Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Menidi, Hellas (Greece), ca. September 40 BC

Sneaking out of bed to summon a god wasn’t an easy feat. 

Brandy had done it countless times, but the risk was always there. A prime example was tonight, when her father almost caught her taking one of his arrows from a quiver. She had made a run for it and barely escaped without getting busted. Even now, when she was in the safe zone - the grassy fields on the outskirts of her city - she could only hope that no one was still onto her.

Taking a well-deserved break, she admired the cloudless sky above. A familiar chill of midnight ran along her shoulders like an old friend. It was nice and cool, perfect for both fall weather and to soothe her troubled mood.

After her breather, she dropped her offerings from her arms onto the ground. She set them up one by one, putting the arrow she had taken to her left, a slab of cypress bark to her right, and the oil lantern that guided her here in front. A small flame still lingered, helping her see.

It also reflected off the most important part of the ritual sitting at the center of her outfit: her Red Stone of Aja.

Brandy held it up, along with the trinket it was placed in. She glimpsed at her reflection in the jewel before taking it out and pinching it between two fingers. She lifted it to the sky, framing it in the middle of the moon.

An ancient hymn poured from her mouth to begin the ritual. Shaky at first, her singing grew in volume and boldness. The notes all combined to enchant her surroundings, including her stone. It started to shine, its luster becoming sharper the longer she went on.

As she repeated a pitch from the chorus, everything changed. Heat spread through her body. She could feel a faint, heart-beat like pulse on her fingertips.

“Lady Artemis!” Brandy grinned. “So glad to see you aga-”

“BRANDY!”

The aforementioned girl flinched at the voice echoing in front of her. It was undoubtedly Artemis, whose translucent figure was phasing into the air. Her silver aura contrasted her dark complexion, as well as her starry dress.

The goddess let out a light laugh. "Apologies if I scared you," she added a dash of authority to her still gentle tone. "I just thought it would be funny to introduce myself a little different. It gets boring when you say the same introduction..." she paused, "one hundred times in a row?"

Brandy blinked, exhaling with no surprise of Artemis's...corny sense of humor. "Wow," she said. "I'm not surprised you've been keeping count, my lady."

Artemis let out another hearty laugh, putting a hand to her chin. "It's only a rough guess; the number is most likely much higher. To be honest, I'm surprised you're able to keep such a streak with such strict parents."

"Agreed. At least I've been more consistent since we've started meeting here instead of my room," she started to trail off, not wanting to think of the frustration her parents had about her rituals in their house. "I mean...I think it's more impressive that you can meet me here with all your godly duties, ma'am. Seriously- raising the moon, helping so many women give birth, being Hellas' babysitter..."

"You're right," Artemis nodded. "It is hard, but worth it. At the end of the day, I'll be able to talk to all my wonderful maidens. And speaking of," she put a hand to her chest, "I would like to give you something."

Brandy's face flushed red. “Wait, what?”

“Don't worry, it's nothing bad. It's a blessing for your eighteenth birthday. You know, in about a week or so from now.”

“Uh...I do. But, my lady, with all due respect…." Brandy grimaced, "Is this some sort of send off gift? Am I getting too old to serve you?"

Artemis shook her head with surprise. "Oh, not at all! You would never be too old. Even if you were to go off and have a family, I would help take care of your children. But of course," her voice was laced with amusement, "you haven't cared for romance in the nine years you've served me, dear. I'm highly certain you'll be staying a maiden forever."

“Yes, ma’am.” Brandy put a relieved smile on her face that spread from ear to ear. Artemis was the only being who could make her feel good about not being able to fall in love.

“That’s what I thought,” the goddess hummed. “And that’s why I decided to make this blessing special. I’m going to help you learn the secrets the rest of the hamon clan has been keeping from you all these years. ”

Brandy’s eyes widened.

It was obvious the hamon clan had their favorites, and she wasn’t one of them. All the members kept quiet around her, wouldn’t let her go to meetings, and some didn’t bother to interact. Even her parents - who, while ruthless, put a big emphasis on her hamon training - didn’t let her understand. 

She always thought it was because she was younger, but she knew deep down it wasn’t. The mystery of the real reason consumed all her thoughts and prayers. Seeing it being answered was nothing short of a dream come true.

“So they are acting strange for a reason…” she furrowed her brow with worry and excitement. “I didn’t know you could help me with this, ma'am. How are you going to, anyway?”

“I’ve always been able to help, but I believe that something like this should be earned. Besides, there are rules about me interfering with mortals which I want to follow...unlike my brother,"  she muttered under her breath, the mere mentioning of a man ruining her mood. "I’ll help by giving you a start - a lead, if you will.”

“And that is?”

“You’ll be looking at it in a few seconds. Good luck, dear.”

Artemis faded, swirling into a cold gust of wind. Brandy felt the stone’s temperature rising. She dropped it.

When it hit the ground, it set itself ablaze. Violent orange flames burst from the bottom. Smoke circled around the hamon user, trapping her in a prison of solid gray.

