Chapter 14 - Face Reality

After narrowly avoiding crashing into multiple trees, Little Man and I made it back to the camp. The sun was rising and everybody was going to wake up soon.

I didn’t know if I should’ve told Ame about what had happened or not. Of course, I wanted him to be proud of me, but wasn’t sure if telling him would have that effect. It wasn’t worth the risk.

Last time I tried to lie, I got arrested. I also didn’t like to lie to Ame, but I felt it was necessary this time. Lying is fine as long as it is necessary. That’s what I believed. I think.

So, as I heard the tent unzipping, I got off Little Man and pretended to be asleep on the table. Within a couple seconds, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“Nell, why are you sleeping out here?”

I pretended to have just woken up before responding.

“Sy kept kicking me in his sleep, so I came out here. Also, I found this… on the floor.”

Ame raised his eyebrow as I handed him the identification card.

“This is the keycard for commander 94. You found this on the floor?”

“Yes.”

Ame sighed and chopped my head before gritting his teeth and giving me the keycard back.

“Justin Beckwith isn’t gonna be happy… It’s fine Nell. You’ve done nothing wrong. I’m just glad you aren’t hurt.”

“Why would I be hurt?”

Ame chuckled.

“... Just checking. If you run into any commanders again, wake me up or I’ll get mad at you. Okay?”

“I didn’t run into any!”

Ame laughed and went to Little Man and started putting supplies on her back. Ame picked up the worm and threw it on the back, only for it to immediately start eating wood of the boxes they put their stuff in.

“Kaya! Come get your worm! It’s eating the fucking box!”

Dominic came up behind him and softly hit him on the head.

“Don’t swear. Get on.”

“Sorry, my liege~”

Dominic smiled and climbed up on Little Man’s back, followed by Sy and Kaya who were still rather awkward with each other. They kept trying to initiate conversation, but didn’t succeed until Ame started talking to both at the same time. As I watched this, Dominic yelled out to me.

“Nell! We’re leaving for Fort Beckwith! The 75th commander should be there. Once you get your important stuff ready, we’re leaving.”

I already had all my important stuff with me, right on the back of Little Man. I climbed up, and sat with everybody. Behind me was Dominic, looking over his shoulder at Kaya and Sy while cleaning his sword. To my left was Ame, Sy and Kaya all talking normally, and in my lap was the worm. This was the comfort I wanted. I didn’t care that the sun was out. I didn’t care that I was being watched. I loved this.

But, somebody stronger than me was supposedly waiting where we were going. No matter how hard I tried, I wouldn’t be able to handle it by myself. I needed everybody to help, and then it would be easy. That’s right. There was nothing to worry about.

I had to reassure myself that everybody would be okay if we were all fighting together. Even so, I was still worried.

Within two hours, the forest began to disappear as we saw a building nearby. It was rather large, about the size of all of Barye. The cold Jeti air was still noticeable here, but the intimidation of the building made it harder to breathe than normal. Ame got off of Little Man, and I immediately followed.

“We’ll go in, ambush #75, and take him out. Sy and Nell will be backliners. Kaya and Dominic will fight close range. I’ll butt in if you need help. You shouldn’t need my strength here. If you all do your part, there will be no problem. Cover for each other's mistakes. Got it?”

We all unanimously expressed our understanding.

“Got it.”

Kaya wasn’t able to sit still, jumping around. Sy was the same, but was trying to conceal it a bit harder. Dominic drew his sword silently as we began to sprint towards the fortress.

As we entered, we leapt on top of the walls and hid. Ame went on ahead after saying that he would give us a signal once he spotted the commander. He waited in front of the wall as he smiled at me reassuringly.

We waited, and waited. Kaya grew restless and signaled to Ame, asking if the commander arrived yet. Ame shook his head, before jumping up on the wall and returning back to us.

“He’s not here. Our info from #86 was wrong. It’s empty.”

Kaya and Sy groaned in disappointment together. I couldn’t tell if Dominic was disappointed or relieved. His expression was normal, as if he was pondering something.

I whispered to Ame.

“What do we do now?”

“You don't have to whisper anymore, there's nobody here. Since the commander isn’t here, we move on to step two.”

