An Incident?

[Summer]

From high above the treeline, the camera flashed. Reds and blue balls of magic that had been filling the air dissipated into nothingness. Burned and beaten, the red-cloaked figure she had been interviewing beat a hasty retreat. Knowing she could always track her down later if she needed to ask any more questions, Hatate wasn’t particularly worried about letting her leave. Still hanging high up in the air, now alone with only herself and the wind, the pink-clad tengu lifted her camera up to eye-level and began sifting through all the pictures she had just taken.

“She lives in the human village,” the journalist muttered half to herself, camera recording her words while she deleted the pictures that didn’t have the subject in them. “But with a collar as tall as that, she’s totally hiding something!” Intrigue sparked in Hatate’s chest. On top of the suspiciously upturned collar, the person had attacked her when the reporter started asking questions. She would definitely have to check this out more in-depth. As she cleared away the last picture without the mysterious subject, ready to take off again and ask her a few more questions, the world opened up around her. With a small yelp of surprise, she snapped a picture of the black enclosing around her. It failed to clear it away, and moments later she was engulfed.

My name is Omni. This is not the world you know.

With a white figure fading into view, the blackness around Hatate eased up a small bit.

This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it.

The white silhouette spoke, face featureless save for a wide, toothy, and equally white grin. With every fiber of her being, Hatate wanted to scramble for her phone, which was no longer in her hands, to take pictures and ask questions. Like why was she here? Who was he? He had said his name, but it wasn’t a name she knew, and so she knew nothing about him besides that. Yet even with her intense desire to do so, she didn’t even feel like she was struggling. As if her body itself was sleeping.

The Omniverse is a place that reflects the wishes of those who are part of it. But! There are rules. I will explain them only once, so listen carefully.”

These sentences had an air of importance to them. Wishing that she could move so she could write them down, or note them in her camera, the tengu listened carefully. A formless lump emerged from Omni, shimmering with all the colours of the rainbow. The white figure gave that orb a name, Omnilium. A material which made up this world, the Omniverse. With it, you could shape the world. As long as you had it, you would be reborn.

With that said, Omni faded away without so much as a conventional farewell, leaving many, many questions Hatate had unanswered. She figured that he probably wanted her to figure this out by herself. Guiding people through such things could get very boring, after all. The world around her faded away once again, the all-consuming blackness lighting up, and becoming the same featureless white that Omni had been.

Finding that she could move once again, Hatate eased her way to her feet, not sure how her body would react after the sleep-like paralysis she had just emerged from. Looking down at the white ground at her feet, she searched for her camera. The yellow-checkered object was easily found against the dull white background, and the tengu happily stepped over and picked it up off the ground. She flipped it open again and searched through it, seeing if any more pictures had been taken during her abduction.

Hatate let out a small, annoyed sigh. The only picture between her last interview and now had been the pure black photo she had taken in a panic. It was entirely useless, and so she wasted no time in deleting it. Though there were no photos from the transition, that didn’t mean that she shouldn’t take them now.

“Everything’s so white,” she said quietly, taking notes as she looked through the viewfinder. “Despite being empty, it’s kinda noteworthy in that emptiness. A pure emptiness this large is totally suspicious.” Of course, the very fact that it was featureless prevented her from getting a decent shot. With white to all sides, her pictures would simply look overexposed, and no one would believe them.

Dropping her camera hand back to her side, Hatate turned to face the one thing that broke up the infinite white. A large statue of a dragon god, formed out of grey stone, stood inside a pool of water. Raising the viewfinder up to eye-level, the photographer snapped a quick picture of the top half of it. One nice advantage to this featureless white was that she didn’t need to account for the sun. The camera made a small click as it cycled the picture into memory, and Hatate brought it back up. While it was a nice, clear picture, it was only one. She’d take a few more, when she was a bit further away and could get the entire statue in the frame.

Turning her head to gaze back over the endless expanse of white, the tengu thought about where to head to next. Now that she was thinking about it, the endless white wasn’t so endless. Objects dotted the horizon, and while she couldn't discern what they were from this distance, going to see them would be better than staying here and wasting away.

[Summer]

Slowly, Hatate floated upwards and slightly away from the fountain, moving to get a better angle for a shot. The dragon god statue took up less and less of the frame, until it fit entirely within the viewfinder, framed by the unmarked white background. A small click sounded as the reporter took a photo, flash off so she could accurately capture the strangeness of everything. There were really no shadows to speak of anywhere, despite all the complexities of the stone carving. Somewhere amidst the scales and folds there should be some form of darkness, but the strange light of the Nexus illuminated everything evenly. A quiet whir came from the camera, followed quickly by another click.