She crawled away while coughing and fanning the haze off. “What in Tartarus?!” She sputtered. Nothing like this had ever happened at any of her rituals.

Her Aja was still an inferno, but the blaze had turned bright blue. A beam of light burst from the moon, stretching across the sky. It bulldozed through constellations and clouds until it touched her stone.

The girl was awestruck. She knew Ajas could refract light, but had never seen one work with the moon - something that didn't produce its own light. In fact, she didn't even know her stone still had ability to manipulate light whatsoever, due to a crack running down its backside. Nevertheless, she wasn't going to think about it too much. Artemis was a moon goddess, after all. This was probably just one of her powers.

And the more Brandy looked at it, she realized it was beautiful. Looking at it felt like she was indulging herself with eye candy: so sparkly and pretty…

Unfortunately, her sugar high was coming to a close. The ray of light faded, dimming to become one with the rest of the night. Not even a spark was left, much less any heat. The only remnant of its existence was the charred grass underneath.

Brandy hesitated before reaching to touch her stone. When her fingers found it was cold, she grabbed it and jammed it into her outfit’s centerpiece.

Shoot, she looked around as she got up. Someone could have seen me.

In one swift motion, she swept up the rest of her things and started sprinting toward the city.

She eventually found her way into a narrow alley. Since nobody seemed to be around, the girl took it as a ticket for a breather and to ponder what just happened. Forget someone catching her here - the real worry was Artemis’s clue. That fire had to be it, but what did it mean?

Maybe the point of it was that someone would see it as a signal or whatever. Or something else might have been summoned that could help her? At this point, Brandy was open to all ideas. The only thing she had to do was stay around and find out the answer.

With a new determination, the hamon user slinked out of the backstreet. She held her oil lamp high. Every small squeak or shadow lurking put her on high alert.

“That’s IT ! Can you CALM DOWN ?!”

Brandy's heart froze. She slammed herself against the nearest wall.

Raising her oil lantern again, she noticed no one was in the street with her. A fork in the road was ahead, and it sounded like the conversation was coming from behind a corner. She wasn’t sure if she needed to go over, so she kept listening.

“Quit telling me to calm down!” Another voice snarled, raspy and fierce.  “If you want me to ‘calm down’, then stop following me!”

“But pretty pleeeeeeeease?” The other voice, squeaky and uncomfortable, pleaded. “We can go see the comet together!”

“Ugh. I told you that’s not what it is. It’s light from an Aja!”

Brandy gasped, then put a hand to her mouth. She sneaked towards the two talking, her back still glued to the wall.

“Okay, okay…just put me down. Please?” The higher-pitched voice wailed. Definitely a young boy.

“NOT UNLESS YOU PROMISE TO SCREW OFF!”

“Aw, come on! At least stop yelling!”

The hamon user sighed. While she didn’t like coming off as nosy, she also couldn’t wait for the chit-chat to end.

She peeked from the corner, lifting a finger. “Excu- AGH! ”

Her head slammed against a wall behind her. It ricocheted off before she could understand what happened, leaving a burning pain in her skull.

All her things, as well as her lantern, had been flung from her hands. However, there was still the pale gleam of the moon which helped her to see a body on her lap. It was lightweight, the chest slowly falling and rising.

This was no doubt the boy was begging to be let go of. The person he was arguing with must have thrown him to grant his wish. But lucky for him, Brandy was there to cushion the fall.

“Owwwwwww,” he whined.

Cautious, Brandy played dead by tilting her head back. She squinted her eyes and tried to make out the figure growing closer and closer.

“Wowie, two birds with one stone!” He chirped. “To think I could get this just by coming to the surface to try and find dinner…” 

His approach was accompanied by the clanking of rusty boots on hard pavement. On his face was a menacing display of crooked yellow teeth, made neon by ruby eyes. Brandy could sense something wicked lurking in them, a primal desire to fight and kill. He even had the type of look which told her he had experience with it.

“Why did you do that?” The boy on Brandy’s lap grunted.

“To teach you a lesson, dumbass!” The armor-clad figure stomped away. “You should be grateful I’m not going to eat you or that bitch behind you. Now that I’ve discovered the Aja, it’s going straight to Lord Kars tonight!”

Brandy went numb. After the sound of iron boots faded,  she stopped her act and sat up straight. 

She looked down. When the other person - no, monster -  was speaking, she was confused about why he hadn’t seen her stone sitting on her chest. Thankfully, the boy in front of her was in the right position to cover it. However, this did little to quench her fear. Someone was hunting for an Aja, an artifact so rare Brandy knew she was most likely the only person in Hellas to have one. But she couldn't let hers be taken. If she did, she would have nothing.

All her other material possessions were bound to break, lose her interest, or be used as a gift for the gods. Even her home was going to get moved out of soon. And being honest? Brandy never felt like she owned herself. As a girl in Hellas, she couldn't. Her father was the one who called the shots. The one that, no matter how much anyone argued, always got the final say. Always knew what was 'best'. Including marriage, which he had been pushing ever since she was fourteen - even though she clearly didn't want it.

