Ordinary Fantastical Suburbia

"...Congratulations, you two have done an excellent job at the nightwatch. Exactly what I wanted to see! ...I'm surprised." Miori says with a smile of who was expecting the worst.

I smile at the recognition of my efforts, but I feel extremely guilty once I notice Hero's looking at me. "...We barely fought... But I had such a terrible nightmare on that night that I just can't let go off." I don't let him see I'm shaking, he turns to Miori again.

"They've even said you two helped each other getting more focused. Who would have thought?" Miori says having way too much fun.

"I-It's not like that... " Hero crosses his arm looking away as his feet shakes back and forth under the table.

"It wasn't a hard job at all, remember that." I say clearly irritated.

"Yes! The easiest baby mission ever." Hero rolls his eyes "There's so many actually important stuff we could be useful for. I know a guy that has leads to the last location of Captain Copper, the orange buccaneer... If you can cover the price, of course."

"I have never heard that name in my entire life." Miori says with her eyes almost closing in boredom. "Well, if you want to work together so much, just do it, you know? It would be great for the econo-"

"NO." We both say at the exact same time.

Miori sighs like she's about to either fire us or resign.

"...Look, whatever, I don't care if you two get along or not. Just stay away from the emergency signals and any city in need of help, that's for Bunny. You two cause way more trouble than it is worth it."

After we leave the meeting that was more of a public execution, I see Hero in my way and I turn as fast as I can without saying a word. We didn't look in each others faces ever since.

"Hiiiro.... Hiro my dear little sweet Hiro please don't goooo." He says hugging tightly onto my right arm as if he was a cat, trying to stop me from leaving the apartment.

"I really am late for work." I chuckle, my heart cries at the scene. "It's super busy, I really have to go."

He sighs, finally letting go.

"I'm just kidding." He holds my hand and slowly fills my arms with kisses. "Do your thing there. I'll get ready to go too soon."

I smile. He leans in and presses his lips on mine, it feels like an eternity but it's only a couple seconds.

"I'll see you."

"I'll see you." I smile even more.

As soon as he closes the door, my face fills in red as I can barely walk straight.

Marching outside the council, I see the purple torn cape that annoys me such.

We exchange glances, enough to enrage him.

The cannon in my arm is getting to dangerously high degrees again during the duel. It doesn't stop me from trying to blow up that pretty face, I still got a couple tricks up my sleeve.

We don't share a single word, but he gets too close for me to relax, so near me he throws his sword to the ground. he grabs the cannon before I could shoot. The melting metal doesn't bother him, his hand begins to melt along. The arm start's to come undone because of the pressure of his crushing hand piercing through it's compromised surface, until he completely pulls it apart.

"HAH!" Hero laughs at my face.

On a rampage, I hold his shoulder with my right hand, the back of the heel of my metal leg reveals a cannon that thrusts my foot straight into his arm, kicking it hoards away.

His eyes have never been so wide as he stares at what I've done and then at me.

".....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."

"Hah." I smirk, going back to my castle knowing I had a new arm almost ready.

A walk in the night on the busy streets of the shinning city feels comfortable if walking in an embrace.

"And that music store? That sounds really cool." He laughs proudly.

I laugh at him.

"Terrific. Want to stop there, my love?" I giggle, kissing his cheek and holding his hand.

On the way there, it's like we can't stop thinking of new things to talk about.

"Yeah and we really need to start the third season, I've red they--" Hero stops talking to look at a tall woman in a long draped black and white dress and turquoise braids that looks exactly like Miori.

She's on the line to buy tickets for a concert, talking to a white haired guy that seemed to instantly notice us staring as he froze in panic. He taps Miori's shoulders, she looks worried until she notices it's just us.

"Hiro! Hero! Come here!" She shouts smiling really happy to see us.

As soon as she says my name, I let go of Hero's hand, on a strain of my subconscious to never live in a world where Miori knows me and Hero are... Even if it's a dream.

"Miiiiio... It's been such a long tiiiime!" I say nervously walking in her direction.

I give her a tight hug, Hero waves at her and then at the guy next to her.

Miori looks at all of us together for a second as if she was examining us and then smiles.

"Oh, this is Kouga. He's my friend. Kouga this is Hero and Hiro." She says.

We wave awkwardly at him and he does too, as if we already met before.

Miori looks around, nervous out of nowhere, then she picks up her phone desperately for something I can't see. Kouga immediately steps back in shock. Her eyes seem to break as she does not take her eyes off the screen. Her hand starts to tremble like an earthquake.

"Kouga I just wanted to show you around, we can buy the tickets online, we really got to go." She holds him by the arm and they quickly run to the exit. I stare in confusion wondering if it was something I said.