A few more pictures followed suit as Hatate lazily circled the statue, getting a photo of every angle. Satisfied with how they turned out, she flipped her camera shut, and quickly deposited it into the brown case on her hip, latching it shut in one swift motion. She hummed a happy tune as she slowly spun, eyeing all the different objects off in the distance. This ended in a completely arbitrary decision, and she took off speedily to the east.

It took the reporter a few minutes to reach top speed, a speed that was remarkably slower than what she was used to. In order to even go this speed, she was putting in a considerable amount of effort, and no matter how much more she tried to put in, she couldn’t move any faster. Sweat beaded on her forehead, staying for a mere moment before being swept away by the tremendous winds resulting from her flying. Her arm, stiff at her side from the air pressure, slowly lifted up to her camera’s case. With one quick motion, her eyes straying from the path ahead, she unlatched it again, and the camera was back in her hand.

Before the journalist could take any notes with it, something rocketed past her vision. Not wanting to lose sight of whatever it was, Hatate quickly flipped back upright, spinning around so her back was to the wind. Her eyes flitted around the white background as she slowed down, and within moments they settled on five forms, all facing her as she steadily drifted away. Wiping away the sweat on her brow, chest heaving from the surprising amount of effort she had to put into travelling this far, she began flying towards the figures. She wasn’t going to pass up an opportunity like this, they would hopefully know at least something about this place.

As the tengu drew within a comfortable conversational distance, not yet close enough to talk normally, but not far enough to warrant a shouting contest, she opened her mouth to give a greeting. The group beat her to the punch, one of them stepping forward and shouting their introduction.

“Greetings Prime!” His voice was slightly muffled by the helmet covering his head, and the metal armor that covered the figure rattled as he dismounted from the horse he rode. All five of the group were covered with the same armor, all in the same design that was unfamiliar to Hatate. Each of them had a spear held upright in their hands, and a sword sheathed on their hips. And every single one of them was riding a horse. The knight slid the visor on his helmet up, revealing his face. “I am Captain John, of Minas Tirith. Are you lost, perchance?” His entourage remained creepily still, definitely the sign of some level of skill or experience.

“Hello!” The journalist greeted back, a wide, friendly smile on her face as she gently lowered to the ground, showing off her supernatural balance as she only set down one foot. “My name is Hatate Himekaidou, author of the Kakashi Spirit News.” Journalists were usually assumed to be tengu, and Hatate had no reason to believe that they would not be familiar with the tengu society. To her, it was a perfectly acceptable introduction, and if they were maybe subscribed to her newspaper, they could recognize her. “And yeah, I’m totally lost.” Her happy smile faltered into something more embarrassed, and she absentmindedly flipped her camera open and back shut repeatedly. “I was flying above the human village when that big grinning weirdo grabbed me.”

“Verily?” Captain John’s voice held a level of surprise, “Twas that recent?” he turned both ways to glance at his comrades, giving some unspoken message. Armor rattled quietly as he spun, falling away once his gaze fell back on Hatate. “Camelot would be glad to aid a new Prime. If you would accompany us?”

It was an innocent enough offer, and too perfect of an answer. The reporter figured he was probably leaving something out. She was in a perfectly good position to turn down the offer. However, they were the only people she had come across. Her other foot came down, and she took a quick step back, camera flipped open and brought to eye level.
“If you don’t mind some questions yourself.”

[Summer]

Armor rattled yet again as Captain John shifted his weight, not quite sure how to react to Hatate’s proposal. His lackeys remained as disturbingly still and professional as before, possibly under an order not to move unless their leader were to give them a signal.

“You totally don’t have any reason to decline, right?” An accusatory tone appeared in her voice, her smile seeming more sinister than it had just been. “Unless you have, like, something to hide.” Sparing a quick glance through her viewfinder, she zoomed the picture up to his face.

“Thou dares question my honor?” the Captain’s voice grew sharper. For a moment, the reporter wondered if she was perhaps a bit too pushy there. His hand shot up to his visor, but before he could close it, Hatate pressed a button on her camera. Light flashed faster than he could slide the visor down. A garbled exclamation of pain escaped the knight, and he stumbled backwards, clutching his face. Two arms reached out, one from each of the knight’s flanking him, and caught the Captain before he could fall completely. Despite the fact that her actions could have easily been interpreted as an attack, the remaining two figures did not move from their spot.

