Rewriting Skull Merchant's Lore

The self-made millionaire Adriana Imai came from a humble home in Fortaleza, Brazil. Her father, Seita, moved to Brazil as a young man, hoping to see a side of the world completely different from his hometown in Hokkaido. Though working in menial jobs to fund his life there, he was a talented illustrator, spending most of his spare time designing colourful characters and worlds, drawing inspiration from the unique culture surrounding him.

While sketching patrons of a local jazz club, his work was noticed by the elegant Belinda. Introducing herself as the owner, she expressed great delight and interest in his unique style and talent, and following a brief discussion, she commissioned him to design a new logo for her establishment. What began as a business partnership soon became a romantic one, and within a couple of years, baby Adriana was born.

Growing up in a house full of art and music honed a brilliant mind, and young Adriana excelled in all areas of academia, demonstrating an incredible level of dedication to her studies and a near obsession with perfection. Always striving to score at the top of every class, she would frequently become overly competitive, quick to anger, and intolerant of anyone who threatened her standing. There were a few more serious incidents that required intervention and disciplinary action from the school.

Neither parent was particularly concerned however; Adriana’s mother was far more interested in continuing to push her success in her studies, while her father would instead excitedly share his work and passion with her. Despite working long hours at a canning facility and only writing his manga in his spare time, every night he would share his wild and highly imaginative illustrations with his daughter, challenging her and even using her own ideas in his work. He even used her likeness for Adi Valente, a young girl who saved and protected the weak with her quirky robot companion.

By middle school, Adriana's exceptional grades had caught the attention of a very prestigious private school who began courting Adriana's parents with promises to help her reach her potential. Both parents were immensely proud and keen to push her further; Belinda drew what additional funds from the jazz bar she could to cover the expenses, but still more funds were needed. Seita spoke to publishers about his unpublished manuscripts, though as an unknown name in the burgeoning Brazilian manga scene, it was hard to broker a deal. In the end, he managed to find a small local publisher willing to carry Adi Valente, though he had to settle for a less favourable agreement.

Initially, the funds were managable; however, as the popularity of Adi Valente grew, the demand and workload mounted, and trying to keep up with the series while working a full time job was simply not tenable. Taking the gamble on Adi Valente's success, Seita left the canning facility to work on Adi Valente full time, giving him more time to develop and illustrate his series. While it was certainly making him more money, the small publishing company was largely leaving the entire operation of producing the manga to Seita single-handed. His work consumed all of his time; inhuman hours, with no breaks or holiday, and often unable to spend any time with his daughter. The young Adriana watched on as her father toiled endlessly, seeing his once infectious smile and passion for his art dissolve into bitterness and resentment... all just to line someone else's pockets.

In her final semester at the private school, Seita had reached a breaking point and demanded the royalties he should be owed for his work, refusing to write more until he was paid properly. The publishing company however rejected his demands, and after a strong verbal conflict, they tallied their assets and concluded it was more profitable short term to liquidate the company, sell off their IPs, and go into administration to avoid paying Seita. It quickly became apparent the Imai family were no longer able to afford the mounting expenses, and despite being top of the class, Adriana had to be pulled out of the elite academy, and forced to endure the embaressment of being denied her diploma. Belinda tried to secure her a place to finish her graduation at another school, but Adriana angrily rejected every single offer. She watched on in horror as her academic rival claimed their diploma, along with numerous accompanying awards and accolades... Her awards. A darkness flashed in her mind, seeing his success sickened her, and she couldn't help but think of all the ways his life could and should be torn down...

Seita blamed himself for costing Adriana her future and tormented himself endlessly for plunging his family into hardship. The anger at his former employer mixed with his enduring sense of shame, feeding his anxious thoughts and plunging him into depression. He tried to start anew with a new manga, but his art became a place to pour his darker thoughts into; a grim story of blood and vengeance. The manga followed a highly competent female assassin with a bladed mechanical arm who used remote controlled drones to survey and track her targets. Betrayed by her employer and after a failed attempt on her life, the story saw her track, hunt, and brutally gut the members of her former benefactor's organisation, affixing the skulls and bones of the weak to her drones as she carved through their ranks. He used darker imagery than he ever had before, and as he drew, he would subconsciously emote, his face mirroring the sinister intent he was inking onto the page... His wife Belinda showed concern that his normally beautiful and flowing art now looked like a twisted and nightmarish fog... a dark dream. He took the name. Despite now having some notoriety in the industry, the tone of this new manga heavily clashed with his previous work, and he was unable to find a publisher willing to gamble on this new darker series.

