It was a normally bright and sunny day in the heart of the California Comic-Con, and it was simply bustling with people, excited to see the latest news for their favorite games and meet the makers of said games as well as socialize and buy souvenirs which they'll likely never touch again. At least… it was like this for all but one person who strode through the bustling crowds like the people around them were nothing but an obstacle, obstacles which she effortlessly, brilliantly, and flowingly evaded with extreme precision.
This person was a woman of what she would consider, not that she really have a shit, average stature, standing at 6 feet 9 inches in height, she additionally had a pair of size C breasts while her skin was Asian and American mix of tanned brownish white, reflecting her extremely sharp and piercingly focused brown eyes that irradiated an aura that told everyone to stay away from her. Her hair was usually a long and flowing, straight black, but now it was tied up in a bun on the back of her head and it was being let up in that position by what appeared to be a bone-like tiara-esque headband which resembled horns while her bangs were held out of her face and two strips of hair were tied and hung down on either side of her face, which perfectly went with what she was wearing.
For starters, she was wearing traditional Japanese samurai style clothing such as the waraji footwear and the tabi, samurai socks, except that her versions of the waraji resembled that of hooves while her tabi we're almost all black aside from the waraji which were a blackened silverish color. She also wore a pair of umanori-type trousers called, hakama, which were again, almost all black except for the end halves of the leggings which were colored a golden lightning yellow which was in the design of a sickening fire. Above that she wore a black, sleeveless uwagi which was tied closed by a golden colored uwa-obi which was tied together in a hanamusubi knot which also tied what she wore over the uwagi to her torso, that being a gold and red rim accented haori with lightning gold scarf-like neck fluff which also resembled that of some type of animalistic mane. The sleeve ends of the haori being designed with the same type of the leggings ends of her hakama, and the woman also wore black leather fingerless gloves at the end
This woman is Acnori Orihime. The Aunt of both William Acnori Lancer and Acnori Quill as well as, older sister of the brothers' father, Acnori Ichiro and sister-in-law to Acnori Nami, the mother of the two boys. Currently, the emotion she was feeling was a mixture of anger, determination, and worry. She was angered at who or whatever had taken the last family she had, that being her dear nephews, determination to locate and bring her nephews back home, and worry for the state her nephews were in, she wanted to find them badly because not only were they the last of her family… they were the last family she would likely ever have.
Orihime continued to walk through the convention for an hour or two, stopping every so often in order to let someone take a picture with her. After another several minutes of looking around, she sighed and sat down at a nearby bench before thinking about what she’d already known about her nephew’s disappearances along with the disappearances of her adopted nephew William’s friends, Servo Charger, and Alex Torch though they had disappeared almost seven years ago while Quill had gone missing back in November of 2019. All Orihime knew really was that William had gone to a BlizzCon here in California in early November 2016 while his friends had disappeared earlier with Servo going missing in March 2013 and Alex going missing around the same time in 2015, so here she sat… nearly seven years after most of her close family and friends have gone missing, the last two, her brother and sister-in-law having died 14 years ago when Quill was only seven.
“Damn it.” Orihime whispered to herself as she looked into the sky with slight sadness. “Where are you kids?” She asked herself before closing her eyes and sighing.
After that little break, she stood up once more to find that in the corner of her peripherals, there was a small glimmering of metal that seemed to draw her to it, like a magnet. But she had a mission, to find her nephews. Her body wouldn’t listen however and as if moving on its own, walked towards the light’s origin, being the stall of a very suspicious merchant who wore what could be attributed to a very methodic smile, always planning and scheming. Unknown if that was good or bad. Finally, when she reached the stall and the merchant, she saw what had apparently drawn her there to it, that being a large sized naginata which was almost a full foot taller than Orihime herself, her head just barely reaching the hilt of the weapon where the handle met the actual blade. The blade itself looked exactly like the Demonlord Halberd from Monster Hunter World Iceborne which she’d been using expertly as she knew its mechanics from the first half a dozen games which Furious Rajang was from, from the large iron-made blade which could easily cut through some of the toughest monsters in the games, to the lighting gold Super Saiyan yellow hair-like fur which adorned the handguard of the massive weapon, whereas the extremely long handle of the so called ‘Halberd’ looked sturdy enough to withstand the strike of a different weapon of the same caliber with minimal if any damage.
“Ah, I see that you’ve become interested in one of my… more dangerous wares.” The merchant weaved his voice like a bard from D&D, trying but failing to charm Orihime’s ears as the frown still adorned on her face told him that smooth talking the woman wasn’t ever going to work. She’d already had to deal with that bullshit back in her time in the Military and at bars.
“Yes, well. The Demonlord Halberd seems to be gathering dust on it, like it hasn’t been touched for several weeks.” I retorted, noticing the faint layer of dust gathering on the handle.
“Unfortunately, many people are heavily fearful of having such a weapon which is taller than most others, including themselves. So, it’s reduced to simply… sitting there, unused.” The merchant’s soft, gravelly voice sighed sounding disappointed.
Orihime knew that the weapon she was looking at was extremely well made and to her it simply begged and pleaded to be wielded properly. Having a decent amount of money on her person, Orihime pulled her wallet out of a small pouch which clung tightly to her right side. “How about I buy it then?” Orihime asked, her eyes never leaving the weapon. “If no one else has the balls to have it, then how about someone with none at all? Plus it’d go with my outfit.” She said, taking out her wallet. “So how much?”