"Loved to see you together guys, I'll call you later so we can an all hang out together. I'll see ya!!" She puts the phone on her ear. "Hello? It's you? I'm so sorry I had no Idea." She says as she runs out the store.

Hero holds my hand as if he too was waiting for her to leave.

"Being banned from helping people in need... Such a lunatic idea..." I think to myself mounted on the stone dragon. I've recently named him Tombstone, things have been way more fun with him around. We sprinted to a village I heard was being attacked by a dire wolf.

I hear screams, but I'm very confused as I see no sign of the creature anywhere, I look, just a crowd of excited people surrounding... Ugh.

"And then the dragon turned into a zombie, you really had to be there." Hero says laughing as he tells all the enchanted people stories.

"Wait, he already has his arm back? He's either more powerful than I thought or his kingdom's research really is growing at scary rates." I think to myself as I nervously approach.

"WHERE IS THE WOLF?" I scream trying to call attention. No one listen to what I said and instead look at Tombstone.

"Oh, right. Where is the wolf?" He says looking around for a second, them shrugging. "You're welcome then!" He gets up to leave. On his way I see the little lizard on the distance, hyperventilating like he just had a fight to the death.

"You're with him now?" I ask.

"Oh, the little guy? Rakkikouganai, he's pretty cool." He smiles, bringing the short kobold closer. "But he is my friend so don't even think about it. I call him Kouganai."

"...Fine, I didn't want it anyway." I cross my arms, holding my red face.

"Oh, friends!" I hear on the distance. Bunny and Miori wave as they get closer. Bunny keeps smiling. "...What are you doing here? Where's the wolf?"

Miori stares coldly at both of us.

"Werewolf? There was no werewolf here. I did hear about a dire wolf, but I know nothing..." Hero says looking away.

"... And your little friend there also knows nothing about any dire wolf then, riiight...?" I say out loud for everyone to hear, staring at Kouganai.

"Kouga?" Miori asks confused looking back at him. "Oh, he's authorized, that's a good idea I'll ask him. Thanks, Hiro."

I smile holding my anger, not letting Hero get the satisfaction of smiling even more. His eyes open wide.

"Wait-- Kouga??" Hero says extremely confused.

Bunny stares at us suspiciously then follows Miori. Thank god she has no evidence on why I'm here.

As soon Bunny leaves, Hero approaches me nervous like I've never seen him.

"Hiro... Listen to me. Bunny is dangerous, you know it, but she's more dangerous than you think, really." He says terrified. "We really should do our bests to stay at her good side."

"Perhaps for once, we could actually collaborate." I say looking at him from the corner of my eye.

His mouth drops, he's eye sparkle as he opens his mouth with a smile.

"YES. I mean... No. I mean, yes! But not on that way." He places his hands in front of me before I could even take a step in her direction. "If you wanna call it that, that's awesome, but..." He mumbles. "...We're going to cooperate by doing nothing."

"Then you meant no." I walk past him, straight to the target.

"Hiro, please listen to me. I've seen it, I've fought her, I couldn't win." He says holding on my right hand, trying to stop me.

The actual feeling of his hand on mine froze me in place, it takes moments for me to pull my hand off his.

"Being that cowardly, of course you didn't win." I gulp, and I walk away.

He sighs, then holds my hand again, this time, the other one. He lifts me up and tosses me against a house at the other side of the village.

"I'm sorry." He walks in my direction, looking defeated.

I furiously get there in a couple seconds as the cannon in my leg boosts me in his direction, holding my fist forward into his chest, pushing him in the air with me until he hits a tree.

He drops the sword on the ground. I'm too fast for him to use it now. I point the cannon at his face, shooting again and again as he could only endure it. He suddenly holds onto the cannon arm once more, the heat wasn't a problem anymore. He held it like he was about to pull it anyways. I press a button on my leg that frees the arm from my body as I tumble back. He thinks he did it by himself.

"HAH!" Hero laughs, then uses the arm to point at me. "STOP!"

The arm immediately starts punching his face again and again and again.

"I'm not doing anything... You're the one getting in the way." I laugh, taking the arm again and putting it back in place.

I walk straight to Bunny, leaving Hero behind as he could barely get up.

Furthermore, I lift my arm up and activate the cannon, aiming directly on Bunny's head from afar, charging it as much as I can before shooting. Hero approaches me staggering, and a split of a second before the blast shoots out, he screams:

"HIRO!"

Surprising and catching the attention of Bunny, Liz and Miori, making me miss the shot for a quarter. The light pulse passes right by the side of Bunny's head and hits the ground far behind them, exploding on impact and making a monstrous sound as the tree which it hit bursts into blue flames.

"Tsk." I look behind me, at Hero, and grinding my teeth with a shaking frown from just how pissed off I am. Bunny looks scared for a second. I start dashing in her direction as I charge one of my punches, as Liz notices it, he rushes Miori out of our way.