Unable to sell Sonhadores Sombrios: O Mercador da Caveira, the family became solely reliant on Belinda’s income, but it was clear that her takings from the jazz club alone could not also sustain the home and family they had built. Facing mounting debt, Seita continued trying to get his work published, but as time drew on, his resentment and shame grew. He frequently cursed his former employer and his own foolishness before finally, he disappeared from the family home, the revolver he kept in his desk gone with him. A missing persons report was filed, but after a rather lacklustre investigation, and despite no body ever being found, the police unofficially concluded it was likely a suicide and the case was left to run cold.

Adriana did not take the loss of her father well, while Belinda was inconsolable, refusing to accept Seita was gone, but with their debts ever mounting Adriana was never afforded the time to properly grieve, and she set upon trying to find a way to keep her mother and her fathers home. Her first project was to create a website dedicated to the world of Brazilian manga in honour of her father, and she managed to capitalise on the mediums ever growing popularity in South America. She allowed fan produced manga to be submitted, with a rather loose piracy policy, and she used some smart advertising strategies to draw in large numbers of users and advertising revenue. Before long, she had built a well-known brand in the ever growing Brazilian manga scene, with a steady income stream. Despite her success, the constant reminder of her missing father wore on her constantly. Every time she tried to upload his manga to share his talent, she could never bring herself to submit, returning the manuscripts back to their drawer under lock and key. Still, the website grew exponentially, and the second she got an offer, she sold the site and never looked back.

Seeing the money she'd managed to make from selling the business, Adriana turned her meticulous mind to studying investment and economics, using any and all resources she could find in the Internet age. Despite being entirely self-taught, her keen intuition and uncanny ability to read the market saw her rapidly turn over small investments for unusually profitable returns. By the age of 18, without even a high school degree, she had already become a self-made millionaire. As stories of this business wunderkind spread across Brazil, her investments grew more and more brazen, and she started looking towards making profit on the back of turning businesses.

Her methods were ruthless; she blatantly ignored the people affected by her trades and looked over the losses she inflicted on others in each transaction with an indifferent disdain and contempt. Before long, she had the kind of money that allowed her to completely buy out small companies—companies that she would gut, replace with non-union workers, and sell at a profit. By her mid-20s, she was regularly flipping even well established businesses and corporations, and had built up a significant fortune, as well as a long list of enemies... Adriana didn't care. She saw the business world as uncaring and merciless, a place where the strong devour the weak. It had chewed up and spat out her father, and she had sworn she would never be the weak link ever again.

Before long however her notoriety began to catch up with her, and while weaving her fingers into the early stages of acquiring (and slowly dismantling) a large real estate firm, she was being threatened with legal action and even receiving death threats from former business partners and employees. The more of the business she acquired, the worse the threats got, and Adriana became more and more paranoid. She fitted sensors and security cameras all around her home and obsessed over every detail of the system, constantly tweaking and adjusting the cameras and sensors to minimise and cover any dead zones. Before long, she had replaced the static cameras with mobile drones, mounted with sensors, and created a near impenetrable web of detection... All the while, she continued her ruthless expunging of the business, trading from the safety of her home...

It would turn out that her paranoia was well founded... As the deal to acquire a big stake of the firm was coming to fruition, one that would make the full acquisition of the firm a mere formality, her drones detected 2 individuals trying to break in. However instead of fear, Adriana felt a feeling she didn't expect... The room seemed to darken around her, almost as if shadows were creeping across the walls, but at the same time her sight and senses were sharper than ever; she was calm and ready, almost a little excited. She clutched her pistol, the same model owned by her father years before, and waited. As the two intruders snuck through her home, unaware of the silent observers tracking their every movement towards her main office, Adriana watched their locations intently on her remote sensor.