“Why can’t we just leave? What’s step two?”

Ame grinned.

“We blow it up.”

Huh?! Why did he want to blow it up?

Kaya immediately shouted.

“On it!”

She was about to jump down, only to get stopped by Dominic as he turned to me.

“Nell. You have that keycard, right?”

“Yes…?”

“Can I have it?”

I didn’t see a reason to say no, so I handed it over to him. He hopped down from the wall as everybody followed and held up the keycard to a door. The door didn’t open. He angrily shoved the keycard towards the door scanner, until it finally opened.

We walked inside the room. It was surrounded by steel walls, with the only lightning being a small lightbulb on the ceiling.

Ame’s eyes widened as he opened up a folder and saw his face on it. We all walked over to it and read it over his shoulder.

Ame ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ - Rain of Heaven

Age: 20

Birthday: 8/6

Threat level: Unknown - Rarely engages in battle. There are no records of any of his fights.

Appearance: Light blue hair, L’eaun, 181 cm, ⬛⬛⬛

Weaknesses: None currently known.

Ame proudly grinned as Kaya shouted.

“Rain of Heaven!?”

Ame looked down at Kaya.

“You’ll get a nickname once you’re at my level, don’t worry.”

He seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much. Rain of Heaven fit rather well. I wondered if I had a folder, or even a nickname, as well.

Sy reached over Ame’s shoulder and flipped the page. I began to read this one as well. It was at times like these that I was glad I was given the ability to read.

Kaya Koinu of Pride and Prejudice (Requested)

Age: 14

Birthday: 6/1

Threat level: Medium - Close range fire magic abilities. Very talented, but easily outsmarted. Try to avoid confrontation if possible, and if impossible, separate her from Dominic Karna.

Appearance: Crimson hair, seen to be both short and long. Unknown current length as of today’s date. Laptaanian. Potentially V⬛tro. 156 cm. Purple dagger attached to hip.

Weaknesses: One on One combat, manipulation.

Kaya stared at the page, more shocked at the army’s intelligence gathering than happy about having a nickname. Dominic clenched his fist, holding back his anger about the threat level section. There was something on the page that made Kaya scared. I couldn’t tell what it was. Also, there were many things censored. I wasn’t sure why they needed to censor it if it was for them. I decided to ask Ame.

“Why are there censored words?”

“People in powerful positions can request censorship of documents. I know who requested mine to be censored, but we don’t know who requested a censorship of Kaya’s. That’s why it’s a bit concerning, y’know?”

That made sense, but why did Ame know who would censor him? I couldn’t think of anybody that would want to do that, or anybody powerful enough to request that.

Ame flipped to the next page as Dominic’s picture popped up. Dominic sighed as we all began to read it.

Dominic Karna - Hell’s Ferryman (Requested)

Age: 29

Birthday: 2/14

Threat level: High- Incredibly fast. Wields a longsword. Strength equal to that of the ⬛th commander. Avoid close range fights. Very intelligent and experienced. Seemingly the leader.

Appearance: 183 cm. Long, ponytailed dirty blonde/ light brown hair? Only recorded encounters haven’t gotten a good view. Has worn casual clothes in every recorded fight.

Weaknesses: Long range, forced decisions.

Ame whined.

“Seemingly the leader?!”

Kaya burst out laughing after the document said that Dominic was the leader. Ame seemed like more of a leader than Dominic to me, so I was not sure why the document had said that.

Another thing that caught my eye was the “Requested” next to the nickname. I wasn’t sure who it was requested by, and by the looks of it, neither did anybody else.

Dominic smiled, and then switched back into his usual demeanor.

“We look at the other two, and then we burn this. The less documents they have of us, the better.”

Everybody nodded as Sy went to flip the page, excited to see his section. Everybody's eyes widened, including my own.

Sy (Requested) ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ - The Seventh Wind of Heaven (Requested)

Age: ⬛⬛

Birthday: ⬛/⬛

Threat level:⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

Appearance: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

Weaknesses: ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

FINDMOREINFO

This one said requested too, but there was something different. There was a lot more censorship, and he had no picture. I didn’t know enough about Sy to know who requested this, and neither did anybody else. On the bottom of the page, in fine print, it said “Report to Beckwith with any additional information”. It seemed that nobody else saw it, because nobody reacted to it.

