Look So Cool I Fall For You

Regardless of her confidence, things are not going well.

“GRRKKK-I’M GONNA FALLL!”

“Don’t worry girl, you’re alright!” She laughs as she says it. What about this is funny?! I try to focus on the bastard thing after us, but it’s zipping around faster than I can process. It would be a lot easier for her if she could put me down, but any lapse in her focus would likely just end in us both dead. There has to be something, but it’s not like I’m a master in combat. The best I can do is just stay as out of the way as possible. “Damn, I think my leg is gonna break!” I look down in concern, and see a mangled leg healing itself. “Ohh, never mind! Hahaha!” What kind of creature am I talking to here?!

“Is there nothing we can do?!”

“Mmmm…I’ll admit, I’m pretty out of ideas.” She clicks her teeth. “Pretty rough situation, wouldn’t you say?!” She turns to slam her foot into its face as it tries to sneak up behind us. “My bad for thinking one uppercut would put it out for the count! Hah!”

“I-it’s fine…it was a pretty hard punch…”

“Right?!” I watch as her leg gets pulled off from below, and we’re sent flying by the force. She grunts, and a new one takes its place. “Ugh, I’m so fuckin lost!” Me too. We’re missing something. There’s no way this fight is unwinnable. Think, this is your responsibility, Loria! I shut my eyes tight, racking my brain. It doesn’t make sense for her to just have these simple abilities. Super strength, regeneration, flying, all basic chosen one schlock. There has to be something neither of us are aware of. What would it be? I grit my teeth. What about her is so special…ah. Wait.

“Nikki…”

“Huh?!” She looks down at me before kicking that thing away from us again.

“Your guitar.”

“What about my guitar?!”

“Do you think it has any abilities?”

“WHY WOULD I KNOW THAT?! AGH!” It finally breaks through her defense, landing a punch and sending us both flying back down to the city below. I can feel her wings wrap around us before we slam into a roof. We roll out of each other’s grasp. Shit! I get up on my knees to check on her as she’s already jumping back onto her feet. Her…guitar is just fine. There’s no way it was protected from that crash. With time running out, I sprint over to grab her hand before she can fly off. “LO-MPFH?!”

I kiss her, grab onto her shoulders, and pull back. Even that strange smile has faded away now.

“I think you need to play your guitar.” I reconsider my words, and add. “I command you to play your guitar.”

“P-play whut?”

“Whatever your heart tells you to. Please.” This has to be it. It’s the only thing that makes sense. “Tell me all about you. Show me the language inside you.” The words seemed to break through. From her head, I could see branches of black growing…intertwining…and speakers rising from spuds. She moved her guitar to her front, as something like a jack came pushing out of her wrist. She doesn’t move, so I do, taking it and plugging it into the jack on her guitar. I touch the strings, letting my fingers float over them. “What do you have inside you?”

“I..” She grits her teeth, until something crashes down behind her.

“N-now, Nikki!”

“...” A pic summons itself from the aether, and she strums.

Reality itself reverberates. The creature is stopped in its tracks as she turns to face it, seemingly finding a harmony for herself. Violent and catchy, I find myself unable to turn away. The creature snarls, it’s face of pulsing meat sliding about to reveal a void of dark, flashing lights of varying colors.

“I feel the blue of the sky down here on my skin,

And wonder if today I’ll see you.

A hero dressed in wonder,

With imagination let loose.”

Her voice sent the atoms of the world into a tailspin. Everything began and ended all around us, shrinking into a compact ball of just us three. Souls of life, of architecture, of everything human or alive or created or destroyed made manifest to her single focus.

“My whole world based on a simple dream,

Always wasting away with every second I bleed,

And down and down the rabbit hole I’ll fall,

Waiting for the hand to answer my call.”

“There’s no strength in a woman who can’t speak,

Watching and waiting over a dead city,

I’m imagining and rewriting,

This fate till love manifests.”

“Waiting and praying,

Always hoping the world will change for me,

So this time instead,

If I hold out my hand-!”

The creature lets out a howl, drowned out by the world’s recognition of her words. All of reality around us explodes, into images I can’t comprehend, but still reach inside and beg to hold me.

“A world is reformed,

A dream is reborn,

I sing out to you,

Knowing I’m seen in your soul.”

“Running straight through,

Destiny becomes a book burned,

Rewritten to a story I’ll hold,

A life of my own!”

“Let the smoke and passion collide,

A flame burning bright,

So you can find me,

Even in the darkest night!”

“I need to know it was worth it,

That you can find me through.”

I can hear her voice becoming hoarse. Her body shakes. The creature, though, doesn’t seem capable yet of breaking through. Its skin is burning, but…it’s not enough. Nikki…

“I can keep up the act,

Surely I can pretend to be strong,

If I know the day will come,

Where you’ll have said you heard my song.”

“But it hurts,

I’m not strong,

And even cowardice has a place in this world,

In my world.”

I grit my teeth, standing up. No. Don’t you dare. I reach for the doll. I find it in my pocket, waiting for me. It’s like that…that the words I have to say come to my lips.

“Just a toy,

Nothing more…”

I grip the doll between both my hands-

“My hero needs nothing like that,

To destroy a dark sun!”

-and rip it in two!

“So come grit your fists,

Destroy everything ahead,

And look so fucking cool,

I fall for you in an instant!”

The speakers, the branches, they’re washed away by the formless waves of reality slamming through, leaving her head exactly the way it was always meant to be. A hero with no strings. That’s my chosen one. So sing, sing!

“RIGHT!”

The creature is unable to take it. It moves to cover itself, but reality itself has formed against it. I take my place, standing next to her, and wrap an arm tight around her.

“A world is reformed,

A dream is reborn,

An existence in two,

Stands far above the cold and cruel!”

“DON’T STOP!”

“Two paths intersect at the perfect world,”

All of it, fading together, into a blinding white. A reality for a chosen one like her, and a foolish girl like me.

“Assuring me of a wonderful life with you!”

…

When I open my eyes again, I can feel wind softly lapping against my face. Looking out, I can see the setting sun. It’s…beautiful, from up here. I can feel her arms holding me tight in that same bridal style. Her face, though…it’s all there. With a smile of genuine calm. The red on her face is surely a mirror of my own, but, I don’t care. She finally notices my staring, and turns to let me have that smile all to myself.

Peering down some, I can see that the city is spic and span. From everything I’d seen, that feels like a miracle, but I’m happy to accept it.

“Uhm…” Nikki starts to speak, falters, and regains herself. “Thank you…”

“N-no problem.”

“I never...uh, would have thought to try that.”

“It was out there. I…guess it just seemed so you that it would be worth a try.”

“S-so me? That’s crazy. That’s wild. Haha…hah…” I can see her whole face burning. “I…promise I can write better lyrics than that. I was just, uh, kind of crunched.”

“I can’t.”

“You were pretty direct, weren’t you? F-fuckin dark sun, what are we in, a video game?”

“I just thought it sounded right…”

“I-I MEAN, I LIKED IT-ugh. Sorry.” I have a small chuckle at her as our slow descent down to the ground continues.

“Uhm…would it surprise you if, uh…I may have had some idea about this?”

“Not…well, sort of, but…I don’t know, I guess it makes enough sense that I’m not super surprised.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You can explain when we’re on the ground. In, like, half an hour?” She chuckles. “I wanna enjoy this for a bit.”

“Y-yeah.”

I’m…not really good at romance. I’m not really good at much of anything. But, for a girl as cool as her…

“Me too.”

I think I’d like to learn.