Spying her through the keyhole to her office, the two intruders burst through the door together and raised their silenced weapons to Adriana sat in the office chair. Without hesitation, they unloaded their magazines, shredding the figure before them to ribbons. They quickly reloaded their weapons as the chair turned... only to see a shattered and broken mannequin sporting a wig and her clothes. At that moment, Adriana stepped out behind them and fired a single shot to the back of one's head before firing 2 more into the hand and knee cap of the other. Both men fell to the ground, one dead instantly, the other screaming in agony.

She kicked the survivors weapon away, sat on top of him, clasped her hand over his mouth, and calmly demanded the name of his employer. At first, he refused to talk, but as if exhilerated by his defiance, she pulled out a long blade and looked over his body with a wicked smile. A few excruciating minutes later, a bloody Adriana had her list of names...

The incident was never reported to the police, there was no mention of it anywhere, no blood left in the office, and Adriana herself had seemingly vanished into thin air, with the deal left hanging in limbo for days before finally petering out. No one had any idea what became of her or the would-be assassins, not even her mother, who only knew Adriana had seemingly taken her father's manuscripts. The firm directors set about undoing the work Adriana had done and returning the firm back to normal.

They even had a stroke of luck, where a new investor seemed interested in filling the hole left by Adriana and seemed very keen for a quick and fruitful partnership. The key directors of the board were invited to meet at a conference in Switzerland. A well-spoken gentleman met them in a private room and discussed their business at length, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of the industry and business landscape around their firm. It was extremely impressive, to say the least, and a very favourable deal was quickly struck. With several days left of the conference remaining, the leaders were convinced to take in the beautiful landscape and sights around the Alps, joining a small private tour group.

After the ride to the mountains and a stop off at a cabin midway through the tour, the directors readied to move onto the second half, with a hearty meal and expensive brandy filling their bellies. Something, however, was very wrong; their tour guide was nowhere to be seen, nor their newfound partner. The directors searched the area in confusion before scrambling in their packs, only to find their communication devices were missing... it was then Adriana appeared before them...

She stood with what looked like a diamond encrusted gas mask partially covering her face, a mechanical right arm adorning 2 large blades, and a scanner in her left hand. Despite the mask, they recognised her immediately and looked for a way to escape... only to find themselves contained by the uneven ground and cliff edges. She stepped slowly towards them, mockingly flourishing and asking what they thought of her new look. Refusing to play her game, the lead director demanded she stay back, vainly raising his hands to keep her at bay.

With a mocking tsk, Adriana lunged forward, the gears around her shoulder and elbow whirring intensely, and she easily smashed through the man's limbs with bone snapping force before burying her cruel double-bladed mechanical arm deep into his midsection. With an almost effortless flick of her wrist, she tore open his guts and severed his spine. His body slumped heavily to the floor... the rush of emotion and adrenaline was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. The rest of the party scattered in panicked screams, stumbling into the mountainous terrain... Adriana shuddered with excitement as her drones and radar blinked into life. The hunt was just beginning...

Returning to civilian life and in light of the "tragedy" that had befallen the firm, Adriana effortlessly acquired the remaining seats of the board and sold off the company to the highest bidder. She lamented it was "far too painful" for her to stay on to manage her part in the business. Thus began an unsettling cycle. Numerous larger-than-life CEOs and board members mysteriously gave up their seats in several high-profile companies to new investors under various different names. Some of them just ‘disappeared’ without a trace, and a new player would suddenly appear to take their place. Authorities tried to track where the money was going, but it was well laundered through different networks each time... completely untraceable.

Despite her precautions, the heat was getting too much, and even scaling back to smaller businesses was still garnering more attention than she wanted. An aggressive manager of a fireworks company, known for his “survival tours,” was her last target, right at home in Brazil. Survival tours… a perfect cover.

