TimeLordLucario
The Oncoming Aura Storm
- Location
- Australia
Purple flames are propagation, which is multipling something. Does that work for velocity?
Just trying to survive here! (SI/Multicross)
- Thread starter ObsidianNoir
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Germany
Those are meant to be mist flames. For some reason, I kept describe them as purple. Gotta fix that real quick, completely forgot about cloud flames.
Chapter 8.1 - Tsuna Interlude
- Location
- Germany
Chapter 8.1 – Tsuna Interlude
Tsunayoshi Sawada knew for a fact that a middle school student should not be visiting a hospital that often.
It just happened that his entire friend circle, including himself, tended to get themselves into dangerous situations, whether they wanted to or not.
Scratching his bandages a little, he fidgeted around in front of a certain room. By all means, he should be on his way to a celebration party. Officially, it was for Lambo's release from the hospital, but it was actually for their victory against the Varia.
However, Tsuna still had some time left before going to the party, according to his teacher. Because of that, the teenager decided to deal with one issue. One that had been hanging around in his head ever since he met him and had been growing stronger in the last few day.
In order to get rid of the heavy weight, he needed to talk to one person before the party. Well, technically two, now that he thought about it, but she wasn't the one who he needed to talk to the most.
Since this would be the first time they would actually interact, if even that happened that was.
Tsuna shook his head. He had been standing in front of the door for at least five minutes. Thankfully he was alone in the hallway. Maybe because it was early morning, but he wasn't so sure.
The teenager was a bit suspicious that Reborn left him alone for this, but it was appreciated.
It would not do to get kicked into the room for his own 'stupid hesitation'.
Taking a deep breath, determination filled his face and Tsuna knocked on the door, before opening it.
The moment he entered, all courage left him when he laid his eyes on the sleeping form of Obsidian and the very awake Chrome sitting to his right, keeping Obsidian between her and the door.
The latter turned her head away from her book with Latin letters and stared at him blankly. This only caused the teenager to lose more of his composure as he began to blush and bow down to a ninety degree angle in top speeds.
"G-good morning!" He greeted louder than intended and Tsuna reflexively winced at his own volume, making his face flush even more.
When he carefully glanced up, the girl's face didn't change at all. She only tilted her head slightly, like a confused bird.
To be honest, it looked a little cute...Not Kyoko-cute, but cute nonetheless.
After staring each other for a while, during which Tsuna's back began to hurt from his bow, Chrome made a small head notion that might have been a nod.
"Morning..."
Tsuna frowned slightly.
He could barely hear her! It was as if the wind tried to carry her word from meters away into his ear.
Before he or she could say anything more, they heard a groan.
As if her voice was the trigger, Obsidian began to stir up. Slowly opening his eyes, the illusionists yawned and raised himself, cracking his neck as he scratched his hair.
Immediately, Tsuna straightened up his back and stood stiff as he observed the rather casual wake up sequence of the young adult.
From the corners of his eyes, Tsuna could spot how the girl adjusted her position in her chair. But that was enough to tell him a lot for some reason.
She held her back more straight and actually radiated more...happiness. Before, it was a big gloomy, repressed feeling. But now, it felt like she was opening up more.
As if she felt more safe now.
She cared for Obsidian, Tsuna realized. Nothing too deep, like best friends or something, but it was enough for her to feel comfortable around others, now that he was actually there. Following on the gut feeling he had, Tsuna saw that she didn't have a lot of friends. Because of that, she valued the ones she had even more than other people.
Anyway, with this sudden insight out of nowhere done, he focused more on the person he actually wanted to talk to.
Said person stretched his arms as he let out another loud yawn, before shaking his head slightly. Then, he stared at the blanket on his legs, then let out a deep sigh.
"Another hospital bed. Didn't expect that," he began to mutter. "Wonder if I could get some tea here..." As if he only noticed now, he turned his head to Chrome, who stared at him with nearly zero emotion.
Nearly zero, meaning that Tsuna could still feel the slight hint of...annoyance.
Huh, who would have thought someone like her could feel that, the student thought with a raised eyebrow.
Obsidian appeared to recognize it as well, since he scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Uhm...sup?"
To Tsuna's surprise, Chrome's eyes-err, eye, narrowed, making the young adult smile sheepishly.
"You need to stop falling unconscious."
He lowered his head, but then snapped his gaze up with a worried expression.
"Oh crap, I didn't-"
The girl shook her head, which calmed the Vietnamese down a little as he sat back down.
"Don't worry. Mr. Dino had an illusionist ready for me. It only...hurt for a moment."
At this, Obsidian tilted his head with disbelief.
"He has an illusionist?"
The sky guardian raised an eyebrow at that.
Were illusionists that rare? Even if they were, surely Reborn knew at least one more, considering his ties.
No, it wasn't that.
It was almost like Obsidian didn't expect Dino to have any illusionists ready, despite Reborn probably telling him about the organ issue.
Before he could ponder more on it, suddenly, Obsidian's expression changed, as if he realized something and relaxed a little more.
Tsuna frowned. How weird.
Chrome didn't react if she noticed any of that and instead calmly continued to elaborate.
"I heard he borrowed that person from some other family."
"Huh...The more you know." Obsidian scratched his chin before turning to Tsuna. Blinking for a moment, he waved his hand lazily. "Hi there, future boss. Sorry for not noticing before."
The teenager grumbled in response. Not that he was offended at being ignored, he was used to it, but the man did it again.
Boss.
"Again, I don't-"
"Yes, yes, I know," Obsidian interrupted him with more handwaves and rested his hands on his legs with an easy going smile. "We won, didn't we?"
Tsuna blinked as he took a seat and sat next to the door, keeping a respectful distance.
"H-how do you know that?"
"Well, we aren't dead," the adult deadpanned and shrugged. "Nothing against details though."
Despite the rather morbid comment at the start, the teenager decided to delve into an explanation.
His fight against Xanxus, how he froze him with the First technique, the same the Ninth used on Xanxus, how the rings rejected the Varia boss, the background story of him being adopted and later filled with rage with the knowledge of it, finishing with the arrival of Lancia, who cleaned up the reinforcement the Varia wanted to use to gain the authority over the Vongola with force.
Tsuna was not the best talker, so he stumbled over his sentences a few times, but during all this, Obsidian and Chrome listened to his story in a calm manner.
Wait.
Tsuna narrowed his eyes.
The former wasn't just calm.
He didn't react. At all. Like he expected all of that to happen.
Maybe he had future sight or something, Tsuna mused as he crossed his arms. Wouldn't be that much out of the ordinary.
There was a time travel bazooka.
When he noticed the unnerving stares he was receiving, the student gulped.
Damn awkward silence.
Now that he finished the story and that Obsidian was wide awake, the words were stuck in his throat.
"Uhm..." Tsuna managed to force out and he let out an awkward chuckle. "G-gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei are sending their greetings to you! Oh, and...Ryohei decided against...the...punch thing."
He tipped his fingers against each other with a slight blush and Obsidian nodded slowly while Chrome still stared.
"Neat," the man said blankly, his eyes not moving from him.
Waiting patiently.
Tsuna let out a sigh.
Was it that obvious?
Well, he couldn't just break in the topic just like that.
So he decided to go with his intuition. He might not be in Hyper mode, but it had to be active at least a little bit, right?
"I...just want to thank you. The two of you," Tsuna said, letting the words flow out without any planning.
Processing his own words, the boy couldn't help but perform a small fist pump.
Good ice breaker for his standards.
Now to keep it going.
"For what?"
Seeing Obsidian's honest confusion, Tsuna turned to the girl, who blinked owlishly just like her friend did.
The sky guardian wondered how unused they were to a simple thanks.
Probably as much as he did, so he scratched his hair with an awkward smile and decided to explain it as good as he could.
"For...well, everything. You fought for me, at the risk of your own life...And...and I heard from Kyoko of how you helped her, C-chrome."
This made the two illusionists blush slightly.
Okay, they were very not used to this stuff.
"It..wasn't much," Chrom said softly while Obsidian first looked at her then shrugged helplessly with the blush still there.
However, Tsuna shook his head, then stared at the ground.
"No, really. I don't know what would have happened if you guys weren't there..."
"Nothing much. You would have still won."
Tsuna looked up with a frown.
Obsidian's voice sounded so nonchalant, as the man stared at him with a lazy smile. It sounded...too confident.
"How do you know that?"
The adult tapped his chin, his eyes narrowed at the question. Then, after a while, he snapped his fingers and pointed at him.
"Because I saw you guys in action. Your power. And your morals." Obsidian paused, his face losing its serious expression, replaced by a more contemplating one. "And you were trained by Reborn, so there is that."
In response, Tsuna let out a small snort of amusement. Obsidian's comment also seemed to entertain Chrome, whose mouth corners twitched
He couldn't argue against that. Say what you wanted about the baby, he was a good teacher. Though he did always choose the path with the most pain involved.
However, as his smile fell slowly, the boy took a deep breath and stared at the ground, gaining their confused attention once more.
Now or never, while the momentum was going.
At least that was how Tsuna thought it worked, right?
"I...have been thinking." Since he didn't get interrupted, the boy continued on, staring quietly at his hands. "Xanxus...all his pain...it was caused by how the mafia acts now, doesn't it? Because power was everything to him."
Well, Tsuna didn't assume it was purely the mafia's fault. Considering Xanxus was living on the streets, the mafia only worsened his thirst for power. Act like the mafia or lose your power, that was the Varia's leader's mindset, most likely.
So that he didn't have to feel the same weakness as before.
"If...if I became boss...Not that I would!" He awkwardly cleared his throat after his little outburst when Obsidian and Chrome stared at him in a neutral manner and Tsuna's gaze turned back to the ground, shoulders slumped. "But...could I...prevent those tragedies from happening?"
"No."
The answer came so abrupt and was delivered like a fact that the boy couldn't help but do a double take at the adult.
"Huh?"
Obsidian raised an eyebrow, confused by Tsuna's response. Turning to Chrome, she stared at him with expectation as well. With that, he sighed and scratched his hair with small frustration as he tried to search for the right words. Then, he folded his hands and pointed at Tsuna with a neutral expression.
"You can't prevent it. Ever. But you can try. Make them happen less often. Try to be better than the previous ones." He raised his arms for a moment, before leaning back to the wall in a tired manner. "Sometimes...a little good change can cause the biggest ripples."
Tsuna frowned at his words.
That sounded...rather pessimistic. He expected something like "Good will prevail" or something like that.
Then again, he appreciated Obsidian's...honesty on the topic. It felt real and Tsuna needed real advice on this situation.
"Do...you want t-to be a boss?"
Chrome's question surprised him slightly, as well as her stuttering.
Was she starting to get sick of his presence? Tsuna sweatdropped. He hoped not, but he wouldn't fault her.
Strangers made him feel nervous as well.
Anyway, the question.
Did he want to be?
The old him, before meeting Reborn, would have responded with a definite no.
But now...
"I don't know," Tsuna muttered and closed his eyes as he let out a sigh. "All the time, all I knew about the mafia was the usual stuff from TV. Suits, threatening others for money and all that, smoking cigars as they laugh about their crimes..."
The boy shook his head and smiled softly, opening his eyes at the same time.
"But then...I see actual mafiosi. Reborn. Dino. Basil. And even the Varia..." He straightened up his back and looked at the two illusionists. "Some of them are real people. Sure, they sometimes fall into the stereotype...But they are just like us. They fear, they laugh…"
"You sure about Reborn?"
Even though it sounded like a joke and Tsuna laughed for a moment there, he nodded, receiving some surprise from Obsidian, while Chrome stayed neutral. Though she did start to scratch her left arm a little in discomfort.
"Hm. He hides it...but sometimes...I just-just get that feeling, you know? I'm not sure if it's my intuition or not…But even he is human." Tsuna's smile fell as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Gathering his thoughts again, he stared at his palms. "It's just...power can corrupt."
A shaky breath escaped him, as he thought about what to say next.
He wasn't a saint.
Even when he was No-Good-Tsuna, there was the occasional dark thought about what he would do if he wasn't no good anymore.
And that was only on a school level. Gaining the power of the mafia?
It wouldn't just stop at simple resentment, Tsuna was sure of that.
With that in mind, he tore his eyes of his hands and stared at Obsidian, who focused on the ground in front of him, biting his lip slightly.
"I mean...what kind of stuff did all these people do? What decisions did they had to make? What...could have changed them? Not everyone would turn out like the Varia, I know that, but..." Struggling with his words, he grit his teeth, as if he did a straining exercise, and gestured wildly with his hands, before letting out a sigh. "I'm talking too much...What I'm trying to say is..." Folding his hands, Tsuna stared at them with exhausted eyes. "I'm afraid if I am that special like everyone wants me to. And if I start to let it go to my head, if I am special."
"Good that you don't have power now, huh?"
Yet another time, the boy looked up to see the man cross his arms with approval.
Maybe he should stop staring at the ground.
"I mean...Right now, you are a gentle person. Charismatic. Idealistic. By all means, a little naive. And wimpy. And..." The adult trailed off when the sky guardian narrowed his eyes and pouted, while Chrome's expression became ever so slightly flat and Obsidian cleared his throat awkwardly. "Not that it's bad. It's the opposite. You inspire others. Wanting them to be better, to be brighter than the usual mafia world." He pointed at Tsuna with a small smile. "You aren't perfect. Nobody expects you to be. And there is no guarantee that you won't fall into the darkness. But...in case you ever lose your path...Know that others are always behind you, following you on that path. They will guide you back. Remind the future you of the you of now."
Processing the words in his head, the student leaned back on his chair and stared at the ceiling.
To be honest, some stuff went over his head. Path, darkness…
Yet for some reason the words resonated in him. Encouraged him.
Then the boy noticed something else.
His chest felt rather light all of a sudden.
When he thought about, images from his friends and close ones appeared in his head.
He wasn't alone. He didn't need to be a normal mafia boss.
Tsuna's eyes widened.
Because that was what Reborn wanted. An irregular mafia boss. Someone who would regain the Vongola's former glory.
Reborn called them a mafia family already and Tsuna dismissed it back then, but now with the new opinion from Obsidian.
But what if Reborn meant it? What if Reborn saw the old Vongola in their friendship and interactions?
Tsuna smiled slightly.
It wouldn't be easy, but...maybe the mafia stuff wouldn't be so bad?
But it wasn't something he could simply decide now. But the new perspective from Obsidian made him consider that thought.
Still, there was one thing that bothered him. Or rather amused him, as his smile grew a little wider.
"I just noticed...you aren't hanging over your sentences again."
"Had...some help."
For some reason, Obsidian's smile was a bit more strained and Chrome gave him a worried look.
Tsuna didn't press it, trying to not look to obvious with his interest. If it was a sore topic, he didn't want to press.
He wouldn't have been able anyway, because in that moment the door opened.
His breath hitched.
Kyoko entered the room cheerfully, ignoring him entirely, quickly followed by Hana.
Then Tsuna felt like his heart got stabbed when he saw his crush hug Obsidian.
Rather fierce, judging from his face color fading into white. Chrome gave him a worried look as she patted Kyoko on the shoulder.
Since these barely had any power though, Hana let out a groan and pulled her best friend away from him.
Tsuna felt rather happy about the lack of body contact. When he realized that, he took some deep breaths.
No jealousy fits, the man helped him out and they were probably friends anyway.
It only helped a little bit.
"I felt like we did this before. Did we do this before?" Obsidian said with a pained expression as he rubbed his throat and looked into the round.
Hana in response let out a small huff and crossed her arms.
"Yes, we did. Seriously, I thought you promised that you wouldn't almost die again."
"I remember that I said I would try," the adult snarked back, but gulped when Kyoko put her hands on her hips.
"Don't think that leaves you off the hook!" She exclaimed, making her cute anger even more apparent. "You are so reckless! And you used so many curse words!"
"To be fair, I was juiced up on dying will flames."
Hana let out a small snort at Obsidian's words as he raised his hands in weak surrender.
"Yeah, that super saiyan flame mode or whatever it was called."
Wait what?
When did that happen?
Sadly for Tsuna, he didn't receive any more explanations when Kyoko clasped her hands together in delight.
"I'm just glad you are okay! The two of you!"
The purple haired girl blushed slightly while the adult scratched his cheek with the same flushed face.
Meanwhile, Tsuna observed the scenario like an outsider.
As always.
His shoulders slumped slightly.
The small motion, for some reason, gathered Obsidian's attention as he tried to look past the girls.
Who in turn followed his gaze and saw Tsuna.
Awkward silence filled the air as they stared at each other.
"Uhm...hi?"
The sky guardian weakly raised his hand in a form of greeting.
His flushed face grew redder when Kyoko blinked at him, while Hana and Obsidian facepalmed. Even Chrome, with a blank face, looked like she was judging him.
What did he do wrong this time?!
A while later, with the air growing heavier by the second, the girl of his dreams finally processed that Tsuna was in fact there and her eyes widened.
"Tsuna! I didn't know you were here!" She let out a nervous, adorable giggle and folded her hands behind her. "I thought I would meet you at the party."
"Y-yeah...J-just wanted to talk to them...a-a little."
Scratching his hair, he smiled nervously.
"Hm. That's nice."
After Kyoko nodded with an easygoing smile, the silence came back like a vicious wind.