On the contrary, her stone had never changed since the day she got it. It symbolized her willing devotion to Lady Artemis. It was the silver lining for her future. She always thought of it as her lifeline. Hope that one day, she wouldn't have to suffer under the watch of sneaky higher-ups and bad parents.

Whoever wanted to take it was going to die.

It was good to go after the monster, anyway. A gut feeling told her he was the first piece to solving the puzzle of Artemis’s blessing and the hamon clan’s secrets.

Brandy lifted the boy in her lap. She put him to the side and stood up, brushing dust off her dress. “Wait here,” she told him. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

I have to go all the way back to the field, she theorized. Or at least down the path I took. That’s where the monster is most likely to be. Maybe…

A crunching noise made her flinch.

She thought it was the monster at first, but it was too quiet. And distinct. It sounded like shattering clay, as if someone had stepped on a broken oil lamp.

Brandy looked behind her. The boy wasn’t there anymore.

By Artemis! She thought. The last thing I need is an innocent kid coming into my business and probably getting himself hurt. I have to take care of this before going on, but I can’t waste time….

“Hey!” she called, turning back around and catching him in the middle of turning a corner.

He tried to escape, but Brandy gripped his shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?” She asked.

The boy gulped, trying to break free of the girl’s grasp to no avail. “Not this again! I’m just going to the public square! Can you-” he flailed, “just not?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, nice try. You’re going the same way the monster was. Who do you think you are?”

“Uh…my name is Judas?”

Brandy blinked. “That…was a rhetorical question,” she whispered. “But anyway, Judas-”

“Can you just let me go?!” He squirmed.

“If you listen to me, then sure. I’ll consider it.”

“Fine!” The child grunted. “Just hurry up. You’re wasting my valuable time.”

“And so are you.” Brandy stopped clinging onto his shoulder. She leaned down and looked into his eyes. “I know you think that light you saw was some cool shooting star, but don’t worry about it. I don’t even know what you’re doing up so late, but just go home. Okay?”

Judas whined. “No! I saw the light a few minutes ago when I was out hunting. That thing probably has a blessing or at least something valuable inside, and the last thing I want to do is go home without it! Especially when I saw it first!”

The boy jerked Brandy away and tried to run off again, but she yanked him back. "I'm not surprised a little kid thinks this is a blessing or whatever," she admitted that it sort of was, but not necessarily in the way Judas thought. "But...do you really think I'm going to fall for the hunting excuse?” 

“...What is there to fall for?”

“If you’re out hunting, why so late at night?” She raised an eyebrow. “And where’s anything you need to be hunting? A bow, arrows, a hunting dog. Besides…from the looks of your outfit, you’re pretty well-off without a blessing,” she eyed his golden wreath necklace and perfectly laced sandals with wings attached to the back. “I don’t have a lot of time here, but I can spend it all getting you to tell me the truth. Or you can be a sane person and pay attention for five more seconds.”

“Uh…” Judas scratched the back of his neck like an actor who forgot his line in the middle of a drama. “I’ll just pay attention, I guess.” 

"That's what I thought.” Brandy smiled. “Now, this situation has nothing to do with the blessings you're thinking about. It's about an Aja. It's known for doing all sorts of things with light. Mine," she put a hand to the centerpiece that held her stone, "shot a beam that you think is a 'shooting star' or whatever. That monster back there mentioned it, actually. That's it. You can go-"

The boy blinked. “Ugh…you say the same ‘Aja’ stuff as the- wait, monster?”

“The one that just rammed you into me and said you were lucky you didn’t die. He’s going to the same light. If you keep deciding to be stubborn and not go home, you’re going to have to face him. That’s going to be a challenge considering you’re like…what. Ten?”

“TWELVE!”

Brandy put a finger to her lips in fear of the monster hearing. “Shhhh….okay. You know what? If you’re so cocky, just follow me.” She started moving again for the sake of not wasting any more time on some headstrong boy. “Go straight into your death.”

“Okay!” To Brandy’s displeasure, the boy kept skipping alongside her. “I don’t care. I can fight because I’m a member of the hamon clan-"

Metal rattled in the distance. A wolf-like snarl pierced the thin air around the two.

Brandy grabbed Judas and pulled him against the wall.

“Shut up ,” she warned him.

“HEY!” The monster roared. “DID I JUST HEAR YOU, YOU LITTLE BUGGER? ARE YOU STILL FOLLOWING ME?”

Neither of the two dared to answer. They stared at each other with mutual horror until everything seemed to be okay. 

Brandy released Judas with a sigh. “Hamon clan?” She scoffed at his claim, stepping away from the wall and following the monster’s voice. “You know,” she said, “our people have a code you have to verify yourself by. If you don’t do it correctly-”

“You get killed,” the child interjected. “Duh.”

The self-proclaimed hamon user scrambled in front of the girl, blocking her. “Do it,” he said. “I’ll repeat it just fine.”

“If you insist,” Brandy replied. She did a series of complex blinks, slow and fast, most subtle enough to only be caught by the trained eye of a hamon user. To her surprise, Judas did them back with no flaw. 