They all seemed confused. It was understandable why.

But, there was no time to linger on things we didn’t know. There was something more important, something that I needed to know. Was my page next?

I reached towards the folder and flipped the page before anybody could comment on Sy’s.

I wasn’t sure what I expected. The entire page was blank. Completely censored. Only my name was left uncensored. My title was requested but also censored. If somebody requested a title, why would they censor it? Were there two different people requesting and censoring it? I came looking for answers and was left with more questions. I couldn’t let it affect me though. I would get more chances to learn eventually. That was the only thing I could tell myself to keep asking questions.

I closed the folder, and turned away from it. Kaya took this as a sign to burn the folders.

I stared at the paper burning.

Beep.

Huh?

BOOM!

The entire building blew up. Shards of steel were flying past my face, scratching it.

“Retreat! There was a bomb!”

Ame yelled out to everybody as we dodged pieces of metal. My cheek was scratched and I got stabbed in the stomach, but I used a bit of RME to heal it. It took longer than I would’ve liked, though.

After I was able to stand up, I went over and checked on everybody. They seemed fine as well.

But, this meant that they knew we would arrive. How did they know that?

Beep.

There was a beeping coming from my pocket. It was the keycard. I was surprised it didn’t get destroyed in the explosion.

“Are you okay, Sy?”

He didn’t respond to me. Instead, he had the same look on his as Kaya did when we were in her internal world. He pointed behind me.

The dust cloud from the explosion was slowly dissipating as I saw the one thing I didn’t wish to see. I knew somebody stronger than me would be here, and I was prepared. But I knew we could defeat them with the whole group. But, this time, I wasn’t entirely sure. My hands were shaking. My body didn’t want to fight and my mind wasn’t sure if it did. But my identity wanted to fight. It wanted to do everything within my power to fight and protect. Protect everybody against this man.

This desire to learn my friends. This desire to protect them. It was more than I deserved. It was a gluttony that I only realized when I opened my eyes.

I saw a white haired man standing at a similar height as Sy in a custom light version of the military outfit. He had a sadistic grin on his face as he proudly displayed the number on his ankle.

“Number… 5.”

He stood over.

“Took you long enough to find that tracker, Nell. How’s it feel having your gluttony catch up to you? You’ve already done too much, haven’t you? It’s been hard for you, right? You need a rest, right?”

My arms were shaking as I tried to push myself back up off the floor.

“You wanted to face this reality, right?!”

His hand hovered over my body. His grin had no substance behind it.

“You… can’t kill us.”

Ame looked over to me as I said this. He stood near the commander in anger as the air around me got heavier.

“I can do whatever the hell I want. Your life is meaningless to me.”

With these words, my entire body got crushed into the ground by winds of a speed I couldn’t even comprehend. My heart stopped pumping blood as I desperately tried to reconstruct my flattened blood vessels.

I couldn’t die here. No. Not after everything that happened. Not without helping. I couldn’t.

Tears squeezed themselves out of my shattered eyelids while I tried desperately to resist the wind.

“NELL!”

Dominic shot forward at the commander, forcing him to stop the wind blast. His sword slammed into the commander's neck, but its speed was slowed to zero by the insane air resistance near him.

“Dominic Karna, wasn’t it? I’ve heard about you. The leader of your unnamed group.”

Dominic glared at him silently, blocking his path to me. His sword couldn’t cut the commander by itself.

“Verwa Tee. I’ve killed some of your squad members before. Is this your business here? If so, leave. It’s not worth it. And, our team isn’t unnamed. Eternal Flame. Remember it.”

He said that last sentence as if to rub it in. He never wanted a name in the first place, and now he was flaunting it.

Verwa walked closer to Dominic and stared into his eyes.

“You think I cared about them? They would’ve died anyway. They have been fated to die since they were born. They’ve been dead since time began, what's another infinite years? Their road was bound to end. You just sped it up.”

Dominic was clearly shaken. Kaya and Sy stood on both sides of him, ready to defend themselves at any moment.