The fact that three other people had to witness that pathetic exchange made Tsuna wish Xanxus would have killed him. Just a little bit at least.
Thankfully, Obsidian cleared his throat and gave Tsuna a pointed look.
"Can you...leave us alone for a while? I need to talk to them in private."
He gestured to himself and then to the girls, who turned to him in confusion.
Any other day the sky guardian would have been questioning what he meant.
Today however, Tsuna grabbed onto the lifeline like a man who was drowning.
Abruptly standing up, he stood stiff like a soldier and nodded fiercely.
"Of-of course!"
Without waiting for a reaction, he turned around and swiftly opened the door.
Just before he could walk out however, his crush stopped him.
"Tsuna!" Turning around after the shout, he saw Kyoko play with her hair for a few moments before smiling brightly at him. "Uhm...see you at the party!"
Tsuna blinked for a moment.
The party. He almost forgot about it.
Quickly, he nodded with a strained smile.
"S-sure!"
With that done, he walked out, enjoying blissful silence as he took calming breaths.
Still, Tsuna smiled.
Despite the social disaster at the end, it went rather well. He got his talk and was satisfied, if not completely.
And Kyoko was looking forward to be at the party with him!
He couldn't wait to be at a party, where everyone would be busy among themselves hopefully while he would try to talk to her.
The boy would need to practice beforehand however.
With that in mind, Tsuna quickly walked down the hallway, trying to get the blush from his way just because he interacted with his crush.
Speaking of Kyoko though...
Looking back, something confused him.
Why was she blushing as well when they talked with each other?
As he wondered about that, Tsuna did not notice the small figure grinning in the shadows.
Tsunayoshi Sawada knew for a fact that a middle school student should not be visiting a hospital that often.
It just happened that his entire friend circle, including himself, tended to get themselves into dangerous situations, whether they wanted to or not.
Scratching his bandages a little, he fidgeted around in front of a certain room. By all means, he should be on his way to a celebration party. Officially, it was for Lambo's release from the hospital, but it was actually for their victory against the Varia.
However, Tsuna still had some time left before going to the party, according to his teacher. Because of that, the teenager decided to deal with one issue. One that had been hanging around in his head ever since he met him and had been growing stronger in the last few day.
In order to get rid of the heavy weight, he needed to talk to one person before the party. Well, technically two, now that he thought about it, but she wasn't the one who he needed to talk to the most.
Since this would be the first time they would actually interact, if even that happened that was.
Tsuna shook his head. He had been standing in front of the door for at least five minutes. Thankfully he was alone in the hallway. Maybe because it was early morning, but he wasn't so sure.
The teenager was a bit suspicious that Reborn left him alone for this, but it was appreciated.
It would not do to get kicked into the room for his own 'stupid hesitation'.
Taking a deep breath, determination filled his face and Tsuna knocked on the door, before opening it.
The moment he entered, all courage left him when he laid his eyes on the sleeping form of Obsidian and the very awake Chrome sitting to his right, keeping Obsidian between her and the door.
The latter turned her head away from her book with Latin letters and stared at him blankly. This only caused the teenager to lose more of his composure as he began to blush and bow down to a ninety degree angle in top speeds.
"G-good morning!" He greeted louder than intended and Tsuna reflexively winced at his own volume, making his face flush even more.
When he carefully glanced up, the girl's face didn't change at all. She only tilted her head slightly, like a confused bird.
To be honest, it looked a little cute...Not Kyoko-cute, but cute nonetheless.
After staring each other for a while, during which Tsuna's back began to hurt from his bow, Chrome made a small head notion that might have been a nod.
"Morning..."
Tsuna frowned slightly.
He could barely hear her! It was as if the wind tried to carry her word from meters away into his ear.
Before he or she could say anything more, they heard a groan.
As if her voice was the trigger, Obsidian began to stir up. Slowly opening his eyes, the illusionists yawned and raised himself, cracking his neck as he scratched his hair.
Immediately, Tsuna straightened up his back and stood stiff as he observed the rather casual wake up sequence of the young adult.
From the corners of his eyes, Tsuna could spot how the girl adjusted her position in her chair. But that was enough to tell him a lot for some reason.
She held her back more straight and actually radiated more...happiness. Before, it was a big gloomy, repressed feeling. But now, it felt like she was opening up more.
As if she felt more safe now.
She cared for Obsidian, Tsuna realized. Nothing too deep, like best friends or something, but it was enough for her to feel comfortable around others, now that he was actually there. Following on the gut feeling he had, Tsuna saw that she didn't have a lot of friends. Because of that, she valued the ones she had even more than other people.
Anyway, with this sudden insight out of nowhere done, he focused more on the person he actually wanted to talk to.
Said person stretched his arms as he let out another loud yawn, before shaking his head slightly. Then, he stared at the blanket on his legs, then let out a deep sigh.
"Another hospital bed. Didn't expect that," he began to mutter. "Wonder if I could get some tea here..." As if he only noticed now, he turned his head to Chrome, who stared at him with nearly zero emotion.
Nearly zero, meaning that Tsuna could still feel the slight hint of...annoyance.
Huh, who would have thought someone like her could feel that, the student thought with a raised eyebrow.
Obsidian appeared to recognize it as well, since he scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"Uhm...sup?"
To Tsuna's surprise, Chrome's eyes-err, eye, narrowed, making the young adult smile sheepishly.
"You need to stop falling unconscious."
He lowered his head, but then snapped his gaze up with a worried expression.
"Oh crap, I didn't-"
The girl shook her head, which calmed the Vietnamese down a little as he sat back down.
"Don't worry. Mr. Dino had an illusionist ready for me. It only...hurt for a moment."
At this, Obsidian tilted his head with disbelief.
"He has an illusionist?"
The sky guardian raised an eyebrow at that.
Were illusionists that rare? Even if they were, surely Reborn knew at least one more, considering his ties.
No, it wasn't that.
It was almost like Obsidian didn't expect Dino to have any illusionists ready, despite Reborn probably telling him about the organ issue.
Before he could ponder more on it, suddenly, Obsidian's expression changed, as if he realized something and relaxed a little more.
Tsuna frowned. How weird.
Chrome didn't react if she noticed any of that and instead calmly continued to elaborate.
"I heard he borrowed that person from some other family."
"Huh...The more you know." Obsidian scratched his chin before turning to Tsuna. Blinking for a moment, he waved his hand lazily. "Hi there, future boss. Sorry for not noticing before."
The teenager grumbled in response. Not that he was offended at being ignored, he was used to it, but the man did it again.
Boss.
"Again, I don't-"
"Yes, yes, I know," Obsidian interrupted him with more handwaves and rested his hands on his legs with an easy going smile. "We won, didn't we?"
Tsuna blinked as he took a seat and sat next to the door, keeping a respectful distance.
"H-how do you know that?"
"Well, we aren't dead," the adult deadpanned and shrugged. "Nothing against details though."
Despite the rather morbid comment at the start, the teenager decided to delve into an explanation.
His fight against Xanxus, how he froze him with the First technique, the same the Ninth used on Xanxus, how the rings rejected the Varia boss, the background story of him being adopted and later filled with rage with the knowledge of it, finishing with the arrival of Lancia, who cleaned up the reinforcement the Varia wanted to use to gain the authority over the Vongola with force.
Tsuna was not the best talker, so he stumbled over his sentences a few times, but during all this, Obsidian and Chrome listened to his story in a calm manner.
Wait.
Tsuna narrowed his eyes.
The former wasn't just calm.
He didn't react. At all. Like he expected all of that to happen.
Maybe he had future sight or something, Tsuna mused as he crossed his arms. Wouldn't be that much out of the ordinary.
There was a time travel bazooka.
When he noticed the unnerving stares he was receiving, the student gulped.
Damn awkward silence.
Now that he finished the story and that Obsidian was wide awake, the words were stuck in his throat.
"Uhm..." Tsuna managed to force out and he let out an awkward chuckle. "G-gokudera, Yamamoto and Ryohei are sending their greetings to you! Oh, and...Ryohei decided against...the...punch thing."
He tipped his fingers against each other with a slight blush and Obsidian nodded slowly while Chrome still stared.
"Neat," the man said blankly, his eyes not moving from him.
Waiting patiently.
Tsuna let out a sigh.
Was it that obvious?
Well, he couldn't just break in the topic just like that.
So he decided to go with his intuition. He might not be in Hyper mode, but it had to be active at least a little bit, right?
"I...just want to thank you. The two of you," Tsuna said, letting the words flow out without any planning.
Processing his own words, the boy couldn't help but perform a small fist pump.
Good ice breaker for his standards.
Now to keep it going.
"For what?"
Seeing Obsidian's honest confusion, Tsuna turned to the girl, who blinked owlishly just like her friend did.
The sky guardian wondered how unused they were to a simple thanks.
Probably as much as he did, so he scratched his hair with an awkward smile and decided to explain it as good as he could.
"For...well, everything. You fought for me, at the risk of your own life...And...and I heard from Kyoko of how you helped her, C-chrome."
This made the two illusionists blush slightly.
Okay, they were very not used to this stuff.
"It..wasn't much," Chrom said softly while Obsidian first looked at her then shrugged helplessly with the blush still there.
However, Tsuna shook his head, then stared at the ground.
"No, really. I don't know what would have happened if you guys weren't there..."
"Nothing much. You would have still won."
Tsuna looked up with a frown.
Obsidian's voice sounded so nonchalant, as the man stared at him with a lazy smile. It sounded...too confident.
"How do you know that?"
The adult tapped his chin, his eyes narrowed at the question. Then, after a while, he snapped his fingers and pointed at him.
"Because I saw you guys in action. Your power. And your morals." Obsidian paused, his face losing its serious expression, replaced by a more contemplating one. "And you were trained by Reborn, so there is that."
In response, Tsuna let out a small snort of amusement. Obsidian's comment also seemed to entertain Chrome, whose mouth corners twitched
He couldn't argue against that. Say what you wanted about the baby, he was a good teacher. Though he did always choose the path with the most pain involved.
However, as his smile fell slowly, the boy took a deep breath and stared at the ground, gaining their confused attention once more.
Now or never, while the momentum was going.
At least that was how Tsuna thought it worked, right?
"I...have been thinking." Since he didn't get interrupted, the boy continued on, staring quietly at his hands. "Xanxus...all his pain...it was caused by how the mafia acts now, doesn't it? Because power was everything to him."
Well, Tsuna didn't assume it was purely the mafia's fault. Considering Xanxus was living on the streets, the mafia only worsened his thirst for power. Act like the mafia or lose your power, that was the Varia's leader's mindset, most likely.
So that he didn't have to feel the same weakness as before.
"If...if I became boss...Not that I would!" He awkwardly cleared his throat after his little outburst when Obsidian and Chrome stared at him in a neutral manner and Tsuna's gaze turned back to the ground, shoulders slumped. "But...could I...prevent those tragedies from happening?"
"No."
The answer came so abrupt and was delivered like a fact that the boy couldn't help but do a double take at the adult.
"Huh?"
Obsidian raised an eyebrow, confused by Tsuna's response. Turning to Chrome, she stared at him with expectation as well. With that, he sighed and scratched his hair with small frustration as he tried to search for the right words. Then, he folded his hands and pointed at Tsuna with a neutral expression.
"You can't prevent it. Ever. But you can try. Make them happen less often. Try to be better than the previous ones." He raised his arms for a moment, before leaning back to the wall in a tired manner. "Sometimes...a little good change can cause the biggest ripples."
Tsuna frowned at his words.
That sounded...rather pessimistic. He expected something like "Good will prevail" or something like that.
Then again, he appreciated Obsidian's...honesty on the topic. It felt real and Tsuna needed real advice on this situation.
"Do...you want t-to be a boss?"
Chrome's question surprised him slightly, as well as her stuttering.
Was she starting to get sick of his presence? Tsuna sweatdropped. He hoped not, but he wouldn't fault her.
Strangers made him feel nervous as well.
Anyway, the question.
Did he want to be?
The old him, before meeting Reborn, would have responded with a definite no.
But now...
"I don't know," Tsuna muttered and closed his eyes as he let out a sigh. "All the time, all I knew about the mafia was the usual stuff from TV. Suits, threatening others for money and all that, smoking cigars as they laugh about their crimes..."
The boy shook his head and smiled softly, opening his eyes at the same time.
"But then...I see actual mafiosi. Reborn. Dino. Basil. And even the Varia..." He straightened up his back and looked at the two illusionists. "Some of them are real people. Sure, they sometimes fall into the stereotype...But they are just like us. They fear, they laugh…"
"You sure about Reborn?"
Even though it sounded like a joke and Tsuna laughed for a moment there, he nodded, receiving some surprise from Obsidian, while Chrome stayed neutral. Though she did start to scratch her left arm a little in discomfort.
"Hm. He hides it...but sometimes...I just-just get that feeling, you know? I'm not sure if it's my intuition or not…But even he is human." Tsuna's smile fell as he clenched and unclenched his fists. Gathering his thoughts again, he stared at his palms. "It's just...power can corrupt."
A shaky breath escaped him, as he thought about what to say next.
He wasn't a saint.
Even when he was No-Good-Tsuna, there was the occasional dark thought about what he would do if he wasn't no good anymore.
And that was only on a school level. Gaining the power of the mafia?
It wouldn't just stop at simple resentment, Tsuna was sure of that.
With that in mind, he tore his eyes of his hands and stared at Obsidian, who focused on the ground in front of him, biting his lip slightly.
"I mean...what kind of stuff did all these people do? What decisions did they had to make? What...could have changed them? Not everyone would turn out like the Varia, I know that, but..." Struggling with his words, he grit his teeth, as if he did a straining exercise, and gestured wildly with his hands, before letting out a sigh. "I'm talking too much...What I'm trying to say is..." Folding his hands, Tsuna stared at them with exhausted eyes. "I'm afraid if I am that special like everyone wants me to. And if I start to let it go to my head, if I am special."
"Good that you don't have power now, huh?"
Yet another time, the boy looked up to see the man cross his arms with approval.
Maybe he should stop staring at the ground.
"I mean...Right now, you are a gentle person. Charismatic. Idealistic. By all means, a little naive. And wimpy. And..." The adult trailed off when the sky guardian narrowed his eyes and pouted, while Chrome's expression became ever so slightly flat and Obsidian cleared his throat awkwardly. "Not that it's bad. It's the opposite. You inspire others. Wanting them to be better, to be brighter than the usual mafia world." He pointed at Tsuna with a small smile. "You aren't perfect. Nobody expects you to be. And there is no guarantee that you won't fall into the darkness. But...in case you ever lose your path...Know that others are always behind you, following you on that path. They will guide you back. Remind the future you of the you of now."
Processing the words in his head, the student leaned back on his chair and stared at the ceiling.
To be honest, some stuff went over his head. Path, darkness…
Yet for some reason the words resonated in him. Encouraged him.
Then the boy noticed something else.
His chest felt rather light all of a sudden.
When he thought about, images from his friends and close ones appeared in his head.
He wasn't alone. He didn't need to be a normal mafia boss.
Tsuna's eyes widened.
Because that was what Reborn wanted. An irregular mafia boss. Someone who would regain the Vongola's former glory.
Reborn called them a mafia family already and Tsuna dismissed it back then, but now with the new opinion from Obsidian.
But what if Reborn meant it? What if Reborn saw the old Vongola in their friendship and interactions?
Tsuna smiled slightly.
It wouldn't be easy, but...maybe the mafia stuff wouldn't be so bad?
But it wasn't something he could simply decide now. But the new perspective from Obsidian made him consider that thought.
Still, there was one thing that bothered him. Or rather amused him, as his smile grew a little wider.
"I just noticed...you aren't hanging over your sentences again."
"Had...some help."
For some reason, Obsidian's smile was a bit more strained and Chrome gave him a worried look.
Tsuna didn't press it, trying to not look to obvious with his interest. If it was a sore topic, he didn't want to press.
He wouldn't have been able anyway, because in that moment the door opened.
His breath hitched.
Kyoko entered the room cheerfully, ignoring him entirely, quickly followed by Hana.
Then Tsuna felt like his heart got stabbed when he saw his crush hug Obsidian.
Rather fierce, judging from his face color fading into white. Chrome gave him a worried look as she patted Kyoko on the shoulder.
Since these barely had any power though, Hana let out a groan and pulled her best friend away from him.
Tsuna felt rather happy about the lack of body contact. When he realized that, he took some deep breaths.
No jealousy fits, the man helped him out and they were probably friends anyway.
It only helped a little bit.
"I felt like we did this before. Did we do this before?" Obsidian said with a pained expression as he rubbed his throat and looked into the round.
Hana in response let out a small huff and crossed her arms.
"Yes, we did. Seriously, I thought you promised that you wouldn't almost die again."
"I remember that I said I would try," the adult snarked back, but gulped when Kyoko put her hands on her hips.
"Don't think that leaves you off the hook!" She exclaimed, making her cute anger even more apparent. "You are so reckless! And you used so many curse words!"
"To be fair, I was juiced up on dying will flames."
Hana let out a small snort at Obsidian's words as he raised his hands in weak surrender.
"Yeah, that super saiyan flame mode or whatever it was called."
Wait what?
When did that happen?
