Collide Gamer

Chapter 199 – The case of Nariko Hollmey

The older woman completely ignored her daughter’s shout and made her way over to her employer, Maximillian. Everyone was holding their breath at the juicy drama. This was every bit the entertainment they had hoped for.

“Hello-o?!” Rave continued in her complaints. She was about to just walk over and confront her mother up-close and personal. Lydia held her hand and whispered some quick words to Rave.

Whatever the princess said, Rave sent a poisonous glance at Nariko, but kept standing where she was, right heel drumming on the floor. John would have to hasten over there once the ceremony was over and give his girlfriend some mental support. Right now, with nothing else to keep his mind occupied with, he was thinking about the consequences of Nariko being on the enemy team.

Aside from the obvious fact that she had quite the high level, it meant that they had lost the advantage of Rave being a wildcard. The same could be said for Nariko. Mother and daughter may not have been around each other for a long time but they did know roughly what each other’s powers were. Also Rave, who was a hot-headed fighter at the best of times, was looking positively furious right now, which would be bad for her making logical decisions in the upcoming tournament.

‘The combined team-level gap keeps widening as well,’ John thought. Team Lydia was all around the level area of 65-80. Team Maximillian had one level 104, one unknown and now added a level 101 to their roster. ‘We should try pushing the difference down to 10 max, guess we better do some grinding whenever possible.’

“Nariko Hollmey, are you going to fight for your candidate?”

“Yes, for personal reasons, I shall fight,” her voice was precise and had a business-like tone to it. She turned to the crowd. “I am Nariko Hollmey, local manager of the Abyss Auction. This is a private endeavour; no responsibilities lie with the company.”

That was a fairly blatant lie and everyone knew it. It was just the Abyss Auction setting up a scenario where they could win a lot and lose only the respect towards one person. If Nariko lost they would say it was as she said, that it had been all her doing, unsanctioned by them and that they would fire her as punishment. In case they won they would give her a public warning while accepting all the deals she made in backrooms and then promote her a few months down the line. Typical corporate calculations. Maximillian would also profit from this, the HTC and NTC had both voted against him and by expanding the rights of the Auction he could undermine their lifeline, trade, and force them to become subservient or be drowned out by their already massive competitor. Both of them won, all of their enemies lost.

“Jane ‘Rave’ Hollmey, are you going to fight for your candidate?”

“Ja,” Rave said, keeping her eyes on her mother instead of Romulus. “Originally I just wanted to swim the stream, but this is a PRIVATE endeavour now, for sure.” The loud tapping of her foot echoed in the whole cathedral.

Romulus didn’t care about the lack of respect, after seeing John he was apparently unable to be surprised by anything Team Lydia could throw at him. “The candidates are accepted then. Two more fighters remain to be chosen, we meet again tomorrow.”

The giant had barely spoken the last word when Rave was already halfway down the hall, strutting towards John at maximum walking speed. A girl with green hair stepped in her way but Rave just pushed her to the side and went straight to John. “Let’s move before my family starts being the annoyance they are,” she grabbed him by the hand.

“Didn’t you want to talk to your mother just now?” John asked while he was being pulled along.

“I wanted her to tell me what she is doing here,” Rave hissed. “I got it.”

The green haired girl stepped into their path again. She looked a lot like Rave, albeit with a slightly longer face and a bit younger. From the wild hair to the plush, pink lips, the connection was obvious though. “Get outta the way, Liz,” Rave demanded.

‘So that’s the infamous sister,’ John thought, it had been quite obvious but he didn’t want to just go ahead and assume.

“Can’t you just wait for mom for a moment, sis’?” Liz asked, her voice was a weird mixture of her mother’s business-like tone and a load of cheekiness.

“Dunno, can mother not be a phenomenal BITCH, sis’?” Rave returned and tried to make her way forward again.

This time Liz was prepared though. The sisters played a game of footsies, where one kept getting in the other’s way. Liz had her work cut out for her to keep up. Rave was not only the older of the two, but also the one who had spent all of her adolescence with the martial arts side of her parents, not to mention the recent boosts she had gotten through levelling with her boyfriend. Liz looked at John for help, evidently knowing who he was.

A covert shaking of his head was all she got out of him. He was not going to get in the middle of this family feud, at least not right now. The whole world was watching. Literally. The cameras were still around and were looking at their fight happening and the people who had come for the ceremony now happily whispered about the drama they were witnessing. Well, they had hoped for the candidates to throw remarks at each other’s head because of their previous history as lovers, getting a family feud going was probably exceeding their expectations.

