Niqi's Ten Years

This is completely my writing. A summary of Niqi's ten years after Yochinai.

 

Twenty Six

 

“F**k this,” Niqi muttered, pacing back and forth. She’d come out on a side alleyway of a city, the brick buildings around her covered heavily in graffiti. She didn’t even know the planet’s name, and she hardly cared. She kicked a can lying on the ground in frustration. It flew into the building in front of her, crumpling and denting the brick, and then hit the building on the other side of the street on the rebound.

“Excuse me, miss?” a mortal spoke, standing to the side.

Niqi didn’t think about how she hadn’t seen the person standing there. She didn’t stop to see whether they were male or female, what species they were, anything at all. She was simply filled with a sudden rage at them. For what? Interrupting her pointless thought process? She didn’t consider any of that, instead whipping around to glare at them, letting out a feral growl. A red haze covered her vision.

She heard screaming a few seconds later, and as the red haze faded, she saw a glimpse of a running figure before it disappeared behind a building. She stood still for a few seconds, and then sighed heavily, turning back to face the building wall in front of her. She put her forehead against the cool brick. “F**k this,” she repeated quietly.

 

…

 

Night fell. Niqi still remained in the same alleyway. She sat up against the brick building, Scourge and Bane unsheathed on the ground in front of her. “You’re not good enough for me anymore,” she said stubbornly, almost as if they cared that she was going to stop using them. Deep inside, she knew it was because the memories attached to them would be too painful, but she would never admit that to herself. She took another long look at the jagged red blades, and then sighed, sheathing them again. She laid down where she was, closing her eyes and falling asleep.

 

…

 

When the morning light came, Niqi quickly put Scourge and Bane back around her waist, getting up and running out of the alleyway. She looked around, squinting in the bright light, until she saw a man reading a newspaper. She ran to him with unnatural speed, snatching it from him.

“Hey!” the man yelled, startled and offended.

“You got a pen?” Niqi asked.

The man blinked in disbelief at her.

“Well?” Niqi insisted.

“May I have my paper back?” the man asked.

“No,” Niqi replied curtly. She was starting to become exasperated with the man. “How about I put it this way,” she said in a light tone. She let the red haze fall over her eyes again and bared her fangs, understanding now that it was the same ‘grr’ face Casey had done for her. She cut off the expression abruptly when the man looked about ready to faint from terror. “Now,” she spoke in a polite tone, “would you be so kind as to lend me a pen, good sir? Or shall I have to paint the picture I have in mind with your blood?”

 

…

 

Niqi walked quickly along the streets, glancing down every so often at the newspaper she was carrying, freshly inked with the drawing of a unique weapon. She smirked, pulling out the currency card that newspaper man had thrown at her along with the rest of his belongings. She stopped walking, now that she was nearing the city’s central square. She quickly glanced at the name of the currency on the card, and then called out, “Fifty Cai for anyone who can point me to a good weapons smith!”

There was no response initially, but then a burly looking man walked up to her. “Head down that street for about three blocks, then take a left on Harbinger Drive. Go straight for about five more blocks, it should be fairly obvious after that. It’ll be on the right.”

Niqi smiled. “Thank you, sir,” she said, paying him and heading in the direction he had pointed her.

 

…

 

“I’ve got it!” Niqi announced, pushing open the doors of the weapon smith’s shop.

The smith regarded her warily. “Uh, can I help you?”

Niqi slammed the newspaper down on the counter so that her drawing was facing the smith. Forgetting her strength in the excitement of the moment, she tore the paper a couple inches on the side closest to her and slightly cracked and dented the counter.

“Hey, these are new counters!” the smith exclaimed, alarmed.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” Niqi said, completely disregarding his concerns. “You take a pole – sort of like the pole on this,” she began, taking a large halberd off of its place on the wall.

“Leave my displays alone!” the smith yelled, his face going pale and a vein in his forehead becoming prominent.

“You might wanna be looking at the drawing so you can follow along,” Niqi suggested, staring the smith straight in the eyes. When he looked back at her as if she were crazy, she nodded as if to encourage him to follow her instruction.

The smith blinked, still staring at her.

Niqi sighed. “Okay, it’s like this,” she said, walking back over the counter and swinging the halberd carelessly from one hand to the other.

“Careful!”

“Look,” Niqi ordered, pointing to her drawing.

The smith, utterly confused, finally obeyed.

The drawing showed a pole, blank on one end but covered in spikes at the other. The spikes were curved. One vertical row of the spikes curved upward and was sharpened to a blade on the outward curved bit and a point on the top of the spike like a tiny scimitar, so that it would slice when pulled downwards and rip when shoved upwards. The row next to it had the opposite; the spikes curved down, so that it would slice when shoved up and rip when pulled down. At the top of the spiked end was one larger, non-curved spike.

The smith swallowed. “Okay, I see it,” he said, his voice cracking.

“You take a metal pole like this,” Niqi restated, holding the halberd high with two hands for emphasis. “You put a black rubber grip around this end, so you can hold it well,” she continued, making circling motions around the end of the pole with one finger and staring at the smith intently. “You put the alternating curved spikes up here, and bam!” she shouted, scaring the smith. “You’ve got your ultimate slicin’, dicin’, ’n’ rippin’ piece of weaponry. So what do you say?”

The smith blinked again. “Do I get paid?”

“How about this,” Niqi proposed. “If you don’t make me this weapon, I will personally half you with this here halberd, take over the damn shop, and make it myself. What do you say?”

“I say I’ll get right on that, ma’am,” the smith replied quickly, the fear apparent in his tone.

Niqi grinned. “Make me two of ’em. Twins. And make them purple.”