Sadly for Tsuna, he didn't receive any more explanations when Kyoko clasped her hands together in delight.
"I'm just glad you are okay! The two of you!"
The purple haired girl blushed slightly while the adult scratched his cheek with the same flushed face.
Meanwhile, Tsuna observed the scenario like an outsider.
As always.
His shoulders slumped slightly.
The small motion, for some reason, gathered Obsidian's attention as he tried to look past the girls.
Who in turn followed his gaze and saw Tsuna.
Awkward silence filled the air as they stared at each other.
"Uhm...hi?"
The sky guardian weakly raised his hand in a form of greeting.
His flushed face grew redder when Kyoko blinked at him, while Hana and Obsidian facepalmed. Even Chrome, with a blank face, looked like she was judging him.
What did he do wrong this time?!
A while later, with the air growing heavier by the second, the girl of his dreams finally processed that Tsuna was in fact there and her eyes widened.
"Tsuna! I didn't know you were here!" She let out a nervous, adorable giggle and folded her hands behind her. "I thought I would meet you at the party."
"Y-yeah...J-just wanted to talk to them...a-a little."
Scratching his hair, he smiled nervously.
"Hm. That's nice."
After Kyoko nodded with an easygoing smile, the silence came back like a vicious wind.
The fact that three other people had to witness that pathetic exchange made Tsuna wish Xanxus would have killed him. Just a little bit at least.
Thankfully, Obsidian cleared his throat and gave Tsuna a pointed look.
"Can you...leave us alone for a while? I need to talk to them in private."
He gestured to himself and then to the girls, who turned to him in confusion.
Any other day the sky guardian would have been questioning what he meant.
Today however, Tsuna grabbed onto the lifeline like a man who was drowning.
Abruptly standing up, he stood stiff like a soldier and nodded fiercely.
"Of-of course!"
Without waiting for a reaction, he turned around and swiftly opened the door.
Just before he could walk out however, his crush stopped him.
"Tsuna!" Turning around after the shout, he saw Kyoko play with her hair for a few moments before smiling brightly at him. "Uhm...see you at the party!"
Tsuna blinked for a moment.
The party. He almost forgot about it.
Quickly, he nodded with a strained smile.
"S-sure!"
With that done, he walked out, enjoying blissful silence as he took calming breaths.
Still, Tsuna smiled.
Despite the social disaster at the end, it went rather well. He got his talk and was satisfied, if not completely.
And Kyoko was looking forward to be at the party with him!
He couldn't wait to be at a party, where everyone would be busy among themselves hopefully while he would try to talk to her.
The boy would need to practice beforehand however.
With that in mind, Tsuna quickly walked down the hallway, trying to get the blush from his way just because he interacted with his crush.
Speaking of Kyoko though...
Looking back, something confused him.
Why was she blushing as well when they talked with each other?
As he wondered about that, Tsuna did not notice the small figure grinning in the shadows.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
Reborn: let the games begin
Chapter 8.2
- Location
- Germany
Chapter 8.2
The moment Tsuna left the room, the awkwardness managed to leave with him. Silence still reigned, but at least it wasn't trying to choke me to death.
While nobody said anything yet, I delved into my mind. Probably a bad habit, but hey.
Unlike my last time in this hospital, I didn't completely feel like shit. At least mentally.
Mostly because the reasons I felt awful the last time weren't there this time.
Chrome was alright, I contributed more than last time and found out some stuff about myself.
On the other hand, my body felt like it went through the meat grinder again and I missed other stuff, again.
But I guess it's natural to have a half dead body when one went into Dying Will Mode. However I did that.
How could I enter Dying Will Mode without any pills or bullets? Was it a one time thing?
I shook my head slightly.
Experimenting later, grumbling about it on the sick bay wouldn't help.
What I could think about was the shounen hero of this universe.
Tsuna's heart to heart was rather surprising, I must say.
And I was surprised at my ability to not show my pain on my face. At least not obvious enough, considering Tsuna didn't show any sign of reacting. Either that or he was too focused in showing his development to me.
Honestly, I didn't expect to have that much influence on him. Maybe it's because of the different perspective I could offer?
Whatever the reason, I had to give Tsuna one thing.
The boy had a talent for speeches.
Or it was his protagonist power that made his heartfelt confession have such an impact on me.
Before I could ponder more about the recent events, the girls finally decided it was time to say something, since they shared some questioning looks with each other, as if they were trying to communicate on how to proceed.
Surprisingly it was Chrome who broke the silence first.
"How long did you rehearse that speech back then?"
She stared at me with a slightly narrowed eye and I chuckled slightly at her suspicion filled gaze.
"Ever since our last talk, in two hours intervals of training and resting, spiced with some improvisation," I replied with a shrug and a smirk. She rolled her eye in response, but smiled nonetheless.
I didn't even a lie.
Because like hell I would accept the main character to be indecisive as he was in canon.
Had a bigger effect than I thought. Maybe I was the one with a talent for speeches, thanks to mental manipulation.
Anyway, the other two girls shared a confused glance and Hana crossed her arms.
"What speech?"
"Motivational one to Tsuna," I said as I waved my hand dismissively. The sun girl hummed in thought. Her best friend on the other hand had a more expressive reaction.
Clapping her hands, she smiled brightly with closed eyes.
"Oh, that's nice of you!"
Used to the ironic ball of sunshine in front of me, I didn't even flinch at her happiness.
Instead, I smirked.
Why you ask?
I was very tempted to tease her about Tsuna.
On the other hand I was too tired to do that. So I left it at the smirk and let Kyoko interpret it herself.
The latter either recognized what it meant or decided to ignore it, because she stared at me for just a moment before crossing her arms behind her back.
"Anyway! How are you doing?"
I winced and leaned back in my bed, the pain getting past my poker face.
"Like crap. This time, only physically." Letting out a snort, I closed my eyes to relax a little bit. "Heard it was quite the action when I was out? Tsuna got me up to date."
They didn't recap much, thankfully, but they did fill in some holes that the sky guardian didn't know of, like the other fights.
I didn't focus a lot on what they said and rather paid attention to how they looked like when they said something.
Awe. Happiness. But also some solemn emotion and pity to some extent were there too.
The small hint of fear was still there, but it was a lot more subdued than last time.
Naturally these emotions were weighted differently from each person, but generally they had the same feelings regarding certain topics.
Overall, pretty much what I expected from the two of them.
With that little analysis done, I listened back into what they had to say.
I wished I didn't had such a bad timing when I heard Kyoko speak with a small blush and smile.
"Tsuna was strong. I mean, I saw a little when he saved you but...His determination...his resilience..."
She let out a sigh and held her left cheek with closed eyes.
My eyebrow twitched.
Dear lord, it sounded like she was daydreaming about him.
…
Wait, she was daydreaming about him!
What kind of change did I bring here?!
Nothing against the ship, but so fast?!
"Yeah, nothing like the usual No-Good-Tsuna I know."
Just as I began to get a mental breakdown from the sheer difference in attitude of Kyoko, the sun user in the room let out a snort and shoved some hair from her face.
Praise Hana for interrupting my thoughts!
I took a breath I didn't know I was holding while Kyoko turned to her best friend with a pout. Chrome gave me a concerned look, but I weakly smiled back and waved it off, making her back off.
She was still worried though.
Anywho, Kyoko's objection.
"Hana!"
It was as loud as I expected.
Luckily this hospital was always dead when I was in here.
…
By all means, that should have worried me more than it did.
Meh. Mafia anime logic or something.
Getting off that tangent, I observed the very uncaring shrug Hana did to the popular school girl.
"What? He is no good."
As she opened her mouth, I decided to jump in by raising my hand.
"She has a point. Badass Tsuna is rather rare," I said in a calm tone.
I tried not to shrink down when the happy girl was not so happy with me.
But I could not prevent a smirk appearing on my face when she opened her mouth, just to get interrupted again.
"Looks like it."
Kyoko gave Chrome the stink eye.
Chrome blankly stared back.
A while later, Kyoko sighed and stared to the ground.
Holy shit, shy girl won staring contest.
As if reading my mind, said shy girl pouted slightly and poked me in the side.
Soft as it was, I hissed in pain. But I guess I deserved that, considering my smirk probably grew in size.
"You guys are mean..." She muttered, then slapped her cheeks lightly and brightened up in an instance as she put her hands on her hips. "Anyway, long story short, it was cool and Tsuna was cool." She paused and pointed at me with a nervous chuckle. "Well, you too. Everyone was."
I nodded passively, thinking about her words.
Was it cool?
It probably was, once you get past the "almost dying and suffering part."
But being part of that battle? After, cool. In the middle, not so cool.
Shouldn't say that out loud though, since it might put a damper on overall morale here.
I had to give them a mindfuck already, so no need to depress them on top of that.
Taking a deep breath, I scratched my head as I bit my lip. The two school girls raised their eyebrows at that.
"I...wasn't exactly honest about the reasons why I couldn't be Tsuna's mist guardian," I said slowly, unsure how to do this.
Chrome's eye widened slightly, realizing what I was going to tell the other two girls. The two of them blinked for a moment and shrugged at each other.
They probably suspected something like that and they didn't judge me for it.
Ah, friendship. Felt nice.
"Alright. All ears," Hana spoke for the two of them and crossed her arms. After I turned to Kyoko, who nodded with a smile, I tapped my chin for a moment.
I could try to be more eloquent this time. I think I had the mental capabilities to do so.
On the other hand, blunt was way easier. Didn't have to think too much about it.
...
Fuck it, blunt it was.
"Long story short, Multiverse theory is real," I said in a blank tone, not bothering to change my lazy position in my bed.
Kyoko tilted her head in confusion and turned to her best friend with an unsure smile.
"Hana, what does that mean?"
Said friend rubbed her eyebrows with her index finger and thumb as she let out a long, suffering groan. Then she peeked through the gap in said fingers with a very a flat stare.
"Long story long please."
And a long story it was.
I told her everything about me and what I was going to do in the future. From my death, to my multidimensional shenanigans, I left nothing out.
By the end of it, my throat was dry as hell. Thankfully, Chrome gave me a cup of water from somewhere and after downing it, I licked my lips and nodded casually.
"And...that's basically it."
The scene in front of me felt familiar. Probably because it happened once before.
Confused Kyoko, trying to process the information, not interested Chrome and disbelieving Hana.
"You're from another universe. Like a stupid manga story. Again," the brutish girl asked blankly and I took a sip from my water.
"Yup."
"And you have to travel across the multiverse because reasons."
Another sip.
"Yahaa."
"And it's out of your control because literal higher powers are making you, slash, forcing you?"
One final sip.
"Yorp."
Hana stopped and gave me a dirty look.
"Wait, I feel like we did this before."
I shrugged in response, after putting the glass down.
"World breaking information, you asking for clarifications and me giving short confirmations...Yup, did that."
It took a lot out of me not to break out into a smile after this little trolling session. But I think I did a good job.
If I ignored the fact that Hana touched her nose bridge in frustration, Kyoko gave me an uncertain smile and Chrome's eye narrowed so ever slightly.
"Well...guess that's a thing now," the tall school girl said weakly and let out a sigh. Chrome and I nodded at her comment.
Ryohei's sister on the other hand showed more of a reaction, as she gave the two illusionists in the room a worried look.
"We can still contact each other, right? When you go across...the thingies."
She made a small handmotion when she said thingies and I shared a glance with the eye patched girl, before shrugging helplessly in a somber manner.
"I don't know. I don't know how the two of us go around in the first place. My...well, boss didn't tell me anything."
With my explanation done, everyone lowered their heads almost on command. Probably processing and realizing the information.
I doubted that communications would be that easy. Didn't know how the multiverse worked, but whatever way Checker Face had, I didn't count on maintaining any relations with other universes.
Maybe I was pessimistic with this. I just ask the guy himself when the time comes.
With that thought done, Kyoko looked up first and crossed her arms.
"Are you afraid? I mean, about this whole thing."
At her worry filled question, I bit my lip, while Chrome grabbed her right arm.
This room had way too many conversations about fear. But I guess one couldn't avoid it.
Was I afraid?
As I thought about it, Chrome already found her answer and meekly nodded at the other two girls.
"I am. Honestly...I-I'm not sure if I am up to it..." She took a deep breath and smiled at me with a small blush. "But I have to go with Sid."
I felt my face heat up.
How can a girl like her be so pure sometimes?! Or was this the anime effect?
"Nicknames already?" As Chrome and I blushed even more when the two girls chuckled slightly, Hana became a bit more compassionate. "The organ thing, right?"
The meek girl let out a quiet hum of confirmation.
"But even without that...I would still go with him."
The small smile and the sentence made me frown, even when the girls shared that smile.
That was quite the absolute thing to say. So she would come with me even if she wasn't needing me as her life support?
Then it hit me.
Mukuro was dead. Even if she had new organs, it wouldn't bring him back.
Right now, nothing was holding her here. Not by much at least, discounting Kyoko and Hana.
Chrome needed purpose. And a journey throughout the multiverse would be an eye opening experience.
It would make sense.
Chrome did breakdown when her master and savior wasn't around until late in the manga.
It was heartbreaking to read, sometimes. But with some friends early on, I guess we mitigated that problem. Still, she was lost without Mukuro and would follow me for two reasons now.
The organs and finding her new meaning of life.
By all means, a girl her age shouldn't think about such things.
...
Now I made myself sad.
Aaand they were staring at me.
Right. Fear question and I needed to answer.
I cleared my throat and stared at my blanket.
"I'm also scared. Hell, anyone would be in my position. I don't even know where we will go. We are at fate's whims basically." Letting out a sigh, I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "What I know for sure...it will be one hell of a trip."
A snort escaped me, making the others give me a confused look.
I couldn't help but smile slightly.
I didn't only feel fear.
Fear and excitement. How paradox.
Maybe Chrome felt the same, but I didn't know.
Anywho, Kyoko clapped her hands together and shook her hands, before putting on her bright smile.
"I'm sure you will do fine. The two of you."
Hana put her hand on Kyoko's shoulder, grinning as well.
"Yeah, you're our teachers. If you kick the bucket, what would that mean for us?"
The eyepatched girl and I smiled at the encouragement and I felt more at peace already.
"Thank you," Chrome said quietly and bowed.
I nodded along, then took a look at the time.
Frowning, I pointed at them and at the clock.
"Well, don't you have a party to go to?"
The two students turned around, then looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Oh right! We're late!"
"I swear if they took all the good sushi already…!"
The two of them hurried over to the door in small panic, but didn't leave before waving at us with smiles.
"See you tomorrow!"
With Kyoko's goodbye said, only Chrome and I remained in the room.
I turned to the only girl and raised an eyebrow.
"You don't wanna go?"
In response, she shook her head.
"Hm. I want to stay."
"Social quota filled?" I asked slightly amused.
"Yup." Chrome smiled for a moment, before tilting her head innocently. "You look tired."
Like a trigger went off, I let out a yawn.
She giggled quietly, while I scratched my head in small embarrassment.
"Guess I should rest a little," I said quietly and made myself comfortable in my bed.
With that done, I glanced one last time at Chrome, who nodded with a mouth twitch, before I closed my eyes.
Sleep slowly began to take me.
My last sleep on this universe for now.
The moment Tsuna left the room, the awkwardness managed to leave with him. Silence still reigned, but at least it wasn't trying to choke me to death.
While nobody said anything yet, I delved into my mind. Probably a bad habit, but hey.
Unlike my last time in this hospital, I didn't completely feel like shit. At least mentally.
Mostly because the reasons I felt awful the last time weren't there this time.
Chrome was alright, I contributed more than last time and found out some stuff about myself.
On the other hand, my body felt like it went through the meat grinder again and I missed other stuff, again.
But I guess it's natural to have a half dead body when one went into Dying Will Mode. However I did that.
How could I enter Dying Will Mode without any pills or bullets? Was it a one time thing?
I shook my head slightly.
Experimenting later, grumbling about it on the sick bay wouldn't help.
What I could think about was the shounen hero of this universe.
Tsuna's heart to heart was rather surprising, I must say.
And I was surprised at my ability to not show my pain on my face. At least not obvious enough, considering Tsuna didn't show any sign of reacting. Either that or he was too focused in showing his development to me.
Honestly, I didn't expect to have that much influence on him. Maybe it's because of the different perspective I could offer?
Whatever the reason, I had to give Tsuna one thing.
The boy had a talent for speeches.
Or it was his protagonist power that made his heartfelt confession have such an impact on me.
Before I could ponder more about the recent events, the girls finally decided it was time to say something, since they shared some questioning looks with each other, as if they were trying to communicate on how to proceed.
Surprisingly it was Chrome who broke the silence first.
"How long did you rehearse that speech back then?"
She stared at me with a slightly narrowed eye and I chuckled slightly at her suspicion filled gaze.
"Ever since our last talk, in two hours intervals of training and resting, spiced with some improvisation," I replied with a shrug and a smirk. She rolled her eye in response, but smiled nonetheless.
I didn't even a lie.
Because like hell I would accept the main character to be indecisive as he was in canon.
Had a bigger effect than I thought. Maybe I was the one with a talent for speeches, thanks to mental manipulation.
Anyway, the other two girls shared a confused glance and Hana crossed her arms.
"What speech?"
