Chapter 39 - I’m Just a Shot Away From You

I was confused as to why she brought me here. She paused for a moment before getting to the point.

“You’re one step closer to this throne. Kaya and Dominic have been seen, and Inda’s a special case.”

“...Seen?”

She sighed.

“Yes. Seen. I had told you previously that there were two prerequisites to sitting on the throne- the first being taking place in L’eau’s game, and the second one being for you to ‘become your sin’. I worded this horribly… but! L’eau’s game is for everybody to get recognized by the gods. The same way recruiters go to sports games to find players, I invited all the gods to do the same. Once observed, each person will hold a new value that exists outside of this reality. You’ve seen it with your own eyes. Kaya’s ability to corrode premises in a string of logic is one gifted to her by the Princess of Hell. It’s incredibly powerful, but the corrosion can be fought off in many ways. Dominic’s Maylem Awakening came from the King of Hell, but his main ability hasn’t been found by him yet. Everybody needs to hold that value, including you, Nell. Sit on the throne once you can.”

She was leaving something out. She invited all the gods? For what reason? I was sure she was lying to me. I wanted to ask, but she already knew my thoughts.

I spoke to her.

“I don’t trust you.”

She smiled.

“I know.”

“I don’t trust L’eau.”

“I know.”

“I don’t trust The Original Sin.”

She paused, and laughed. She walked up to me and patted me on the head.

“I see. Your relation to him is the only reason you can say that. Not trusting a god is a decision I’ve never seen made before, besides that Architect.”

I turned away from her.

But she still spoke.

“You will do as he says, because you are what he says. When your value inevitably flutters into the sky, I’ll grasp it. And I’ll bring you with me.”

My internal world disappeared, and I was brought back to the frosty grassland I was just in.

…

The sun was rising again.

Ame ran up and hugged me from behind.

“I was getting tired of waiting! We finally have some time to relax, let’s use it!”

Dominic smacked him on the head lightly.

“This is not relax time. We’re moving towards Cittaglia. Also, Kaya is still shaken up.”

Ame responded to him.

“That's why we need to relax while traveling! She won’t have time to think if we’re fighting fuckin demons, right?!”

Dominic leered at him.

“Language.”

“Hehe.”

Ame ran up to the frozen Kaya and hugged her from behind.

“Kaya! Walk with us!”

She silently nodded and followed Ame. Her eyes were still confused.

Sy obviously didn’t want to make it worse, so he got up and followed her. He didn’t seem to be hurt much by his injuries anymore. I could tell he was still in pain though, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

We all walked forward towards Cittaglia. After an hour, we made it back to civilization. But it wasn’t Cittaglia.

We were in a Jeti border city. I turned to Inda.

“Did we go the wrong way?”

She shrugged. I didn’t know why I was asking. We obviously went the wrong way if this is where we ended up.

Sy ran into the city, dragging Kaya behind him.

He excitedly spoke to her.

“Come with me! To the river!”

It seemed like Sy knew this city. I watched as he dragged Kaya to the river, walking alongside it with her. I didn’t know what he was doing. But I knew it would help Kaya.

Dominic stared at them and smiled.

Ame smacked him on the back as he snapped back to reality.

“Come! Look at the map here!”

There was a picture of the layout of the city. It was surrounded by trees, with no suburban areas nearby. It was an odd placement, but that’s how many Jeti cities were.

Ame pointed at a part of the map with stars in his eyes.

“Look! Game center! Nell! Dominic! Inda!”

Game… center? The word ‘game’ had many definitions, so I was unsure of what the game center included.

I was curious.

Dominic spoke up.

“We need to get to Cittaglia.”

Ame pouted.

“Eh? Kaya’s already left with Sy, we can do whatever while waiting for them to come back. Come with Nell and I to the game center!”

Dominic brushed Ame off.

“I’d rather go with Inda to the mall. I’ll see you later.”

Ame stopped for a second, and then grinned harder than I had ever seen him grin before.

He poked Dominic.

“Hmm~? You’re going to the mall with Inda?”

Dominic stared at him.

“Are you a child?”

He turned away as Inda followed him. She waved to us before leaving with Dominic.

Ame sighed and turned to me.

“It’s just us I guess! Off to the game center!”

I nodded and smiled.

This was the first time that I had looked forward to an activity in a bit.

______________________________________________________________________________

Sy was balancing himself while walking across the small stream of river in the middle of the commercial district with both arms out. Kaya followed behind him.

Sy didn’t know what to say. He just kept walking. He didn’t know where they were moving.

He wanted to comfort Kaya. He didn’t know what to comfort her about, or why she was even quiet.

The answer was that she was simply overwhelmed. Sy, of course, didn’t know this.

The Jeti air was always cold. Even in the summer, it never got hot enough to need a fan. The large amount of trees planted throughout the streets in this city made it feel much more natural than the capital, Jeti City. Every air molecule breathed in by Kaya was another thought escaping her mind.

This was all she needed.

She kept following Sy, until he stopped. The river flowing beside the city’s sidewalk was rather shallow, but it was still water.

Sy grinned and took his shoes off before stepping in.

“It’s cold…!”

He immediately jumped out as Kaya giggled.

He stared at Kaya with a soft smile.

She was being cold towards him. But he wasn’t offended.

“What’s wrong?”

After hearing this, she took her shoes off as well and dipped her feet into the river. Sy sat next to her, also putting his feet in the water, despite saying it was cold a moment ago.

Kaya responded to him, but dodged the question.

“The sun’s almost fully up now.”

Sy misinterpreted this. It wasn’t uncommon for him to do that.

He asked her a question.

“Are you bored yet?”

