Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Everyone is just one bad day away…

We didn’t walk far at all before my sister stopped, and sighed. She then turned to the right and walked over to what looked like a dead body. Looking down at the body in disgust she let go of my hand and started to rummage through the body's pockets.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I remember this person… they are the one that shot me…’

 

As a fragmented part of that memory came back, the aura around me started to glow a fiery red with black mixed in. My sister noticed the change in colour instantly, and stopped what she was doing and hugged me.

 

Sister: ‘Shhh, it’s okay, Neo~. I killed him for hurting you. If you want, we can kill his family as revenge as well.’

 

Hugging her back, I shook my head.

 

Neopolitan: ‘No, it’s okay sister. He paid the price already.’

 

But I was not being entirely truthful about my feelings, and I think my sister could tell. My aura was still the same colour, and even I felt like killing his entire family line. But another part of me was in complete disagreement.

 

I closed my eyes and hugged my sister more tightly. It was like two people were fighting in my head over how to react to the situation. After a few minutes of hugging my sister, I calmed down and my glow returned to a dull grey.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I am fine now sister. I think we shouldn’t seek out more bloodshed just yet. But if they come after us again, then we can kill them.’

 

My sister leaned out of the hug and nodded her head.

 

Sister: ‘Okay, Sis. Now, we’re going to have to attack their camp though. We need supplies, and even if we ignore the… new… you, we’re both wanted dead or alive for a lot of the things we’ve done for Salem. Are you comfortable with that?’

 

Narrowing my eyes in thought for a few seconds, I give her a nod.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Them, or us. And I will always choose you over anyone else, Sister.’

 

She gave me a smile and nodded, ‘Likewise. I got what I could from this one. Which wasn’t much. Let’s go loot the other one that was with him, then search for their camp.’

 

Nodding my head while she grabbed my hand again, we headed off into the forest. A few minutes later, we came upon another corpse. This one was much like the other, missing its head. I was starting to understand how my sister liked to kill her targets.

 

I had noticed that she had an… umbrella I think they were called? This got me curious, which was evident by my change in colour again.

 

Glowing a light orange I asked my sister, ‘Sister, where is my weapon? Did it sink with me into the pool?’

 

She shook her head and responded while looking at me on her right side, ‘No sister. You never learned to use a weapon. You only focused on hand to hand, or CQC as some people called it. You are extremely talented in that regard. But, since you never had Aura, you mostly used it as a last resort.’

 

I nodded my head as I looked down at my right hand. Opening and closing it, I could somehow tell I was much stronger than what I was before. While I was thinking about if I knew how to fight or not still, my head snapped to the front.

 

Catching my sudden movement, my sister asked what was wrong.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I sense some… emotions?’

 

My orange glow gained a tint of a light teal to it while I focused on what I was feeling.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I can feel… slight fear. Annoyance, slight anger and… anticipation.’

 

Looking back up, my sister was looking at me with slightly widened eyes.

 

Sister: ‘You can sense emotions like Grimm? That is awesome, Sister! That will help a lot when dealing with people. What else can you sense? Can you tell how many are giving off those feelings?’

 

Smiling behind the mask on my face, I closed my eyes to focus on the emotions. I could feel several beings emitting those emotions strongly ahead of us after a few minutes of focusing.

 

Neopolitan: ‘There are four in that direction giving off those emotions.’

 

I pointed in front of us, and my sister gave me a nod.

 

Sister: ‘That is the direction the tracks lead for their camp it would seem. Good. I can easily take out four hunters.’

 

Neopolitan: ‘We.’

 

My sister snapped her head back at me with worry in her eyes, ‘Are you sure, Sis? They are expert hunters if they are in these lands.’

 

My aura changed to a deep orange with some red mixed in.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Yes, Sister. I will not let you go alone anymore. I may not remember much, but I can tell I am much stronger than what I was before.’

 

My sister peered at me for a few seconds before she smiled and nodded.

 

Sister: ‘Okay, I’ll believe in you, Sis. Let’s sneak up on them, and try to take out at least one or two before the others notice.’

 

Smiling back, I nodded my head as we started to make our way towards the location of the emotions I was feeling. It didn’t take us long before we could see a small fire from an encampment and a few tents set up.