"Motivational one to Tsuna," I said as I waved my hand dismissively. The sun girl hummed in thought. Her best friend on the other hand had a more expressive reaction.
Clapping her hands, she smiled brightly with closed eyes.
"Oh, that's nice of you!"
Used to the ironic ball of sunshine in front of me, I didn't even flinch at her happiness.
Instead, I smirked.
Why you ask?
I was very tempted to tease her about Tsuna.
On the other hand I was too tired to do that. So I left it at the smirk and let Kyoko interpret it herself.
The latter either recognized what it meant or decided to ignore it, because she stared at me for just a moment before crossing her arms behind her back.
"Anyway! How are you doing?"
I winced and leaned back in my bed, the pain getting past my poker face.
"Like crap. This time, only physically." Letting out a snort, I closed my eyes to relax a little bit. "Heard it was quite the action when I was out? Tsuna got me up to date."
They didn't recap much, thankfully, but they did fill in some holes that the sky guardian didn't know of, like the other fights.
I didn't focus a lot on what they said and rather paid attention to how they looked like when they said something.
Awe. Happiness. But also some solemn emotion and pity to some extent were there too.
The small hint of fear was still there, but it was a lot more subdued than last time.
Naturally these emotions were weighted differently from each person, but generally they had the same feelings regarding certain topics.
Overall, pretty much what I expected from the two of them.
With that little analysis done, I listened back into what they had to say.
I wished I didn't had such a bad timing when I heard Kyoko speak with a small blush and smile.
"Tsuna was strong. I mean, I saw a little when he saved you but...His determination...his resilience..."
She let out a sigh and held her left cheek with closed eyes.
My eyebrow twitched.
Dear lord, it sounded like she was daydreaming about him.
…
Wait, she was daydreaming about him!
What kind of change did I bring here?!
Nothing against the ship, but so fast?!
"Yeah, nothing like the usual No-Good-Tsuna I know."
Just as I began to get a mental breakdown from the sheer difference in attitude of Kyoko, the sun user in the room let out a snort and shoved some hair from her face.
Praise Hana for interrupting my thoughts!
I took a breath I didn't know I was holding while Kyoko turned to her best friend with a pout. Chrome gave me a concerned look, but I weakly smiled back and waved it off, making her back off.
She was still worried though.
Anywho, Kyoko's objection.
"Hana!"
It was as loud as I expected.
Luckily this hospital was always dead when I was in here.
…
By all means, that should have worried me more than it did.
Meh. Mafia anime logic or something.
Getting off that tangent, I observed the very uncaring shrug Hana did to the popular school girl.
"What? He is no good."
As she opened her mouth, I decided to jump in by raising my hand.
"She has a point. Badass Tsuna is rather rare," I said in a calm tone.
I tried not to shrink down when the happy girl was not so happy with me.
But I could not prevent a smirk appearing on my face when she opened her mouth, just to get interrupted again.
"Looks like it."
Kyoko gave Chrome the stink eye.
Chrome blankly stared back.
A while later, Kyoko sighed and stared to the ground.
Holy shit, shy girl won staring contest.
As if reading my mind, said shy girl pouted slightly and poked me in the side.
Soft as it was, I hissed in pain. But I guess I deserved that, considering my smirk probably grew in size.
"You guys are mean..." She muttered, then slapped her cheeks lightly and brightened up in an instance as she put her hands on her hips. "Anyway, long story short, it was cool and Tsuna was cool." She paused and pointed at me with a nervous chuckle. "Well, you too. Everyone was."
I nodded passively, thinking about her words.
Was it cool?
It probably was, once you get past the "almost dying and suffering part."
But being part of that battle? After, cool. In the middle, not so cool.
Shouldn't say that out loud though, since it might put a damper on overall morale here.
I had to give them a mindfuck already, so no need to depress them on top of that.
Taking a deep breath, I scratched my head as I bit my lip. The two school girls raised their eyebrows at that.
"I...wasn't exactly honest about the reasons why I couldn't be Tsuna's mist guardian," I said slowly, unsure how to do this.
Chrome's eye widened slightly, realizing what I was going to tell the other two girls. The two of them blinked for a moment and shrugged at each other.
They probably suspected something like that and they didn't judge me for it.
Ah, friendship. Felt nice.
"Alright. All ears," Hana spoke for the two of them and crossed her arms. After I turned to Kyoko, who nodded with a smile, I tapped my chin for a moment.
I could try to be more eloquent this time. I think I had the mental capabilities to do so.
On the other hand, blunt was way easier. Didn't have to think too much about it.
...
Fuck it, blunt it was.
"Long story short, Multiverse theory is real," I said in a blank tone, not bothering to change my lazy position in my bed.
Kyoko tilted her head in confusion and turned to her best friend with an unsure smile.
"Hana, what does that mean?"
Said friend rubbed her eyebrows with her index finger and thumb as she let out a long, suffering groan. Then she peeked through the gap in said fingers with a very a flat stare.
"Long story long please."
And a long story it was.
I told her everything about me and what I was going to do in the future. From my death, to my multidimensional shenanigans, I left nothing out.
By the end of it, my throat was dry as hell. Thankfully, Chrome gave me a cup of water from somewhere and after downing it, I licked my lips and nodded casually.
"And...that's basically it."
The scene in front of me felt familiar. Probably because it happened once before.
Confused Kyoko, trying to process the information, not interested Chrome and disbelieving Hana.
"You're from another universe. Like a stupid manga story. Again," the brutish girl asked blankly and I took a sip from my water.
"Yup."
"And you have to travel across the multiverse because reasons."
Another sip.
"Yahaa."
"And it's out of your control because literal higher powers are making you, slash, forcing you?"
One final sip.
"Yorp."
Hana stopped and gave me a dirty look.
"Wait, I feel like we did this before."
I shrugged in response, after putting the glass down.
"World breaking information, you asking for clarifications and me giving short confirmations...Yup, did that."
It took a lot out of me not to break out into a smile after this little trolling session. But I think I did a good job.
If I ignored the fact that Hana touched her nose bridge in frustration, Kyoko gave me an uncertain smile and Chrome's eye narrowed so ever slightly.
"Well...guess that's a thing now," the tall school girl said weakly and let out a sigh. Chrome and I nodded at her comment.
Ryohei's sister on the other hand showed more of a reaction, as she gave the two illusionists in the room a worried look.
"We can still contact each other, right? When you go across...the thingies."
She made a small handmotion when she said thingies and I shared a glance with the eye patched girl, before shrugging helplessly in a somber manner.
"I don't know. I don't know how the two of us go around in the first place. My...well, boss didn't tell me anything."
With my explanation done, everyone lowered their heads almost on command. Probably processing and realizing the information.
I doubted that communications would be that easy. Didn't know how the multiverse worked, but whatever way Checker Face had, I didn't count on maintaining any relations with other universes.
Maybe I was pessimistic with this. I just ask the guy himself when the time comes.
With that thought done, Kyoko looked up first and crossed her arms.
"Are you afraid? I mean, about this whole thing."
At her worry filled question, I bit my lip, while Chrome grabbed her right arm.
This room had way too many conversations about fear. But I guess one couldn't avoid it.
Was I afraid?
As I thought about it, Chrome already found her answer and meekly nodded at the other two girls.
"I am. Honestly...I-I'm not sure if I am up to it..." She took a deep breath and smiled at me with a small blush. "But I have to go with Sid."
I felt my face heat up.
How can a girl like her be so pure sometimes?! Or was this the anime effect?
"Nicknames already?" As Chrome and I blushed even more when the two girls chuckled slightly, Hana became a bit more compassionate. "The organ thing, right?"
The meek girl let out a quiet hum of confirmation.
"But even without that...I would still go with him."
The small smile and the sentence made me frown, even when the girls shared that smile.
That was quite the absolute thing to say. So she would come with me even if she wasn't needing me as her life support?
Then it hit me.
Mukuro was dead. Even if she had new organs, it wouldn't bring him back.
Right now, nothing was holding her here. Not by much at least, discounting Kyoko and Hana.
Chrome needed purpose. And a journey throughout the multiverse would be an eye opening experience.
It would make sense.
Chrome did breakdown when her master and savior wasn't around until late in the manga.
It was heartbreaking to read, sometimes. But with some friends early on, I guess we mitigated that problem. Still, she was lost without Mukuro and would follow me for two reasons now.
The organs and finding her new meaning of life.
By all means, a girl her age shouldn't think about such things.
...
Now I made myself sad.
Aaand they were staring at me.
Right. Fear question and I needed to answer.
I cleared my throat and stared at my blanket.
"I'm also scared. Hell, anyone would be in my position. I don't even know where we will go. We are at fate's whims basically." Letting out a sigh, I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "What I know for sure...it will be one hell of a trip."
A snort escaped me, making the others give me a confused look.
I couldn't help but smile slightly.
I didn't only feel fear.
Fear and excitement. How paradox.
Maybe Chrome felt the same, but I didn't know.
Anywho, Kyoko clapped her hands together and shook her hands, before putting on her bright smile.
"I'm sure you will do fine. The two of you."
Hana put her hand on Kyoko's shoulder, grinning as well.
"Yeah, you're our teachers. If you kick the bucket, what would that mean for us?"
The eyepatched girl and I smiled at the encouragement and I felt more at peace already.
"Thank you," Chrome said quietly and bowed.
I nodded along, then took a look at the time.
Frowning, I pointed at them and at the clock.
"Well, don't you have a party to go to?"
The two students turned around, then looked at each other with wide eyes.
"Oh right! We're late!"
"I swear if they took all the good sushi already…!"
The two of them hurried over to the door in small panic, but didn't leave before waving at us with smiles.
"See you tomorrow!"
With Kyoko's goodbye said, only Chrome and I remained in the room.
I turned to the only girl and raised an eyebrow.
"You don't wanna go?"
In response, she shook her head.
"Hm. I want to stay."
"Social quota filled?" I asked slightly amused.
"Yup." Chrome smiled for a moment, before tilting her head innocently. "You look tired."
Like a trigger went off, I let out a yawn.
She giggled quietly, while I scratched my head in small embarrassment.
"Guess I should rest a little," I said quietly and made myself comfortable in my bed.
With that done, I glanced one last time at Chrome, who nodded with a mouth twitch, before I closed my eyes.
Sleep slowly began to take me.
My last sleep on this universe for now.
- Location
- Germany
There is the age difference.
Unless you are talking about friendship, then it's totally fine.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
THIS SHIP IS SETTING SAIL!
If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.
Chapter 8.3 - Prologue End
- Location
- Germany
Chapter 8.3
I wondered if this was what people moving away from their old home felt.
A sense of impatience and melancholy, but also some nervousness as they stood in front of the street, waiting for a certain thing to pick them up.
At least I felt those emotions as I tapped the ground with my right foot, waiting next to the three girls that were my only friends so far, in front of Kawahira's realtor home.
It surprised me a little. I could have sworn it was a ramen shop. Maybe I had the details wrong.
Anywho, Kyoko and Hana wanted to say goodbye personally to Chrome and I, which touched the two of us.
Honestly, I felt some tears form in my eyes, but I managed to control myself. Chrome didn't even show any tears in the first place, but showed her happiness nonetheless with a smile that should usually belong to a teenager her age.
Ken and Chikusa weren't here, but they weren't that close to either of us in the first place. Hell, they had Chrome in their group because of her connection with Mukuro. With that gone, not a lot of heartfelt emotions were exchanged when we left Kokuyo High.
In this morning, the streets were empty and our group didn't do much besides idle chatting to pass the time.
Though one thing that was worth mentioning was the small stop I made with Chrome before meeting up with the school girls in front of Kawahira's house.
Shamal's clinic he set up in Namimori. The man was every bit of a pervert as I remembered and I had to make sure to always stand between the doctor and my friend, who obviously felt rather uncomfortable with the flirt.
I pitied Chrome and didn't want to take her with me, but she was my only ticket into the damn clinic in the first place.
Why I talked to him?
Because Haru needed a trainer. As a close friend to Kyoko, she would be dragged into the mafia world way deeper than in canon, courtesy to my actions.
Anyway, it took a bit of convincing, informing and some ominous warnings about the future to get Shamal to at least train Haru in fighting and dying will flames.
Only a bit, because this guy was very passionate about the female sex.
Speaking of flames...
She had a storm flame. Considering her temper sometimes, not a big surprise.
Now that I thought about it, I didn't interact with her at all.
…
Meh. Not going to lose sleep over this. My actions to get her some training should create enough butterflies and I didn't like her that much anyway in the manga.
Then again, I didn't like Hana that much either.
I'll just chalk it up to convenience.
...Let's hope this will be enough to let Haru's future self leave some hints behind.
Anyway, that was the only thing that was worth mentioning from the moment I woke up and to this moment. Well, there were many apologies from me to Chrome and I needed to bribe her with chocolate to make her stop giving me a judging look.
I didn't even know it was her favorite food, but hey, the more you know, right?
Speaking of the more you know, the girl tended to happily nibble on chocolate like a hamster and forget all past misgivings she might have had.
It was as adorable as it sounded.
Well, not as happy as most people, but she was more upbeat after getting her sweets. And getting the hell out of that clinic, but you get the point.
Where was I?
Right, waiting for Kawahira.
I could see how the other girls shared my impatience, as Hana and I let out a groan of annoyance at the same time, while Chrome peeked through the windows of the Japanese door thingie and Kyoko idly looked at her watch.
Of course, the moment each of us expressed our slight irritation of being kept waiting, it happened.
"Greetings. I believe you are ready?"
Kawahira in disguise, sounding every bit the gentleman he looked like and acting every bit the non gentleman he actually was, spawned right in front of me.
Again.
Naturally, the four of us let out screams as we automatically jumped together and created some distance between us.
My voice was not girly, no matter what Chrome would say on future conversations.
Anyway, when the screaming died out, I grasped my chest and let out heavy breaths as all of us tried to calm down.
Funnily enough, I was the one at the front, with the three girls using me as a meat shield.
I could feel the love.
Anyway…about the calming down…
It did not work for me.
"Stop doing that!" I snarled and pointed my finger at him, while I was bent over a little and supported myself on my legs.
In response, the masked man chuckled, hands firmly on his cane.
"You could have appeared any time. I was just wondering how long it would take for you to lose your patience." He rubbed his chin. "Half an hour. Impressive."
"Hope you got your kicks..." I muttered and glared at him at the same time as the other girls did in varying degrees. Then, I huffed and put my hands on my hips. "So. Multiverse. How does this work?"
Without saying anything. Checker Face pointed towards the sky.
Automatically, we all looked up.
Time froze for us at the sight.
All of us blinked. Then we slowly turned to Kawahira, staring at him in a blank manner.
Despite the mask, I could feel the smugness oozing out of him.
I opened my mouth. Then closed it again. After nodding a few times, I pointed up.
"That's an UFO," I said dumbly and the girls nodded as well.
It was...rather plain.
A silver, air saucer. That was its appearance in a nutshell.
An UFO you could take straight out of an 80s budget movie.
Kawahira was the only one unfazed by the oldest space ship in human history and simply nodded.
"It will carry you to different worlds and universes."
"It's a fucking UFO," I repeated, my voice as blank as everyone's faces.
In response, the planet's ancestor let out a deep sigh.
"Yes, I am not that old to not know what that is." A shrug followed as he gestured to the sky again. "Also, it's bigger in the inside."
I blinked, as did the other girls.
Kawahira won't be giving any explanations, I assumed.
...
You know what, I'll just accept it and move on.
I let out a sigh and narrowed my eyes as I crossed my arms.
"Like a TARDIS?" I raised an eyebrow at the UFO. "Does it have a name?"
"No. You can give it one," Kawahira replied, sounding rather pleased with my surrender to his shenanigans.
I hummed in thought, scratching my chin.
"I think of one later."
It didn't look very cool or had any characteristics that would make it stand out, so finding a name might be difficult.
As I pondered about it, Hana jabbed me in my right side. Rubbing it in annoyance, I faced Hana's unamused expression with a frown.
"So we'll just accept that UFO out of nowhere?"
I rubbed my forehead when I heard her question and sighed.
"It will give us less of a headache if we do."
"Point."
Kyoko patted her best friend's back encouragingly when she conceded to my point, shoulder slumped in surrender. When the former looked up and opened her mouth, Kawahira raised his hand calmly, stopping any words from coming out.
"Before you ask...I'm afraid there will be no possible way for two way communications."
At least he sounded sorry about the fact. He better was, because Kyoko looked like she was told that her dog died, as she stared at the ground with great sadness.
The rest of us were sad to an extent as well, but we focused on patting the one who looked like she was at the verge of crying.
While we did this, I raised an eyebrow at Checker Face.
"Then how are you going to contact us?"
"Through a middle man. And no, he will not provide the service to any other person than me."
His explanation made me frown.
So he didn't make the spaceship.
Either Kawahira had a contact from another universe or there were multiverse powers in Rebornverse I wasn't aware of.
Whatever the case was, I knew one thing for sure.
"Rude."
Hana and Kyoko let out a small snort at my dry comment, while Chrome cracked a smile. Hell, I felt amusement from Kawahira himself, but I didn't care a lot about that.
There had to be a reason for prohibiting communication with others.
As if reading my mind, the ancestor raised his right hand in a placating manner.