She shook her head and straightened her lips. “Wow,” she grimaced. Out of all the classified things the hamon tribe had been keeping from her, she was glad this brat was one of them.

“See? I'm not a liar.” Judas said.

"You're still annoying."

“Annoying? Okay, Miss ‘Shut Up and Pay Attention to Me.”

Brandy let out a slight chuckle. “Oh, nice. Annoying with a side of preteen humor. That name is way too long. How about you just call me Brandy?” 

Judas blew a playful raspberry. “Too bad!”

“WAS THAT YOU AGAIN?!” The monster screamed, seeming to go a little insane.

Brandy perked up, moving past Judas and heading towards his voice. “I need to get back on track,” she realized.

“Hey,” Judas whispered. “Wait up!”

After walking for a bit and taking a turn, Brandy glanced from the corner. Her eyes feasted on the sight of the great beast before her, punching a wall and scraping its foot on the ground. He looked like an animal waiting to be confronted by his hunter.

“Psst!” Judas gave a weak punch to Brandy's leg, out of breath from sprinting to her.

“Not now!” Brandy moved away from the wall and into the open, making herself vulnerable.

Shit, she gulped.

The monster turned himself around. “Is that…is that you ?”

Tongue-tied, the once confident girl had her words stripped from her mouth. Instead of firing a witty comeback to her opponent, all she could do was watch as he revealed himself again.

It was even worse now that she could realize his figure fully. He looked tall when she was playing dead, and now he looked gigantic. Standing seven feet tall, his shadow gobbled her up and confined her in darkness.

The only thing she could look at was his outfit. His whole body was protected by a horned helmet, shining chest plate, shoulder pads, and a spiked belt with an odd pattern in the middle. She couldn’t make it out.

Brandy didn’t feel strong anymore. This guy was a hawk with a honed beak, and she was a sniveling rodent waiting to be eaten up. 

“You scared?” Judas trembled. “I’m….I’m not.”

Yes you are! Brandy disagreed in her head.

The monster grinned from ear to ear, showing off the same sinister smile as before. “I thought I killed you,” he pointed to Brandy. “AND I KNEW I HEARD YOU!” His fiery gaze was set on Judas. “I JUST-” he directed his attention to the Aja on her centerpiece. “Oh. Ohhhh my oh my . I did all that looking for nothing. But now I have my eyes on the prize….”

He took a step forward, seeming to shake the earth below Brandy.

Come on, she scolded herself. This is the one chance you get to figure all of this out. If you waste it, you’re going to spend the rest of your life regretting it.

“You want it so bad?” She tilted her head back. “Then fight me! See what happens to people who try to take my stone!”

Brandy struck a pose. She clasped her hands together and pulled them apart apart to reveal a surge of crackling light in her palms with a high-pitched ring. This was the result of flawless breathing and controlled blood flow, the manifestation of nearly ten years of training:

Her hamon.

Chapter Text

Brandy was glowing with pride - literally.

Waves of hamon rippled through her body. Her hair looked like threads of gold falling from a spool, and her fingers fizzed and burned with sunlight.

Judas admired her from the side, a curious catchlight in his eye and anything but words in his mouth. The girl was happy that he had nothing to say for once.

Meanwhile, her opponent did.

“Well well well,” the monster teased. He wore a sly smile as he eyed the Aja sitting in Brandy’s centerpiece, a hand on his chin. “You seem very feisty for someone who’s about to get torn to shreds.”

“Okay, and?” Brandy clenched her fist and tilted her head down. “Fight me already. I dare you. Sicko.”

Her opponent put a hand on his chest plate, followed by a hearty chuckle. “Please, call me Ulysses.” His mouth opened to a gnarly showcase of fangs. “And of course I would try and take it, but from the way you’re standing? You seem like you’ve never handled a vampire before, so I’ll let you take the first swing. Not that you’re likely to hit. I’ve been told I’m pretty fast, even for my kind.”

Judas gasped, tugging on Brandy’s dress. “Vampires? Hey, I’ve heard about them! I don’t know anything, but I can try and help!”

She raised an eyebrow. “I thought you just came here for the blessing.”

“Yeah, and now I realize you guys were being truthful about the whole Aja thing,” he laughed nervously. “But this is the next best thing! If we teamed up, the city would love us! Especially me because I’m young and represent-”

“Next best thing?” Flustered, Brandy looked at a snickering Ulysses. “Fighting for my favorite possession isn't something I do to look cool. What is wrong with you?!”

“Okay!” He put his hands up in mock surrender, his face scrunching up. “Please stop yelling.”

The girl looked at him and simmered down. “I wouldn’t even want to team up with you anyway. Why would I get help from an attention seeking twelve-year-old? Besides,” she pointed at herself, “this is my business.”

“You're just scared to admit you can't take this monster on your own,” the boy huffed. Hesitantly, he walked away and turned a corner. “I’ll be back with help.”