 

We were able to see that there were indeed four hunters as they all sat around the little smokeless fire, talking. My sister had lowered herself as we made our way to them under the cover of brush towards the back of the tents.

 

???: “What is taking those two so long?”

 

???: “Who knows. You know how they can get. Felix likes to play around with his Grimm kills, while Loi always tags along. I wouldn’t put it past Felix to have gotten them into some kind of trouble.”

 

We heard one of them sigh as they said, “That’s true, aint it? Well, I say we give them another hour befo— wait. Do you guys feel that?”

 

My sister and I had gotten semi close to them behind one of their tents, in an effort to keep my glow out of their line of sight as much as possible. But, as we got this close, they all suddenly stopped talking, and stood up.

 

???: “Yea, I do. Something feels wrong, unnatural. I don’t like this feeling.”

 

???: “Keep an eye out. Whatever is giving off this feeling is giving me goosebumps.”

 

My sister and I just glanced at each other in confusion before shelving that for later. As we peaked out from behind the tent, they suddenly all turned towards us.

 

Hunters: “There!”

 

My eyes widened as they all were looking right at me. Before I could even register what was going on, they all quickly reached for their weapons and one of them rushed right at me.

 

I was surprised for a few seconds before the only emotions they were all emitting changed drastically. Before, they were radiating some fear, and anticipation with a mix of excitement. But now, as they were all facing me, it all turned into hate, loathing and rage.

 

Locking eyes with one of the men as he charged, I could only see murderous intent behind them. Being bombarded with such strong negative emotions, and seeing such a look caused something to snap inside me.

 

The colour around me shifted to a pitch black and red before I charged at them myself. I didn’t even hear my sister call out to me as I rushed the hunters. It took me less than a second to appear in front of the one hunter rushing at me, with my right hand clawing downwards at his face.

 

His eyes widened as this happened and he tried his best to dodge. He managed to awkwardly lean to the right causing my hand to just catch his cheek. My fingers ended up leaving a few large gashes in his cheek as he retaliated with his own punch. Using his left hand, he brought it down hard onto my face.

 

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Much to his horror however, when his fist reached my own cheek there was a loud crunch sound as his fingers broke. I didn’t notice it, but when his fist was nearly touching skin, it crashed into something. At the point of impact, there was a slight wave of the same colour I was currently glowing spreading out before it quickly disappeared.

 

While he yelled in pain from his broken hand, I brought up my left hand and pierced it through the right side of his chest. I grabbed onto a rib bone, and viciously ripped it out through his left side. Naturally, it was not the only thing that came out of him, as I had practically disembowelled him.

 

???: “What the fuck?! FRANKIE!”

 

???: “What the hell is that thing?! A new Grimm?!”

 

???: “Doesn't matter, KILL IT!”

 

Another one of them charged at me, while the other two started to shoot at me. As the bullets were hitting me, they only caused ripples of colour to appear before disappearing. I was ignorant of this however, as I was totally caught up on the feeling of killing my first human.

 

While I was just standing there basking in my first kill as I watched him cry and bleed out, I didn’t notice my sister had entered the fray behind the ranged gunmen. The hunters however, did. Sadly, it was only after she had beheaded one of them.

 

???: “Shit! It’s one of the Neo twins! Fuck, just what we needed! Kill that thing Kyle, I’ll take care of her!”

 

Kyle: “Got it, Mike!”

 

Hearing the word “Neo” had brought me slightly back to reality, just in time to turn towards the hunter who had brought down his massive two handed sword upon my neck. I could only revel in the emotions he started to emit when his sword shattered after coming in contact with me.

 

Fear. Disbelief. But mostly, it was just delicious unadulterated fear. Smiling cruelly behind my mask, I slowly walk towards him.

 

The man, Kyle, dropped his now useless weapon as he started to slowly step back radiating an ever increasing amount of fear.

 

Kyle: “What.. what the fuck are you?! WHAT ARE YOU?!”

 

Launching myself forward, I grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground. As I looked at him while starting to crush his neck, he started to wail and flail about.

 

Kyle: “Mike, help! HELP MIKE! MIKE!!!!”

