V2Ch45-Blue Angel

Yulia found herself in a vast, green meadow. A big, flat plain broken up by the occasional tree. The space stretched out to a distant horizon.

Her teammates stood all around her, packed close like sardines. They had been transported into a compact space. When Yulia looked down, she saw that they all stood within a white circle marked onto the ground beneath their feet with white paint.

She opened her mouth to call out a warning as Mr. Davidson raised his foot to step outside it, but she wasn’t quick enough to speak. Fortunately, nothing happened when he left the circle.

“Hey, there’s a circle on the ground,” he said, looking down at last.

“What was it, a target for the System to transport us to?” Mrs. Davidson asked.

[Everyone has now landed successfully in the location of the Pixie Collection Challenge, so we will begin our explanation. In your world’s history, there is a long tradition of contact between humans and pixies, among other sentient creatures that now conceal themselves from you. Now that the System has imbued you with the ability to harness your naturally occurring Mana, it should be possible for you to see that which was previously hidden from your eyes. Once you spot them, your task in this challenge is simple. Acquire pixies, by whatever means necessary, and keep them in your circle through the end of the challenge.]

[Unlike your previous tasks, this challenge does not prescribe a specific methodology by which you must complete it. There is no single right way to find and gather pixies. There are no rules here, except that you must gather as many pixies as possible, and you must keep them in your circle through the end of the challenge. And finally, your pixies must be alive. I must emphasize this. Dead pixies do not count. You will receive experience if you kill a pixie, just as you would if you killed a human, but that is one fewer pixie in your circle at the end. Every pixie you manage to acquire is worth one human portion of rations, so you ought to focus on on acquiring as many as possible for yourselves rather than work to undermine your competition.]

[To anticipate some probable questions: If a pixie leaves and returns to your circle before the end of the challenge, you have still accomplished the mission of having him or her in your circle at the end. You are permitted to steal other people’s pixies, though that will naturally come with its own hazards. Your time limit is ninety minutes.]

[01:30:00]

“Hm. Pixies,” Mina said. She leaned in to whisper in Yulia’s ear. “Are they like samodivas?”

“I don’t think so,” Yulia whispered back. “Samodivas are a kind of fairy, human-sized. I think pixies are something else. Smaller maybe?”

Yulia was a little hazy on the origins of pixies, though she’d always been a fan of myths and fairy tales. She was pretty sure that if they were supposed to look for samodivas, it would be easier than pixies, because samodivas were human-sized. Either that, or it would be impossibly hard to do in ninety minutes, because of their magic.

“Do we gather iron to bind them in place or something?” Mina murmured to herself.

“I think that’s fairies still,” Yulia whispered.

“Then I don’t know anything about these pixies,” Mina said. “I finally get to play a more active role, and it’s a scavenger hunt for a bunch of creatures I’ve never heard of.” She smiled and shook her head at what she’d just said. You should be glad just to be in the game again, she reminded herself. Yulia’s not on her own this time. It doesn’t matter if this is some myth other people are more familiar with than you are.

As the sisters spoke, others on the team were stepping outside of the circle, stretching their legs, and looking around.

Yulia saw that they weren’t far from the neighboring circles, only around ten feet to their left and right respectively, which contained teams of people she didn’t recognize. There were other circles in every direction in the meadow. But she didn’t see people whose faces she knew. Most of the circles were far from her view. But it was disconcerting to think that this Orientation had so many people that even though she had made an effort to be social at the beginning, and people were dying in droves, she still hardly knew anyone.

“I’m sure you’ll play a pivotal role, Mina,” Detective DaSilva said in a consoling tone.

But Mina didn’t seem to hear him. Yulia knew the look on her face. Her mind was elsewhere all of a sudden. Yulia looked at where her sister was staring. Her eyes were shifting back and forth among the other teams of people in their white circles.

“Say, Detective,” Mina said, “could you tell me—” She cut herself off and looked at DaSilva. He took the cue and leaned in so that she could whisper something in his ear.

A confused look passed over his face, but then he nodded. “Okay. Will do. And you’ll explain later?”

She nodded, and the Detective shook his head and smiled. Yulia wanted to ask Mina what they were doing, but she recognized it might have something to do with the hunt for the serial killer. In that case, there might be an issue with discussing it in front of the whole team.

“So, how are we going to do this?” Paulo asked no one in particular. “Does anyone have any ideas?”

“I think the tradition is that pixies are quite tiny,” Mr. Davidson said. “Perhaps small enough to sit in the palm of your hand. Maybe too small to see. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to spot them.”

“Great,” Paulo said. “We’re catching tiny, invisible people.”

“You seem to know a lot about the mythology, Frank,” DaSilva said. “What do you recommend we do to start? Assuming we might be able to see them?”

“Walk around. Look high and low.” He shrugged. “Get on our hands and knees if need be, I suppose.” The old man rubbed his kneecaps as if they ached just thinking about it.

“Well, that’s a good start,” Mina said.

“Let’s split up to cover more ground, then,” Mrs. Davidson said. “Jose, do you want to come with me and Frank?”

Jose’s eyes went immediately to Yulia, then darted away with a look of slight embarrassment. Yulia smiled. She wanted, and didn’t want, to walk around alone with Jose. Her heartbeat quickened at the thought. It said something good about him that Mrs. Davidson, who had been paired with Jose during the last challenge, wanted him in her group again.

But Yulia didn’t want to leave Mina alone right now.

“I’m going to stick with Mina,” Yulia said quietly.

“Um, oh yeah, she just gave birth, so someone should go with you guys to keep you safe,” Jose began.

“I’ll stick with Mina and Yulia,” DaSilva said.