“I bet you will…” Brandy rolled her eyes, turning her attention back to where it belonged. “Anyways, Ulysses , sorry to keep you waiting.”

She charged at him, swinging right as his chest plate…

Only to hit a pocket of air.

What in Tartarus? The hamon user thought with wide eyes. Something sharp poked her shoulder.

She turned around and saw Ulysses.

He swiped his claws at her face, but she jumped back just in time to dodge.

“Told ya I was speedy!” The vampire said as Brandy threw a punch at his arm. It only scratched his armor before he lashed out again with his nails, striking her shoulder.

Brandy stumbled, clutching her wound with a gasp. Control your breathing! She scolded herself.

She went in for another hit, swinging her shining fist against Ulysses’s shoulder guards. This time, a surge of hamon sparked the padding before he shifted his body to the side.

The vampire reached for something sticking out from his back. Definitely a weapon. Not wanting to risk anything, Brandy stepped back with a defensive stance. Her arms covered her chest.

“Let’s make things more interesting ,” Ulysses yanked the rest of it out, letting the girl marvel at the weapon she was up against:

A double-headed ax!

Brandy swallowed, backing up a little further.

“Awwww,” Ulysses taunted, jabbing the weapon near Brandy’s neck. “What’s wrong? Don’t have a weapon to defend yourself with?”

The girl smirked. With hamon, anything could be a weapon.

She ran and jumped backward at a wall. Her feet rebounded off, and she shot into the air at an angle like a cannonball. 

Ulysses swung at her and missed, his ax meeting the sole of her sandal. When they touched, Brandy used it as another surface to jump off. She leaped up and dived head-first at her foe’s face, punching him.

Her strength was enough to spin his head in the other direction, leaving a nasty mark on his helmet and eyes. He even dropped his ax.

“UGH!” He growled like an animal, blindly grabbing for Brandy. “Get off -”

“Not until you tell me how you know about my Aja.” She seized one of the horns on his helmet.

He pulled back, letting out another snarl of red-hot anger. “Don’t play stupid,” he snatched her dress and gripped it. “You know exactly how.”

“No I don’t!” Brandy was about to elbow Ulysses, but he hurled her to the ground with a painful slam. Before she could react, he grabbed his ax and opened his eyes. To Brandy’s horror, there was no blood, no mark, no scar- it was as if she hadn’t laid a finger anywhere near them!

Which meant…he could regenerate.

Brandy got up, untying her wool cape and rolling it into a cylinder. Her hamon ran through the fabric and tightened it, forming it into an improv sword.

“So this is what a vampire is capable of?” Brandy blocked her enemy’s battleax with her blade.

“DUH!” He went in for another hit to the hamon user’s chest, pushing against her makeshift weapon.

She was able to resist, but her shoulder hurt like hell. This whole fight, she had been underestimating Ulysses’ strength…how long could she last?

“You mentioned ‘Kars’ earlier,” she grunted. “Is that another vampire?”

Fueled by frustration, Ulysses began to overpower Brandy. “UGHHH ! That’s IT !” He swung again, knocking her back. “Shouldn’t this be common knowledge for you?!”

“I’m not sure,” Brandy unraveled her royal blue cape and charged it with hamon. She threw it like a disc at his neck.

He sent it flying back at her with his ax. In response, she returned it with a push of her hands quicker than she had received.

The fabric cut into the vampire’s throat. In a sudden chokehold, he let go of his ax again. His fingers rushed to aid the pain, only to be met with a painful flare that melted them quicker than ice.

“Nice catch,” Brandy scoffed.

“Damn it!” He fell to the ground with a clank and thud , eyes raging with fury.

The hamon started to fade out from the cape. Ulysses seemed to be as still as a statue, and everything on the battlefield went quiet.

Brandy was proud, but was still in fear of her rival’s regeneration. She didn’t know its limits. It could bring back two eyeballs, who's to say it wouldn’t sew back his decapitated head?

With her trained ear, the hamon user listened to a few noises around her. Most of it was white and blank, though she was able to pick on something disturbing: A living, beating, healthy heartbeat. And it wasn’t hers.

“By Artemis,” she gulped, “please be Judas…”

A weak voice croaked back. “Nope. I’m still here, kátharma. ”

Brandy inhaled. She put a hand to her temple and stared at the would-be corpse of Ulysses. "Uh..." she tried to steady herself by focusing on something else. “Your pronunciation is a little off,” she snapped, stepping toward her opponent.

“Yeah...” He gave her cape a tug, throwing it to the side. His head also slid to the side and off his body. “You know, I split my neck open last second so it wouldn’t hurt that much, but I’ll hand it to your hamon. It stung…

“Tell you what,” he continued. “Just end the battle here and give up your stone. Since you don’t seem to know any information about the Kata Toíchou, I’ll spill everything. Sounds good?”

Brandy paused. She had no hint on what 'Kata Toíchou' was, the phrase directly translating to 'against the wall'. Was he being serious or just trying to throw her off?

