A Deal with the Devil [Fin]

[Horo]

These events occur directly after Horo's battle with Pierce Veil.

Horo was now in the medical wing of the tournament grounds. Her body was being repaired by Chrystalline. Horo slipped in and out of consciousness as her wounds were being healed. Her cries of pain rang through the medical bay. Quickly coming to her side was Ilmiore and Giovanni. Horo’s worried father gripped her hand and spoke to her in their native tongue while Giovanni examined her with strange interest. “Her ability... Her pulse is... Gone.” Ilmiore began to weep as Giovanni spoke, but the old master looked over the child and thought. “I can restore it to her... but... it comes at a cost.”

Ilmiore looked at Horo’s battered face and with his best English replied “When you teached Horo how using Pulse, she happiest in her life. If she never can use again, she destroyed.” Ilmiore turned to Giovanni with a pleading look in his eyes. “Save Horo happiness”

Giovanni took a deep breath and pulled Ilmiore away from Horo. He sat the man down and began to whisper the procedure to him. Ilmiore’s face went through many motions before returning to a sad face. He looked over at Horo and sighed. “For Horo, I do anything.”

Once Chrystaline had finished her reconstruction of Horo’s body Giovanni and Ilmiore took and set Horo down in the middle of a large circle. A smaller circle was to the side where Giovanni instructed Ilmiore to stand. “Ilmiore, there is no going back from this. Are you sure this is what you want?” Ilmiore nodded. Giovanni sighed and crouched down between the two circles and placed a hand in both. The arcane circle began to glow with a power that Giovanni hadn’t truely used in ages.

The room was engulfed in light, the circles spun through the air and a small tear rolled down Giovanni’s face. Ilmiore was gone from the world. Giovanni stroked Horo’s hair as her trained body returned to its half transformed state. A small tattoo of a black, wolf like head had formed on Horo’s lower back, right above where her tail began.

Image of the tattoo, it is just the wolf

[Horo]

“What? Where am I?”

It took a few moments for Horo’s eyes to fully open and adjust to the bright lights of the medical bay. Her muscles felt tight and her body ached. The usual feel of her clothing wasn’t present on her body, replaced by a light green hospital robe. Her ears flicked as they readjusted to listening to the sounds around her. Her nose picked up the scent of Crystalline, Giovanni, her Father and many of her class mates.

“Why… why am I here?”

Horo slowly lifted her hand and began to rub her head. The memories slowly came back to her. The fight with Pierce, the roar of the crowd, the loss of her pulse sensitivity. Horo became frantic, remembering how she had been cut off from the world she had come to love, but her hands could feel her ears atop her head and her tail was movable on the soft padded bed. ‘Maybe, it was a dream?’ she thought to herself optimistically.

“Horo, I need to talk to you.”

The sound of Giovanni’s strangely unhappy voice vibrated in Horo’s ears in a fashion she had never noticed before. She turned towards him and slowly raised herself into a seated position. Holding her stomach she gave Giovanni a questioning look.

“You’ve never sounded this serious before. I know I lost, but I’m alive, I’ll recover, and I’ll be stronger than ever.”

Giovanni’s worried face brought questions into Horo’s mind. She hypothesized the possibilities of things that could be bothering him. Her academics, club, disciplinary charges, none of them would make sense for the happy man to be so serious.

“Horo, I… I have some terrible news. The fight with Pierce, somehow stripped you of your ability to use Pulse.”

Horo began to laugh, now holding her stomach in great pain from the motion. Horo extended her left hand and caused a vase on the opposite side of the room to vibrate. It wasn’t a large show of power, but she felt it was enough.

“Giovanni, I can still use my Pulse. I had a scare too, I couldn’t feel at the end of the fight but, it’s here again. No worries.”

Giovanni sighed and walked over to Horo. He placed his hands on her shoulders and took in a deep breath. “No Horo, it’s not.”

Horo became frightful, nearly convinced that she was trapped in some strange nightmare where Giovanni would actually lie to her. She pushed his hands off of her shoulders and gave him a stern look, it couldn’t hide the fear and confusion in her eyes.
“Don’t lie to me Giovanni! I know I can still use my Pulse. I shook the vase! I’m in my half transformed state! That’s not possible without it!”

Giovanni began to cry, sitting down on Horo bed and pulling her head into his chest in a hug. He told her, “I’m so, so very sorry child. So very sorry.”

Horo became very visibly frightened and took notice that her father was nowhere to be found. “Giovanni… Where is my father? Where is Ilmiore!?” Horo began using her Pulse to find him, searching far and wide across the campus. His signature was nowhere to be found. “Where is my father?”

Giovanni pulled his body back from Horo and looked into her vibrant crimson eyes.

“Horo… He’s gone form this world.”

Horo’s eyes filled with tears as Giovanni spoke. She lashed out at him and jumped out of her bed. She just needed to get a better position to search from, she told herself scrambling through the halls of the medical wing. Giovanni followed her until they were outside, looking over Savale from the floating arena.

“Giovanni… why? Why did he have to leave me too?”

Giovanni pulled Horo in and began to tell her the story of the bravest Anulupis who had ever lived. How he sacrificed his being to restore his one and only daughter’s greatest treasure so that she might find happiness in life. Horo’s tears were uncontrollable as she sat on the cold metal flooring of the platform.

Even though she was in the middle of the most populated city in the know worlds, she felt more alone than she had ever felt in her life.