Five months on from the ending of arc 2, we return to events in the story. In this prologue, Belleze Rossi and her allies return to Shizukana to deliver a message.
BELLEZA
There was a small thud behind her, as the last of their little group jumped down to join them. Miho shifted slightly, allowing Wisteria enough room to squeeze past and squat beside her.
“Nobody else is in the area, we’re good to go,” She informed her. Belleza nodded her head, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see Wisteria had conflicted expression on her face and appeared as though she wanted to say more.
“Do you have anything else to add, Wisteria?” Belleza asked, raising a brow.
Most people wouldn’t have dared speaking back to her, but Wisteria wasn’t most people. Belleza found it annoying, but her dear father seemed to find it gave her character, and as such, she had fast become one of his favourite “assets”. If Belleza had her way, she would have disposed of her and that little bug the moment they had come to Olympia, winding up on their doorstep like a pair of pitiful strays.
“I just think - after everything that happened with Farron - this is taking a huge risk,” Wisteria said. “Like Bianca said this could potentially make a lot of noise.”
“Which is why we’re doing this at night,” Belleza pointed out, rolling her eyes. “Besides, we wouldn’t have to make so much noise if you would only tell us where our sweet little spider is.”
Wisteria stiffened. “I told you - I don’t know where she is,”
Belleza said nothing. If that was the story Wisteria wanted to stick with then so be it. Bianca and Calantha might have been quick to accept her word as truth, but Belleza had her suspicions, and she had her ways of finding out the truth.
“Let’s move,” Belleza instructed, gesturing with her hand for them to move forward. The three women would rise to their feet, walking slowly out from their hiding place, and began to approach the house of Leyla Noira. She would bring them to a halt a few metres in front of the house. “Miho, do your thing.”
“Yes, milady.”
The large muscular woman would come forward, a smirk already on her lips for the fun that was to come. She bumped past Wisteria roughly, making the other woman scowl, before stepping in front of the group. Miho moved her arms as though shaking them, readying her bracers into their offensive position, before holding them in front of her. In quick succession, she would punch the air four times, releasing a small blast in the direction of the house each time. Each blast met its mark. The house wasn’t completely destroyed, but it had certainly caused a considerable amount of damage to the house.
Belleza was quick to move forward, hopping over debris as she lead them inside.
“Ding dong!” She called out, glancing around at the confused occupants.
She had to give this little group of huntresses some credit; considering they just had part of their house blown up, they were already getting to their feet, with two moving to grab their weapons. Of the two she recognised one as one of their intended targets - Helia Vines.
She and Leyla Noire had ruined their little plan to take down Farron Hargrave along with a team of students. Bianca had forbidden her from directly dealing with the children, so sending a message to them via their allies would have to suffice. The appearance of Leyla and Helia’s former teammates, though a surprise, was just an added bonus.
The confusion was evident in the faces of Helia and the woman Belleza knew to be Anthea. However, Helia’s expression soon shifted when she noticed Wisteria.
“You!” She said, her voice trembling with rage.
Wisteria moved to go towards her, but Miho swatted her away. “She’s mine,” Miho grinned, giving Wisteria a wink when she returned the shove with an angry glare.
With Miho gunning for Helia, Wisteria turned her attentions to Leyla, and a flaxen-haired woman named Alcyone. Leyla seemed out for the count of this battle, judging by the moaning she was doing on the floor, clutching her arm which Belleza could see appeared to be broken.
Alcyone proved to be more of a threat than she realised, for even with her larger size, she was managing to hold off Wisteria thanks to her semblance. Belleza could have stood there admiring them for some time, had it not been for Anthea charging her like an angry bull.
Belleza drew her weapon out ready, snapping it into its spear form ready to clash with Anthea’s sword, but was caught off guard by a deafening screech instead. Ah, so that would be her semblance then. Lunick had mentioned it was vocal, he had just neglected to mention the specifics of it. Belleza would have to call him out on that.
Not wanting to get hit with another one of her cries again, Belleza was quick to retaliate, hitting her in the stomach with the butt of her spear. Then as she stumbled away, she spun the weapon in her hand and swung it at her head, catching her square in the jaw causing her pale blue aura to surge, and sending her toppling to the floor. She held her jaw with one hand and began shuffling back towards her sword, reaching for the hilt. Just as she grasped it, Belleza thrust her spear at her, careful not to directly strike her.
“Don’t.” Was Belleza’s one-word instruction to her. Unfortunately, the woman wasn’t reckless enough to continue their fight, so reluctantly released her hold on her weapon, before moving to tend to Leyla.
Elsewhere, Wisteria appeared to be victorious in her battle with Alcyone, as she got the woman on bended knee, seemingly defeated for now. Wisteria’s attentions - much like her own - were now focused on Helia and Miho. Unsurprisingly, the former champion was the one proving to put up more of a fight. She and Miho were matched in regards to height, but her speed and useful semblance gave her a slight advantage. But she seemed to be tiring now - most likely from the surprising way this whole battle had been instigated - and her slip-ups were costing her dearly.