Either way, the girl could care less. Whatever information Ulysses was willing to suck up and spit out, it wasn't equal to what her Aja meant to her. Even if it had something to do with the hamon clan, Brandy knew Artemis wouldn't send a creature so fowl to directly help her. That would be disgusting.

“You’ll regret that!” Ulysses launched his head at one of her knees, knocking her down. His two sets of claws dug into her ankles, the pressure so tight it cut off all the circulation from her feet. She couldn’t kick or stomp or anything to attack.

“Shit!” The girl struggled around. Her breath was spiraling out of control. Her hamon didn’t work. At this point, she was just hoping a miracle could happen. She even tried to pry Ulysses’s mouth off with her bare hands, resulting in her wrists getting slashed and made out of order.

Her enemy lifted her up and slammed her back down into the pavement. With a blurred movement, he drilled his nails under her throat. Right between her Aja and her vitals.

“Just keep thinking about that deal I offered you with,” he said. "Better to get your stone taken willingly than me yank it off you, right? Shake your head yes if you think so.”

Brandy, close to passing out, refused to budge. All of a sudden, her years of training experience went down the drain and lost their value. Her little spars were only against other humans. If she wanted to win this, she needed to start thinking outside of basic hits and kicks. What could kill Ulysses? Or for now, get her out of this mess?

The girl furrowed her brow. Come on! She told herself. He’s not letting you use your limbs, just think of something. Use that head and come up with…. her eyes went wide.

Brandy breathed in, letting the oxygen flow to the one place it could - her hair.

“GLIMMERING GOLD OVERDRIVE! ”

Her blonde ponytail burst like a colorful firework, showering both her and her enemy in a storm of vibrant colors sputtering with lightning-like energy. Ulysses fell back, his expression brimming with terror.

“NO!” He snarled.

Lightheaded, Brandy got to her feet and viewed the results of her attack. Ulysses had survived, but not without losing a couple of limbs. His legs were compromised, an arm and a few pieces of his face had been lost, and the lower part of his jaw unhinged.

That was good! The hamon user encouraged herself. Maybe to finish him, I need something like that overdrive but with more power. Or…more range. Something that covers his whole body and blows it to bits. That way, he won’t even be able to mend himself together. 

Her opponent punched his jaw back in place. “Bargaining's over! You…” he spat, leering at Brandy with his signature angry eyes, “you, you you…ARE GOING TO DIE!”

Ulysses made a mad dash toward her like a spider. For a torso and a limb, he was surprisingly fast. 

She jumped over him, spotting her cape nearby and taking it. She infused it with hamon and tried to swat him away, but he kept bolting to the side like it was nothing.

“Your turn to dodge!” He charged at her.

Brandy put her cape out in front of her like a matador in a bullfight. “You’ll be a nice propyra when I- what?!”

Ulysses propelled himself in the air with his arm. Brandy hoisted her cape as a forcefield in response. She didn’t know what happened, but heard a thump and then saw her opponent crash beside her. At this point, his legs down to his knees had formed back.

“I just landed with my helmet and decided to bounce off. If that golden whatever move was the best thing you’ve got, I’m starting to take some pity on you.”

“Don’t.” Brandy pulled her cape back and retied it with embarrassment, wiping some of the sweat from her forehead.

A revelation came into her mind as she eyed her clammy hand. She could use water to submerge and trap him. It conducted hamon like a charm!

“Actually,” the girl huffed, “I wanna check something you told me. You said you’re fast, but…can you catch me when I do this?”

She ran towards a wall at her side. Using a technique she dubbed Gecko Ripple, she combined the sweat on her hands and feet with her hamon to make anything she touched an adhesive surface. In this case, the bricks on the wall.

Brandy hoisted her body onto the rooftop. She looked down at Ulysses with a smug face, giving him a wave. “Come and get me!”

“COWARD!” Ulysses screeched. He jumped again, but it was fruitless. He wasn’t able to get enough height.

The girl started hopping from building to building with her heightened abilities. She had one goal in mind: Get to the water spring that was in the middle of the marketplace and lure Ulysses in. Even reduced to what he was, Brandy was sure the vampire was still arrogant enough to chase her. His regeneration would take a while, which could save her time.

As she jumped to another roof, she peeked at the ground. Ulysses wasn’t there. A loud crash sounded behind her.

“Shit,” Brandy turned her head around.

Ulysses still had one arm. He used it to wave at her while the other sprouted back.  “SURRRRPRISE! Miss me?!”

“No…” Brandy gawked at his freshly formed legs in panic, struggling to pay attention as she kept leaping towards the market. He had to have put all his power into growing back his legs instead of sharing some with his arm, allowing him to catch up faster.

“You know what?” He thundered. “GIVE UP ALREADY! If you let me take you now, I’ll bring you to Lord Kars and he can give you the Stone Mask , the gift of eternal life!”

Brandy sprang toward a higher building, sticking to the wall and climbing up. “I’m not falling for anything you try to suggest!” 

“THEN TOO BAD!”

Before she could lay a hand on the top of the building, Ulysses grabbed her and threw her off the roof.

“ACK!” She cried, hitting the hard city road with a crunch .