“Woah, did I like, push a button or something?” There was a measure of surprise to her voice. She hadn’t expected him to be that defensive against accusations. Just like the other two soldiers stayed in their place, Hatate remained in hers. “Sorry, I totally didn’t mean to insult you like that.” Her apology was entirely half-hearted, giving it more keep them from attacking her than anything else. With the aid of the two of his comrades, Captain John was quickly back on his feet, visor up and face flushed from the heat of the flash. Now on less friendly grounds, the four dismounted.

“And I apologize for reacting so... aggressively,” he growled a similarly half-assed apology.

“So,” Hatate began slowly, glancing to and from all five of them, “You called me a ‘Prime’ earlier. What does that mean?” She absently flipped through a few settings on her camera as she talked, switching it over to rapid shot mode in case they tried anything. That was doubtful, however. It was probably that she just struck a very sensitive nerve with Captain John.

“A Prime...” the knight trailed off for a moment, as if he wasn’t sure how he wanted to explain it. “A Prime is one who was summoned directly by Omni.”

“Someone summoned directly by Omni,” she repeated quietly, using her camera to make a permanent note of it. There was little doubt in the tengu’s mind that he was leaving something out. After all, it was much easier to control someone when you controlled the information they knew. It’s why propaganda was a thing. She was a reporter, however, she knew what questions to ask. “Summoned directly by Omni,” a sentence repeated a third time, “So, like, there’s other ways to be summoned?” Continuing the ploy of just fiddling with her phone, Hatate discreetly turned off the flash.

“Er,” the Captain hesitated for a brief moment, but kept his body-language to a minimum. She found it difficult to read his face. “There art also Secondaries, who hath been summoned in by Primes.”

“Secondaries, summoned by Primes,” she repeated him again, still taking notes. The camera tilted sideways with a lazy flick of Hatate’s wrist, now ready for a landscape shot. Taking pictures discreetly was always difficult. Their obvious unfamiliarity with cameras really helped the photographer out immensely, however. She spared a quick glance towards her viewfinder, making sure everything was lined up, a glance that didn’t last more than a moment. “So Primes can summon people, huh?” Her voice covered up the telltale click of her rapid-fire shutter. “Then they can, like, summon other stuff too, right?” By extension, ‘they’ also included ‘her’. “Ah, like, the armor you’re wearing or the weapons you’re carrying!” Everything she had gleaned from her rather one-sided conversation with the Captain seemed to match up with what Omni had said. With Omnilium, you could shape the world, or something like that.

“That is correct,” Captain John said slowly. His lips continued to move, ready to form more words which would never come.

“That’s like, a totally powerful ability!” Whatever he intended to say next was quickly cut off by Hatate’s excited voice, a bright, friendly smile on her face. “And like, you’re part of an army. Camelot? So you’d totally want to recruit people with this awesome power!” With her voice fading off slightly, the knight made to speak again, and was again cut off. “Well, I’m a reporter, so I’m not really useful to an army.” She shifted her weight back a bit, camera back up for portrait shots, and quickly set the flash back on. There’s no way they’d let her go just like that, if Primes were as powerful as he’d made them out to be.

Of course, her excuse was a complete and total lie. Hatate was a tengu and an experienced journalist. They could totally use her as a spy or something. That wasn’t something that she really wanted to do, however. She just wanted to get back to Youkai Mountain and keep on writing her newspaper.

“Arrest-” the Captain began his order, armor clanging as his hand shot up to his visor once again, only to be cut short yet again as Hatate’s camera flashed once, causing him to reel back, but not yet fall. Four more times her camera flashed, all in rapid succession, only now her target was changed. With incredible speed, she had shifted the last shots to be focused on the armored figure nearest her, the one furthest to the right, who had brought their spear to bear. A muffled shout of pain escaped the knight, and they too stumbled back.

A small whirring sound started up from her camera, and the knight on the far left lunged at her, spear flying past the tengu’s side as he tried to cut off her escape. The soldier to the immediate right of the Captain drew their sword at the same time. Hatate’s free hand shot to her side, pushing the spear and hopping on top of it. At this, the knight drew their sword and slashed at her legs in one fluid motion. She hopped over the blade, her camera giving a relieving ‘click’ as she landed again. The remaining two knights surged forward as Hatate tilted her camera to landscape, and five quick flashes hit the whole group.

[Summer]

Through the strobing of her flash, the sword swung back, broad side of the blade striking against Hatate’s legs and sweeping them off the shaft of the spear. With a surprised yelp, she tumbled backwards, legs catching on the pole and tilting her back just enough that she bashed her head on the ground hard.

Pain exploded into the reporter’s head, and stars flashed across her vision. A faint clattering reached her ears, soon drowned out by the clanging of armor as the knights closed in on her. Wood pushed against her legs, her line of sight tottering end over end, and soon the rest of her body met the ground.