Miho kicked Helia sharply in the gut forcing the other woman back. In the moment it took Helia to steady herself, Alcyone had already lifted her arm ready to deliver another blast. Helia didn’t have much time to respond, but could only hold up her two katanas as a way of defending herself as the blast came towards her.
Well, she was spared from any major physical damage at least, but getting thrown back as far as she did from the recoil certainly wouldn’t have helped. She hit the wall with a small thud and slid down to the floor. Belleza couldn’t help but smirk when she noticed one of her katanas had fractured from the blast.
With a smirk, Belleza practically danced into the living room, earning a wary glance from Wisteria, who reluctantly came to stand by her.
“Oh dear, oh dear! How the mighty have fallen!” Belleza laughed, glancing around at the downed huntresses. “This is what you -”
“No!” Alcyone interrupted, lifting her head. “It’s not over yet.”
Belleza threw her head back, forcing out a loud laugh. “Look around, Miss Sternberg. It’s over. You’re done”
She then proceeded to walk forward and kicked Alcyone sharply, knocking her down again. She was glad when she saw Alcyone moving to sit back up, eventually shifting onto her knees.
Good. This was just what Belleza wanted. “Stand up, I dare you,” She warned. Although she acted as though this was a warning, she was very subtle in making it appear to Alcyone as though she was egging her on.
“Ally...don’t,” Helia advised, outstretching a hand towards her teammate.
“Ally...” Anthea echoed.
But she didn’t listen to her teammates and stood up. And that was the invitation Belleza needed to send her message. She stamped her spear on the floor, before spinning it in her hand and catching it in a position to throw it. It took her only a few seconds to aim and throw it. With her aura depleted, she had little defence against it, and it speared her directly in the abdomen.
Anthea and Helia screamed, and whilst Leyla turned to look, she appeared too out of it to really comprehend what was going. Hearing the screams of anguish for their stricken teammate and the cries of anger directed towards her, Belleza could only smile. Oh, how she enjoyed moments like this.
Once again she walked towards Alcyone, whose hands were clutching at the shaft of the spear, but appeared too afraid to move it. Belleza however, was not afraid to do just that. She wrapped a hand around the shaft, and began to pull, causing the other woman to wince. Belleza would pause momentarily, and leant forward to whisper something to her. “I did warn you,” She pointed out, before sharply tugging the spear out. The woman cried out in pain, before falling to her knees.
Belleza squatted down in front of her and cupped her chin with her hand. “Does it hurt?” She asked mockingly, tilting her head to one side. Alcyone said nothing but stared back blankly. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.”
Belleza rose back to her feet and looked around the room, her eyes settling on Helia in particular. “Consider this a warning.” She said, already beginning to move out of the house. As much as she would have liked to stand there gloating, they had done what they needed to do, and now they could return home to Atlas. She could only hope her message would make it to its intended targets. “Next time, it’ll be much worse.”
can I ask if you have any allusions for wlow or hnsa?
Hey, I sure do!
WLOW
Wren - Alludes to the Jenny Wren from ‘The Wedding of Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren’ short story.
Lorelei - Based on the Germanic folklore character of the same name.
Olive - Alludes to the Greek titaness Theia.
Stanford - Alludes to Bernez from ‘The Stones of Plouhinec’ short story.
HNSA
Helia - Alludes to Helios, the god/personification of the sun in Greek myth. In myth he is said to be the son of Theia. Helia’s dual katanas also take their names from two of the horses who pulled Helios’s chariot.
Leyla - Alludes to Nyx, the goddess of the night in Greek myth.
Alcyone - Alludes to Bia, the personification of force, anger, and raw energy in Greek myth.
Anthea - Alludes to Alala, the personification of the war cry in Greek myth.
Figured I'll start with HNSA since they've been mentioned more times in the fic.
HNSA
We know how Helia is doing so I'll leave her out for now
Leyla and Anthea are recovering following the attack on Shizukana. Like Helia, they're still broken up about what happened to Alcyone but they have each other to lean on so that helps - discounting their brief relationship they were always close. Anthea has taken to looking after Leyla as she was in a better state following the attack due to you know...not having a broken arm.
WLOW
Much like Helia, we know what happened to Wren as she appears frequently in the fic.
Lorelei is currently the only deceased member of WLOW, having died back in 64 AV. She didn't exactly have a very notable life but remained a huntress up until her death. She was briefly in a proper relationship with Stanford which resulted in triplets (they're around the same age as Helia) but ultimately the relationship broke apart because Lorelei wasn't that interested in maintaining it to be honest.
We've seen Olive in the fic before but little is known about what happened to her after WLOW split. She enjoyed a mildly successful career as a huntress as all her teammates did. She eventually took early retirement to focus on building a family with Chen, and now does odd jobs around Apex or helps her husband with his artwork.
Stanford is the lesser-known member of WLOW. Like his teammates he enjoyed a successful career as a huntsman, somehow managing to balance raising three kids by himself at the same time. Currently, Stan works as a professor at a combat school.