“Then we can go with the Davidsons,” Paulo agreed, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

Oh, Jose, Yulia thought. I know what it’s like to have other people making decisions for you.

“I guess that makes us the other team,” Adelaide said, looking to her brother, Cara, and Jean in turn.

“Let’s try to stay within shouting distance of each other,” Yulia suggested.

“I agree,” DaSilva said, nodding. “Never know what kind of dangers this place might pose.”

Then Mina, Yulia, and DaSilva began their search. They walked toward the nearest tree, a twisted fruit-bearing tree that Yulia didn’t recognize.

“So, can I ask why—” DaSilva stopped talking when Mina shot him a death glare.

“We’re within shouting distance, so I assume someone can hear us with an ability or just high Perception,” Mina said.

“Either of which you’d know about, though, correct?” DaSilva replied.

“Unless they have a Skill to hide their Status from my Investigation.”

“You don’t think that’s maybe a little paranoid?” DaSilva sounded slightly impatient but not completely dismissive. Yulia suspected Mina had been right too often about too many things since Orientation began for the Detective to assume she had given into paranoia.

While the two investigators discussed their case, Yulia kept her eyes peeled for pixies.

There was nothing that she could see in the long grass, though, besides patches of other plant life like wildflowers and clover.

But as they spoke, she kept the group moving and continued to search.

“I don’t think it’s paranoid when it’s the only rational explanation for why we can’t identify the person who tried to kill you,” Mina said. “We have to figure this out before this person decides you’re getting too close to catching them and tries again.”

DaSilva had opened his mouth to reply when a shout came from another end of the meadow.

The trio turned to look and saw a group of ten people chasing something that moved quickly back and forth through the air. It was so small and distant—fifty feet away—that all they could see was a glittering blur. But it was obvious this was what they were all searching for.

And then the thing did an aerial loop-de-loop and disappeared away from all its pursuers and spectators in an instant.

The group chasing it scattered in multiple directions, each following some path they imagined it might have taken, but Yulia thought they all missed the mark.

She couldn’t see where the pixie had gone, because it was too quick and small, and the pursuit was too far away from where she, Mina, and DaSilva stood. But she had noticed that in a meandering way, the pixie had been leading the pursuit closer and closer to a large knotty tree. She was all but certain the pixie’s flight had led it there.

“Hey, why don’t we ask them what they saw?” DaSilva said. “That group got a closer look at the pixie they were chasing. They’ll be able to tell us what colors we’re looking for at least.”

“Why would they tell us?” Mina asked. “We’re competing for the same fixed quantity of pixies.”

“That is a good point,” DaSilva said. “I guess we don’t need a physical description anyway.”

“I think the one they were chasing flew into that tree there,” Yulia said. She pointed to the place she thought the pixie had fled toward.

“Really?” DaSilva said. “Interesting. Maybe we can sneak over there and get it out from under their noses.”

“Maybe we could try the tree close to us?” Yulia suggested.

“Yeah, alright,” he said.

“I’ve got an idea for how we might do that,” Mina said.

She began quietly chanting. From the silver glow around her, Yulia was fairly certain it was wind magic this time. Wind was the only element Mina had mentioned picking up besides water. And it made sense to use wind to capture a creature that they had seen could fly.

During the few minutes Mina charged her Mana, Yulia and DaSilva observed the tree carefully as they walked around it. They tried to figure out if it contained anything more mystical than fruit.

But it wasn’t until Mina’s magic was ready that they saw anything. Yulia saw her sister moving from the corner of her eye. When she turned to see Mina properly, the Mana had vanished from around her body.

Then the tree started to rustle with the sound of wind shaking the branches and leaves back and forth. A few brilliantly colorful, almost perfectly round fruits fell at their feet.

“Well, maybe we’ll at least get something to eat out of this,” DaSilva said. “Even if we might not catch any pixies.”

Mina gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. Yulia saw her moving her fingers and hands in minute, precise gestures, as if she was conducting an orchestra in her mind. The leaves and branches moved back and forth, up and down, almost like some small animal was moving through them, searching for prey.

The Detective bent, picked up one of the red fruits, and looked like he wanted to bite into its glistening skin. Then he shook his head. Swallowed. Shook his head again, as if to say, No, I’m not going to just bite into it.

He pulled his pocket knife out and cut a sliver from the fruit. Then he sniffed it.

“Ugh!” He winced at the smell. Then he dropped the small chunk of fruit and skin onto the ground. It was only then that he seemed to notice Yulia was watching him. “Oh, sorry if I got your hopes up,” he said, “but it smells absolutely disgusting. I don’t think humans can eat these after all.”

She looked down and saw the inside of the fruit, which was a bright shade of green, like a lizard’s skin.

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like something for humans to eat,” Yulia agreed. “Maybe it’s pixie food!”

“Uh, yeah, hope so,” DaSilva agreed. He looked slightly unsettled, as if he couldn’t imagine what sort of creature would eat the fruit.

Then the tree shook slightly again, right above their heads.

A small shape dropped down from the tree, right between Yulia and DaSilva.

The tiny figure was humanoid, just over ankle height, pale blue-skinned, with dragonfly-like wings. Long silver hair cascaded from the pixie’s head down the front and back of the body, a glimmering waterfall that framed its face and made its shape harder to pin down. Beneath the hair, it wore something shiny and silver that looked like—no, it actually is, Yulia realized—a candy wrapper.

After another moment of staring, Yulia realized it was a girl.

“She’s so cute,” Yulia said quietly. “Like a little blue angel or something.”

Yulia reached down, almost transfixed by the creature’s petite form. She curled her fingers into a scooping shape and reached underneath the pixie.

The pixie turned her head and sank sharp teeth into the unprotected web between Yulia’s thumb and first finger.