The girl groaned, her side aching. She used some of her hamon to numb the pain, but it wasn’t healed perfectly. She got to her feet anyway and started running. It felt like she was on fire.

A thump sounded behind her. Ulysses was back on the ground.

Brandy kept pressing her limits, entering the public square. Hazes of fresh food and people slipped past her senses. The market was an open but messy space. In the center was a big stage. Around it were booths and buildings. The spring had to be somewhere near.

Her body intertwined with the crowd. She slinked through and hurried around the center stage, darting between a lane of booths.

“MISS!” A voice hollered from a distance.

“Judas?” The girl stopped for a moment before she started running again. “Not now! I’m trying to find something!”

“No, no!” He caught up to her and took her arm. “I alerted all the guards in the area. They’re blocking that guy right now, you should have some time!”

Brandy froze. “You shouldn’t have done that!” Her eyes widened at Judas. “Hamon is the only thing that can actually hurt Ulysses. Those guards are going to be fodder!”

“Dang,” he straightened his face. “Uh…I can try and shoot him with this!” He held up a particular metal arrow. “See? I wasn’t lying about going hunting!”

The girl facepalmed. “That’s my dad’s!”

“Oh…”

“Just stay here and quit making up stories!” The girl scurried off in her search to find the spring. By now, Ulysses might have made quick work of all the guards. Great .

She sped through another path of stalls. Finally, she saw the spring to her left!

“Yes!” Brandy grinned. All she had to do now was lure Ulysses in!

“OH NO YOU DON’T!” The maniac’s voice roared behind her, sending shivers up her spine. 

Everything became a blur.

One moment she had been running. The next? A boom of noise. A scream. A bang . Brandy found herself on the ground. Lathered in a cold and slippery, familiar-smelling substance.

“Oil?” She examined the liquid around her and rubbed her head. A cracked ceramic jar lay to the side, as well as a knocked-out patrol guard. Forget the oil. Did Ulysses just fling a body at her?

“HAHAAAAA!” Her opponent shouted as he ran toward her. “THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR- AGH !”

He almost slipped in the same puddle of oil, catching his balance and stepping back. In his grubby hands was a polished spear, which he wielded with malice.

“Wish these guards had some axes, but this will have to do,” he said. “Now stay back, or else this is getting shoved in your chest.”

Brandy cautiously rose. She put a bit of hamon in her fist. “What happened to being so prideful and feeling bad for me? Why don’t you step a little closer and hurt me?”

“Because cocky doesn’t equal STUPID, IDIOT!” Ulysses almost shattered her eardrums. “If I step in that oil, you’re going to fry me alive; liquids are conductors of hamon! That includes,” he pointed to the nearby spring, “water.”

“What are you trying to say?” The hamon warrior tried to sell her confusion, but Ulysses wasn’t buying it.

“Just look at all that nice and clean water you could use. It would be perfect. All you would have to do is lure me in there and stomp or whatever. And then I would be history! Gone! That’s why you’re running to it. RIGHT?!”

Brandy huffed, letting Ulysses win and award himself with a smug face. Back to the drawing board, she thought. I could use the oil, but he’s the one that needs to be covered in it. Not me….ugh. Just when I had this figured out-

“CAN YOU ANSWER THE QUESTION?!”

“OKAY!” The girl winced. “Yes. Yes, that was it. You got me.” 

She backed out of the oil spill and went around it, getting closer to Ulysses. Each time she moved in a new direction, he tipped his spear the same way.

“What’s your strategy now?” He asked. “Going for my armor? I’ll outspeed your attacks any day!”

An arrow full of hamon whizzed near his head. 

Ulysses took a step to the side, easily dodging it. Both he and Brandy watched as the weapon flew past and landed in the spring. It sank to the bottom, the hamon dying out.

“Speaking of,” he chuckled before giving the girl a straight face. She gave one back, the two of them looking to the side in disgruntled unison.

A bright blush spread across Judas’s face. “Okay,” he confessed, “I’m better with a bow! I promise! I swear on Apollo!”

“You…” Brandy narrowed her eyes at the boy before an idea came in her head, changing her mind. “You’re a genius !”

“Oh!”  He welcomed the compliment with a smile. “Well, looks like someone is appreciating me for once. I’ll try and find another arrow!”

The girl charged at Ulysses, taking hold of the spear’s tip with both her hands.

“What are you doing?!” He said in disbelief.

“Taking a bit of your weapon,” Brandy raised one of her legs, kicking it to the side and breaking the spear in two. “Hope you don’t mind!” She snatched the spear's broken half closer to her, making a mad dash to her goal.

“THIS AGAIN!” Ulysses managed to rush in front of Brandy. As she was about to arrive at the spring, he blocked it off and put his arms out. “I can’t let you get in there, either!” He said. “If you do, I’ll just be a sitting duck-” 

Brandy kicked Ulysses’s crotch. As he whined with pain, she slid under his legs and plunged herself into the water. It was waist-deep, but she stood on top thanks to her hamon.