Bunny has but a second to react, and she does by crossing her arms above her face to block my arching boosted punch coming from above. The impact creates a crater below her feet, cracking the earth. My feet swiftly dance through the air and I land back on my two feet behind her, giving her a flourish of punches, of which she dodges most. I now see Hero on his feet, yielding his sword with both hands and running towards us, I smile. “Finally.”

The dire wolf comes out of the forest, staring at the five foes present as if we were all prey. I don’t move my aim out of Bunny, Bunny doesn’t take her eyes away from us, Hero jumps in the air, prepared to tear a hole in her skull, Kouganai stands in between the beast and the village, and Miori sits back by a bench under a tree to watch.

Bunny stares into my eyes, deep breathing like an animal. I see the sky twitch black.

“You want to play… We’re gonna play.” She smiles, holding onto her bunny ears and disappearing into the ground as if she fazed through it.

Hero’s thrust comes too late, only carving a small canyon in the ground where she stood, he could barely breathe from how much he rushed.

“Took you long enough.” I smirk at him.

“Fuck you.” he chuckles.

He gets up from the ground, pressing his back against mine as we tried to find where the punches would come from.

“We need to make this quicker before she can–”

The skies turn black as all the light disappears. We can only see a palm from our face, and hear only the roars of pain of the beast.

I see the sun falling down of the sky, the apocalypse itself.

My eyes desperately wander inch after inch around us trying to find something to grasp me back to reality, but, as I see the sun crashing down, I take a deep breath and start trying to find clues, wondering how she can be this powerful.

The sky is still black, but we can finally see around again. She stands right in between us and the creature, terrifyingly staring at us as the creature screams and bleeds behind her.

“...You did all that to the wolf in this little time…?” Hero steps back, still holding his sword. We couldn’t see what was going on behind her, but we could see the beast approaching.

Bunny doesn’t answer.

“I give you a headstart… I introduce myself without trying to kill you, I offered mercy multiple times, I showed you the tricks I had hiding… And you team up against me behind my back?”

“Bunny, it’s right behind you, it’s right behind you.” Hero shouts, she clearly thinks it’s a bluff.

“I don’t get it, I really don’t.” She starts laughing uncontrollably, the creature lifts its foot, about to step on her.

“How do you two manage to stay together when you hate each other so much?” She says curious.

The dire wolf explodes on top of her. She doesn’t move a muscle, just stares at us like she expected an answer.

If before I doubted the things I saw, now I’m completely sure as I feel the blood of the wolf splatting against my face. It isn’t a trick, she can do some things I can’t yet comprehend.

Miori stares at us with a face of shock, if anyone, I expected her to be the calmest in here.

“...I don’t get how you two can be so cruel to each other while still being in love.” Bunny giggles.

“Cruel...?” I ask taking a step back.

Hero stays silent, the only sound he makes is the sword falling on the ground.

“Bunny…” He says as if he was begging for something. She looks at him, and then smiles, turning her gaze now at me.

“I’m glad you finally realized attacking is pointless.” She smiles, pleased.

I decide it’s best to give up for now. If she can do that without even looking at the dragon, I don’t want to know what she will do to me.

“Now kneel.” She keeps staring. Hero doesn’t wait to bow, I take a couple of seconds to accept defeat.

She leaves as we stay on the ground, staring lost at the dirt as we try to believe the fact we lost.

Miori and Bunny leave, Hero throws himself on the ground and starts deep breathing.

I am on my knees, feeling intrigued, but defeated. The way Hero feels defeated is… completely different, I'm actually worried. I reluctantly put my hand on his back and slowly caress it, trying to soothe him.

“We’ll get her next time…”

He stays with his face to the ground, staring at nothing.

“...There won’t be a next time.” He gets up, looking down at me like he was furious but had no courage to even touch me. “I said I didn’t want to take the risk, and I still had to join it. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t.” He says, staring at the floor. “I don’t want to have to do it again, please. Let’s leave her alone. We don’t need it.”

I am out of words. I could not contain myself from fighting the one who teases us, the one who took our place… But I seem to have messed up by not listening to his will. I try to formulate sentences, but I can’t. He looks into my face as he was waiting for me to say something, but before I can’t open my mouth, he walks away.

I almost can’t fall asleep, thinking about all that happened today, finally processing some of the words there were said… All I need is to go back to my dreams already.

“Good morning, my sunshine!” I say getting out of bedroom looking for Hero, he was in the living room. “Guess who’s going to skip work today!” I say with a smile bigger than the world.”

“Good.” He says monotone, getting up from the couch after finishing tying his shoes. “I’m leaving.”

"Noooo, please, I need you. Stay with me just a little longer." I hold onto his shirt.

He sighs.

"Sorry, busy day at work... I really got to go."