"Shit!" Kurai groaned, her face slamming against the hard pavement. She slowly blinked, still in a haze but conscious enough to catch a glimpse of a tall lady filled with such elegance, draped in a stylish suit.
Startled by her sudden appearance, Kurai jumped up to her feet and accidentally brushed her hand against the lady's sapphire ruffled shirt.
"Careful, dear, I don't fond young, touchy women."
"Heh, sorry," Kurai apologized, her hand recoiled as if the touch had burned, and used the moment to take in the lady's beauty.
The lady had both an elegant yet menacing aura. A black cape hung from her shoulders, and inside the cape was lined with intricate, metallic blue embroidery.
Beneath the cape, a high-collared shirt in deep sapphire framed the chest, its ruffled front lending a sharp, aristocratic flair. A polished corset cinched tightly around the waist, adorned with gleaming silver buckles and rivets, and her slim, tailored trousers fell cleanly into a subtle flare at her ankles.
But what truly set it apart and made her disturbing was that single, blinking eye embedded into the hat that gawked at Kurai.
"Charmed, are we?"
Kurai snapped out of it.
"...Why does your hat have...an eye on it? And why does it blink?"
"Oh, that! It's a prosthetic I made for when I first started cosplaying."
"...Impressive."
Lady Caltheris laughed softly, tilting the brim of her hat so the eye winked at her.
"But you know how social media is, you aren't guaranteed to go viral, so I just kept this hat for fun."
"...So it's just for fun?"
"Exactly! Nothing serious, just a little hobby. Some people like plants, some like books...I like hats that stare back at you."
Kurai frowned slightly, feeling embarrassed for being paranoid about her hat.
"It looks so real. The blinking, I've never seen anything like it.
"Well, what can I say? It's a prosthetic, so it's very realistic. It's fun to watch people's faces contort with fear when they spot my hat."
"Oh, alright, it looks creepy, like really creepy."
"No worries, my dear," The lady said, circling Kurai.
"Now what is a girl like you doing out in the middle of the night. Don't you know stalkers hide around this hour?"
"Yeah, but..."
Kurai lowered her head.
She had managed to outrun the teachers from Kinsoeri High who tried holding her back to ensure the National Police Agency threw her in jail for not only hurting one innocent person, but two people.
Kurai's views on the girl were impossible to change.
To her, it was hard to think the girl was innocent after hearing how she spoke to Teruna and how she addressed Kurai herself.
Something in this eccentric lady didn't sit right with Kurai.
She was not only wearing a cape (with a suit) to which Kurai deemed to be horrid taste in fashion, but she was also standing there with an unnerving grin, drinking up every second Kurai wasted critiquing her.
And speaking to a lady who had a literal icy blue eye on her hat that drilled into her was not the reason she fled from her old life.
Kurai was idiotic, but she wasn't that idiotic, so she had a lifeless expression for the rest of the encounter with this mysterious, elegant lady.
"The real question is, why on earth are you wearing a suit in the middle of the night?"
"Strange, isn't it? Most people dress down when darkness calls, I do the opposite," Lady Caltheris said, "It makes me feel...alive. Safe. The night can be rough, Kurai, and I'd rather meet them properly dressed."
"That's not normal."
Lady Caltheris leaned in slightly.
"Old habits come and go. I find comfort in formality...even when no one's watching. Besides...don't you think it's rather elegant to meet the moon dressed as though she were a queen?"
"Isn't the cape a bit dramatic for just walking around?"
The lady's rictus faded in a second, and this created a bit of concern in Kurai.
"Why am I still talking to this ghoulish-looking lady?" Kurai thought and turned to continue her mindless strolling, but was hit in her ankles with a cane.
"This is why I wear a cape, to look cool when I knock the shit out of you. You think you're so wise, Kurai? You walked out on your own family, your own life, everything! And you have the audacity to give me so much talk?!"
Kurai's face went pale.
Her animosity towards the lady was replaced with her mind scratching on the walls like a caged animal.
"How in God's green earth does this woman know my name? Is she some sort of witch?"
Kurai cautiously backed away, but this only caused the lady's face to twist to a sickening smile.
"What's wrong? You were acting audacious a while ago, so why now?"
The lady stepped closer to Kurai.
"What do you want from me?!" Kurai screamed.
"I just want to be friends...I know you're all alone," the woman got closer to Kurai, "I'm your last hope now..."
"Ha! You're nowhere close to being my last hope. I don't even know your name."
"Lady Caltheris."
"Lady Calt-reese?"
"I said, Lady Caltheris," Lady Caltheris said sharply and smuggily, "It matches my charm, I know."
"I don't know...sounds a bit dramatic, no one calls themselves such a thing."
"I see..."
Lady Caltheris grasped the hem of her cape and tossed it over her shoulder.
"I take pride in my name. Kurai is a bit cliché, don't you think?"
"Pfftt! I would rather keep my name than be called Calt-reese!"
Lady Caltheris stood in place, no breathing, nothing.
How long would it take for her fatuous behavior to cease and befriend me so I could get this over with?
That was when an idea struck Lady Caltheris.
"My dear Kurai..." Lady Caltheris whispered, "You're all alone, so cold, so brittle, so hungry."
"Actually, I'm not hungry–"
Kurai's stomach erupted like a volcano.
"As I was saying...you will die cold and brittle due to your starvation, and who would come to find you? Certainly not your family."
"My friends would come, they care about me!"
"Or do they now? Your ignorance is so pathetic that it hurts. Last time I checked, they'll all be busy studying to keep their grades up while the others prepare for their exams next year."
Kurai frowned; she hated to admit that this Lady Caltheris was right all along.
"So take my hand, let us unite together and have justice served for you. Let me help make a name for you, help make them fear your name, and make way for you."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Are you that foolish?" Lady Caltheris grumbled, "It's time for you to rebel against the world, Kurai. Fear is the only medicine the world needs.
"Fine...but I'm not going to harm anyone like I did earlier.
Lady Caltheris swept off her hat with a graceful bow.
"A wise choice, my dear."
Lady Caltheris chuckled to herself, having Kurai wrapped around her fingers.
"Now this fool is going to be dependent on me, she'll forever be that weak bitch," Lady Caltheris thought, "Hehe, but at least in the process I'll have her all to myself."
Kurai tugged at Lady Caltheris' cape.
"Why are you smiling so much, though?"
"Just grateful I'm blessed with your presence."
Kurai hugged Lady Caltheris.
"I'm glad I met you. This will be the start of a beautiful friendship."
"A beautiful friendship indeed..." Lady Caltheris repeated, disheveling Kurai's hair.
When Kurai's eyes fluttered closed, she was embraced tightly by Lady Caltheris.
Lady Caltheris hummed a slow, off-key melody, the kind that felt both suffocating and soothing.
"Keep your eyes closed, child...the stars are watching, but they will not speak."