Chapter 27 - Journalism

Inda grinned at us. Her outfit had completely changed. She had a cream silk tank top with a vibrant orange butterfly pin in her black hair. Over the tank top was a short unzipped gray overshirt with a golden zipper. Her pants were a charcoal gray, similar to the ones in the outfit Ame gave me. But, they were cargo pants, and had a lot more useful things than my pants. She wore sneakers that had been crafted with a hard orange crystal on the tip for kicking people. On the cloth resting on her collarbone, there was a golden pin.

Apparently Sy saw it too, as he asked about it.

“What’s on your thing?”

Inda looked a little confused.

“... Do you mean my pin…?”

“Yeah! That thing!”

Inda grinned pridefully while explaining.

“It’s proof that I’m stronger than you.”

“Huh?! No you aren’t!”

Inda giggled.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. It’s a marker of the royal family. But I am stronger than you, that wasn’t a joke.”

“HUH?! Prove it! Fight me right now-”

Ame laughed and interjected.

“You’re really good at making Sy mad. I guess anybody could be though.”

Sy’s face instantly became straight as Inda tried to hold back her laugh.

“Just one of my many talents~!”

Inda cleared her throat and continued speaking.

“So! I’m here because dad called me out to train you guys. I’m especially good at that, so you can all come at me at the same time. Just a bit of a… I forgot the word.”

Aqlli interjected without looking up from his book.

“Diagnostic.”

“Yes! A bit of a diagnostic.”

Everybody’s eyes were wide in shock, except for Sy. I wasn’t sure why she wanted to fight all of us at the same time. Even if she was as strong as Justin Beckwith, she would lose.

She did say it was a diagnostic though, so the wise decision would be to put in little effort. The weaker she thinks I am, the less fighting I would have to do.

Kaya and Sy stood up at the same time and held their weapons against Inda. They looked as if they were going to go all out to show off.

“Not in my room, dimwits.”, Aqlli yelled.

Inda nodded and smiled before gripping Kaya’s collar and throwing her through six walls like a baseball.

I was beginning to understand why she wanted to fight all of us at the same time.

My defensive senses kicked in and I stepped back.

Sy saw Kaya get launched through the walls, but still decided it would be a good idea to run after Kaya.

Of course, he too got thrown through the walls into the other room.

“Who else wants to get a free ride to the training room?” yelled Inda, jokingly.

Dominic looked concerned.

“We… can walk.”

Dominic, Ame and I walked with Inda to the training room. The floor was made of polished wooden planks with a few thin mats scattered around. Ame was laughing while Dominic was rather worried.

I didn’t know what I felt. But, one thing was clear.

I was no longer treating this as a diagnostic.

It was a matter of pride.

Pride was something I had little of, but when I had the opportunity to get praised, I would do everything in my power to take it.

By the time we had entered the room, Kaya and Sy were both back on their feet. They were both smiling as Inda stood in the middle of the room and spoke.

“Okay! My dad can’t yell at us anymore. Start when you’re ready!”

Dominic put his sword by his side.

“Give us a moment to talk about our strategy.”

Inda nodded.

“Okay.”

Dominic began to walk towards Kaya when I heard a clap of thunder followed by a whisper.

“Just kidding. Laptaan won’t wait for you to talk about your strategy, will they?”

Dominic was kicked into the ceiling with a trail of thunder following behind his back. Inda shot forward towards Kaya, faster than I could track with my eyes. Kaya held her dagger in front of her, but she got thrown into the wall as Inda grabbed the fallen dagger.

“Okay! Close range fighters done with. I’ll match your specialties.”

She threw the dagger to the floor and held out her palm, similar to the way I would when using my basic RME blast.

A bolt of lightning shot right next to my head and pierced my ear. The area around the wound was charred and took longer to heal.

I was confused on how she was so strong. She shot in front of me and tried to kick me.

But, before she kicked me, I had enough time to raise my hand and tap her forehead.

The world shifted around me as I entered her internal world.

…

I was confused. It looked like it was a room in the castle, but it was an internal world. It was unlike any other internal world I had seen before. Her internal world self was sitting on the bed, staring at a screen. On the screen was a view of everything happening in reality. I heard a noise, and turned behind me, only to see a person.

It was the real Inda, with a string already attached between both selves.

“Try as you might, you can’t free her. Now, back to reality! No cheating!”

She kicked me as I was shot back into reality.

I now knew how she could be so strong, but I didn’t know how she had already connected her two selves. But that wasn’t what I needed to focus on.

Sy, Ame and I were the three people who could use our magic together the best.

Ame looked at me and nodded.

He created a sword out of water magic and threw it to me. I coated it with more water magic, but couldn’t coat it with RME unless my mind was steady. Sy interpreted my motions wrong, because instead of creating a vacuum tunnel to minimize the outside damages, he put all his wind magic into trying to make Inda slip upside down.

It worked, though.