Adriana lured him to a decommissioned airship hangar. The hunt started at dawn and went the distance. He had managed to evade her numerous times with her still tracking him well into the evening... a survival tour indeed... but he was wounded in their last altercation; it was now only a matter of time. One of her drones chirped into life, and she found her quarry once more; whimpering and straining at his limit, exhausted and barely able to crawl. She used the drones to track his desperate shuffling to a dead end. She calmly pulled on the mechanical arm, ready to finish him, but as she adjusted her weapon, a pair of kites suddenly appeared on the drones' camera moments before the feed sputtered and died. Her face hardened... then her eyes widened in disbelief as she slammed her laptop shut and charged to where the drone had crashed. There, she found her prey reaching out to someone in the growing dark for help.

Witnesses! Not part of the plan!

Without a second to lose, she plunged her twinned blade through his stomach and wrenched it free, exposing meat, bone, and a dying heart. The vitiated body staggered left and right, sending a shower of red over the green foliage. As her victim collapsed with a thud, she turned to the young witnesses watching on in horror. With a sneer, she flicked her blade and whispered, "Wrong place, wrong time". The youths broke into a sprint, and she eagerly gave chase, her blades thirsting for more blood... she began to wonder if she could really leave this life behind when it was done....

The lush green of the trees melted into a thick black fog. Real life warped into something like the dark imagery her father used in the pages of O Mercador da Caveira. Visions of death and pain filled her mind... the same rush of her first hunt ran through her body, more intense than ever... a sick grin crept across her face as she gave herself to the fog, ready to begin this new chapter in her life…

The self-made millionaire Adriana Imai came from a humble home in Fortaleza, Brazil. Her father, Seita, moved to Brazil as a young man, hoping to see a side of the world completely different from his hometown in Hokkaido. Though working in menial jobs to fund his life there, he was a talented illustrator, spending most of his spare time designing colourful characters and worlds, drawing inspiration from the unique culture surrounding him.

While sketching patrons of a local jazz club, his work was noticed by the elegant Belinda. Introducing herself as the owner, she expressed great delight and interest in his unique style and talent, and following a brief discussion, she commissioned him to design a new logo for her establishment. What began as a business partnership soon became a romantic one, and within a couple of years, baby Adriana was born.

Growing up in a house full of art and music honed a brilliant mind, and young Adriana excelled in all areas of academia. Her success led to an incredible level of dedication to her studies, and she developed a near obsession with perfection; always striving to score at the top of every class. Over time this morphed into an extremely competitive and ambitious streak, where she would frequently become quick to anger and intolerant of anyone who threatened her standing. Before long it was no longer enough to be the best student, she had to be undisputed, and prove she was better than her peers in every aspect. She had numerous altercations with various rivals throughout her years there, as well as a few more serious incidents that required intervention and disciplinary action from the school…

Neither parent was particularly concerned however; Adriana’s mother was far more interested in continuing to push her success in her studies, while her father would instead excitedly share his work and passion with her. Despite working long hours at a canning facility and only writing his manga in his spare time, every night he would share his wild and highly imaginative illustrations with his daughter, challenging her and even using her own ideas in his work. He even used her likeness for Adi Valente, a young girl who saved and protected the weak with her quirky robot companion.

By middle school, Adriana's exceptional grades had caught the attention of a very prestigious private school who began courting Adriana's parents with promises to help her reach her potential. Both parents were immensely proud and keen to push her further; Belinda drew what additional funds from the jazz bar she could to cover the expenses, but still more funds were needed. Seita spoke to publishers about his unpublished manuscripts, though as an unknown name in the burgeoning Brazilian manga scene, it was hard to broker a deal. In the end, he managed to find a small local publisher willing to carry Adi Valente, though he had to settle for a less favourable agreement.

Initially, the funds were managable; however, as the popularity of Adi Valente grew, the demand and workload mounted, and trying to keep up with the series while working a full time job was simply not tenable. Taking the gamble on Adi Valente's success, Seita left the canning facility to work on Adi Valente full time, giving him more time to develop and illustrate his series. While it was certainly making him more money, the small publishing company was largely leaving the entire operation of producing the manga to Seita single-handed. His work consumed all of his time; inhuman hours, with no breaks or holiday, and often unable to spend any time with his daughter. The young Adriana watched on as her father toiled endlessly, seeing his once infectious smile and passion for his art dissolve into bitterness and resentment... all just to line someone else's pockets.