Rave took a deep breath, knowing that she was almost out of time to flee, “Out of my wa-“

“A word, Jane,” the precise voice of Nariko came from behind them. “Somewhere less public,” she added in the tone mothers used when their children were being unreasonable, as if Rave had already spent 30 minutes crying about not wanting to go.

The grip on John’s hand became tighter, then his girlfriend sighed in defeat. “Fine.”

Twenty minutes later they were sitting in the back area of a bakery. It was relatively secluded by nature. Nariko had created an Illusion Barrier on top and then spent a couple of minutes making sure no recording devices or magics were around. Actually, Liz took care of the devices by checking on all of the electrical currents she found. This resulted in everyone's phones now lying on the table, turned off.

Everyone, in this case, was Nariko and Liz on one side of the table and John, Rave and Lydia on the other. Aclysia stood next to the group and stepped in and out of the Illusion Barrier to order food. Thankfully, phasing in and out of Illusion Barriers was the one kind of magic where Gaia herself assured that mundanes weren’t aware enough to have questions.

Rave hadn’t let go of John’s hand since they had left the cathedral. Even when Aclysia placed a cup of coffee in front of Nariko, all the Lightbearer did was stare and squeeze his hand. Her mother looked at the cup of coffee. Then, with deep blue eyes, at her daughter. “I hoped you wouldn’t be part of this, but apparently your father was right when he said you would participate at any cost.”

“Ya mean ya KNEW?” Rave angrily hissed. “Yet still decided that ya want to participate yourself?”

“This deal has been tabled for much longer than your involvement has been known. Regardless, I would have participated.” Nariko’s voice sounded like she was reading data from a chart. “I have money to earn.”

“And your ego to stroke, yeah, I get it.” Rave’s left leg was a blur, the beat her heel tapped on the floor worthy of a drum and bass song.

Nariko sighed, sounding dead tired of an argument that had been going on for much longer than this short exchange. “What do you want, Jane? That I put my whole life behind and be nothing but your mother?”

“No, but a ‘nice to see ya’ would’ve been a good start.”

“You say that, yet you yourself tried to run away as soon as the meeting was over,” Nariko reminded her. “That aside I can honestly say that I am happy about your survival.”

“What a great, motherly achievement,” Rave’s voice was laced in irony. “What’s next, going to tell me that you are happy that I finished school?”

“Did you? Last I heard you stopped going there to follow your boyfriend into fighting on the losing side of a war,” her mother said with such utter disapproval that Lydia skipped on commenting on the attack against her and, together with everyone else on the table, kept awkwardly watching the conversation.

“Pft, a real school for real jobs,” Rave waved off.

“Also, to give you higher education, just because you have the powers out of a fantasy novel doesn't mean that you don’t need to know how to calculate taxes,” Nariko’s business-like voice slowly crumbled into an angry tone. “Daughter, your constant struggle against reality is saddening to watch.”

“WATCH?” Rave half shouted, half laughed, “When did you ever WATCH me? I haven’t seen you in years and only now that we are suddenly pitched against each other in a tournament, you want to speak to me.”

“I may not have been around these past few years, but-”

“Past years? Try ever!” Rave interrupted, “I can count the number of birthdays you even remembered on one hand. I don’t even need a finger to count the ones you celebrated with us.”

“…but that doesn’t mean I didn’t care,” Nariko continued, trying her best to ignore Rave’s complaints, “When I heard you were dead I was lost in tears.”

“Yeah, right,” Rave leaned back and finally pulled her hand from John’s, crossing her arms instead, “About as lost as ya were when ya chose to sell your wedding ring, right? Because you and dad just separated totally peacefully and you haven’t been feeding me bullshit since I came out of you?”

“That had… other reasons.” Nariko tried to dodge, but for the first time she broke eye contact. Some nerve had been hit there.

“Oh really?” Rave snarled, not even trying to hide her contempt. “Was the reason that you are a massive bitch, mother?”

Any guilt that had started to show on Nariko’s face was immediately plastered over by annoyance. “Jane!” she hissed, slamming a hand on the table. “You will not speak in such a tone to me.”

“Oh really? What are ya gonna do about it? Give me a curfew?” Rave jumped out of her chair, letting go of John’s hand in the process.

“Sit – down,” Nariko commanded.

“Go to hell.” Swiping the pretzel she had ordered off her plate. Rave walked away, only looking over her shoulder when she heard her mother’s chair scrape over the ground.