I took a deep breath, gripped the hilt of the sword and lanced forward towards Inda. I didn’t care if the building got damaged. I wasn’t even thinking of the damage it would cause her. I wanted to win. Holding Ame’s sword while winning would only be a testament to his greatness.

I held the sword up to her stomach.

Another flash of lightning struck my eyes as I was forced to drop it.

I fell to my knees.

What was I about to do? This was a friend. Inda was helping us. This was a friendly training session.

Why was I going to kill her? That would have been a fatal wound if she didn’t dodge.

My hands were on my ears to block out any judgment that I envisioned coming.

But none came. It was only my own.

Inda picked me up from the back of my shirt like a mother cat to her baby and spoke.

“It’s okay! Relax! I wouldn’t have died anyway, you knew that.”

I didn’t know that. I couldn’t have been sure anyway.

Tears were dripping from my eyes as I struggled to keep myself together after what I just did.

I heard a voice inside my ear.

“It’s okay Nell. Calm down. You weren’t going to do anything.”

But I was.

“You weren’t. It’s okay.”

But I wa-

Bzzzst!

The tears flowing from my eyes stopped. I… didn’t know why I was crying. I didn’t know what just happened.

Inda saw me beginning to relax and spoke up.

“A-Anyway, It was clear that I won~! We will be doing one-on-one combat training now, so I can examine your weaknesses and give you advice.”

One on one training? We could barely keep up when it was all of us against her.

Kaya and Sy got up, out of breath, and walked towards her.

“Me! Me first!” Kaya said.

“Okay! You first!”

Kaya grinned and heated her dagger as flames burst from the handle.

Inda grabbed a wooden sword from the stash in the corner and spoke up.

“You’re using a weapon, so I will too~. We’ll start when you attack!”

Kaya smiled and shot forward before thinking. She moved her dagger in a slash, even though it couldn’t reach her. But, flames shot out in the direction and form of the slash burning a hole through Inda’s sword before cutting it in half.

She grabbed her dagger by the blade and pushed the handle against Inda’s stomach to channel fire through it without killing her, but Inda disappeared.

She popped back up behind Kaya with a new wooden sword that she took without her even noticing, before smacking her head with it as Kaya fell to the floor.

“Match over. I won~. My advice to you is… a battle is not just a barbaric fistfight. Use your brain and your weapon to your advantage!”

Kaya pouted and walked away to Sy, only to push him towards the center of the training room.

“Your turn! Win for me!”

Sy took off and tossed a coat that he picked up ten seconds prior before striding up to Inda.

Inda smiled.

“Ready when you are!”

Sy looked back to us before grinning and propelling himself behind her.

Inda tried to kick him, but once her feet left the ground, she had no anchoring to the floor. Sy ducked and swiped his hand upwards, causing Inda to flip upside down.

Sy put all his wind magic on his wrist to propel his fist faster than any human could. It was aimed directly at Inda’s head. She couldn’t dodge mid air, so her only option was to block and hope her arms didn’t break.

But she didn’t do that.

Lightning shot from her ankle as she propelled herself mid air, slamming her heel into his neck faster than I could see.

He fell to the ground as the charred skin on the back of his neck flaked off in the dispersed wind.

“Match over! I win again~! Your advice is… you work well with other people, but you need to focus on yourself a little bit. Get strong enough to fight on your own!”

Ame sighed before dragging Sy off into the corner to heal the skin on his neck. Thankfully, his neck wasn’t broken. Inda hit near his trapezius muscle, so the only damage wasn’t direct.

“Who’s next? Scared that you’ll lose too?” Inda scoffed jokingly.

Ame finished healing Sy, walked up to her and smiled. The two ends of his mouth flowed into each other like a river.

“I’ll be up next. It’ll be good to stretch my muscles, y’know?”

He stretched his arm before pulling out a blade of water and holding it up to Inda.

Inda took the first move, trying to end it as quickly as possible.

She tried to slam the wooden sword into his back, but he dodged. This continued for multiple seconds until Inda got irritated. She slammed her foot on the floor behind her.

Electricity shot through her leg and broke the floor. Her usual dark brown hair grew into a bright yellow-orange, like a butterfly's wing.

Within seconds, the wood under her foot shattered as she barrelled towards Ame.

There was less than a second for Ame to react to this before getting slammed into the wall.

Ame knew that too. He held his palm out as water started to form in the shape of a gun. This one was much bigger than the pistol, though. It had two barrels instead of one with a larger handle. If my information was correct, this was called a shotgun.

Inda’s eyes widened. She couldn’t stop herself in time.

Just as Ame held his hand on the trigger, the water’s form broke apart as it flowed through the narrow gaps between his fingers.

He held both his hands up as Inda screeched to a halt.

He smiled softly.

“I surrender. What’s your advice to me, Miss Inda?”

Inda coughed and composed herself.

