The Saint and The Skater

It was a strange thing, really. This place was practically a desert, the sun hanging high in the air, and the temperature so intense he'd never experienced anything like it back home, in his own world. But he didn't feel hot. An unnatural wind, almost without force, brought a chilling cold to his skin, perfectly balancing out the searing heat. It was neither hot nor cold, but the temperature was the last thing Mamoru was thinking about now.

“Mamoru!” A feminine voice cut through the quiet, snapping him out of the trance he'd fallen into while staring at the vast sky. He found himself standing in front of the two people he'd met just last night: siblings, as he'd since learned. "Sorry. I couldn't get any sleep after… everything. And this body feels weird."

"We get it. Been there, done that, and trust me, you're taking it better than many before." The tall, blonde, muscular man spoke, his frame so perfectly sculpted it seemed unreal, like a statue of some ancient hero. "It takes time to get used to the new body. For what it's worth, that's just you from a few years in the future, or something like that. Still don't really know how that works fully."

The girl cut in before her brother could continue, "There's no clear pattern to how much we age when entering this world. Some look almost the same, some ten or even twenty years older. If you were really fifteen back home, then you're one of the former."

"Right… So how old are you?" Mamoru scratched the back of his neck. You couldn't really tell in this world, so he could only guess. He wouldn't have given the girl more than nineteen, but at the same time, she could be as young as ten.

"Guess." Of course she would say that. He'd only just met them yesterday, and already he felt like he could predict what either of them would say. She was small and looked cute, but when it came to personality, it seemed like he wasn't going to get much fluff and sweetness from her if he wasn't strong and useful. Her brother, on the other hand, looked like he could crush people in half, but so far had been nothing but kind to him.

"Uhm… Fourteen and…" He looked at the guy, a very tricky situation. "Seventeen?.."

“Close enough. Twenty-one. Akane’s almost sixteen.”

"And make no mistake! I might be younger than Ren, but I'm smarter, kinder, sweeter, and more beautiful!" Akane declared with a confident strut, heading straight for what looked like a handmade wooden fighting partner. "Show us your powers."

‘Powers? Do I still even have powers? They said we have them back here, but what if I embarrass myself?’ "It's not a power I can show on, uh… This." He gestured vaguely at the piece of wood.

“Okay then… You asked for it.” Akane gave Ren a small, knowing nod. "Pops! Come out here!" They didn't have to wait long after Ren's call. Not even a minute later, the same man who'd been sitting with them at the table last night stepped out from the bar and joined them. Only now, in the open air, could Mamoru see the full extent of his massive size, which looked so out of place with his wrinkly old face and eyes almost fully closed, making it impossible to tell if he was looking or not. His frame wasn't comparable to Ren's sharp, muscular build, but it was still far from what you'd expect from an older person.

"I'm sure you already caught on, but that's the current owner of the bar." Ren's voice held a hint of amusement. "Can you guess his age?" Mamoru hadn't been expecting that challenge from the kind giant himself; it felt more like a game his sister would propose again.

"You said that there are either people looking the same, or even tens of years older. If I had to guess, he's twenty, maybe twenty-five?" Mamoru stood confident in his claim. After all, he hadn't been too far off when he'd guessed their ages.

The man merely smiled, a broad, easy expression that made Mamoru even more certain in his guess. That certainty shattered, however, by Akane's burst of laughter and the old man's surprisingly clear voice. "I wish I could be this young… Not only my body but also my mind is old. I'm sixty-four, you see."

As shocking as the reveal was for Mamoru, if he were wrong, it still wasn't as bad as it could have been; "Pops" easily looked at least eighty. "Why did you call me? You kids can't handle a newcomer?"

"We're going to fight." Akane announced, stripping off her oversized jacket. It hit the sandy ground with a soft thud as she stretched, loosening up her limbs.

"Fight?!" Mamoru's anxiety flared as he spun to face her. After all, he still wasn't sure if his own powers were back, or what exactly their abilities even were.

"Relax. Treat it as a test. We're going to give you a handicap by showing our powers." Ren offered a reassuring smile as he stepped to stand next to Akane. "Go on, Kana."

Mamoru observed cautiously, his eyes narrowed, yet even then he couldn't keep up with the impossible speed she moved. She glided behind him so smoothly, so instantly, it was unbelievable, as if the ground were ice and she wore skates. He instantly whirled around, trying to catch her with his eyes, but she wasn't there anymore. She was again behind him. This time, he didn't even try to track her; he simply waited for her to circle back. As she did, he looked down at her feet. Just as he thought, she was gliding, on a sort of ice-skate blades. The only problem was, she was doing so on a hard, sandy surface, and those blades had simply grown out of her shoes.

"So you caught on. I'm able to grow blades out of my feet, like ice skates. But it's not as lame as it sounds, actually. I can change the length, size, width. I can do all sorts of things with them." As she spoke, the "blade" on her right foot, which she'd lifted into the air for him to see, began to morph, shifting through impossible forms: from a normal skate blade, to a dagger, to a scythe, and then many other shapes too intricate to imagine. By the end of her demonstration, somehow her foot, blade and all, was inches from his neck, forcing her into a perfect split while standing. "Cool, right?"

"Now, now, go easy on him, Akane." Mamoru could have sworn the old man was standing far behind with Ren, but now he was somehow right next to him, effortlessly holding Akane's leg.

"Sorry…" Akane pulled back her leg, retracting the blade, and gave them space. Confused and shocked, Mamoru looked at the old man, searching for something to say, but nothing came. He turned to Ren, who was still standing next to the thick wooden log sticking out of the ground. "What are your powers, then?"

Ren only smiled warmly, his eyes remaining closed in what seemed like quiet amusement. "You're going to show them before the fight, right?…" Not even a flinch or a change of pace from Ren. "…Right?"

"Let's decide on the rules then, shall we?" The old man interjected, and it seemed like Mamoru's handicap wasn't going to be full after all.

"We don't know how skilled he is with his powers, or what they even are, so I'd say we should be careful," Ren finally moved as he spoke, stepping slightly forward.

"Ren's right," Pops added, his voice surprisingly firm. "Meaning an all-out brawl with no rules. You fall on the ground, you're out. Last one standing wins."

"Wait a second now!" Mamoru protested, but he couldn't really do anything, as the trio didn't seem to be listening anymore. "Any objections?"

"I do have one, actually-"

"None." Both of the siblings interrupted him at the same time, their voices cutting him off. It seemed the fight was about to start, with Akane and Ren now standing in two different corners, forming a triangle with Mamoru. "I'm not fighting two of you, right? We're all on all?"

"Of course you're fighting both of them," the grandpa, answered with a knowing grin. Now don't die on us, Mamoru, was what swirled in old man’s head as he observed the three of them. "Now let's begin."