Deletion

“Ah crap…” Arata cursed. He’d been deep in thought, motionless as questions circled in his mind and answers chased like keys to locked doors. In the midst of his absent-mindedness, the ink from his pen fell onto his work. Right in the centre of the page, a giant blob of black that covered the head of his character. “Perfect… right when I was getting into my flow.” He complained as he opened his drawer. The quiet of his studio would give the illusion of calm and patience and yet, the manuscript he’d been painstakingly working on for a solid fortnight was due in a week, and this was only his fifteenth page out of thirty. The clock ticking behind him felt like the world tormenting him, a cruel reminder of his failures and hardening his brittle resolve. Reluctantly he reached for the whiteout, now sighing as he would have to delete a good half hour’s worth of work due to a moment of pensive thought. The white wiping away his progress like it wasn’t even there…

And now, Täter was holding such a destructive object. Arata blankly stared at it, unsure of what reaction he was supposed to give to something so out of place. He felt a little robbed, expecting Täter to reveal some horrible weapon of ancient or fiendish nature that would threaten the very fibres of this world. And instead… whiteout…

Not receiving any sort of response, Täter did a double take. “The Vanishing Brush!” He repeated with more impact and vigor this time. Leona and Franz naturally had no clue what was going on and Arata kept the same confused expression, betraying the horror and anguish Täter was hoping for. “Seriously?! Nothing? Nothing at all?” He looked like he was about to cry.

“But…” Arata mumbled. “It’s whiteout…” he awkwardly placed a hand on the back of his head and shrugged. A vein formed, so large it looked as though it would tear through his skin and attack the heroes. “It’s a magical artifact!” Täter corrected him, still no response. Dejected, Täter’s head dropped, his arms by his side limp. “Fine… I guess I will need to show you. The terror… of The Vanishing Brush!”

“My guy, it ain’t sticking, just call it whiteout.” Arata responded.

Off twisted the lid and the brush was readied. Those unaware of this object awkwardly stood still, looking at each other for any possible information. The absurdity of it all was so off putting,,, but, Arata couldn’t help looking at the G-Pen in his hand. It too was a regular tool, something he had seen, and used, a thousand times. Yet in this world it… it was different. It finally clicked. Täter was aiming at the biggest threat against him, the Hero Reinhardt, he who was relatively uninjured up to this point. Finally Arata realised the true danger.

As quick as his body could, he pounced off the ground and dived for cover. “Move!” He screamed, with an urgency that Leona could not ignore. She too moved away, leaving Täter without a target but he didn’t care. He brought down the brush…

And the wall disappeared.

*-*-*

Gone. Not destroyed, a sword swipe or a gun shot would leave evidence, a bit of rubble left behind showing that there once was something here. This was not the same, nothing remained. The heroes and the Princess were speechless as the Scourge cackled. Once he’d had his fill he put the brush away like sheathing a sword, still holding onto it and ready to unleash its ominous magic. “My boys are so good to me.” He commented. “Such a wonderful gift. I must make sure to thank the gods for their divine weapon.”

For Arata, all the whiteout had done is create more questions. Ever since arriving here, it’d been one irregularity after the next. The replaced Reinhardt, the unknown figure that sent him here, the pen in his hand, and that tree. None of it was a part of this story, almost like it existed because of him. “But why?” He pondered. He hadn’t had the time to query it yet, but the wish that shadow granted before all of this happened was to save his manga. So why, what was he doing in a fantasy world fighting to save it? Why had these items, that were so important to him, now present in a world that they should have been vacant from? None of it made any sense. All he did know was that the whiteout had fallen into the hands of evil, and should he feel the brush, this world would watch him vanish.

The wall hiding him from Täter disappeared with another swipe of the brush, and he scuttled away before the next followed. Leona too lost her cover and found more. He could quite easily have taken both of them out already but seeing these “heroes” scurry about like ants was more satisfying than anything he had experienced before. Both of them gathered their breath and thoughts behind the little cover left, the room now close to being halfway deleted. Still they stayed put. There was nothing else they could do, if Täter even so much as caught them slightly with that deleting ink, they’d cease to exist, it wasn’t worth the risk to jump out and attack.

But, Täter grew tired of waiting. “You two are no fun.” He commented, turning his back on them. His gaze now lay on the third in their party, battered and bloody. “Guess you’re up to bat, Franz. Lets play!” He hadn’t even finished reapplying the paste to the brush as Franz was blocked from his view. She knelt between them, her arms wide out so he couldn’t be hit with the brush. The Princess, the one Täter actually valued here, surprisingly he hesitated making his move.

“Princess…”

“I won’t let you do this, Sir Täter.” She mumbled nervously. A royal, protecting a former peasant. Täter couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “You’d die for that?” Pointing to Franz. “I suppose the people love you for that though, your kindness, your selflessness.”

Tears started to well at the corners of her eyes but she looked determined in spite of them. She briefly looked back at the injured hero, scanning his features and remembering everything about him. There was a calm in the chaos in that look, a finger that traced his face gentle as the breeze. “I’d die for him.”

The Scourge drew his weapon as quickly as he could, and the Princess winced. He had kept it high, just a threat. It was a test of resolve he and his men in Mühelos were known for. People would stand in the way of them and their treasures, pretending that they valued nothing more, and that nothing other than death would separate that bond. But when he lifted his blade, that bond snapped immediately. No one could value anything more than their own life, that was the understanding Täter had.

But the Princess, innocent and naïve, closed her eyes to her fate and gave her everything for a scruffy kid.

Leona saw an opportunity and bolted past the cover, but she connected only with the barrier. Täter no longer looked smug. His irritating grin had tightened, replaced with a grimace. He didn’t even look at Leona, his anger was for the girl in front of him. Defiant even to the end, even after everything he had done. He’d been fully rejected.

His teeth grinded loudly as he spoke, “so, you’ve made your choice.” The slight movement in his hand and the tone of his voice gave away his next move, and Leona was close enough to see as much. She could side step, and plant her punch into his ribs.

She was biting at him like an irritating fly, so he swatted at her with the brush. Luckily for her she could get into temporary cover but he was unrelenting and cover was quickly becoming rare. After the third swipe, with Leona still behind cover, Arata used the opportunity to move Franz behind the door, to the exit that he had entered from. Unfortunately, the berserk Scourge saw it and turned his wrath to the artist. Leona jumped from cover as quick as she could, pushing him just a little so his aim would be thrown, the whiteout hitting the door instead of Arata.

“Run!” She screamed as she backtracked. Arata found the cover he sought and Leona was close to hers.

But she dropped to her knees, blood coming up with a cough. The impact from Niedlich’s attack had not gone away, and now Täter was looking her way. Instinctively Arata jumped out hoping to help her, but that was a mistake too costly. For Täter had been waiting for him to slip up.

The brush switched course, locked onto the hero. Like the manga panels he knew so well the next moments were frames in time.

The fear and impact with dark edges. The shadow in the corner…

And the friend jumping in the way.

Leona… was deleted.