“You're pretty strong. My advice is to pay attention to your surroundings. It’s almost as if when you’re fighting, you’re disconnected from reality. Fix that!”

Ame jokingly saluted her.

“Yes ma’am!”

“Hehe. Good. At least one of you knows how to respect your elders!”

Elders?

“Elders?!”

Ame bolted his head back, almost fast enough to snap his neck.

Inda looked a bit offended.

“Yeah…? I’m 24! Aren’t you like 20?”

Ame stared at Inda with his jaw on the floor.

Ame’s face distorted as he smiled slyly.

“Oh! I thought you were 32. You look-”

A flash of light struck my eyes as Ame got sent flying across the room into a wall.

Inda put her hands on her hips while looking at Dominic and I, who were sitting on the floor waiting.

“Who’s next!”

Dominic raised his hand.

“I’ll abstain. I need to speak to Kaya about something important.”

Kaya perked her head up from the other side of the room.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Dominic pulled out a newspaper from his back pocket and motioned for Kaya to follow him into the basement of the castle.

I was the only person left to fight Inda. I didn’t really want to fight, but I didn’t know why. It felt as if I couldn’t remember, but I did just meet Inda that day. It was confusing. I hated it, but I was used to doing things I hated.

I blankly stood up and walked towards her.

“You ready?”

I nodded my head.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” she said.

I was talkative. I didn’t know what she was talking about. I just had a little trouble saying some things.

I held up my hands in a fighting position.

“Bad stance, Nell! Hands higher!”

I held my hands higher, but she immediately punched my stomach.

“Too high!”

This was rather irritating.

But it was a fight.

I held my arm out with my palm facing the floor behind me as RME dripped from it like honey.

I solidified it and grasped all of it with my hand. She was directly in front of me, waiting for me to move. If I didn’t fight, she wouldn’t be able to give any advice. That’s what I knew. So, I could use that to my advantage.

I would wait for her to get impatient while building up my water magic, so she would shoot at me. If I used my RME, she could die. I couldn’t let that happen. So water magic was my only choice.

She sat there, tapping her feet impatiently as I feigned recovering. Ten seconds passed.

Her foot stopped tapping. Electricity rose from her leg as her hair grew more vibrant.

She was about to move. I needed to time it perfectly, or I would be sent through another wall.

She bolted forward, and within an instant, her palm was against my stomach. I hardened whatever little muscle I had and held the built up water magic against her face. The force from her pushing me would carry onto her when I let go of the water.

The impact on my stomach knocked the air out of me, but I didn’t need air at that moment.

I shot the water magic at her face as it accelerated from me flying backwards. It hit her face as she pulled back. Steam rose up from her cheeks as they grew red, despite only touching it for a moment.

“Shit! You sure this is water and not acid?!”

Was my water magic usually hot? I barely used it, so I didn’t know. From her reaction, it didn’t seem to be normal. I didn’t know what it meant, nor did I care.

Inda sighed, but quickly regained her composure and smiled.

“Battle over! I’ll consider it a tie~. I almost needed to try a bit there!”

She sat there thinking for a moment as Ame pulled himself out of the wall he was stuck in and walked over to me.

Inda opened her eyes again and spoke.

“Okay! My advice to you is, first, get your magic checked. Water magic is not supposed to be hot- like, at all. Next, your actions in battle don’t seem to be your own. You are fighting off of reason, and not off of yourself. It’s a bit hard to explain, hehe… But! Combine the two! Use reason, but incorporate yourself into it. Got it?”

I understood the first part. But, there was an issue with the second part. An issue that I hated more than anything.

“There is nothing to incorporate.”

Inda looked a little conflicted.

“I’m sure there is! Just- Here. Wait a sec.”

Inda dashed out of the room, and came back with something a second later. It was a tiny book with thin pages and an empty leather cover.

“Here’s your notebook. Write whatever you think of in it. Express your thoughts and eventually something will come out of it. Your first order is to decorate it, then title it! I have my own notebook too, but it doesn’t really belong to me.”

I nodded and took the notebook. It was small enough to fit in my pocket, but big enough to write as many things as I could think of. I didn’t see the point in it, though. Ame looked at the book and frowned a bit. Maybe he was dissatisfied with the appearance?

I ran over to the room that Inda took the notebook out of and pulled open a drawer. There were so many decorative motifs, and enough paper and pens to draw whatever I’d like. I wanted to make something Ame could be proud of.

I cut paper apart, glueing motifs to the front. It was a lovely design. There were thunder clouds with rain falling from them, with a little person standing on top of the ground. The water soaked into the ground while the little earthworms drank it.

I flipped to the second page and drew a box that Ame could write his opinions about it in, so I could look at it whenever. I left the 5th page empty as well. I didn’t want to decorate this notebook at first, but I was getting rather into it.

And, on the back of the cover, there was the title space.

I thought for a moment, but I felt there was only one true option.

I picked up my pen and wrote.

“An Original Sin.”