"Please understand that the creator of this ship does not want to cause too much chaos by letting universes act with each other, simple communication included. He has...personal reasons to keep your journeys simple. Well, simple to an extent."
"Bad experience?" I asked, wondering a little what reasons there could be.
Kawahira nodded in response.
"From what I could gather...indeed. Be assured, you can act as you see out there."
"Even revealing OOC information?" I asked in a skeptical tone, crossing my arms. My boss waved his hand dismissively.
"Prophets do that all the time, so yes."
Well, that was one way to look at it. I shrugged. Would make things easier for me. My future self will probably hate me for those words, but I wasn't my future self yet.
Anyway, Kawahira didn't say anything more, so we took that as a cue to turn to each other and say goodbye.
Goodbye, as in one big group hug, that didn't make me uncomfortable at all.
Hurray for friendship. Though it was sad that my friends were middle school students.
Eh, I took what I could get.
"We'll miss you," Kyoko muttered, hug becoming slightly stronger.
"As short as it was?" I asked in small amusement and she nodded with closed eyes.
"Even then."
We didn't cry, so that was a plus.
But all of us felt sorrow to varying degrees, that's for sure.
Hugs needed to stop sometime, so we let go of each other after what felt like a couple of minutes and the two students went on their way, waving to us as long as they could see us.
Chrome and I did the same, smiling without crying like little babies.
Though I did pet the girl's head while waving. If she had anything against that, she didn't show it.
Soon enough, they vanished around a corner, probably to get ready for school.
And with that, only three were left.
Without missing a beat, Kawahira cleared his throat, making the two of us turn to him.
"Before I forget..." He threw something at Chrome, who barely caught it and stared at the silver ring with a purple gem in it. "High quality mist ring. Not a Vongola Ring, but it can take a lot." Explanation done, he threw something at me as well, only this time it was a bigger object. "And for you."
Catching it, I stared at it with a wide grin. Another ring would be a good upgrade.
Then I realized what it was and my mouth corners crashed down faster than a meteor. Chrome noticed my reaction and leaned towards me to get a better look at it.
She as well stared at the pipe. Only with a blank look, instead of an unamused one.
It was a wooden pipe, with a vial full with white dust in my left hand.
…
You gotta be kidding me.
I looked up, slowly like a robot, face filled with disbelief. Chrome wisely took a step back.
Then I exploded.
"Dude, I know that illusionists are supposed to be constantly high, but this is taking it literally!" I yelled at him, jabbing the pipe at him with the part where the ash was supposed to go to.
Kawahira did not give a single fuck and gestured towards the smoking device as if I didn't say anything.
"It will put you in the Dying Will mode. You can get more if you ask. With payment."
I raised an eyebrow, not moving from my current position.
"What, do you know all exchange rates in the multiverse?"
"I know enough," he replied with cheek and I growled.
Friggin sma-
Wait, he distracted me. He didn't explain why a pipe.
And I had the feeling he wouldn't explain anything even if I asked, so I let it go, as irritating as it was.
Shoving the new items into my hoodie pockets, I took a deep breath. Gotta calm down.
There was one question I needed to ask him.
Just when the man wanted to do his thing with the UFO, I raised my hand with a deep frown. Noticing my serious expression, his right hand froze in mid motion, as he was about to snap his fingers.
"Kawahira. Did you or did you not fuck with my mind?" I calmly asked him, crossing my arms.
Kawahira slowly lowered his hand and stared at me. Then he tilted his head.
"What brought this on?"
He didn't deny it. He sounded honestly intrigued.
Letting out a sigh, I scratched my hair.
"The fact that I somehow managed to get the balls to be more confrontational and that I arguably became more confident. Hell, I don't stumble over my words anymore...Chrome can confirm, so say yes or no." I threw my thumb at my friend, who nodded in response, despite the worry written on her face.
"Observant, I see." Chuckling for a moment, he removed his mask to reveal his real face and vanished the Checker Face persona, leaving the idle looking man in front of me. Smiling at me, though with a hint of an apologize in it, he nodded. "Indeed, I did some minor modifications. Just to increase the performance. Does that bother you?"
"You kidding? It's the best thing you could have done for me," I replied with a snort and shook my head with closed eyes. When I didn't hear a reply, I opened them just to see Chrome and Kawahira stare at me with slightly wide eyes. "What?"
"Usually people are not that happy about such things," the Japanese man replied after a small pause and sharing a glance with Chrome.
Huh. Was it that weird?
I blinked for a moment, before taking a deep breath, trying to find the words. When I found them, I stared at the ground, crossing my arms.
"Do you know how it feels like not having the guts to speak out your own mind? To let everyone trample over you because you usually think that staying quiet can avoid conflicts?" I look up and nodded at him with a serious expression. "Speaking out what I think feels awesome and I thank you for that."
Kawahira adjusted his glasses after a pause and then bowed slightly.
"Hm. Unexpected. But I accept the gratitude."
Before I could react to it, I felt a tug at my left sleeve. Taking a look, I saw Chrome close to my body, biting her lip.
"Did...you really feel that way?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper and stared at me with an eye filled with sadness.
I wet my lips in discomfort. I did not want to go there again, so I decided to brush it off.
"Sometimes. It wasn't that bad," I shrugged, but flinched when she lowered her head and pinched my arms through the sleeves.
"Liar," she muttered and I couldn't help but smile and pet her head again. She was so adorable, but it was touching me that she cared enough for my past.
"Illusionist. Also, you are one to talk," I said with a quiet chuckle and Chrome cracked a smile after putting some distance between us again.
So the two of us shared some dark humor. Good to know.
The sound of someone clearing his throat got our attention, Kawahira raised his right hand.
"Well, if we are done here, let me show you your new home."
With a finger snap, I saw the world shift around us and moments later, we found ourselves in a big round and white room, with the entrance open behind us. Light illuminated the room from the ceiling, though I couldn't spot any lamps or light bulbs.
Anyway, one could fit in a five to five car field in this. Regular sized of course. On the other end of the room, so to say, was a big computer screen and some sort of high tech interface, that three people could interact with at the same time.
Long story short, a shit ton of buttons.
To the right, I saw a door with the word "bathroom" above it. I assumed the bathroom was bigger as well.
Anywho, the only other things noticeable was a regular sized kitchen in the middle, together with a few couches directed towards the computer screen and a very big, curved bed that almost took over the entire left side of the UFO interior.
I had the feeling it was meant for a bigger party.
Oh, and before I forget…
There was not a single wall.
I turned to Kawahira behind me and raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress the terror at the open entrance and the height we were currently in.
Reading my question on my face, he chuckled and gestured around the room.
"You can put up walls with the interface. If it's simple enough, you can just use voice input, of course. You can even increase the size if needed."
I grinned and turned back to the wide, big room with my hands on my hips.
"Great. Make up wall between bed and literally everything else please. Don't forget a door!" The moment I left out the loud command, blue lasers shot out of the ceiling and began to create a laser grid of a round wall around the bed, door included, in mere seconds, before it started to materialize it moments later with the same material the rest of the UFO was made of.
Chrome and I blinked.
I wasn't even that specific with my words.
Suck it, Siri.
As glee filled my face and Chrome shared my smile, we both turn to Kawahira and bow to him.
"Thanks. For everything," I said and the girl nodded in agreement.
The planet's ancestor smiled back in response and waved his hand.
"Good luck on your journey. If you need anything else, you can use the console to edit stuff in. For a fee that is."
With those words, the man left the spaceship. Left, as in jumped out casually. Moments later, the entrance closed and I assumed we already flew off to wherever we were going. I didn't even feel the take off and since there weren't any windows, I couldn't see where we were anywhere.
Anywho, now I was alone with Chrome.
Silence reigned and I scratched my head with an awkward smile.
"Welp...On the adventures ahead I suppose."
Chrome tilted her head in response.
"Do you know how long it will take?"
…Son of a whore.
"Maybe we can decorate the place," the girl suggested with a nervous mouth twitch at my pained expression and I nodded.
Not like we had much else to do anyway.
I wondered if this was what people moving away from their old home felt.
A sense of impatience and melancholy, but also some nervousness as they stood in front of the street, waiting for a certain thing to pick them up.
At least I felt those emotions as I tapped the ground with my right foot, waiting next to the three girls that were my only friends so far, in front of Kawahira's realtor home.
It surprised me a little. I could have sworn it was a ramen shop. Maybe I had the details wrong.
Anywho, Kyoko and Hana wanted to say goodbye personally to Chrome and I, which touched the two of us.
Honestly, I felt some tears form in my eyes, but I managed to control myself. Chrome didn't even show any tears in the first place, but showed her happiness nonetheless with a smile that should usually belong to a teenager her age.
Ken and Chikusa weren't here, but they weren't that close to either of us in the first place. Hell, they had Chrome in their group because of her connection with Mukuro. With that gone, not a lot of heartfelt emotions were exchanged when we left Kokuyo High.
In this morning, the streets were empty and our group didn't do much besides idle chatting to pass the time.
Though one thing that was worth mentioning was the small stop I made with Chrome before meeting up with the school girls in front of Kawahira's house.
Shamal's clinic he set up in Namimori. The man was every bit of a pervert as I remembered and I had to make sure to always stand between the doctor and my friend, who obviously felt rather uncomfortable with the flirt.
I pitied Chrome and didn't want to take her with me, but she was my only ticket into the damn clinic in the first place.
Why I talked to him?
Because Haru needed a trainer. As a close friend to Kyoko, she would be dragged into the mafia world way deeper than in canon, courtesy to my actions.
Anyway, it took a bit of convincing, informing and some ominous warnings about the future to get Shamal to at least train Haru in fighting and dying will flames.
Only a bit, because this guy was very passionate about the female sex.
Speaking of flames...
She had a storm flame. Considering her temper sometimes, not a big surprise.
Now that I thought about it, I didn't interact with her at all.
…
Meh. Not going to lose sleep over this. My actions to get her some training should create enough butterflies and I didn't like her that much anyway in the manga.
Then again, I didn't like Hana that much either.
I'll just chalk it up to convenience.
...Let's hope this will be enough to let Haru's future self leave some hints behind.
Anyway, that was the only thing that was worth mentioning from the moment I woke up and to this moment. Well, there were many apologies from me to Chrome and I needed to bribe her with chocolate to make her stop giving me a judging look.
I didn't even know it was her favorite food, but hey, the more you know, right?
Speaking of the more you know, the girl tended to happily nibble on chocolate like a hamster and forget all past misgivings she might have had.
It was as adorable as it sounded.
Well, not as happy as most people, but she was more upbeat after getting her sweets. And getting the hell out of that clinic, but you get the point.
Where was I?
Right, waiting for Kawahira.
I could see how the other girls shared my impatience, as Hana and I let out a groan of annoyance at the same time, while Chrome peeked through the windows of the Japanese door thingie and Kyoko idly looked at her watch.
Of course, the moment each of us expressed our slight irritation of being kept waiting, it happened.
"Greetings. I believe you are ready?"
Kawahira in disguise, sounding every bit the gentleman he looked like and acting every bit the non gentleman he actually was, spawned right in front of me.
Again.
Naturally, the four of us let out screams as we automatically jumped together and created some distance between us.
My voice was not girly, no matter what Chrome would say on future conversations.
Anyway, when the screaming died out, I grasped my chest and let out heavy breaths as all of us tried to calm down.
Funnily enough, I was the one at the front, with the three girls using me as a meat shield.
I could feel the love.
Anyway…about the calming down…
It did not work for me.
"Stop doing that!" I snarled and pointed my finger at him, while I was bent over a little and supported myself on my legs.
In response, the masked man chuckled, hands firmly on his cane.
"You could have appeared any time. I was just wondering how long it would take for you to lose your patience." He rubbed his chin. "Half an hour. Impressive."
"Hope you got your kicks..." I muttered and glared at him at the same time as the other girls did in varying degrees. Then, I huffed and put my hands on my hips. "So. Multiverse. How does this work?"
Without saying anything. Checker Face pointed towards the sky.
Automatically, we all looked up.
Time froze for us at the sight.
All of us blinked. Then we slowly turned to Kawahira, staring at him in a blank manner.
Despite the mask, I could feel the smugness oozing out of him.
I opened my mouth. Then closed it again. After nodding a few times, I pointed up.
"That's an UFO," I said dumbly and the girls nodded as well.
It was...rather plain.
A silver, air saucer. That was its appearance in a nutshell.
An UFO you could take straight out of an 80s budget movie.
Kawahira was the only one unfazed by the oldest space ship in human history and simply nodded.
"It will carry you to different worlds and universes."
"It's a fucking UFO," I repeated, my voice as blank as everyone's faces.
In response, the planet's ancestor let out a deep sigh.
"Yes, I am not that old to not know what that is." A shrug followed as he gestured to the sky again. "Also, it's bigger in the inside."
I blinked, as did the other girls.
Kawahira won't be giving any explanations, I assumed.
...
You know what, I'll just accept it and move on.
I let out a sigh and narrowed my eyes as I crossed my arms.
"Like a TARDIS?" I raised an eyebrow at the UFO. "Does it have a name?"
"No. You can give it one," Kawahira replied, sounding rather pleased with my surrender to his shenanigans.
I hummed in thought, scratching my chin.
"I think of one later."
It didn't look very cool or had any characteristics that would make it stand out, so finding a name might be difficult.
As I pondered about it, Hana jabbed me in my right side. Rubbing it in annoyance, I faced Hana's unamused expression with a frown.
"So we'll just accept that UFO out of nowhere?"
I rubbed my forehead when I heard her question and sighed.
"It will give us less of a headache if we do."
"Point."
Kyoko patted her best friend's back encouragingly when she conceded to my point, shoulder slumped in surrender. When the former looked up and opened her mouth, Kawahira raised his hand calmly, stopping any words from coming out.
"Before you ask...I'm afraid there will be no possible way for two way communications."
At least he sounded sorry about the fact. He better was, because Kyoko looked like she was told that her dog died, as she stared at the ground with great sadness.
The rest of us were sad to an extent as well, but we focused on patting the one who looked like she was at the verge of crying.
While we did this, I raised an eyebrow at Checker Face.
"Then how are you going to contact us?"
"Through a middle man. And no, he will not provide the service to any other person than me."
His explanation made me frown.
So he didn't make the spaceship.
Either Kawahira had a contact from another universe or there were multiverse powers in Rebornverse I wasn't aware of.
Whatever the case was, I knew one thing for sure.
"Rude."
Hana and Kyoko let out a small snort at my dry comment, while Chrome cracked a smile. Hell, I felt amusement from Kawahira himself, but I didn't care a lot about that.
There had to be a reason for prohibiting communication with others.
As if reading my mind, the ancestor raised his right hand in a placating manner.
"Please understand that the creator of this ship does not want to cause too much chaos by letting universes act with each other, simple communication included. He has...personal reasons to keep your journeys simple. Well, simple to an extent."
"Bad experience?" I asked, wondering a little what reasons there could be.
Kawahira nodded in response.
"From what I could gather...indeed. Be assured, you can act as you see out there."
"Even revealing OOC information?" I asked in a skeptical tone, crossing my arms. My boss waved his hand dismissively.
"Prophets do that all the time, so yes."
Well, that was one way to look at it. I shrugged. Would make things easier for me. My future self will probably hate me for those words, but I wasn't my future self yet.
Anyway, Kawahira didn't say anything more, so we took that as a cue to turn to each other and say goodbye.
Goodbye, as in one big group hug, that didn't make me uncomfortable at all.
Hurray for friendship. Though it was sad that my friends were middle school students.
Eh, I took what I could get.
"We'll miss you," Kyoko muttered, hug becoming slightly stronger.
"As short as it was?" I asked in small amusement and she nodded with closed eyes.
"Even then."
We didn't cry, so that was a plus.
But all of us felt sorrow to varying degrees, that's for sure.
Hugs needed to stop sometime, so we let go of each other after what felt like a couple of minutes and the two students went on their way, waving to us as long as they could see us.
Chrome and I did the same, smiling without crying like little babies.
Though I did pet the girl's head while waving. If she had anything against that, she didn't show it.
Soon enough, they vanished around a corner, probably to get ready for school.
And with that, only three were left.
Without missing a beat, Kawahira cleared his throat, making the two of us turn to him.
"Before I forget..." He threw something at Chrome, who barely caught it and stared at the silver ring with a purple gem in it. "High quality mist ring. Not a Vongola Ring, but it can take a lot." Explanation done, he threw something at me as well, only this time it was a bigger object. "And for you."
Catching it, I stared at it with a wide grin. Another ring would be a good upgrade.
Then I realized what it was and my mouth corners crashed down faster than a meteor. Chrome noticed my reaction and leaned towards me to get a better look at it.
She as well stared at the pipe. Only with a blank look, instead of an unamused one.
It was a wooden pipe, with a vial full with white dust in my left hand.
…
You gotta be kidding me.
I looked up, slowly like a robot, face filled with disbelief. Chrome wisely took a step back.
Then I exploded.
"Dude, I know that illusionists are supposed to be constantly high, but this is taking it literally!" I yelled at him, jabbing the pipe at him with the part where the ash was supposed to go to.
Kawahira did not give a single fuck and gestured towards the smoking device as if I didn't say anything.
"It will put you in the Dying Will mode. You can get more if you ask. With payment."