In her final semester at the private school, Seita had reached a breaking point and demanded the royalties he should be owed for his work, refusing to write more until he was paid properly. The publishing company however rejected his demands, and after a strong verbal conflict, they tallied their assets and concluded it was more profitable short term to liquidate the company, sell off their IPs, and go into administration to avoid paying Seita. It quickly became apparent the Imai family were no longer able to afford the mounting expenses, and despite being top of the class, Adriana had to be pulled out of the elite academy, and forced to endure the embaressment of being denied her diploma. Belinda tried to secure her a place to finish her graduation at another school, but Adriana angrily rejected every single offer. She watched on in horror as her academic rivals claimed their diplomas, along with numerous accompanying awards and accolades... Her awards. Seeing their success sickened her deeply and an unbridled hatred and resentment bubbled within her, spilling over to the school faculty, as well as the publishers that cost her father so dearly… She couldn't help but imagine all the ways their lives could and should be torn down…

Seita blamed himself for costing Adriana her future and tormented himself endlessly for plunging his family into hardship. The anger at his former employer mixed with his enduring sense of shame overwhelmed him, feeding his anxious thoughts and plunging him into depression. He tried to start anew with a new manga, but his art became a place to pour his darker thoughts into; a grim story of blood and vengeance. The manga followed a highly competent female assassin with a bladed mechanical arm who used remote controlled drones to survey and track her targets. Betrayed by her employer and after a failed attempt on her life, the story saw her track, hunt, and brutally gut the members of her former benefactor's organisation, affixing the skulls and bones of the weak to her drones as she carved through their ranks. He used darker imagery than he ever had before, and as he drew, he would subconsciously emote, his face mirroring the sinister intent he was inking onto the page... His wife Belinda expressed concern that his normally beautiful and flowing art now looked like a twisted and nightmarish fog... a dark dream. He took the name. Despite now having some notoriety in the industry, the tone of this new manga heavily clashed with his previous work, and he was unable to find a publisher willing to gamble on this new darker series.

Unable to sell Sonhadores Sombrios: O Mercador da Caveira, the family became solely reliant on Belinda’s income, but it was clear that her takings from the jazz club alone could not also sustain the home and family they had built. Facing mounting debt, Seita continued trying to get his work published, but as time drew on, his resentment and shame grew. He frequently cursed his former employer and his own foolishness before finally, he disappeared from the family home, the revolver he kept in his desk gone with him. A missing persons report was filed, but after a rather lacklustre investigation, and despite no body ever being found, the police unofficially concluded it was likely a suicide and the case was left to run cold.

Adriana did not take the loss of her father well, not aided by her mother being inconsolable, unable to work and refusing to accept Seita was gone. With their debts ever mounting, Adriana was never afforded the time to properly grieve and she set upon trying to find a way to keep her mother and her fathers home. She quickly found success however creating a website dedicated to the world of Brazilian manga in honour of her father, capitalising on the mediums ever growing popularity in South America. Seeing the obvious weak link in the manga development cycle, she allowed fan produced manga to be submitted with a rather loose piracy policy, and she used some smart advertising strategies to draw in large numbers of users and advertising revenue quickly. Before long, she had built a well-known brand in the ever growing Brazilian manga scene, producing a steady income stream. Despite her success, the website served as a constant reminder of her missing father, and wore on her constantly. Every time she tried to upload his manga to share his talent, she would instead pine over the pages of Sonhadores Sombrios, studying the intricacies of each panel, never able bring herself to submit the work and returning the manuscripts back to their drawer under lock and key. Still, the website grew exponentially, and the second she got an offer, she sold the site and never looked back.

Seeing the money she'd managed to make from selling the business, Adriana saw a new path ahead of her and turned her meticulous mind to studying investment and economics using any and all resources she could find in the Internet age. Despite being entirely self-taught, her keen intuition and uncanny ability to read people and the market saw her rapidly turn over small investments for unusually profitable returns. By the age of 18, without even a high school degree, she had already become a self-made millionaire. As stories of this business wunderkind spread across Brazil, her investments grew more and more brazen, and she started looking towards making profit on the back of turning businesses.

