying to hit her with Aegis Sword and ready to use the mechanism inside it to launch some fire dust at her.
I also decreased the distance between us just as Lily began to dodge and, while she stopped me from shrinking it as much as I’d wanted to, I was better than her with this type of magic at least. Only, Lily parried Aegis Sword with her katana and then jumped to the side with just enough force to evade the entirety of the dust I’d shot at her.
“You’ll have to do better than that to hit me.” Lily taunted me, her stance so loose that I’d have to have been blind to not notice that she was barely even trying.
Besides, magic was allowed and Lily hadn’t even used any yet besides slightly hindering me while I was using my own magic.
Growling at her looking down on me like that, I ran in for another strike, keeping myself focused enough to twist the space around Lily at the right time to prevent her from dodging this time and, surprisingly enough, Lily just let it happen.
The reason why became clear really quickly when Lily once again stopped Aegis sword while stepping in close enough to push me with enough force that the shot of dust once again missed her entirely but not enough to hurt me. She didn’t even follow up on the shove. And, all the while, a smile remained on her lips.
I was trying my hardest, Lily was just fucking around and she was still winning! Those were the facts and they pissed me off beyond belief!
Bending space to raise the ground around Lily in such a way that she wouldn’t be able to move simply saw her jumping away and the dust I shot at her in the air almost hit except, for some reason, she landed almost immediately after I’d shot the dust only to push off the ground again and evade everything I’d thrown at her.
Worst of all? She didn’t even pretend to care about me stretching out the area affected by the explosion. Lily just evaded it as if it had been the easiest thing in the world to do.
Pissed off as I was, I almost didn’t notice when I thrust out my left hand on some instinct and pushed some aura out with it. I did, however, notice Lily losing her smile for the first time in that fight and fleeing the area I’d pushed my aura at.
A moment later, I felt as space distorted in all kinds of unhealthy ways before correcting itself a second or two later.
‘…That’d have mangled her.’ Unless aura could somehow protect from space twisting in a million directions while you’re occupying it, that was guaranteed. ‘I nearly hurt my twin really badly.’ I gulped at that realization, feeling a little sick to the stomach.
“Nice semblance you have there but maybe don’t use that in a spar again. I’m pretty sure every single combat instinct I had was screaming at me there.” Lily sounded as if she was joking but her body language was still a bit tense.
“Yeah, I’m not using that again when it might hit you.” I replied weakly. Part of me was really excited to have found my semblance but that it’d nearly hurt Lily made it a lot worse.
“Missy,” Lily called out to me, grabbing my shoulders and looking me straight in the eyes, “I’m fine. Sure, things got a bit dicey there but I’m fine. You don’t have to feel guilty about something that didn’t even happen. I’d rather you be happy about your semblance than miserable because of how you discovered it.”
It was easy to forget sometimes that Lily had the same knowledge of body language that I did but moments like these forced me to remember it. I didn’t need to tell her my worries, not when she could figure out all of them through my body language and the Force.
And her words did help a bit, at least, even if I still felt guilty.
“Know what? How about we go to Star Wars and kill a Hutt or something? Shouldn’t be too hard and I’m pretty sure there’s straight up nothing about them that’d make you feel anything but good about ridding the galaxy of one of them.” Lily offered, grinning at me.
I shook my head, though. “Not without knowing if it’d have consequences. And, speaking of those, we should probably still head over there to check up on the entire situation with Palpatine.” Just stopping Palpatine didn’t necessarily stop Dooku or the CIS, after all.
“How about we do it the day after tomorrow? That way, we can just hang out and have some fun today.” Lily replied, looking as disinterested as I knew she would be.
I wanted to argue but I wasn’t against relaxing a bit with her. I just felt like we should probably make sure we hadn’t accidentally made things worse for the galaxy. Lily probably wouldn’t go for it today, though. “Why not tomorrow?” That question still had to be asked, I felt.
“Because of my lecture. Well, that and the fact that I have a meeting with Andre after that and another meeting with the PRT following that one. I really won’t be in the mood to check up on Star Wars after all that.” Lily explained, already looking annoyed by the day ahead of her.
“Alright, let’s watch a movie then.” I gave in. Surely things couldn’t get that much worse within a day or two, after all?
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