I raised an eyebrow, not moving from my current position.
"What, do you know all exchange rates in the multiverse?"
"I know enough," he replied with cheek and I growled.
Friggin sma-
Wait, he distracted me. He didn't explain why a pipe.
And I had the feeling he wouldn't explain anything even if I asked, so I let it go, as irritating as it was.
Shoving the new items into my hoodie pockets, I took a deep breath. Gotta calm down.
There was one question I needed to ask him.
Just when the man wanted to do his thing with the UFO, I raised my hand with a deep frown. Noticing my serious expression, his right hand froze in mid motion, as he was about to snap his fingers.
"Kawahira. Did you or did you not fuck with my mind?" I calmly asked him, crossing my arms.
Kawahira slowly lowered his hand and stared at me. Then he tilted his head.
"What brought this on?"
He didn't deny it. He sounded honestly intrigued.
Letting out a sigh, I scratched my hair.
"The fact that I somehow managed to get the balls to be more confrontational and that I arguably became more confident. Hell, I don't stumble over my words anymore...Chrome can confirm, so say yes or no." I threw my thumb at my friend, who nodded in response, despite the worry written on her face.
"Observant, I see." Chuckling for a moment, he removed his mask to reveal his real face and vanished the Checker Face persona, leaving the idle looking man in front of me. Smiling at me, though with a hint of an apologize in it, he nodded. "Indeed, I did some minor modifications. Just to increase the performance. Does that bother you?"
"You kidding? It's the best thing you could have done for me," I replied with a snort and shook my head with closed eyes. When I didn't hear a reply, I opened them just to see Chrome and Kawahira stare at me with slightly wide eyes. "What?"
"Usually people are not that happy about such things," the Japanese man replied after a small pause and sharing a glance with Chrome.
Huh. Was it that weird?
I blinked for a moment, before taking a deep breath, trying to find the words. When I found them, I stared at the ground, crossing my arms.
"Do you know how it feels like not having the guts to speak out your own mind? To let everyone trample over you because you usually think that staying quiet can avoid conflicts?" I look up and nodded at him with a serious expression. "Speaking out what I think feels awesome and I thank you for that."
Kawahira adjusted his glasses after a pause and then bowed slightly.
"Hm. Unexpected. But I accept the gratitude."
Before I could react to it, I felt a tug at my left sleeve. Taking a look, I saw Chrome close to my body, biting her lip.
"Did...you really feel that way?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper and stared at me with an eye filled with sadness.
I wet my lips in discomfort. I did not want to go there again, so I decided to brush it off.
"Sometimes. It wasn't that bad," I shrugged, but flinched when she lowered her head and pinched my arms through the sleeves.
"Liar," she muttered and I couldn't help but smile and pet her head again. She was so adorable, but it was touching me that she cared enough for my past.
"Illusionist. Also, you are one to talk," I said with a quiet chuckle and Chrome cracked a smile after putting some distance between us again.
So the two of us shared some dark humor. Good to know.
The sound of someone clearing his throat got our attention, Kawahira raised his right hand.
"Well, if we are done here, let me show you your new home."
With a finger snap, I saw the world shift around us and moments later, we found ourselves in a big round and white room, with the entrance open behind us. Light illuminated the room from the ceiling, though I couldn't spot any lamps or light bulbs.
Anyway, one could fit in a five to five car field in this. Regular sized of course. On the other end of the room, so to say, was a big computer screen and some sort of high tech interface, that three people could interact with at the same time.
Long story short, a shit ton of buttons.
To the right, I saw a door with the word "bathroom" above it. I assumed the bathroom was bigger as well.
Anywho, the only other things noticeable was a regular sized kitchen in the middle, together with a few couches directed towards the computer screen and a very big, curved bed that almost took over the entire left side of the UFO interior.
I had the feeling it was meant for a bigger party.
Oh, and before I forget…
There was not a single wall.
I turned to Kawahira behind me and raised an eyebrow, trying to suppress the terror at the open entrance and the height we were currently in.
Reading my question on my face, he chuckled and gestured around the room.
"You can put up walls with the interface. If it's simple enough, you can just use voice input, of course. You can even increase the size if needed."
I grinned and turned back to the wide, big room with my hands on my hips.
"Great. Make up wall between bed and literally everything else please. Don't forget a door!" The moment I left out the loud command, blue lasers shot out of the ceiling and began to create a laser grid of a round wall around the bed, door included, in mere seconds, before it started to materialize it moments later with the same material the rest of the UFO was made of.
Chrome and I blinked.
I wasn't even that specific with my words.
Suck it, Siri.
As glee filled my face and Chrome shared my smile, we both turn to Kawahira and bow to him.
"Thanks. For everything," I said and the girl nodded in agreement.
The planet's ancestor smiled back in response and waved his hand.
"Good luck on your journey. If you need anything else, you can use the console to edit stuff in. For a fee that is."
With those words, the man left the spaceship. Left, as in jumped out casually. Moments later, the entrance closed and I assumed we already flew off to wherever we were going. I didn't even feel the take off and since there weren't any windows, I couldn't see where we were anywhere.
Anywho, now I was alone with Chrome.
Silence reigned and I scratched my head with an awkward smile.
"Welp...On the adventures ahead I suppose."
Chrome tilted her head in response.
"Do you know how long it will take?"
…Son of a whore.
"Maybe we can decorate the place," the girl suggested with a nervous mouth twitch at my pained expression and I nodded.
Not like we had much else to do anyway.
Prologue: Rebirth - End
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- Location
- California
So where will he be going?
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
Hopefully worlds that not that many people go to with SI's....
Wakfu and Dofus will be good, they have gods that arent jerks, with really easy commandments...
like, a goddess of Breweries...
you get super strength, can make alcoholic things out of almost ANYTHING, become rather good at combat, and the only downside is becoming a panda.
pretty easy stuff...
of course there is also a healer class that can heal and damage people with their voice alone (which is rather useful) as well as FLY, but her commandments are a bit trickier...
....yeah, i cant see you doing 4 of those....and that punishment...yikes..
Wakfu and Dofus will be good, they have gods that arent jerks, with really easy commandments...
like, a goddess of Breweries...
you get super strength, can make alcoholic things out of almost ANYTHING, become rather good at combat, and the only downside is becoming a panda.
Pandawa's disciples must adhere to the following commandments:
Thou shalt not attack thy neighbour when he's drinking his pint through a straw. It may end up in his eye.
Thou shalt clear the air with thy fan.
Thou shalt be able to hold both thine alcohol and the bar during summer festivals.
Thou shalt avoid being hungover before, during and after a night out.
Thou shalt not spill the divine plonk, since the foam stains and has a tendency to sting.
Thou shalt avoid mixing alcohols which are not from the same barrel.
Thou shalt not drive nor use any heavy machinery when drunk. Thou shalt not give thy friends a lift if thou hast had too much to drink.
Thou shalt greet any uninvited party guests in the traditional manner by asking, "Hey, do I know you?"
Thou shalt ensure thou art not surprised when thou yeast expect it.
If thou dost not follow these commandments, thou must drink ten pints of pure water as a sign of penitence.
Praise be to Pandawa, the adequate goddess!
Thou shalt not attack thy neighbour when he's drinking his pint through a straw. It may end up in his eye.
Thou shalt clear the air with thy fan.
Thou shalt be able to hold both thine alcohol and the bar during summer festivals.
Thou shalt avoid being hungover before, during and after a night out.
Thou shalt not spill the divine plonk, since the foam stains and has a tendency to sting.
Thou shalt avoid mixing alcohols which are not from the same barrel.
Thou shalt not drive nor use any heavy machinery when drunk. Thou shalt not give thy friends a lift if thou hast had too much to drink.
Thou shalt greet any uninvited party guests in the traditional manner by asking, "Hey, do I know you?"
Thou shalt ensure thou art not surprised when thou yeast expect it.
If thou dost not follow these commandments, thou must drink ten pints of pure water as a sign of penitence.
Praise be to Pandawa, the adequate goddess!
of course there is also a healer class that can heal and damage people with their voice alone (which is rather useful) as well as FLY, but her commandments are a bit trickier...
Eniripsa's disciples must adhere to the following commandments:
Thou shalt take care to heal all ills.
Thou shalt not get wound up if someone ribs thee.
Thou shalt look after nature.
Thou shalt keep fit by doing lots of exercise.
Thou shalt explain to those ignorant in the art of plant-based medicine that it is not just limited to lavender bath oil.
Thou shalt always know the right words to fix a broken heart.
Thou shalt encourage novides to fly with their own wings.
Thou shalt have plenty of patients.
Thou shalt satisfy thy curiosity without killing the cat.
Thou shalt wash thy hands before coming to the operating table.
If thou dost not follow these commandments, thou shalt be forced to wear a gag and mittens as a sign of penitence.
Praise be to Eniripsa, the goddess with transluscent wings!
Thou shalt take care to heal all ills.
Thou shalt not get wound up if someone ribs thee.
Thou shalt look after nature.
Thou shalt keep fit by doing lots of exercise.
Thou shalt explain to those ignorant in the art of plant-based medicine that it is not just limited to lavender bath oil.
Thou shalt always know the right words to fix a broken heart.
Thou shalt encourage novides to fly with their own wings.
Thou shalt have plenty of patients.
Thou shalt satisfy thy curiosity without killing the cat.
Thou shalt wash thy hands before coming to the operating table.
If thou dost not follow these commandments, thou shalt be forced to wear a gag and mittens as a sign of penitence.
Praise be to Eniripsa, the goddess with transluscent wings!
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Intermission 1.1 - Intermission Series: Daily Chaos
- Location
- Germany
Intermission Series: Daily Chaos
Intermission 1.1
I was not a tech expert, but I could appreciate new devices and so on. Probably the reason I liked tech stores the most when strolling around in shopping malls. Not that I could understand all of it, but it was nice on the eyes or fingers, depending whether I touched stuff or not.
The high tech space computer was very pleasant to work with and Chrome seemed to share the opinion with me. It was easy to use and overall felt nice as the two of us experimented around with it. Considering that the girl was not very tech savvy herself, it spoke volumes of the efficient design.
Though that efficient design felt off itself.
It felt...alien. Like, it was tailor made for humans.
Too tailor made. Too efficient. Like an outsider observed human nature long enough to create the perfect tools for it, like a human for an animal in a sense. So it couldn't have been something very human to begin with. At least that was my hunch.
Anywho, there were a lot of functions for the Flying Mist (name pending), so many that it would take too much time to count them.
I focused on the ones that interested me personally. Three things actually.
First one, the observation function.
It was basically a video feed of our surroundings and had some sort of zoom option. No satellite pictures of the future world we landed on, only around the UFO. I didn't know the range because...well…
Everything looked the fucking same, so I had no reference.
Dimensional gap, void, darkness, interspace, you could call it by any name and you would be probably right.
Short describtion, it was dark.
The end.
No, seriously. It was pitch black. No rainbow colors, no mist formations, no stars. It was complete darkness.
Multiverse traveling was boring if you had nothing better to do.
Luckily, the creator of this ship knew it and made sure to have plenty of entertainment ready.
Like a multimedia platform.
No, seriously. I had access the what was pretty much the internet and all video consoles in existence.
Weirdly, it had almost no anime, manga or Japanese styled video games in it.
Therefore, I assumed this was going to be Japanese style only journey, judging from the information I was allowed to have.
Or it was trolling me, I had no idea.
Anywho, barely any Japanese products here, except for games like Tetris or Super Smash Brothers.
Funsies.
At least I could watch funny videos, some video games and more importantly music.
The third one was the most useful one I believe.
Teleportation.
Only problem, it was one sided, since it could only call residents from this UFO back onto itself.
So Kawahira did not port us up, though I was sure it could.
Still, it was handy to have, not having to worry about walking too far away from the spaceship.
However Chrome made the helpful comment that some sort of operator would be useful, for emergency teleportations.
Until then, it was pretty useless, the two of us realized. Or at least, out of our control, judging from the "automatic" setting it was on.
Whatever automatic meant, none of us had no idea.
Anywho, that was all that interested me and Chrome didn't find anything too useful for us as well, besides some weird analysis lab science magic thingie that neither of us could use.
With that done, the two of us focused on the task we originally planned.
Bringing some life into the interior.
Decorating the UFO and getting to know it was a good idea to kill time.
Because it killed our time like a serial killer with a hand fetish.
Not the decorating itself, but all the decision.
Size, color, equipment, etc.
We didn't want it too big, but also wanted it to have enough room to walk around.
Before we could decide that, we needed to check what we could put here.
And boy, was the selection big.
We didn't want to change the bathroom, kitchen, interface and bed, since they were already there, so we needed to build around it.
I like to say it went well, especially since nobody of us learned the arts of interior decoration. It was simple, but I think we did a pretty good job.
Nothing to flashy, but we decided to put down some fluffy, black carpets on the ground. Much better than whatever metal the silver was made of. Not everywhere, like in front of the interface computer thing because of computer chairs and the kitchen.
A wooden drawer for each of us located inside our bedroom for our clothes and some randomized, purple symbols so that the walls wouldn't be too boring.
Anyway, one of the more important stuff we created was for a training "room". Or rather, training area. Obvious reasons for that one, healthy body led to having a healthy life.
And I liked having a healthy life.
We weren't sport buffs though, so we threw in everything that we expected of a gym.
Weights, treadmills, the usual.
One little thing caught my eye however while browsing. Maybe because it was one of the things that stood out to me on the internet.
"Huh, Salmon Ladder from Arrow," I muttered at seeing the device. Chrome tilted her head in confusion as she sat on one of the computer chairs.
"Salmon Ladder? Arrow?"
I spun around on my own chair before coming to a stop when I faced her while pointing at my part of the screen.
"Reference for the latter. For the former, you basically do pull ups, but have to jump up with the staff into those free spaces."
The girl frowned slightly.
"Sounds exhausting."
"Probably is, but training is mandatory here. No offense," I said with a shrug, looking at her, then looking at myself.
Yeah, not the fittest.
Chrome agreed, as she nodded slightly, before turning back to her own screen. Moments later, she made a small 'ah' sound, just as I was to turn back to my browsing. I raised an eyebrow at her, who blinked a few times at the screen.
"Healing station," she read out quietly and my eyes widened slightly. "Only works for injuries from the last twenty four hours and cannot revive from death. Extent of injuries do not matter, unless life ending."
She turned to me with a neutral expression.
We both blinked at each other.
That sounded random as hell. Like a game actually.
And considering I did not see any game windows or level ups, I was not in a Gamer fic.
Anyway, I scratched my head and leaned back in my chair, letting out a sigh.
"Well, that's a bummer about the dying, but sounds useful considering the lack of actual healers on the team."
"Death isn't easy to cheat," she replied with a shrug and I chuckled dryly, fully knowing the irony.
"Don't we know it..." Chrome smiled awkwardly at my comment, coming to the same conclusion as I did. Then, I scratched my chin. "Why wasn't it here in the first place? Eh, whatever. Let's put this between training and bathroom."
Well, we didn't really separate the two with walls, but you get the gist of it.
With a press of a button, a human sized, egg pod materialized near the bathroom door. It looked like a high tech bed, considering the cushions inside, so no healing juice. Instead, I assumed healing waves or whatever.
Speaking of bathroom, we took a look into that before.
And it was as gigantic as I expected. Pretty much public, Japanese bath sized, with a couple solo showers for our convenience and some big bath tubs that could fit in ten people and still have some room.
How many people did Kawahira, or the creator of this ship, thought we would get to warrant this size?
Anyway, with that question added to the questions that shall never be answered, most likely, the two of us let out a big yawn when we finally finished. For now, at least.
"Okay, I think we should be done for now. How long did we do this?" I asked as I lazily spun around in my chair, while Chrome rubbed her eye, before glancing at her screen.
"Five hours."
"Huh. Explains how exhausted I am." I let out another yawn and the girl nodded absentmindedly, yawning her self. "Jesus, I need some sleep."
The two of us look at each other and we nodded at the same time, standing up and going into our bedroom.
Swiftly changing our clothes from the student uniform and jeans-hoodie combination respectively, keeping our privacy safe with the drawer doors, the two of us stood in front of each other, with the vague banana shaped bed in between us.
I wore a white and blue striped t shirt, with dark blue shorts with it.
Don't judge me, I like feeling the blanket on my skin. Especially smooth blankets.
And Jesus, was it smooth.
Though, as I glanced at my legs, maybe I should shave. Never did that in my life, but maybe I should.
Anywho, Chrome wore it a little more complex.
With a little, I mean she wore a full body, dark green pajama. With buttons.
I frowned slightly and waved off Chrome when she tilted her head in confusion.
Seriously, pajamas with buttons were so bizarre to me.
There was a bigger reason for my frown however, as I crossed my arms.
"How are we going to do this?" I asked and Chrome shrugged with her hands folded.
"Sleep on the other ends? It is a big bed,"she suggested and after contemplating it for a short while, I sighed and shrugged.
"Feels weird, but sure. Too tired to fix the beds and don't wanna sleep on the floor."
"Same."
With that enlightening conversation over, the two of us duck under the big blanket. It should be long enough that neither of us could steal it from the other.
…
There was definitely going to be a problem, but since I already was in the bed, I did not want to get up again.