Her methods were ruthless; she blatantly ignored the people affected by her trades and looked over the losses she inflicted on others in each transaction with an indifferent disdain and contempt. Before long, she had the kind of money that allowed her to completely buy out small companies—companies that she would gut, replace with non-union workers, and sell at a profit. By her mid-20s, she was regularly flipping even well established businesses and corporations, and had built up a significant fortune, as well as a long list of enemies... Adriana didn't care. She saw the business world as uncaring and merciless, a place where the strong devour the weak. It had chewed up and spat out her father, and she had sworn she would never be on the losing side ever again.

Before long however her notoriety began to catch up with her, and while weaving her fingers into the early stages of acquiring (and slowly dismantling) a large real estate firm, she was being threatened with legal action and even receiving death threats from former business partners and employees. The more of the business she acquired, the worse the threats got, and Adriana became more and more paranoid. She fitted sensors and security cameras all around her home and obsessed over every detail of the system, constantly tweaking and adjusting the cameras and sensors to minimise and cover any dead zones. Before long, the system had become more and more sophisticated, and she had even replaced the static cameras with mobile drones, mounted with sensors, to create a near impenetrable web of detection... All the while, she continued her ruthless expunging of the business, trading from the safety of her home...

It would turn out that her paranoia was well founded... As the deal to acquire a big stake of the firm was coming to fruition, one that would make the full acquisition of the business a mere formality, her drones fired an alert to her radar, revealing 2 black clad individuals trying to break in. Adriana stared wide eyed at the drones camera feed, knowing the danger she was in… However instead of fear, Adriana felt a sensation she didn't expect... The room seemed to darken around her, almost as if shadows were creeping across the walls, but at the same time her sight and senses were sharper than ever; she was calm and ready, almost a little excited. She carefully removed her pistol from her desk, the same model owned by her father years before, and waited. As the two intruders snuck through her home, unaware of the silent observers tracking their every movement towards her main office, Adriana watched their locations intently on her remote sensor.

Reaching the doors and spying her through the keyhole to her office, the two intruders burst through the door together and raised their silenced weapons toward Adriana sat in the office chair. Without hesitation, they unloaded their magazines, shredding the figure before them to ribbons. Their silencers radiated smoke as they dropped their magazines and grabbed a second set from their belts ready to reload, as the chair creaked round to face them... only to reveal a shattered and broken mannequin sporting a wig and Adriana's clothes. At that moment, Adriana stepped out behind them and fired a single shot to the back of one's head before firing 2 more into the hand and knee cap of the other. Both men fell to the ground, one dead instantly, the other screaming in agony.

She kicked the survivors weapon away, sat on top of him, clasped her hand over his mouth, and calmly demanded the name of his employer. At first, he refused to talk, swearing through gritted teeth and unleashing all kinds of threats. However, as if exhilerated by his defiance, she pulled out a long blade and looked over his body with a wicked smile. A few excruciating minutes later, a bloody Adriana had her list of names...

The incident was never reported to the police, there was no mention of it anywhere, no blood or damage left in the office, and Adriana herself had seemingly vanished into thin air, with the deal left hanging in limbo for days before finally petering out. No one had any idea what became of her, not even her mother, who only knew Adriana had seemingly taken her father's manuscripts. The firm directors set about undoing the work Adriana had done and returning their firm back to normal.

They even had a stroke of luck; a new investor seemed interested in filling the hole left by Adriana, and seemed very keen for a quick and fruitful partnership. The key directors of the board were invited to meet at a conference in Switzerland. A well-spoken gentleman met them in a private room and discussed their business at length, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of the industry and business landscape around their firm. It was extremely impressive, to say the least, and a very favourable deal was quickly struck. With several days left of the conference remaining, the leaders were convinced to take in the beautiful landscape and sights around the Alps, joining a small private tour group.

After the ride to the mountains and a stop off at a cabin midway through the tour, the directors readied to move onto the second half, with a hearty meal and expensive brandy filling their bellies. Something, however, was very wrong; their tour guide was nowhere to be seen, nor their newfound partner. The directors searched the area in confusion before scrambling in their packs, only to find their communication devices were missing... it was then Adriana appeared before them...