Ripples formed from her soles as she sprinted deeper into the spring. Ulysses was definitely watching. She could feel his eyes ripping into her back.

“GO AHEAD AND SPLASH WATER ON ME!” He hissed. “I BET IT WON’T WORK!”

The girl rolled her eyes for a response. She took a deep breath and took her Aja out of its contraption with her free hand.

Don't fail me now, Brandy hoped. She put a spark of hamon into a finger holding up her stone. Her power hummed as its light directed itself into the Aja, refracting and striking the spear's wooden handle. The extreme temperature set the weapon on fire. An all-consuming flame rose from the surface, rising up and overtaking the midnight sky with a vengeance.

Brandy raised the spear and stabbed it into the spring. Both the fire and her hamon hissed through waves rushing outward through the tip, which her hands had covered in oil when taking it from Ulysses. This allowed it to keep burning even though it was on top of water, as the two substances couldn't mix.

Steam began to rise from the great blaze like spirits, billowing in the girl's face. Her instinct was to hold her breath, but she reminded herself that this wasn't a dangerous substance to inhale. She continued on with her plan by shooting another round of hamon into the spear and dropping it into the water, letting it stay both afloat and aflame.

At this point, the steam had morphed the entire world around her into a blank slate of foggy gray. It was hard to see more than a foot ahead, but Brandy reassured herself that she could still carry out her plan.

She went back to where she had entered the spring. After hopping out, she scanned the area and locked eyes with a pair of red pupils, their glow so powerful not even the thick fog could obscure them.

"FOUND YOU, COWARD!" Ulysses stomped over to her. "What do you even think you're doing?!"

“Well...” Brandy folded her hands behind her back, “you didn’t want to come to the water, so I brought it to you.”

Ulysses was close enough so that his dumbfounded expression was clear as day. “What?" He snorted. "This isn’t water, dumbass. This is just…fog.”

“But it is water.” Brandy’s confidence was uncontainable as she spoke. “It just doesn't seem like it because the droplets are so tiny. Here, let me help you understand."

He looked nervous. “Wha...huh?”

Brandy ran toward Ulysses and filled one of her hands with hamon. As she was about to throw a punch, the fog around her shimmered with a blinding white light drawn towards her opponent like a magnet.

Just as it pressed on his skin, Brandy connected her fist to his head.

“MISTY WHITE OVERDRIVE! ” She yelled.

Before Ulysses could protest, his whole skull caved in with a satisfying CRUNCH as he was sent flying backwards.

The hamon from the fog also played its part, blasting through Ulysses' body and tearing it to smithereens. All the armor he wore went soaring in every direction, his belt hitting Brandy smack dab in the face as if to bring the gift of a final 'fuck you' from its wearer.

Brandy almost cursed, but didn't feel like letting something that now seemed so petty spoil her mood. Besides, it could have been worse - at least she didn't get assaulted with the rancid sight of blood and guts everywhere.

She glanced at what remained of Ulysses and was almost ready to move on, save for one detail:

The image centered in the middle of his belt.

At first, Brandy thought it was just a misshapen circle littered with pins and spikes. She picked it up for closer to examination, and it turned out that it wasn't just a random shape. It was a symbol. An image of the sun with eight rays and a crescent moon stuck in the middle, similar to an eclipse.

Whatever it resembled, Brandy got a gut feeling that it was part of a bigger picture. Most likely an organization involving Ulysses, and if so, the same one that this 'Kars' seemed to be the leader of.

Not entirely sure what to think of this, she put the belt back and stepped out of the seemingly thinner fog. A small crowd stood nearby murmuring things to each other, and she assumed they were responsible for getting the build-up of steam by putting out the fire she made.

"Hey!" A familiar voice panted, "I didn't find another arrow, but...wait a minute."

Brandy gazed around, spotting Judas running up to her. In all honesty, she forgot he even existed for a bit. "What is it?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Where is he?" Judas spun his head around. "That guy you were fighting. Is he..."

"Dead," Brandy scoffed.

The boy gasped. "Wow," he said. "So it was just you who killed him?"

Trying not to act smug, Brandy nodded.

"In that case," Judas's face went a little red, "I guess I was wrong about what I said when this first started. Oh, wait. Actually, I did throw that arrow and..."

Brandy tuned Judas's chatter out with a sigh. She was frustrated and confused as to why Judas was such an annoying little brat and wanted to spend the next hour ratting him out, but she let go of the idea for now. As much as she hated to admit it, he did give her the idea for her finishing move which helped save her life. The least she could do was spare him from a ruthless lecture. Besides, he was just a kid. He acted stupid because he was bound to for his age, and she could forgive him for that. Sort of.

Judas seemed to be done talking. Even though she had no idea what he just said, Brandy assumed it was something about his contribution to the battle and nodded. "Yup," she mindlessly agreed.

"So we can team up now?!" His face lit up with happiness.

"Oh," Brandy's face shifted from happy to awkward and uneasy, as well as Judas's. The girl pursed her lips before letting out a small laugh to ease the tension. "Uh...no."