I would deal with it tomorrow.
Anyway, with the two of us making ourselves comfortable, I glanced at Chrome with a small smile.
"Good night, Chrome."
The girl put her mini form of her trident on a night table, before turning to me, mouth twitching.
"Good night, Sid."
Gotta get used with that nickname.
With that in mind, I closed my eyes after clapping my hands four times for the lights to turn off.
…
God damn it, I can't sleep.
With that realization battering in my mind non stop, I had to accept the fact and I opened my eyes widely.
No matter how I shifted around in the bed a few times, sleep could not take me.
Considering I felt and heard similar motions from Chrome, she had the same problem.
Either that, or I annoyed her.
Hopefully the former.
Maybe it was the new surroundings or the fact that this place was so damn quiet.
I grumbled a little as I turned back on my right side, pondering how to kill time in order to sleep.
Luckily, my fellow illusionist decided to team up with me on this problem.
"Can you sleep?" She asked in a whisper, sounding wide awake.
I shifted to my left side, so that I would be facing her, if the darkness wouldn't be impeding my vision.
"Not really. New place, gotta get used to it," I said in a whisper, before pausing with a frown while Chrome hummed in agreement.
Why the heck did I whisper?
The two of us were the only people on the space ship.
I blamed the darkness and carried on in normal volume.
"Wanna talk until sleep takes us?" I suggested and I could feel the girl raise her eyebrow at me.
"About what?"
Good question. I clicked my tongue and let out a deep breath of thought.
"I don't know...any books you like?" I asked in an uncertain tone.
Luckily, I hit a good topic to kill time with.
Apparently she liked Harry Potter.
Thank god for universe parallels. We talked about it a lot and I have no idea for long.
I like to believe we both had our fun.
Her favorite book was the first one, solely for the background story of Harry and liked Hufflepuff and Neville Longbottom, while charms interested her the most.
I liked the fourth book the most for the tournament and all the special training Harry did to get past the problems. I could even overlook the drama of the trio, a little bit. Didn't had a character preference, besides the twins maybe and picking a house was harder than I thought.
Chrome found it funny when I had to stop myself every time before choosing, taking my time to reconsider, before frustration took me over.
Anyway, overall it was fun to get to know each other a little more as friends.
Not long enough after that, sleep managed to take us after we reached the fourth book as a topic.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
*maniacal grin*
You mean like bacta?
VAADEER!
You mean like bacta?
VAADEER!
Intermission 1.2
- Location
- Germany
Intermission 1.2
Let me tell you that I hated to get used to other places to sleep in.
Hotels, guest beds, busses, no matter where, I hated it.
Not that I couldn't fall asleep, mind you, but it was the simple fact that my body felt like hell every time, as if the different sleeping location pinged off like a virus for my body. And I never knew where I was in the first few minutes, wondering why the fuck my room looked so different.
The downsides of falling asleep like a normal person, opposed to falling unconscious or sleeping in the hospital.
Anyway, long story short, I felt like a corpse when my eyes slowly opened.
Though for some reason, my right side felt more dead than the rest, including my chest.
Wiping my eyes, I yawned and raised my head slightly, while snapping my finger to turn the lights on.
What I saw, made me groan and let out a "daw" at the same time.
Somehow, she managed to snuggle up on me without waking me up.
Well, more like we managed to snuggle up to each other without waking each other up, in a sense.
We were in the middle of the bed.
Considering it could house ten people, with squeezing, that meant the two of us slept that uneasy to move the entire distance to the middle.
The singular blanket did not make it any better, since it was a big bundle, lying on the ground because of reasons.
Anyway, she snuggled up on me, using my right, numb as hell arm as a pillow.
Like a small teddie. Or a little, cute sister I never had, so that mitigated my pain a little bit.
Luckily for me, she stood up soon after the lights went on, sparing me from the agony.
Still, I had to safely guide her to the bathroom to get ourselves freshened up, because she was a morning muffle and was not aware of what she was doing. Not that I was one to talk, but hey.
Brushing teeth, throwing some bread into our mouths and changing our clothes would be our "morning" routine in the near future.
By the time we changed our clothes into a simple white t-shirt and some short pants, Chrome finally woke up for real and blinked at me when we left our bedroom once again.
She didn't look at me for a few minutes.
I think she was embarrassed, but I wasn't so sure. Maybe she didn't like the fact I had to babysit her body until she was mentally there.
Anyway, it took a good five minute run on the treadmill for her until she faced me.
Right as I was failing horrendously at simple pull ups.
She had a good laugh, lost her balance on the running machine and fell flat on her face.
I myself dropped on the ground in shock, slipping and hitting the back of my head on the ground.
The two of us were groveling around on the ground for a few minutes in complete agony.
Did I mention the two of us could be complete idiots sometimes?
Good news, none of us got injured too much and we even managed to laugh about it.
In pain, but laughing nonetheless.
Honestly, if I had any choice, I would not train because of the pain in the first place.
But I did not have a choice in this.
Training was mandatory. I wasn't naive enough to believe I could avoid conflict, so work outs were going to be a thing for the two of us.
Not that I was very diligent in training before my first death, but considering I did not want to die again, it was a good motivator. Chrome saw first hand, with me as the example, what would happen if we didn't train, so she didn't complain.
Anyway, it was good that we weren't hurt that much, because we were going to get hurt a lot more.
In that ten times ten square of a sparring arena.
So yeah, my earlier estimate about the cars was wrong.
The size of the spaceship was "enough".
Seriously, no matter how much we threw into the room, it never felt small. There was always enough space.
Space magic be praised.
Where was I? Right, sparring.
Of course we didn't just start to throw senseless attacks at each other without purpose, so I proposed one simple goal for our first session.
Viper didn't really attack me physically and that weakness of mine could be counteracted with my aura sensing. But against bigger targets, with way more flexibility and reach, I needed to see them with my eyes.
So, anti blinking training was a thing.
Which meant that Chrome had to smash my face in with a wooden staff. Repeatedly, until I got it.
I wasn't idle either and tried to hit her as well, with my fists. We both needed dodging and eye skills, so I needed to attack as well.
…
Okay, so we did throw senseless attacks at each other, but mostly at our faces.
The results were...rather okay actually.
Plus side, the two of us didn't flinch at any attacks after an hour or so.
Down side, we felt like hell. Exhausted and I think our faces began to swell slightly from all the hits in the first ten minutes.
Still, biting through the pain, we focused on our main arsenal: Illusions.
It was very likely we had to create them under pain anyway, so Chrome didn't have any objections, even with the blue eye I gave her.
I still felt guilty.
Anywho, we made some good progress on our mental training, both offensively and defensively.
I could somewhat create things like the flame pillars easier, while Chrome began to focus on real illusions by mimicking the clone trick I used in the ring battle.
If I didn't know any better, I would believe Chrome had the Path of Naraka as well, with how much substance her illusions had even without mist flames after just a few minutes of training.
Well, was to be expected. She was part of a protagonist team, originally, while I was…
A normal guy, basically.
Not that I felt jealous, it was a fact and I was happy for the girl.
I wasn't even "weaker" than her. It's just that her talent was way better than mine.
We were about even, in terms of skill. Though she had better skill at old fashioned illusions that fool the senses, while I had a better hand at stuff that helped us out directly.
Organ creation, pseudo human creation, pain reduction (handy I found that out early in our session) and even minor physical buffs.
Kinda like she was the debuffer and I was the buffer, in RPG terms.
Maybe that was were our specialties lied?
Eh, too soon to make a sure theory.
Suffice to say, I didn't have enough information to find out where our strengths lied, but it was a start at least.
One more fun thing I found out on pure accident.
Apparently, I could summon my hell ring back, as in, it spawned back on my hand when I focused on it like a Green Lantern ring or something.
The sky battle made a lot more sense because of that. The Varia wasn't that stupid after all.
Also, speaking of physical buffs…
The pipe. Or more specifically, Dying Will mode.
At the end of our session, I decided to test it out.
Well, I could use it. Often enough in rapid succession.
Apparently, the regret of dying in the first place, so to say, was enough to trigger it.
But…
Let's say that the pain came after a delay and piles up. And that illusions did not erase injuries and pain forever.
Which led to the natural conclusion of me being stuck in the Super Saiyan pod of healing, coughing like hell while soft green light scanned my entire body.
"Are you sure this was the best way?" Chrome asked after leaving the bathroom, drying up her hair as she gave me a concerned look.
I waved it off with a pained expression, mentally noting how she wore the same clothes from the training.
Automatic cleaning was handy.
"Well, can't have me coughing in-in mid battle. Also, mental training!" After yelling, I fell into another coughing fit, tears coming out of my eyes. "Oh god."
"How much did you have to pay for the vials?" The girl asked skeptically, though her face didn't change at all as she finished drying up her hair.
"I'm in debt. But it was for science!" I exclaimed and she rolled her eye in amusement.
I on the other hand had to cough again.
So yeah. That was fun. Somewhat. Not the coughing, but the training itself. I felt a sense of accomplishment.
Good job, Sid. Pat yourself.
Mentally that is, because that was one of the few things I could do in this thing.
It took like twenty minutes in that pod to heal all the damage and pain away.
If it took that long for these minor injuries, I did not want to know how long serious injuries took.
Plus side, my voice didn't become raspy from all the smoking, surprisingly enough.
Cancer free smoke, would you look at that.
Also, I didn't need to take a shower because the machine healed it away to. How handy.
Still preferred a bath, because the healing pod was boring.
I could barely move in the somewhat soft pod as it quietly made a "wrrrr" sound emitted by the green, misty light. All I had was listening to the music the computer was playing on random, the small window in front of me and my fellow illusionist's company.
Maybe I should reposition the pod in front of the computer. Videos would do a lot to kill my boredom.
Still, while I was healing up, Chrome did some small talk with me while she cooked, so it wasn't that boring.
…
Oh right. She could cook.
In the anime she couldn't cook, but I heard that in some novel she was a good cook.
Guess it took after the novel. Considering the people she had to live with, it was understandable.
One could last on low budget instant food only for so long. Someone had to get the skills to make something with basic stuff.
And basic it was, I mused when I left the healing pod and stretched myself, before sitting in front of Chrome on the dining table.
Rice, some pork roasted in honey and vegetables.
Simple, but I wasn't complaining, because it tasted good anyway. I complimented Chrome on it, but she waved it off with a small blush and offered to cook for us.
I didn't object, because my culinary abilities were not that good. I quickly choked the small guilt in me before it could grow.
Even when my father was a cook, I didn't learn any of that.
"Wonder when and where our next stop is..." I muttered as I leaned back in my chair after finishing up the food and putting the chopsticks down.
As Chrome did the same, she tilted her head.
"I think it can't take that long. Kawahira wouldn't do this to us. Probably."
I cracked a small smile at her uncertain tone and shrugged.
"Yeah...he should know we aren't trained astronauts. Some normal earth under our feet is necessary." I frowned slightly as I stared at the ceiling. "Hopefully it won't be anything too overpowered as a setting."
"What is...overpowered?" The girl asked with hesitation and I glanced at her.
Right, she wasn't a nerd like I was.
"For our standards, a lot," I replied as I leaned forward and scratched my hair. Her eye narrowed slightly and I assumed she didn't want to hear that. I awkwardly cleared my throat. "If we are lucky, we get something like Harvest Moon or something."
"What is Harvest Moon?" She asked, tilting her head.
I blinked.
Never expected to explain that one in my life.
While I stood up and gathered the dirty dishes I thought for a moment how to explain the game.
"Well, it's basically-"
All of a sudden, the computer screen lit up in a red light, blinking non stop, with the words "Attention" on it.
Chrome and I took a glance at each other, before turning back to the screen.
Almost on command, the computer voice spoke up the moment we looked back at it.
"Destination reached. Landing commences."
Then, the warning got replaced by a view of the planet we were flying at.
It looked a lot like Earth.
"It is Earth," Chrome helpfully supplied and I raised my thumb at her with my right hand after dumping the dishes into the sink.
Thank god that thing was automatic, because cleaning it myself was the last thing on my mind right now.
"Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear," I said with a nervous smirk as I crossed my arms.
"We didn't talk about the devil. Do you feel one?"
I sent Chrome a flat stare, making her stare back in confusion even more.
"I didn't mean it literally."
"Oh."
Let me tell you that I hated to get used to other places to sleep in.
Hotels, guest beds, busses, no matter where, I hated it.
Not that I couldn't fall asleep, mind you, but it was the simple fact that my body felt like hell every time, as if the different sleeping location pinged off like a virus for my body. And I never knew where I was in the first few minutes, wondering why the fuck my room looked so different.
The downsides of falling asleep like a normal person, opposed to falling unconscious or sleeping in the hospital.
Anyway, long story short, I felt like a corpse when my eyes slowly opened.
Though for some reason, my right side felt more dead than the rest, including my chest.
Wiping my eyes, I yawned and raised my head slightly, while snapping my finger to turn the lights on.
What I saw, made me groan and let out a "daw" at the same time.
Somehow, she managed to snuggle up on me without waking me up.
Well, more like we managed to snuggle up to each other without waking each other up, in a sense.
We were in the middle of the bed.
Considering it could house ten people, with squeezing, that meant the two of us slept that uneasy to move the entire distance to the middle.
The singular blanket did not make it any better, since it was a big bundle, lying on the ground because of reasons.
Anyway, she snuggled up on me, using my right, numb as hell arm as a pillow.
Like a small teddie. Or a little, cute sister I never had, so that mitigated my pain a little bit.
Luckily for me, she stood up soon after the lights went on, sparing me from the agony.
Still, I had to safely guide her to the bathroom to get ourselves freshened up, because she was a morning muffle and was not aware of what she was doing. Not that I was one to talk, but hey.
Brushing teeth, throwing some bread into our mouths and changing our clothes would be our "morning" routine in the near future.
By the time we changed our clothes into a simple white t-shirt and some short pants, Chrome finally woke up for real and blinked at me when we left our bedroom once again.
She didn't look at me for a few minutes.
I think she was embarrassed, but I wasn't so sure. Maybe she didn't like the fact I had to babysit her body until she was mentally there.
Anyway, it took a good five minute run on the treadmill for her until she faced me.
Right as I was failing horrendously at simple pull ups.
She had a good laugh, lost her balance on the running machine and fell flat on her face.
I myself dropped on the ground in shock, slipping and hitting the back of my head on the ground.
The two of us were groveling around on the ground for a few minutes in complete agony.
Did I mention the two of us could be complete idiots sometimes?
Good news, none of us got injured too much and we even managed to laugh about it.
In pain, but laughing nonetheless.
Honestly, if I had any choice, I would not train because of the pain in the first place.
But I did not have a choice in this.
Training was mandatory. I wasn't naive enough to believe I could avoid conflict, so work outs were going to be a thing for the two of us.
Not that I was very diligent in training before my first death, but considering I did not want to die again, it was a good motivator. Chrome saw first hand, with me as the example, what would happen if we didn't train, so she didn't complain.
Anyway, it was good that we weren't hurt that much, because we were going to get hurt a lot more.
In that ten times ten square of a sparring arena.
So yeah, my earlier estimate about the cars was wrong.
The size of the spaceship was "enough".
Seriously, no matter how much we threw into the room, it never felt small. There was always enough space.
Space magic be praised.
Where was I? Right, sparring.
Of course we didn't just start to throw senseless attacks at each other without purpose, so I proposed one simple goal for our first session.
Viper didn't really attack me physically and that weakness of mine could be counteracted with my aura sensing. But against bigger targets, with way more flexibility and reach, I needed to see them with my eyes.
So, anti blinking training was a thing.
Which meant that Chrome had to smash my face in with a wooden staff. Repeatedly, until I got it.
I wasn't idle either and tried to hit her as well, with my fists. We both needed dodging and eye skills, so I needed to attack as well.
…
Okay, so we did throw senseless attacks at each other, but mostly at our faces.
The results were...rather okay actually.
Plus side, the two of us didn't flinch at any attacks after an hour or so.
Down side, we felt like hell. Exhausted and I think our faces began to swell slightly from all the hits in the first ten minutes.
Still, biting through the pain, we focused on our main arsenal: Illusions.
It was very likely we had to create them under pain anyway, so Chrome didn't have any objections, even with the blue eye I gave her.
I still felt guilty.
Anywho, we made some good progress on our mental training, both offensively and defensively.
I could somewhat create things like the flame pillars easier, while Chrome began to focus on real illusions by mimicking the clone trick I used in the ring battle.
If I didn't know any better, I would believe Chrome had the Path of Naraka as well, with how much substance her illusions had even without mist flames after just a few minutes of training.
Well, was to be expected. She was part of a protagonist team, originally, while I was…
A normal guy, basically.
Not that I felt jealous, it was a fact and I was happy for the girl.
I wasn't even "weaker" than her. It's just that her talent was way better than mine.
We were about even, in terms of skill. Though she had better skill at old fashioned illusions that fool the senses, while I had a better hand at stuff that helped us out directly.
Organ creation, pseudo human creation, pain reduction (handy I found that out early in our session) and even minor physical buffs.
Kinda like she was the debuffer and I was the buffer, in RPG terms.
Maybe that was were our specialties lied?
Eh, too soon to make a sure theory.
Suffice to say, I didn't have enough information to find out where our strengths lied, but it was a start at least.