Kaya smiled hard.

“Haha, yet? What makes you think I'd get bored?”

Sy didn’t know what he was feeling. It was warm, but it was causing nervousness. He had no reason to be nervous. He had known Kaya for what felt like his own life. She was almost an extension of him. He’s mirrored her philosophy, fighting style, and emotions as hard as he could ever since he met her.

That was exactly why he was so confused.

He was softly kicking his feet into the water to try and ignore his thoughts.

A middle-aged woman walked past as he did this.

“Awww, they’re so cute!”

Kaya was too immersed to hear this, but Sy heard it perfectly. He thought it was a nice comment at first, but then he realized what it meant.

He felt so many things in that moment that it was impossible to single out any of them. Hints of wishing, uncomfortability and anxiety washed over him. He mistook these natural feelings of life for something entirely different.

He turned to Kaya.

She was smiling and laughing.

He turned back to the sky and thought to himself.

‘I don’t know how much longer I can wait.’

______________________________________________________________________________

Ame dragged me to the game center. I was curious as to what it looked like. Moments later, a rather tall building came into my view. It was made out of some type of metal, and it had so many windows that I couldn’t count them.

The doors opened automatically as I walked inside. The entire area was lit up with neon lights. I had to close my eyes so my senses weren’t overwhelmed immediately. The windows that I could see on the outside were tinted from the inside. Ame grabbed my wrist and pulled me to a room. I opened my eyes in time to read the massive sign that said ‘LASER TAG’ on top of it.

But, before I entered the room, we were stopped by somebody.

“Please show me your game cards.”

I looked at Ame. I didn’t know what this person was talking about.

Tears began to run down Ame’s face. I ran up to him, but he stopped me with his other hand and gave me a thumbs up.

He began to speak to the person.

“M-my little brother… he has cancer. This is his last week to live… please let him in for free… I beg of you! We spent all the money on his treatment!”

?

I was confused.

The person responded to him in a solemn tone.

“I see. I apologize. This is on me. Please, go ahead. Enjoy your time. Be careful.”

“Thank you~!”

Ame dragged me into the arena.

I had to ask him.

“Am I really sick?”

He laughed.

“No. I was lying to get through.”

Oh. That made sense.

I nodded as a screen in front of me began to explain how to play.

They put a small magic sensor on my chest, back, forehead, and torso. They did the same to Ame.

Instructions popped up.

I needed to hit the sensors with a gun that shot out a concentrated beam of light. Ame had much more practice aiming, so he was going to win. I was fine with that, though. Winning was amazing, but making Ame sad would be much much worse than losing.

An announcer spoke to both of us.

“Contestants! Speak your final words to each other before this fierce battle!”

He was being a bit dramatic, but it was fun.

The man who let us in ran up to the announcer and whispered in his ear. I enhanced my hearing with RME so I could hear what he was saying.

“Don’t say ‘final words’! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

The announcer looked back at him in confusion.

Ame tilted his head towards me.

“What are they saying, Nell?”

“I’m not sure.”

Ame cleared his throat and spoke.

“My last words, hmm…”

He smiled wryly.

“I say, take me out!”

I smiled back at him. He was okay with me winning. Even if he lost, he would still be happy. That was all I needed to know.

He was much better at aiming than me, but I would still try my hardest anyway.

The announcer started speaking.

“Ahem! There is one rule! No magic! Best of three wins. Anyways… three… two… one… GO!”

The white lights turned off as small colorful neon lights lit up across the arena. There were walls I could hide behind. That would be my strategy. I would hide behind the walls until Ame came towards me, and then I would get a point on him. I could use my RME to sense when he came by and where he was, and then shoot h-

I stared into the scope of his gun.

I didn’t have time to react.

BING!

“One point to Incompetent Leader!”

Ame yelled out.

“Eh?! Who made these names?!”

I was slightly frustrated. I knew this would happen, but I still wanted to win.

I got back up and we went back to our starting locations.

I heard a voice in my head.

‘You’re taking this rather seriously, Nell~. The Original Sin and I put those names for you.’

Shut up. I was having fun.

I held the scope up to Ame’s forehead. My advantage was that I could see in the dark, so I could pinpoint him easily. Especially because he was so tall.

BING!

“One point to Schrödinger’s Gay Son!”

?

Ame looked shocked when I hit him, but smiled right after.

He barely had to walk to get back to his starting position. The score was 1-1. The next person to score a point would win. There was no prize besides the pride I would gain.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the game itself was the prize.

Ame was more careful of my sight now. He ducked under cover and hid behind walls.

But he didn’t see me. I walked over to an angle where I could see him better. I was behind him and had a perfect view of the sensor on his back.

I scoped in on it.

I changed the scope to his head. I saw him, smiling. He was looking around for me. This was better than winning.

He was in my crosshair.

I felt closer to him than ever before.

He turned towards me as I aimed it at his forehead.

And I pulled the trigger.

______________________________________________________________________________

Nell’s Notebook: A ripped off page

Event A = Ame buys a sandwich.

Event B = Ame buys a croissant.

Ame told me there was a .60 chance he was going to buy a sandwich, and a .20 chance that he was going to buy a croissant. There was also a .35 chance he was going to buy both.

I’m trying to predict the chance of him buying either a sandwich or a croissant, but not both.

I learned a lot of math when I was first born, so I knew what to do.

P((A∪B)∖(A∩B))=P(A)+P(B)−2P(A∩B)...P(either but not both)=0.60+0.20−2⋅0.35… that =0.10.

So there was a 10% chance. I think. I’m confused.

I’m just gonna steal both for him.

______________________________________________________________________________