[Chapter 37] In a Pickle

[South Korea, Somewhere Under the Rainbow] 

[Early Morning 5:54 am] 

... 

Hastily, she rushed over to a nearby building and hid there. Closing her eyes, she expanded her Observational Haki to sense everything within the spatial isolation. 

Already sensing the only one she poisoned awaked, she couldn't help but curse their terrible luck once more. As she's not only dealing with 7 crack heads, but also a Top 100 world ranker. 

Sighing, she looked to the girl who was scared out of her mind, not bothering to hide the fact that she was shivering in her arms, not due to the cold, but because she was scared. 

And knowing that she dragged an innocent old lady into her mess, made her feel guilty. She thinks, if she turns herself back in, they'll allow the sweet Miss to go scott-free. Making up her mind, she pushes Yulius away as best as she could which seemed more like a harmless shove if you asked her and tried her best to stand. 

The Seo looked to the girl, wondering what she was up to. She wouldn't get far with an injure leg like that, so Yulius couldn't help but question what was going on inside that little head of hers. 

That was answered when the raven confessed her plan of turning herself in, in return for letting her escape. Yulius flicks the girl's forehead with 2 digits, Itachi style, causing the girl's brows to furrow. 

"Are you stupid?" The second 'stupid' left her mouth, the raven instantly looked offended. "What?" 

The white head sighed as she explained, "do you really think just because you turn yourself in, they'll let me go?" 

"That-"

She couldn't make a comeback. As she has a slight idea of how cruel the awakened world is after already experiencing it herself. So she knows too that even if they promise to let the Miss go, they'll most likely go back on their words. 

Even so, she naively wanted to believe they'll let her go. Talk about stubborn. Wonder who she got that from?

"I have to at least try!" Voicing her opinion, causing Yulius to shake her head. "There's no point." 

"There's always a point!" 

"Not in this one, there isn't."

"But-" 

Sighing once again, "do you have such little faith in me to not believe that I can get us out of this mess?" 

"No." No hesitation whatsoever, causing an invisible arrow to pierce right through her chest. 'W- were, were children always this ruthless. Blunt for better words.'

(´ω｀.)

Cause god did that hurt. Never had she ever thought she could have her feelings hurt by a child she just met. Or in this case, saving. Because she met the child through the intent of saving her and this is how she repays her. 

"That's beside the point-" 

"Is it really?" The child sass, intending to get her point over. 

"Yes, it is. And I certainly have much more faith in myself to get us both out of here instead of following your half-baked plan to turn yourself over after all the hard work I went through to get your butt out of there in the first place."

Yulius wanted to curse so very badly, but she's a child. And in front of a child, everything stays PG. And no, she does not count as a child. Well, at least mentally she doesn't. 

"First of all," she started rather rudely, "my plan is not half-baked. If anything, it gives you a 50/50 percent chance of getting out of here alive while yours is fighting them to your death." 

She scoffs, "who said anything about fighting them to the death. I certainly didn't. So, what made you imply that I was going to do just that." Yulius for one, did intend to fight them to her death, but not before using most of her energy to teleport the girl outside the barrier. 

So she gets saved in the end. She doesn't know why the f*ck this brat is complaining. In fact, she should feel grateful someone as busy as her went out of her way to save her sorry a*s. Going as far as sacrificing herself to save her. The nerve of this girl is insane. 

"Liar!" 

Seriously, has she said the nerve of this girl because she really has guts. 

"I am anything but a liar-" 

She didn't even get to finish, before being called a liar once again. 

"Liar, liar pants on fire. Did you know, that you'll go to hell, if you continue to lie?"

Hey, those rhymes- "f*ck you author for being against me too!" She mumbled underneath her breath. 

Raven: "What?"

Yulius: "Wha-" 

"You mumbled something." The raven pointed out. Yulius denied, "no I didn't." 

Raven: "Yes you did! Stop lying!" 

Yulius: "No I didn't. I don't recall doing so." 

Raven: "So you admit you're a liar." 

Yulius: "Since when did I admit that?" 

Raven: "Just now." 

Yulius: "Your putting words into my mouth at this point." 

Raven: "Ew, gross. That's unsanitary." 

Ticking Yulius off. "What the hell do you-"

She stops halfway, sensing another presence as she quickly grabbed the girl, went to a dark corner where she's sure they cannot spot them, putting the girl in between her arms.

Her chin resting on top of the older girl's head as she hugged her close. The raven couldn't help but blush slightly at the close proximity. Feeling the younger girl's breath, with her chest shove in her cold pale face, warmed her greatly. 

"Hey?! Wha-" 

Yulius place her palm over her mouth, warning her to be quiet with her index finger as she signals that they are not alone. This shuts her up really quick, allowing the younger girl to remove her palm. 

"COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" One taunted. "YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM ME!" 

"Actually, they can. Seeing as they're hiding from you as of this moment." Another spoke bluntly. 

"Oh, shut up! You know what I mean!" 

"Actually, I don't."

"I mean, they can only hide for so long. We'll eventually find them." 

"Then just say that." 

"What? No! That sounds lame." 

"But it's the truth." 

"F*ck the truth!" 

"That's not how it works-" 

"F*ck the truth."

Knowing this argument wasn't going anywhere, he gave up. "Let's look over there," pointing to the opposite direction of the escapees. Agreeing, the other followed him. 

The Seo and the raven breathe out a sigh in relief, not knowing they were holding their breaths up until now. "So, what do we do now?" The girl asked. 

Yulius: "We'll go with my plan." 

Raven: "And that is..."

Yulius: "I teleport you out of here and back to your house." 

Raven: "What about you?"

Yulius: "What do you mean? What about me?" 

Raven: "I mean what will happen to you." 