“You are not even giving me a chance to explain.”

“You can try after I get rid of all this anger by beating you with it.” Both in goodbye and to leave the Illusion Barrier, Rave raised her hand. A moment later, she was gone.

Nariko sunk back into her seat and shielded her eyes with her left hand. Everyone else on the table exchanged silent, unsure glances. Finally John cleared his throat and slowly stood up, “We should probably go-“

“I hope you are treating her well, mister Newman,” Nariko said and gestured him to sit back down. Without hesitation, he obeyed. He was many things, but disrespectful towards his girlfriend’s parents was one of the things he would much rather avoid. They did not get along, and that wasn’t his business. Least he could do was not add to the problems.

“I would certainly say so, ma’am.” He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. To gain a few seconds to think of something smarter to say, he raised the bottle of water he had Aclysia buy him to his mouth. Shadows whirled up next to the table and Siena appeared. Her voice was even more sexually overplayed than usual, “Don’t worry, he is treating all of us very well, includi-“ her hand pointed at Lydia.

“SIENA, BEHAVE!” John quickly shouted, water scattering on the table and his perfectly tailored clothes as he ripped the bottle from his lips.

With a giggle the nightmare elemental sunk under the table, the damage had already been done. “What did she mean by that?” Nariko’s voice was like a whip. John jumped.

“Ah, well,” he sighed, no way he could hide it now, the older woman glared at him with the expression of a mother who knew exactly what young girls are capable of. Speaking of young girls, Liz was suddenly grinning, at least one person found all of this very amusing. “Your daughter and I kind of have a polygamous agreement.”

A white light swirled in Nariko’s eyes, cold anger rapidly reheating again. “Am I understanding correctly that you are saying that you are keeping my daughter, who saved your life according to Regan, as a glorified cock-warmer?”

“No!” John denied that accusation outright, “I love her, it’s just that…I have a dream and she is letting me live that dream.”

“Man, sis is adventurous,” Liz said in an admiring tone and earned herself a stern look from her mother. “What?”

“The Hollmey clan has survived because people marry into the family, not because people had fun with whoever they fancied like they were walking brothels.” Nariko gave the Gamer a smiting glare. “Regan and I will have a long talk about how he could let that happen.” With that, Nariko jumped up, her movement being an exact echo of Rave’s earlier, including the way she walked away.

“A moment please,” Lydia said.

“What?!” Nariko, clearly at the end of her patience, whirled around.

“I will require you to keep quiet about this in public,” the princess said.

Angrily, Nariko mustered her. “Like I am going to drag the press into this. How do you think it will reflect on me once it turns out that my precious daughter is together with some devious sex-fiend?” she glared daggers at John for a moment before addressing Lydia again. “If your parents were alive to see this they’d be as disappointed as I am right now!”

Lydia’s eyes turned into a shade of grey that could almost be called a light black. “Don’t dare speak of my parents, Nariko Hollmey,” she stated, her voice as cold as the iron railing of a bridge on a frosty winter night. “Right now, you are under the protection of Romulus, but we both know what I can do to you once this tournament is over.”

“Do we? Whatever resources you have are laughable compared to what I have access to through the money of the auction, in which I will swim once we crush your resistance.” Nariko left the barrier without another word. Gritting her teeth, Lydia left herself after waiting long enough to be sure that she wouldn’t run into Nariko again.

“Well, that totally went south,” Liz said as it was now only John, his familiars, and her.

“You can say that,” John sighed and glared at his shadow. ‘I’ll have to keep her on an even tighter leash.’ “Honestly, I’m surprised that me and Jane having a harem is that big of a deal. I thought it was somewhat normal in the Abyss?”

“Well, ain’t normal, ain’t as unusual either. It's mostly that nobody in the Abyss can stop you.” Liz slipped him a card. A number was on it, presumably hers. He raised an eyebrow, looking up from the card when she stood up. “Mom wanted to get back into contact with Jane, well, I am going for the second-best thing,” Rave’s sister explained.

“You know what this looks like, though?” John said, waving the card around.

“Huh, right, well, I have a boyfriend,” Liz said, “I am not interested in you, maybe if we had met a few months ago that would be different. However, it isn’t, so don’t annoy me if it isn’t necessary.”

John looked at the card, then he put it in his inventory. “Well, as today has shown, I am incapable of controlling even one Hollmey, wouldn’t dream about trying to get a second one,” he joked.

Liz smiled, “Smart guy.”