 

I caught the man named Mike out of the corner of my eye quickly looking at me. However, that was a bad idea for him, as my wonderful and lovely sister took the opportunity to stab him in the heart.

 

Focusing back on the prey in my hands, I brought up my left hand and placed it on his head. I strengthened my grip as I pulled hard. With a wonderful squelching sound, I ripped off the man's head and dropped it along with his body to the ground.

 

I once again basked in the feelings of intense terror I was feeling from the men as they were dying, before it vanished when they both finally died.

 

The sound of my sister's voice in my mind, brought me out of my daze.

 

Sister: ‘Sister… are… are you… okay?’

 

With a look of pure bliss on my face, I turned to my sister and gave her a nod.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I have never felt better in my life, Sister. I feel… great.’

 

She gave me a wry smile before asking, ‘Still love me? Still don’t want to hurt me?’

 

The question completely took me aback, and sobered me up from my haze.

 

Neopolitan: ‘Yes, why? I told you before, I’d never hurt you!’

 

She walked up to me, and took both of my, strangely clean, hands into hers.

 

Sister: ‘It’s just… well, you were kind of out of it there it seemed, Neo. You went kind of nuts. And were very brutal, more so than usual. And your eyes are glowing red.’

 

My eyes widened at that. I looked around at the carnage I had wrought, and frowned.

 

Neopolitan: ‘I am sorry for scaring you, Sister. It’s honestly a little bit of a surprise for me as well. I admit I kind of lost it when they noticed me and I was hit with the emotions they were feeling.’

 

My sister gave a laugh in my head at that before saying, ‘A bit? Sis, you ripped a man's head off, and practically disembowelled the other one.’

 

Smiling behind my mask wryly, and scratching the back of my head I say, ‘Okay, a lot. Umm.. was I always this violent with my kills?’

 

She shook her head and said, ‘Not normally no. While we never shied away from killing, most of the time we kill a lot more… elegantly. I won’t lie, there have been times we were cruel and sadistic, but never in a fight like this.’

 

Nodding my head in understanding, I could tell she had more to say. She took the hint and spoke up.

 

Sister: ‘What happened with your attitude, can be explained by the Grimm Pool. It obviously affected a great deal more than just your body. Your mind was clearly also affected more than just being a jumbled mess. But, the main thing that caught my interest in that fight, Sis… is there seems to be a barrier around you. And I don’t mean the light show you now are.’

 

Tilting my head in confusion as my said light show turned orange with some teal mixed in, she continued.

 

Sister: ‘It seems you were too caught up in the killing to notice. Sis… you took several hits that should have hurt, if not killed or maimed you.’

 

She pointed down at a broken hunter's weapon near my feet.

 

Sister: ‘For example. That hunter’s weapon shattered, Sister. Shattered, when it hit your neck. That’s not normal, even more so if we accept you are a Grimm. Only something like the ancient and powerful Grimm with crazy armour on them could shatter a weapon like that on contact.’

 

I frowned a little bit in thought at what my sister had said. Yet, she wasn’t done yet it seemed.

 

Sister: ‘Another thing I noticed, Sister. Your attacks totally ignored these hunters' Aura. You were able to kill them like they were nothing but regular people.’

 

Tilting my head in confusion I ask, ‘Aura?’

 

My sister slumped her shoulders and said, ‘Forgot already?’

 

I blushed a bit and nodded.

 

With a sigh, my sister explained the effects of Aura. How it was the power of the soul, and could shield a person from even the most dangerous of attacks if it was powerful enough.

 

I was about to ask something when my sister spoke up to interrupt me.

 

Sister: ‘I know what you want to ask, Sis. And no, you don’t have Aura. That glow and shield around you, is not Aura. Most hunters can get a feel of someone's Aura as they get used to using it. You have none of that feeling at all, Sister. So your glow, and shield is not the cause of Aura or a Semblance.’

 

She just shrugged and raised her hands, ‘I really have no idea what kind of changes have happened to you, Sister. But we’ll figure this out together.’

 

I smiled at that, and gave her a nod.

 

Sister: ‘Now, let’s loot the camp, and move on.’