 

…

 

A week later, Niqi held the elegant weapons in her hands. They were a vivid amethyst as she had requested, and the light gleamed off the shiny metal when she turned them this way and that. There were eight alternatingly positioned vertical rows of spikes on each pole. The rubber grips were lightly textured, adding to the beauty of the weapons. “I love them,” she murmured affectionately.

“Does this mean you’re leaving?” the smith asked, his voice hopeful.

Niqi nodded in silence, slipping the weapons into the custom-designed holsters. They were hollow cylinders, each filled with somewhat hard foam. The foam had slits in it for the rows of spikes to sit in. The weapons fit snugly inside. “I’m calling the weapons in general Luces. You can make more and sell ’em if you’d like. Thanks for your cooperation.” She smiled politely and exited.

“Goodbye,” the smith called after her half-heartedly, extremely relieved to be out of her presence.

 

Twenty Nine

 

After having tasted demon blood, Niqi never wanted to leave Aytar. The consequence for that was living on a planet that was particularly cold, which wasn’t something she enjoyed.

After staying indoors for weeks at a time, however, she began to crave the demon blood yet again. She had attempted to leave Aytar several times, but always found herself returning again. The near-addiction had turned her cold, both inside and out.

And so on one early morning, before the sun had risen, while she was futilely attempting to go as long as possible without drinking any blood, she felt the sudden swell of craving yet again and gave in as she had all the other times. She placed the book she hadn’t been able to concentrate on down on the coffee table, stoking the fire in the fireplace once more before throwing on an old jacket and walking outside.

A snow storm was going on, unfortunately. What lovely timing I have she thought to herself as she crossed her arms tightly over her chest, trying to ward off the cold. She inhaled deeply, seeking the scent of blood, but only received the bite of chilled air.

For some strange reason, another woman was walking the streets at this time of night. The reason itself was perhaps lost with her life; for as she traveled down the seemingly desolate streets, Niqi spotted her.

Niqi’s last cognitive thought was ‘Oh, wow, I really like those purplish blue clothes she’s wearing,’ and then suddenly she was overwhelmed by the scent of the woman’s blood. Having been caught off guard, she instinctively attacked, suffocating the woman’s scream before it could be voiced. When she returned to her normal state, she glanced down at the woman she had killed.

“Well…that’s a disappointment,” Niqi sighed, picking up the body. She had in mind to hide it somewhere, but she found herself taking the corpse back to her home. Once inside, she began admiring the woman’s clothes again. On a whim, she exchanged her clothes with the dead body’s. “Thanks,” she said to it, smiling, as if it could hear her still. She took it back outside and ran with vampire speed to the woodlands near her town, laying it down there to freeze.

Niqi now wore a tank top, a mini skirt, extremely high boots, and a long coat, all a lovely mixed shade of navy and dark purple. There were several straps and tie-ups randomly adorning the clothing, and the material it was made out of was relatively thick, successfully keeping her from the cold. “Such a shame I had to go and kill you,” Niqi sighed to the body. “If only I had my blood cravings under control, I could’ve simply threatened death.”

 

Thirty

 

A few months after her thirtieth birthday, Niqi decided to leave Aytar for good. She had tried to tackle its demon population single-handedly; unfortunately, she had been shamefully beaten in some of the fights, and at this point in time she was feeling useless. She missed Raven’s Nest dearly, with more intensity than she had in years. If they were here, if Glide were here, then she might be able to save the planet.

Instead, she was opening random Nexus doors, searching for some planet that was warm. She found one and checked the name on the door. Kirmei. Sounds like some sort of small, fuzzy creature. She shrugged, walking through, and was immediately disoriented. She was inside.

She closed the door behind her and then looked at it. Employees Only, it read. She glanced at her surroundings. There was a long makeup aisle in front of her, next to an aisle with an assortment of hair care products. The aisle beyond that contained hair dye. Hmm. She walked over, browsing through the different colors. She found dark blue and purple and shoved them in her coat pockets, also grabbing a highlighting comb. She walked out the front door, waving to the cashier as she left.

 

…

 

Niqi looked over her appearance in the mirror. Her relatively long hair was now covered with thick streaks of blue and purple that matched the outfit of the woman she had killed, which she had recently begun to think of as her outfit. “I get the feeling I’m going to look like this for a while,” she mused to herself.

 

Thirty Six

 

Niqi walked along the dreary city sidewalk, hands shoved into the pockets of her coat which was now becoming tattered in a somewhat charming way. She had a mission in mind. Feeling the corner of the note with her hand, she pulled it out of her pocket once more. “We’re meeting at the abandoned auditorium tonight.”

She was getting to the more deserted part of the city by now, the buildings mostly graying as if to fit the color of the sky.

When the auditorium was in sight, she knew it was safe to run. She let her feet carry her with abnormal speed to the front door. She pushed the door open and walked inside, the others already pacing around the stage.

“Evening, Daniel, Alex,” she greeted her fellow vampires, jumping up to join them.

“Hey,” Daniel replied. He held out an envelope. “Some messenger guy showed up, said this was for you. No idea what it is.”

Niqi took the envelope, slightly confused. She ripped it open and pulled out a solitary piece of paper; there wasn’t much writing on it. “Come to the Snapdragon tomorrow, as early as you can. Something horrible has happened. Lujuria”. Her heart lurched and her eyes widened at the name. It was a sort of wake up call for her. Hello, how are you, you do remember that vitally important part of your life, right?

“Guys…I think tonight’s gonna be the last night I’m hunting with you,” she said quietly to the other two vampires.

“What happened?” Alex asked.

Niqi shook her head, putting the note away. “I have no idea.”

Reviews

[KEi]

Once more.
DUN DUN DUHHHHHHH.