“Kaya and… Oh. It’s you. I’m afraid this battlefield is no place for children. That’s why I tried to kill Nell, after all. He shouldn’t be here! It’s too dangerous. Your suffering is the thing I want the least right now. The more happiness, the better, right?”

Kaya grit her teeth as her eyes oscillated violently.

“You’re evil, Verwa. You need to suffer. It would be an insult to justice if you didn’t pay for your words. AND FOR MY MOTHER!”

His grin grew wider.

“Justice? Justice! What is justice, young lady? It is simply retribution for disobeying your beliefs! That’s not moral. I’d be a martyr! You wouldn’t try to kill somebody over that, would you? And, I have no recollection of ever seeing your mother. I’ve never even been to Laptaan. IIIdiOT!”

He argued back mockingly, and his rhetoric ended up ineffective.

“Shut up. I don’t want to listen to you, worm.”

Within a millisecond, Verwa pulled out a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Kaya. Sy tried to snatch it out of his hand, but his arm got grabbed. Dominic tried to cut off the arm that was holding the pistol, but the only damage done was a small cut on his forearm.

I remembered this weapon. I remembered it very well. It was the weapon that Ame saved me from. But Verwa was hundreds of times stronger than that guard. I needed to do something. I couldn’t lay on the floor healing myself for the whole fight. I still sustained some damage, but I could fight.

I shot up and grabbed the arm holding the gun. My body was about as durable as an average adult, but I knew it would get stronger over time. Unfortunately, it still wasn’t strong enough.

He let go of Sy’s arm, slashed my arm in half and gripped Sy’s arm again within less than a second. The bone in my arm was cleanly cut. The pain was something I couldn’t comprehend. My body shut down on its own as I fell onto the floor, screaming without realizing it.

I used every bit of magic in my body to reconnect the skin and blood vessels via reconstruction, but I couldn’t do much. Before the healing even got to my bone, I had run out of usable RME. If I used anymore, I would die again. I had to resort to my water magic to use reconstruction. It was much slower, and my bone barely healed. My arm was attached at least, but I wouldn’t be able to use it for a while.

I bit my cheek, stood up and walked back to him. I needed to fight more.

He put the gun down as I walked over. He turned his head behind him and stared at me.

He let go of everybody and slammed them into the wall of the fortress before pointing the object at my head. His finger moved slightly, as he held it against a trigger. I knew what was going to happen. If he pulled that trigger…

I would no longer be alive.

I stared down its barrel, then at his finger. Time seemingly slowed down as his finger moved, and pulled it.

I saw my blood fly. I had died. And yet I was alive. I couldn’t tell what was real. My mind saw hundreds of different realities at that moment. But, after a moment, all of them were gone.

Besides one. One where my observer got to keep watching me.

A flash of water flew past him, faster than I could even see.

“Guns are dangerous, Y’know? Don’t go pointing them at whoever, Verwa.”

Ame stood there, holding the gun in his hand. Even if I had replayed that moment in my head infinite times, I would never be fast enough to catch the moment where Ame had stolen it.

“Ame…? I’ve seen you somewhere before. A prodigy at the banquet in L’eau, right? The only reports are of you healing our commanders for interrogation. There's barely any information about you. Not even your last name. You’re from L’eau though, right?”

Verwa looked slightly more serious speaking to Ame than how cocky he was against the others.

“There’s no reports of me for a reason. It’s because none of my opponents escape.”

Verwa looked more nervous.

“You don’t know my last name, right, Verwa?”

He nodded.

“It’s Nishimura. It’s a common name in L’eau, so you might not know my father. But I’m sure you can figure it out.”

Verwa looked confused for a second, as his guard lowered slightly. He stood there for a second, before I could see his heart drop.

“Kozui… Nishimura. Kozui Nishimura… The First Rain of Heaven.”

Ame smiled softly at him.

“Bingo.”

From his waist, Ame materialized a solid longsword out of pure water, before pointing it at the neck of the frozen Verwa.

“The son of the only man who has ever beat you is standing with a blade next to your neck. You can’t kill any of us. Face reality, Verwa.”

Verwa grinned.

“IRONIC!”