Time Flows On

After escaping from the village, Amelia continued to travel onward, never daring to stop at one place for too much time. During her travels, she tried to establish contact with Charlie but no matter what she did, she couldn't find her. This had left her really anxious and irritable for a long time before she finally found her answer.

"He dares to take her hostage at their little organization??!"

Once when Amelia was near a police station, a cop had come out of the building to post a newly updated version of her wanted sign. She immediately ducked down out of sight, only to see that Charlie had been identified as an accomplice. A captured accomplice. It even had the location listed in bold print. Later, she had enlisted help from all of the 'contacts' she had met on her little journey, only to discover that it was secretly an ally of the Black Order.

The security was so high that even her hypnosis couldn't get her in. They simply had too much manpower, and she was limited to at most 5 people. Her other technique, which she named telekinesis, was very draining for her. She was only capable of making a large rock's worth of weight capable of flight. She could only begin infiltrating it secretly through paying off some intelligent mercenaries that she trusted at the very least to complete the contract she assigned them.

After the incident with the wolves, Amelia started to rely on her Innocence more, no longer viewing it as simply a defect. That was the main reason that a 10, now 11 year old girl was able to survive roaming the countryside. It was very effective on police officers, pedophiles, or any other undesirables that happened to cross her path.

Hypnosis had some limitations, but they didn't have much impact as a whole. People who were very paranoid or alert took much more effort to successfully 'control'. There was one very undesirable defect however. It didn't work on deaf people.

One man had decided that he liked her features and managed to corner her in an alley because of her lacking physical ability. She really hadn't been nervous yet since she had her hypnosis but the man was deaf. He couldn't hear her commands, thus he wasn't influenced. It was only thanks to clobbering him with rocks (with her innocence), and the loudness of her screams that she managed to survive with her chastity intact.

She never dared to slack off on the fighting techniques that she learned from the two knights ever again. Amelia took that lesson to heart, and continually reminded herself afterwards that she couldn't get overconfident again.

Moving on to the current time:

In the XX County of the XXX Empire, there stood a little tiny village. Despite it's old fashioned appearance, it was one of the major congregations of criminal activity in the region. And the bar... That was the hotspot of the hotspots; the cherry on top of ice cream.

And it's newest 'unknowing' victim was coming in. In front of the raggedy old building, stood a little girl that looked like she was only 9-10 years old. That little girl bravely started walking towards the door, ignoring the snickers and stares of disbelief. In the process of opening the door, however; the hinges abruptly decided to die from old age. The little girl could only watch with a slight bit of incredibility as the door crashed down onto the floor.

Red eyes, blue eyes, brown, green, black... The whole rainbow turned to stared at Amelia. Proving that you can't survive in the 'wild' without a max level of shamelessness, she walked in like it had nothing to do with her. She even stared curiously at the patrons with eyes full of innocence. The bartender looked at her with sweat dripping down repeatedly from his forehead, before sighing.

"Hey you! Kiddo!"

Amelia turned toward him and sighed. Her mental suggestion technique wasn't strong enough yet. (Mental Suggestion- A weaker version of hypnosis that only requires eye contact. Influences the victim's mind towards an emotion or idea.)

"Yes? Mr. Bartender?"

There was a slight possibility that her ability would wear down the mental barriers of a person via prolonged eye contact but it was iffy. If it failed to leave a significant impact on the person in the first place, then it was unlikely that more of it would solve the problem.

But as luck would have it-

"Why is a kid like you in here? You should go home to your mom!"

The audience stood in disbelief for a second before nodding blankly. Inside Amelia's mind, she did a little happy dance but showed the world an innocent expression that could fool angels. If people in the 'real world' reaffirmed the suggestion that she made, then the success rate soared. Even if they are slightly doubtful, they will follow the crowd's decision.

"M-Mommy... She said that I was a b-bastard and if I didn't get her food and alcohol, then, then..."

Amelia tweaked her mental suggestion towards more parental emotions, before turning around and pretending to cry. Naturally, she made as much eye contact with people as possible. Their mental barriers that were already slightly eroded allowed her to poke and prod as she pleased.

Until one cold gaze made her freeze. A tall, lean man who looked like he was in his 50s or even 60s. Despite the test of time, his muscles were compact and sharp. Most importantly, his eyes were clear. They weren't clouded over like the other people in the room.

'This could get dangerous, I need to get out of here as soon as possible. I can find some food somewhere else, it's not worth my life.'

Amelia turned towards the bartender and smiled cutely,

"Ah! I went into the wrong store, sorry."

Amelia turned to walk away as fast as possible while still looking composed. As she went past the maximum limit of her ability, the chaos began. The Bartender looked dazed for a moment before noticing that his door was gone.

"Which one of you bastards broke the door?! Huh?!"

Amelia slipped out of the door, and walked casually towards an alley before breaking out into a full sprint. Regardless of what she did, however; the prickly feeling at the back of her neck continued to rise. Right as she was about to get out of the alley system-

"Hello."

-She crashed right into the very same man in the bar. Her hands inched slowly towards the knife on her waist. But before she could do anything with it, the man caught her wrist in an iron grip.

"Did you think that I wouldn't notice?"

She bite her lip harshly, almost drawing blood.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice that innocence of yours either? Or the fact that you're activating it now?"

Amelia's eyes rose in surprise. She had never met anyone who could detect her ability before. Even went it didn't work, people were just confused for a moment before kicking her out. They never knew that they were actually about to be controlled. Her eyes narrowed into crescents, before activating the innocence anyway.

'It doesn't matter if he can sense it, I'll act like I'll attack him then fly away. He has weapon callouses, and his muscles aren't a joke either. I can't beat him.'

His face stretched into a grim smile, like a pair of shoes that he hadn't worn in years.

"Good, you have fighting spirit. I'm your master now, kid."

"...What?"