Missing The Mark

Inside Nir and Rain’s room in the castle. Nir is leaving.

Rain fully climbs the bed and gets under the blanket. It is a bit chilly, but the blanket is thick and is of assumably high quality. Rain decides to go to sleep early. She realizes that whether she can actually make it happen is questionable since it’s still noon, but instead of lacking the determination towards the “get out of bed” motive - she is specifically determined NOT to, and so any such ideas will seemingly get overwritten by her decision for today.

Nir is on his way to the barracks. As he crosses the hallway sideways, from the residency area to the barracks - he notices the empress speaking with her soldiers, and they notice him. He doesn’t look in their direction and barely hears what they talk about. The empress doesn’t look at him for any unnecessary duration of time besides the absolute split second in which he appeared from the hallway. Some soldiers look at him but they don’t interact with him.

Nir reaches the barracks and grabs a metallic sword, preparing to hit the dummy that is dressed with spare armor. He then remembers Null’s attack against Rampei, performed with a wooden sword. He steps aside to put down the sword and picks up a wooden one instead. He goes to the “naked” dummy, and focuses… Then, as he prepares to unleash an attack - Ranmei stops him, grabbing the end of the wooden sword.

-”You were about to use a skill”. - He tells him. “Don’t waste hearts on practice. Hearts are life itself”.

-”What? No I… Surely… Was I really about to use a skill?” - Nir surprises himself.

-”Yes”.

-”Hey, can I ask you something?”

-”Go ahead”. - Ranmei replies.

-”How is it that some people are incredibly powerful while using their skills? Is it because they have a lot of them?” - Nir asks.

-”Well, in most cases that may very well become the difference between life and death, but if I understand you correctly - I think you are talking about the raw strength. I remember Rain shooting many arrows. I assume her skill doesn’t use many hearts, correct? Do you wield a similar skill?”

-”Yes”.

-”Most offensive skills require a large sacrifice of hearts. It’s those hearts that make an offence powerful. Some skills require a specific amount of hearts, some require to half them or so, yet their strength will be decided by the amount sacrificed. However, if you think about it - killing someone doesn’t even require a skill necessarily. That’s why some people are afraid of wasting hearts, but are still willing to commit sometimes, since if they get the kill - even if they needed to spend hearts, they will get the hearts of the person they killed. You just got the skill letting you see other people’s hearts. A soldier with that skill seeing a target with barely any hearts - will prefer, if possible, not to waste too many hearts on killing them. Most of the more-aggressive attacks you have seen so far are realistically attacks that could not afford to miss”. - Ranmei explains.

-”But doesn’t it mean our skills are weaker in comparison, using only one heart at a time?” - He asks.

-”Remember how I said you don’t even require a skill to kill someone? I remember your strikes. If you can penetrate our armor without using many hearts, while applying yourself to more training - strengthening yourself in general - you wouldn’t really need any more raw strength than that in most cases, now would you? If anything, you two have the potential to preserve more of your hearts. How many hearts does it cost you, anyway?”

-”one”. - Nir answers.

-”Nir… Your skills may be completely over powered. The balance of their efficiency in this world is probably the best it could be. Just remember, there are other elements to battle as well. If I was your enemy and got you from behind earlier, it’s actually a normal high cost attack that any soldier could make that would have gotten you there. At the same time, the empress could demolish entire villages if she wanted to. Having more hearts - may be more powerful than having a powerful skill. No matter what hand you were dealt”.

Nir seems appreciative of that information. He thinks for a bit and says: ”Do you mind… Telling that to Rain? Everything you taught me? In fact, can you train us? It’s okay if she wants it to be separated, or doesn’t speak to me. I just want her to have better means of defending herself if it ever comes down to it”.

-”No problem, those were my intentions anyway”. - Ranmei answers.

-”Really? Why?” - Nir asks.

-”Empress orders”.

Ranmei then leaves towards the main hall. Nir, realizing that practicing with a wooden sword may already be beneath his level - switches back to a metallic one. He then charges at the armored dummy, which is not going to resist much, besides the armor it’s wearing, serving as somewhat of a resistance. He swings aggressively, landing a hit that cuts open a small bit in the armor, using no skills.

He keeps practicing for a while.

At the same time, next to their room.

Ranmei goes through the lobby, getting to the door of their room. He knocks on the door, hearing no response. He then opens it and enters. He goes to the bedroom area, and as he lifts the curtain, Rain calls out: “Nir!” as she gets up on her knees while still on the bed, wrapped in her blanket like a pancake. “Ranmei?!” - She asks in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

-”I came to check up on you and offer my knowledge and combat expertise. Possibly even training you myself if you let me have the privilege. You may think it’s useless as your most profound memory of me is realistically running away from your arrows, but I’ll have you know that my none heart-skills-using strikes… Are actually quite skilled in general”. - He says proudly.

-”Hahaha! Ranmei, you speak to me as if I’m heir to the throne. Of course you are more experienced in combat than me! But I don’t want to get out today. I’m not feeling like it. I’m actually quite down, you just improved my mood a bit, that’s all”. - Says Rain.

-”Well, suit yourself. It’s Nir who wanted me to do this, by the way”.

-”Nir did?” - She asks quietly.

-”Yes. It seemed really important to him too”.

Rain’s mood shifts very positively hearing that.

-”Okay. I can go for some training!” - Rain tells him, all motivated.

-”That’s what I like to hear!” - Ranmei tells her.

Ranmei goes outside and waits by the door, letting her prepare. She then exits the room, dressed up in her uniform from their old world, as those have become the combat outfits for both Nir and Rain. They walk down the hallway and cross the main hall to the barracks.

Rain sees Nir training, striking repeatedly. They come closer but Nir doesn’t say anything.

Ranmei starts explaining about the advantage they possess by having the skills from their summoning. Rain hears his explanation, but every now and then she looks at Nir.

Nir keeps training, not looking at them or even saying anything.

He suddenly stops and goes outside, to the open area where they usually practice duals and team combat. He starts practicing his swing’s motion without a target. Rain looks at him from the inside, while hearing Ranmei’s explanation and also catching his attention with her gazes”.

-”Are you listening, Rain?”

-”Yea, I heard everything”.

-”You keep looking outside. Do you want to practice?”

-”Yea. Let’s do that. Wait, do you even know how to use a bow to instruct me? Forgive my rude question of course, I just take you for a front liner”.

-”That’s a good point, but maybe I could teach you some principles like how to find a good spot to shoot from, shooting while on the move, or even shooting while running backwards!” - He replies.

-”Oh, wow! That could be useful!” - She says, trying to sound cheerful, albeit depressed since Nir isn’t paying her any attention at all. She keeps looking at him while being sad that she can’t find the right words to communicate with him.

Nir keeps focusing on his training.

Eventually, Ranmei decides to let Rain keep practicing shooting normally for the day. He leaves both of them to train by themselves.

Rain shoots an arrow and hits a far away dummy straight in the middle. She quickly looks at Nir. Still no reaction from him. She keeps shooting arrow after arrow, all of them hit inside of the little circle in the middle. She looks at him again, and yet - nothing.

Rain almost starts crying. She prepares another arrow, puts it on the string and pulls it back, stretching it forcefully. She then releases it without meaning to, shooting the arrow. It flies close to the target, missing it. The arrow gets stuck in the ground next to the target, making a different sound from the successful target hits.

Nir looks at the arrow that missed. Rain looks at him. Then, Nir finally looks at her.

She looks into his eyes for a moment and then starts crying. She runs away to their room.

Nir is surprised by that reaction.

He looks at the arrow again, knowing that since the moment they met for the very first time, it is the first arrow he ever saw her miss.