She stood with a diamond encrusted mask partially covering her face, a crude mechanical right arm adorning 2 large blades, and a scanner in her left hand. Adriana gave a curtsy, the twisted smile visible even through the face cover, as she introduced herself as “O Mercador da Caveira… The Skull Merchant”. Despite her partially covered features, they recognised her immediately and quickly grasped the danger they were in. Some began trying to bargain for their lives, others looked for a way to escape... only to find themselves contained by the uneven ground and cliff edges. She stepped slowly towards them, mockingly flourishing and asking what they thought of her new look. Refusing to play her game, the lead director demanded she stay back, vainly raising his hands to keep her at bay.

With a contemptuous tsk, Adriana lunged forward, the gears around her shoulder and elbow whirring intensely, and she easily smashed through the man's limbs with bone snapping force before burying her cruel double-bladed mechanical arm deep into his midsection. She paused for a moment to look deep into his eyes, watching his life fading away before giving an almost effortless flick of her wrist, the mechnical arm tearing open his guts and severing his spine. His body slumped heavily to the floor… the rush of emotion and adrenaline in the momentary silence was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. The rest of the party scattered in panicked screams, stumbling into the mountainous terrain... It didn't matter… Every single contingency had already been carefully accounted for. Adriana shuddered with excitement as her drones and radar blinked into life. The hunt was just beginning...

Returning to civilian life and in light of the "tragedy" that had befallen the firm, Adriana effortlessly acquired the remaining seats of the board and sold off the company to the highest bidder. She lamented it was "far too painful" for her to stay on to manage her part in the business. Thus began an unsettling cycle. Numerous larger-than-life CEOs and board members mysteriously gave up their seats in several high-profile companies to new investors from all over the world. Some of them just ‘disappeared’ without a trace, and a new player would suddenly appear to take their place. Authorities tried to track where the money was going, but it was well laundered through different networks each time... completely untraceable.

Despite her precautions however, the interest around her was getting too much, and even scaling back to smaller businesses was still garnering more attention than she wanted. She decided to make one last score before using her substantial fortune to disappear. An aggressive manager of a fireworks company, known for his “survival tours,” would be her last target, right at home in Brazil. Survival tours… a perfect cover.

Just as every time before, her plan was meticulously crafted to ensure she could savour every moment of the hunt uninterrupted. Adriana lured him to a decommissioned airship hangar, far from any local populace. The hunt started at dawn and went the distance. Each hunt had seen her iterate, upgrade and modify the designs of her weapons and equipment, yet even so, he had managed to evade her numerous times with her still tracking him well into the evening... A survival tour indeed, but he was wounded from their last altercation; it was now only a matter of time.

One of her drones chirped into life, and she spotted her quarry once more; whimpering and straining at his limit, exhausted and barely able to crawl. She used the drones to track his desperate shuffling to a dead end and watched as the man collapsed to the floor. She calmly pulled on the mechanical arm, preparing to finish him, but as she adjusted her weapon, a pair of kites suddenly appeared on the drones' camera moments before the feed sputtered and died. Her face hardened... then her eyes widened in disbelief as she slammed her laptop shut and charged to where the drone had crashed. There, she found her prey reaching out to someone in the growing dark for help.

Impossible! Witnesses! Not part of the plan!

Without a second to lose, she plunged her twinned blade through his stomach and wrenched it free, exposing meat, bone, and a dying heart. The vitiated body staggered left and right, sending a shower of red over the green foliage. As her victim collapsed with a thud, she turned to the young witnesses watching on in horror. With a sneer, she flicked her blade and whispered, "Wrong place, wrong time". The youths broke into a sprint, and she eagerly gave chase, her blades thirsting for more blood... she began to wonder if she could really leave this life behind when it was done....

The lush green of the trees melted into a thick black fog. Real life warped into something like the dark imagery her father used in the pages of O Mercador da Caveira. Visions of death and pain filled her mind... the same rush of her first hunt ran through her body, more intense than ever... a sick grin crept across her face as she gave herself to the fog, ready to begin this new chapter in her life…