She didn't answer. But she didn't have to as the raven knew what this meant. 

Raven: "No."

"What?" She exclaimed, confused by her sudden outburst. 

Raven: "I'm not leaving you behind." 

Yulius: "It's the only way." 

Raven: "Find another way then!" 

Yulius: "We don't have time for that. Sooner or later, they will find us and once they do, I'm dead and you're going back into your holding cell before they decide to ship you off to Narnia. Do you really want that?" 

Raven: "What does it matter! You'll die either way!" 

Yulius: "Are you stupid?! Who said anything about me dying?!"

Raven: "You cannot win against all of them at once. Especially after wasting most of your energy teleporting me away." 

Yulius: "Try me." 

Instantly starting the teleportation procedure. The raven only realized it until it was too late to stop the process. "No!" She tried to grab her savior, only for her to be stopped by an invisible barrier.

Yulius wrote seals around the girl without her knowing. Only displaying its marks when she activates them. Seeing herself surrounded by foreign letters, the raven pounded hard against the barrier, trying to break free. 

Trying to stop the process. Too bad for her, it already long started, and her futile attempts to break free of it will get her nowhere. 

"Please! Don't do this!" She cried. 

"Sorry love, it's the only way." Interlocking her fingers together, "and for the record, I'm younger than you." Slamming her palms together. And BAM! She was outside the barrier while her savior was still inside.

(For teleportation visuals, think of it when Satoru teleported Panda and Toge Inumaki.)

She knew it was out of her capabilities to go back in. Moreover, even if she does successfully make it back inside, what could she possibly do. They are way out of her league so fighting them is out of the option. Furthermore, she'll just be a burden to the white head. 

'Is that why she teleported me? Was I in the way?' She clenches her fist until it paled. She is still too weak. Too weak to do anything. Too weak to protect herself. Too weak to save herself. And she acknowledges that. 

She'll only be in the way. Not being able to help her savior in any way, shape or form. Wait! Hold on a dang minute. Did she say she was younger than me? How can someone so young, skillfully break in and break out with her, when there were 7 awakeners watching her inside? 

That doesn't make any sense. They may not be that skilled or smart up there, but that doesn't mean their awakened abilities is anything to jock at. Moreover, the male who has been watching over her the most has mad skills. His skills being in the ranks of a Top 100.

Which was why she didn't have faith in the younger girl no matter how confident she was, to beat Ben. And now, she's going to die because of it. And all she can do is accept it.

NO! 

She will not accept it. There must be something- no someone, who can help her. With the gears turning in her little mind, she thought of only one person. 

Her father. 

The raven made haste, ran for dear life even as her injured ankle ached. She enhanced herself with the little remaining energy she has left to speed up the process, as she made her way into the bright city and towards her father's organization. 

With one thought racing through her little mind. 

'Hold on a little longer, Missy!'

Not that she needs it. As on her side, she already defeated the 2 goons they saw from earlier, as she sits on the back of one of them, while the other is stacked right underneath him.

'All in a good day's worth.' Absorbing the 2 awakener's energies.

Previously, she had a little over half of her reserves used up, teleporting the girl a good distance away, close enough to reach the city in half an hour if she walked. Which was quite far away from where they were.

Moreover, doing it trapped inside a spatial isolation where her abilities were somewhat limited, was a bit more challenging than she thought. But once she absorbs the unconscious awakener's energies, she'll have at least half of her reserves back. 

Not that she needs it to defeat all 6 awakeners. On the contrary, 4 of them are enhanced close combat awakeners, so they'll mostly rely on their guns in hand to deal with Yulius from afar. 

The ones she should be worried about are Cecilia and Ben. Though Cecilia isn't near the level of a Top 100 like Ben is, she is well in the Top 200's but on the high end. So she's probably ranked 140-ish. Still a mere ant in her eyes. 

Speaking of which, she should take those 4 out. They'll only get in her way later on, and they would prove to be good energy sources. Nothing wrong with being overly cautious and having more energy at her expense. 

As for how she's able to absorb other awakener's energies. Her space affinity allows her to create a small void that takes other awakeners energy she comes in physical contact with, transferring it over to herself. 

This requires precise precision and maximum control. But with sixth eyes, all requirements are null as the Rikugun passively process the mechanics of the technique rather swiftly without the user having the need to lift a finger. 

The troublesome thing is, she has to control the input and output of the technique. Because if she takes too much energy while engaging in close combat, her opponent will realize this and try to avoid any sort of contact with her.

Moreover, she can't just drain an awakener with just a single touch. Well, she can, it's just all that energy she absorbs has to go somewhere. She can't put it in the atmosphere as there's already a whole lot of them. If she does, it'll start a chain reaction of explosions. 

The only solution is putting it into herself or transferring it to others. But in most cases, she'll have to put it into herself. And if her reserves are already full, she'll be brimming with more energy. 

Which isn't a good thing. Overflowing with energy will put pressure on her core, begging for a release because it cannot stand the lush amount of energy. It can only hold so much before it breaks. 

And it's not like she can absorb the energy and use it just like that. It takes time for her body to process the new entities before she can use it as her own.

All in all, it's a real troublesome technique she and Chelsea developed. They try to avoid using it as much as possible as the current stage of the technique is still in its experimental stage. Seeing as if you absorb too much, you might explode. 

But due to the dire situation she's in, a tiny risk in return for her survival shouldn't be all that bad. 

Once she finished absorbing both awakeners, she burned their bodies. After all, those that take advantage of innocent people are nothing more but scum who do not deserve to live. They should've lived their lives better. 

'Amaterasu.'

When the smell of their rotting flesh started to affect her nose, she left the crime scene, hiding in the shadows as she awaited the other awakeners to investigate the murder. And it wasn't until long, they made their appearance. 

...