Her head throbbing from the impact, Hatate shot back to her feet with all the speed and grace she could. Upon straightening up, it wasn’t more than a moment before a cold, metal gauntlet closed around her wrist. Luckily, it wasn’t the arm holding her camera, and the tengu quickly brought that up to the helmeted visage of the knight. Her thumb pressed down the button, unleashing five more rapid-fire shots into their visor.

A muffled cry escaped the soldier, their grip on Hatate’s wrist weakening as they flinch back from the flash. Seizing this opportunity, the reporter ripped her hand free from their weakened grip and back-stepped furiously, getting as much distance from the group as she can.

“Woah,” she said, coming to a stop just far enough away that she could hopefully talk to them without getting stabbed. “This would make a good headline. ‘Knights Attack Lost Prime.’ People would totally be outraged over you guys attacking a poor, defenseless bystander out of nowhere.”

“Thou art neither defenseless nor a bystander!” a voice of complaint came from the armor in the middle of the formation. It was Captain John voicing something Hatate had already knew.

“The people who read my paper won’t know that,” her mouth turned up in a sly grin. “It’s called controlling the narrative.” Which was also totally something she wouldn’t do, it’d ruin her integrity as a reporter. Not to mention she either needed to find a way back to Youkai Mountain, or she’d need to set up a print shop here so she could even write a paper. It was all she had to go with to keep these knights off of her, though, so for now she just hoped they wouldn’t call her bluff.

“What is thine word versus mine?” he growled, far too stubborn for his own good. “I am a respected Captain in the ranks of Camelot. Thou art just some faceless new Prime.”

“I’ve got a bunch of pictures!” the photographer responded excitedly, flipping her camera around in her hands and facing the screen towards the knights. From this distance, they wouldn’t be able to see anything actually on the screen, but it was the thought that mattered. “Got everything from you guys, like, standing around, to even trying to get me with your swords!” A small giggle escaped her. “And because I’ve been using rapid-shot mode, I’ve got, like, a lot of pictures!”

Captain John remained silent in the face of the journalist’s story superiority, something which Hatate took full advantage of. She flipped her camera closed again, and crossed her arms across her chest. “What’s like, your purpose here, anyway? Why are you walking around this place, there’s nothing here.”

“It’s none of thine business what we’re doing in the Nexus,” the knight responded, rather harshly, and turned back to his horses. “Come, there is work to be done.” Armor rattle as the group turned as one and began mounting their horses.

“You totally got sidetracked didn’t you!” Hatate’s voice easily rose above the din of the armored soldiers. The Captain froze in his tracks for a split-second, quickly catching himself and continuing to mount his ride, not saying a word. That pause was all the tengu needed, and she watched them ride off into the distance, smugly satisfied with herself for getting out that relatively unharmed.

Unable to keep the arrogant smile off her face, she flipped the camera open and brought it up to her lips, pressing down the button with her thumb and starting some new notes.

“The knight was totally self-righteous. It’ll be his downfall someday. He called himself ‘Captain John’ or something. He’s not like, a ship Captain, is he?” With that part done, she released the button and pressed it again after a second, beginning a new section. “Those other knights were, like, incredibly silent and well-behaved. Do they just exist to follow orders? They seemed pretty unenthusiastic about following his orders though...” Two soft clicks followed her question. “That Captain got sidetracked by me. He totally had a different job to do. And he mentioned something about a ‘Nexus.’”

By now, the knights were far enough away that she wasn’t worried they’d turn around and try to run her down. She turned back to the place she’d been flying to originally. Her small detour hadn’t really given her all that much new information, she still had no idea what she was even heading towards. A blur of purple sat within her peripherals, and the reporter shifted her gaze over to it. There, in the midst of the white, her tokin sat, knocked off her head by the scuffle. Silently, she stepped over to it, picking it off the ground, dusting it off, and returning it to its rightful place atop her head.

Turning back down to her camera, Hatate began to concentrate. If she couldn’t get any more information out of the good Captain, then perhaps she could find a news article or something with her thoughtography. Her camera’s screen flickered static as she focused on the keyword ‘Nexus’ and tried to bring up the most recent picture. After a few minutes of useless nothings flashing across the screen, a photo of a black-haired boy appeared on her screen, accompanied by the yellow text of what appeared to be an emergency message. The journalist’s grin couldn’t grow any wider. This may not have been information on the Nexus like what she was looking for, but it sure as hell was a story. The apprehension of a very dangerous criminal? Like she was gonna let that story escape her. Without a moment of hesitation, Hatate took to the sky as fast as she could, eyes darting around the endless white of the Nexus as she searched out any large groups.