One more fun thing I found out on pure accident.
Apparently, I could summon my hell ring back, as in, it spawned back on my hand when I focused on it like a Green Lantern ring or something.
The sky battle made a lot more sense because of that. The Varia wasn't that stupid after all.
Also, speaking of physical buffs…
The pipe. Or more specifically, Dying Will mode.
At the end of our session, I decided to test it out.
Well, I could use it. Often enough in rapid succession.
Apparently, the regret of dying in the first place, so to say, was enough to trigger it.
But…
Let's say that the pain came after a delay and piles up. And that illusions did not erase injuries and pain forever.
Which led to the natural conclusion of me being stuck in the Super Saiyan pod of healing, coughing like hell while soft green light scanned my entire body.
"Are you sure this was the best way?" Chrome asked after leaving the bathroom, drying up her hair as she gave me a concerned look.
I waved it off with a pained expression, mentally noting how she wore the same clothes from the training.
Automatic cleaning was handy.
"Well, can't have me coughing in-in mid battle. Also, mental training!" After yelling, I fell into another coughing fit, tears coming out of my eyes. "Oh god."
"How much did you have to pay for the vials?" The girl asked skeptically, though her face didn't change at all as she finished drying up her hair.
"I'm in debt. But it was for science!" I exclaimed and she rolled her eye in amusement.
I on the other hand had to cough again.
So yeah. That was fun. Somewhat. Not the coughing, but the training itself. I felt a sense of accomplishment.
Good job, Sid. Pat yourself.
Mentally that is, because that was one of the few things I could do in this thing.
It took like twenty minutes in that pod to heal all the damage and pain away.
If it took that long for these minor injuries, I did not want to know how long serious injuries took.
Plus side, my voice didn't become raspy from all the smoking, surprisingly enough.
Cancer free smoke, would you look at that.
Also, I didn't need to take a shower because the machine healed it away to. How handy.
Still preferred a bath, because the healing pod was boring.
I could barely move in the somewhat soft pod as it quietly made a "wrrrr" sound emitted by the green, misty light. All I had was listening to the music the computer was playing on random, the small window in front of me and my fellow illusionist's company.
Maybe I should reposition the pod in front of the computer. Videos would do a lot to kill my boredom.
Still, while I was healing up, Chrome did some small talk with me while she cooked, so it wasn't that boring.
…
Oh right. She could cook.
In the anime she couldn't cook, but I heard that in some novel she was a good cook.
Guess it took after the novel. Considering the people she had to live with, it was understandable.
One could last on low budget instant food only for so long. Someone had to get the skills to make something with basic stuff.
And basic it was, I mused when I left the healing pod and stretched myself, before sitting in front of Chrome on the dining table.
Rice, some pork roasted in honey and vegetables.
Simple, but I wasn't complaining, because it tasted good anyway. I complimented Chrome on it, but she waved it off with a small blush and offered to cook for us.
I didn't object, because my culinary abilities were not that good. I quickly choked the small guilt in me before it could grow.
Even when my father was a cook, I didn't learn any of that.
"Wonder when and where our next stop is..." I muttered as I leaned back in my chair after finishing up the food and putting the chopsticks down.
As Chrome did the same, she tilted her head.
"I think it can't take that long. Kawahira wouldn't do this to us. Probably."
I cracked a small smile at her uncertain tone and shrugged.
"Yeah...he should know we aren't trained astronauts. Some normal earth under our feet is necessary." I frowned slightly as I stared at the ceiling. "Hopefully it won't be anything too overpowered as a setting."
"What is...overpowered?" The girl asked with hesitation and I glanced at her.
Right, she wasn't a nerd like I was.
"For our standards, a lot," I replied as I leaned forward and scratched my hair. Her eye narrowed slightly and I assumed she didn't want to hear that. I awkwardly cleared my throat. "If we are lucky, we get something like Harvest Moon or something."
"What is Harvest Moon?" She asked, tilting her head.
I blinked.
Never expected to explain that one in my life.
While I stood up and gathered the dirty dishes I thought for a moment how to explain the game.
"Well, it's basically-"
All of a sudden, the computer screen lit up in a red light, blinking non stop, with the words "Attention" on it.
Chrome and I took a glance at each other, before turning back to the screen.
Almost on command, the computer voice spoke up the moment we looked back at it.
"Destination reached. Landing commences."
Then, the warning got replaced by a view of the planet we were flying at.
It looked a lot like Earth.
"It is Earth," Chrome helpfully supplied and I raised my thumb at her with my right hand after dumping the dishes into the sink.
Thank god that thing was automatic, because cleaning it myself was the last thing on my mind right now.
"Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear," I said with a nervous smirk as I crossed my arms.
"We didn't talk about the devil. Do you feel one?"
I sent Chrome a flat stare, making her stare back in confusion even more.
"I didn't mean it literally."
"Oh."
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
Nope. All worlds have something supernatural going on.
Supernatural as in "You can die even with your own superpowers".
Last edited:
Krazyfan1
Worrying for the future.
- Location
- Australia
harvest moon was supernatural, with mermaids and goddesses and stuff?
but yeah...
wonder what world it is?
TimeLordLucario
The Oncoming Aura Storm
- Location
- Australia
Supernatural, maybe?
Chapter 9.1 - Arc 1: Start
- Location
- Germany
Arc 1: Martial Heart
Chapter 9.1
So, reached a new universe. And it took a day or so, in Earth time.
Honestly expected a little bit more prep time, but oh well.
There were many thing I could do, but after having changed clothes first (flexible jeans with a red shirt with a black vest), I needed to wait for Chrome to get her clothes.
So, playing twenty questions with the computer was my way to kill time.
"Why did we stop anyway?" I asked nonchalantly, spinning a little in the chair in front of the computer.
"Energy on low levels. Landing necessary."
I frowned slightly at the robot voice.
So it had some good intelligence, to determine that.
Was the fuel low in the first place or did it simply take that much to travel? How long was the distance?
All questions I thought about and actually didn't want to ponder on. They would give me headaches.
Therefore, a question that was more relevant for the situation.
"How long does it take to recharge?" I asked, leaning back in my chair.
"Unknown. Estimations range from twenty four hours to two months in Earth time units."
I blinked and leaned forward in confusion.
That was a wide range of time.
"Reasons?" I inquired and heard how Chrome left our bedroom.
"Local energy and its availability has to be analyzed. Time estimations based on crossreferencing with other Earths and its local energy rates and availability."
I hummed in interest.
Made sense, I guess. It had to access energy from somewhere and depending on what the setting was, it was either harder or easier to get.
By god, did I wish it would be the latter. Better to have the option to leave any time than be stuck somewhere with potentially nothing to do.
With that in mind, I stood up, having the information needed. The computer would notify us if it had its energy back and was ready for take off.
Turning around, I took a look at my friend...and blinked.
Chrome wore her canon uniform. Only instead of showing her mid riff and a skirt, it were blue jeans.
That was a little...disappointing, to be honest.
"Something wrong?" She asked, tilting her head.
"No, no..." I let out a sigh and waved my hand. Then, I crossed my arms. "So...you sure you wanna come with me?"
For a moment, she seemed to frown at me, but then nodded calmly.
"I would feel better if I come with you. The ship has stealth systems."
Breathing out in relief, my shoulders slumped slightly.
"Thank god. I don't wanna go out there alone anyway."
"Then why ask?"
I think she sounded a little irritated, though she looked as blank as ever.
I chuckled awkwardly and scratched my cheek.
"Dunno if you feel comfortable with going out in unknown territory without me."
"Safety in numbers," she replied and her voice, as quiet as it was, left no room for objections.
"If you say so," I dumbly said and we both walked over to the hatch. Before we opened however, I raised my hand, stopping Chrome.
We were in a mountain range, judging from the camera. Jungle or forest like too.
Therefore, I had no damn idea where we were on Earth. Or which one. It was far away from civilization, as far as I could tell.
So, better safe than sorry then.
"Let's make sure we keep up stealth at all costs. I don't like the woods. Or mountains," I explained to Chrome and I shuddered. "Too many cliches that could happen here."
The girl nodded in response.
"Alright, but we can't keep it up forever."
"Five minutes then, then we go back, which makes ten minutes. Safe enough for some scouting and we don't drop dead because of pain." Not hearing any objections, I let the ramp down and immediately fired up my hell ring.
Seconds later, our presence and visibility was basically zero as we left the UFO.
The moment we did that, the ship vanished in thin air. I whistled impressed.
"Thank god that thing has an invisibility function."
"I don't think it's simple invisibility," Chrome said after a small silence of walking between the plants and I raised an eyebrow at her when I stopped in front of her.
"Why do you think so?"
Chrome shrugged slightly, forehead wrinkling a little in thought.
"It feels like it's just...gone."
I hummed in thought and narrowed my eyes, extending my senses to where our ship was supposed to me.
She trained the aura reading thing as well. Handy enough skill and she could use it rather well. Considering her skill with it, maybe she missed something, I thought.
Well, I thought wrong, because there was not a single trace of it, as far as I could tell. Like it got erased from history. No aura, no smell, no whatever.
I shrugged in the end.
"Space magic. It just works, so I won't break my head over it."
Chrome nodded in agreement, before we resumed walking in the somewhat chilly night.
It was a bit straining and I didn't meant nature itself.
I felt the gradual pull on my reserves as I used my hell ring and I needed to focus on four things at once, while walking was more of a subconscious thing.
Chrome's organs, our presence, our visibility and our surroundings.
Thank god the first thing was basically as easy as breathing to me. Still, multitasking was not a thing I recommended. Still, this made three subjects that needed my flames and three subjects that required my focus.
Good that I wasn't alone then.
The girl was able to keep an eye out easier than me. Not that she had it too easy either.
She covered the gaps I left. In this case, the traces we left from our little patrolling. And she needed to maintain them, which meant she had to mentally map out our path as precise as possible.
Obviously, not an easy task and this system of ours wasn't completely perfect.
But it was a perfect enough set up for me.
The natural conclusion of this strain would be to stay silent as we walked.
Of course, I did not have such discipline and acted like an irrational human being.
Which meant I started to talk and had to add another illusion to keep the sound in a small bubble around us.
"Ugh, not used to this," I muttered, gritting my teeth a bit to keep up my focus.
Chrome stayed silent for a while behind me and I could feel her raising an eyebrow. But apparently she decided to humor me or whatever, because she engaged in the talk as well.
"You weren't much in nature?" She asked in her soft voice, though I could hear her focus as well. I shrugged in response as I pushed some plants out of the way.
"A forest here and there and a hill. Nothing super nature like this here." I shuddered and rubbed my arms a little when a soft wind managed to breach through the thick fauna. "Feels weird. Not a fan of this." I turned my head slightly and lowered my pace. "You?"
She shook her head as she watched the ground in front of her, before giving me a neutral look.
"Never been outside my home very often."
"You ever wanted?" I asked, noticing that the way we walked began to be easier to walk through. I looked around.
Hm, it looked like other people walked through here before. Frequently too, almost like patrol paths.
With that in mind, I moved on. We still had something like two minutes before we would need to turn back.
"Sure. But I couldn't," Chrome said shortly after my observation and my head turned at her again. She nodded a little and her mouth twitched. "It's...exciting I guess."
"You look excited," I replied, smiling at her. She in return tilted her head.
"Do I?"
"Your eye sparkles a little," I said, pointing at her, before wiping some sweat of my forehead with a small wince.
Legs started to hurt. I was not used to this ground.
Never skip leg day, I guess.
My frown quickly got replaced with a chuckle at seeing her reaction.
She pouted.
"You're joking," she said, sounding a little miffed. I turned around and raised my hands in mock surrender.
"Who knows."
I could hear a quiet, cute grumble from her and I needed to suppress a giggle.
Jesus, getting her out of her shell was working faster than expected and it was adorable as hell!
Before I could enjoy her company in peace more however, my eyes widened in shock.
I stopped in my tracks, at the same time as Chrome.
The reason was simple.
I almost fell off a small cliff. Artificially made, on a path that was created to lead up to our position.
Suffice to say, the two of us reached some sort of construction or mining site. I saw excavators, some huts and all that down in the lower area.
But it wasn't the fact that there was a mining site that made me stop.
It was the fact that my aura sense was tingling.
Barely.
I clicked my tongue, glaring at the sight like an evil spirit.
It would have been bad enough if this site was abandoned, but the fact that I could feel little wisps of presences from it was potentially worse.
Because if there were humans, I should feel a lot more than that.
Time for a second opinion.
I turned to Chrome, whose eye scanned over the entire area in a frantic manner, before noticing my gaze and raised her eyebrow.
"You feel that?"
She nodded quietly with a small frown, clutching her mini trident a bit.
"Hm. Barely, but there are several people."
I let out a sigh and scratched my hair in agitation as I looked down the area.
"Considering I almost missed them, that either means they are half dead or good enough to hide them. Since we don't see any of them in the first place..." I took a deep breath and crossed my arms. "Either way, it means bad news."
My companion nodded in agreement, but I pondered what to do next.
By all means, the safest option was to not go down there and go back to the ship. Waiting in it wouldn't be so bad and it was safe.
But it was a mystery in front of me. Where were the people, what did they want to find, what universe was this?
I shook my head and grit my teeth.
No, safety first.
Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it…
…
God damn it!
I clenched my fists and let out an irritated snort before whirling around to face Chrome. Before she could ask, I pointed down the site.
"We gotta check it out."
The girl stared at me in silence.
Then, her eye narrowed ever so slightly.
"Do we?"
Immediately, I shook my head.
"Not really, but my curiosity is beating my common sense right now," I said in a flat tone, making it very clear I hated myself.
Chrome stared at me in silence again.
Her eye narrowed even more.
"Isn't that a bad thing?" She asked, this time not even bothering to hide her accusation.
Being accused by a thirteen year old girl, you go, Sid.
Still, I nodded in agreement.
"It is. I should work on my impulse control." I let out a sigh and closed my eyes with crossed arms. "I should start a list."
When I heard some weird paper noises I opened them again.
Only to see Chrome about to pocket a notepad into her pockets. She looked up and pointed at it with an innocent expression.
"Wrote it down," she said in a neutral tone and showed me what she wrote.
"Train impulse control. Sid."
I blinked.
She blinked.
When nobody of us said something, she gestured towards me, then down the site.
My eyes widened slightly.
She was coming with me, despite the obvious dangers.
I couldn't help but smile at her. For both the note and her companionship.
"You are a dear, you know that?"
She said nothing, but I could see a faint blush on her face.
Not wanting to embarrass her further, we walked down to the lion's den, walking down the artificial ramp. Though I did grin all the way down.
Once we reached ground level, the grin was gone from my face.
It took a minute or two and the strain of the illusions started to become more noticeable on us. Our breathing grew heavier slowly, but surely and a headache slowly began to form in my head.
By all means, the two of us could do our stealth routine half an hour or so.
But them we would have to suffer to immense migraines, so it would be bad to suffer from that in the middle of nowhere.
I had to keep that in mind, so I hurried my steps a little to get through the small forest area between the ramp and the huts.
Only to step on something soft.
I looked down.
I grimaced.
"Oh, come on," I groaned and squat down.
A body. Yay.
And considering I didn't feel any aura from them, they were probably dead. Quite some time too, because their bodies were cold after I poked one of them in the face.
Which meant they weren't the ones I felt.
"Whaddya think, Chrome?" When I didn't receive an answer, I looked at her standing next to me with a wide eye.
I followed her gaze…
To see a squad of Asian military people relaxing around a bunch of other corpses and a somewhat ruined landscape, bandaging up some wounds probably received from combat.
I blinked.
Then my face distorted in disbelief.
How could I not hear them?!
…
Wait, illusions and multitasking didn't mix that well. My bad then.
"Sid. Over there."
I followed her finger and narrowed my eyes.
Another squad. I could barely feel them as well, but I could see them from our position.
Dressed similar to the dead people around the place.
So probably enemies to the resting squad.
Which meant shit was about to go down, again.
Welp, time to take a closer look while I was at it. I scratched my chin, making sure that our illusions were up.
Hm...
Look Asian, maybe Koreans. At least it sounded like they were talking Korean. Military, spec ops perhaps judging from the camo uniforms.
…
Weird, something about this reminded me of something. Only a few of these people were itching in my brain.
Fat guy, twins, masked guy, baby face, yellow mohawk guy and blue hair guy, about to get ambushed by shady people in the fauna, one of the shady people looked like a kid and about to leave the grass, while the other one looked like an albino scar face...
Where did I saw this before…
I hummed in thought, while Chrome clutched her trident a little harder with a frown.
…
My eyes widened when it clicked, from the depths of my memories.
Oh god no.
"Sid?"
I heard Chrome's worry, but I was more busy not freaking the fuck out.
I somewhat succeeded, if only for the reminder that panic would screw my illusions, which would then lead to Chrome and I to get screwed in turn.
Still, I hyperventilated a little.
Jesus Christ, this is God of Highschool. Manhwa with overpowered martial arts.
More specifically, I was in Jin Tae-Jin's flashback arc with his special team.
And this was the scene where one of the twins were going to lose their life, before Tae-Jin kicked the North Korean's squad's collective ass.
I glanced at the North Korean martial arts squad in the woods.