“You’re gonna buy it?” The merchant mumbled aloud, before a smile graced his mouth. “Then I’ll take $250 for it.” He told Orihime, causing her brow to raise slightly.
“Alright… here.” Orihime said hesitantly, placing down the amount of money before taking the massive weapon into her hand, taking it off the weapons rack.
Suddenly as she picks the weapon up, she notices… something is much different than before as instead of the cool air conditioned breeze of the convention on her back, she now felt a warm forest air on her nape, causing her senses to tell her that something was amiss. Turning around, she sees, not the bustling convention full of people, but now sees the wild darkened forest of… somewhere but wherever it was Orihime didn’t have a clue on what the hell was happening. Turning around to try and ask the merchant about it, she turns to find even more of the forest, the merchant now completely disappeared and gone which caused the woman to become extremely pissed off as she was now god knows where, without the slightest clue on how to get back and continue her search for her missing nephews, sending her into a fit of cussing and slurs in Japanese, English, and surprisingly Korean, as she cursed off the merchant.
After a full ten minutes of swearing, she had finally calmed down enough to try and figure out where the hell she was exactly, before realizing that something… was hissing. Snapping around, she saw a massive four foot tall lizard walking on all fours, covered in yellow, green and blue scales with golden crest-like spines washing down the middle of its back. Orihime’s eyes widened as she recognized this creature, a Jagras, before she looked all around her and knowing that where there was one, there was hundreds, to which she found exactly that… dozens upon dozens of four foot tall Jagras’ all surrounding her and circling her like she was to be their prey.
“Fuck.” Orihime swears once more as she looks around at the mass of Jagras.
As she looks around, one of the hundreds of Jagras behind her decides that waiting was no longer a strong suit, as it leaps directly at the back of the surrounded woman, only for something deep within the woman to flare up in warning which caused her to reactionarily snap her body around and plant the butt of her new naginata into the ground before expertly twisting herself high into the air until the Jagras was directly below her, to which she then slammed her full weight down onto the Jagras’ neck and killing it immediately. A bloody and squelching crunch echoing out within the blackened forest as Orihime sees a pool of red crimson spoiling our from the now dead Jagras corpse.
Turning to look at the rest of the Jagras, she notices that several of the closest ones look quite put off by her deadly techniques which, she honestly didn’t know she had, and they all looked quite nervous, when another couple of Jagras decided to try and avenge their fallen brethren. This caused that same unknown response to flare up within her once more as she quickly tore her Demonlord Halberd out of the ground and sidestepped, dodging a lunging Jagras as she then twirled her naginata around and swung upwards causing the blade to slice the Jagras’ head clean off as she looked behind her and noticed another lunging Jagras trying to get to her legs only for that reactionary sense to burn up again which caused Orihime’s arm to move on its own, sending the butt of the so called ‘Halber’ into the skull of the Small Wyvern crashing into and through the skull and brain of it, killing the creature as a pool of blood formed under the Wyvern, until Orihime looked back in front of her and saw that another Jagras was almost on top of her, so she sent the large blade of her weapon straight into and through the chest and stomach of the beast, watching as it bled out slowly. She then took her naginata from the dead Jagras’ corpse, letting it fall to the ground as the rest of the Jagras surrounding her decided enough was enough and they all began to pounce and lunge at her at once, trying to overwhelm her with their numbers.
“Shit!” Orihime gasped as she was indeed feeling overwhelmed, only for that same feeling deep within her to flare up, even more so than the last few times.
~Stay calm.~ A calm, precise, and calculated feminine voice told her from within the depths of her soul, calming Orihime near immediately as her eyes glossed over for a split second as her heartbeat and breathing calmed down.
It was as if the world had gone into slow motion, as the Jagras that were flying towards the Furious Rajang armor wearing and weapon wielding female had suddenly stopped to a near crawl, when suddenly the fur at the handguard of the Demonlord Halberd began to glow brighter and deadlier as crackles of electricity and lightning began to course throughout the metallic blade. Swiftly, as time was still slowed to a crawl Orhime’s body began to move as if all on its own like instinct and she cut, slashed, diced, and razed the Jagras horde to mincemeat cutting dozens in half while dismembering several others, hitting some in the face with the butt end of her naginata before slicing their jaws off and killing them without them even realizing it as she danced in a glory of blood, viscus, gore, bone shards, and diced up intestines, her body becoming surrounded by a glowing field of golden yellow energy as her clothes burned with the same lightning-like energy as her blade with each performed swipe of her weapon.
Finally, the rush of calmness and adrenaline faded from her body as Orihime herself made one last swipe around her, causing a small gust of wind to ring out which sent all the blood and gore to fly away from her body leaving her and her clothes untouched by the mess of blood she had created. Taking in large gasps of air as she tried to catch her breath, Orihime panted as she looked around at what she had done, shocked and surprised that she of all people could do this. After catching her breath for a few seconds, she stood up, using her Demonlord Halberd as a sort of walking stick as she walked away from all the gore she had left behind, and journeyed further into the forest, slightly more aware of the dangers which could possibly lurk in the thicket and brush of the foliage.
However, unbeknownst to her, as the sun quickly set upon the horizon and the moon rose Orihime failed to notice the moon was not her own world’s moon. Instead of the clear and glassy moon she grew up to know, this one was covered in a mural of what seemed to be a unicorn, with four stars on either side of the circular celestial body. No more was Acnori Orihime on Earth, or her own world… Now she was on a planet called Equus, in the Everfree Forest of the Kingdom called Equestria.
