[SDU] [Chapter 68 –
Aspye – Knowing Your Friend]
It has been four hours
since we got caught by one of the many brave Yokai that lives near the river. I
thought these things would hand out some sort of judgement to us for killing
their kind but instead we were treated like we’re another of their kind. They
give us foods to eat and comfortable bed to sleep on. The only thing they
required from us was some sort of labour work that was related to what we did
last night.
“What do they mean by
that labour work again?” I asked the others who were enjoying the ‘cell’.
Hemrietta replied,
“It’s a ceremony for the ones that we have killed. I think it’s a burial.”
“Well then…I feel bad
for killing them, then.”
Lin then expressed her
feelings, “I shouldn’t have acted harshly like that. I should have known that
not all Yokai are enemies to the human.”
I looked at her and
said, “Now hold on. That’s not the ninja I know of. You’re not the type to be
emotional aren’t you? Or is that just a mask you wear?”
“No…” Lin disagreed
and said, “It is part of me. But I’m not supposed to be a generic silent
person. I am who I am.”
“Then should you
really be blaming yourself for the situation we are in? I mean we kind of went
in with the flow as well. It’s all our fault. Not just yours.”
She nodded her head
and went to sleep afterwards. We followed suit a few minutes later and before
we know it, it was already morning. The Oni guarding us opened our cells and
asked us to collect some woods for the burial later. Lin was still asleep at
the time but we didn’t wanted to bother her at all considering that she’s a
woman and this kind of job is for men like us. We asked the Oni guarding about
it and they already considered it. Once she wakes up, she will have her own
special task.
In the meantime, as we
were tasked to collect some wood, Kallen was seen using his shadow controlling
ability to collect the twigs and sticks that was on the ground.
I told him off, “Isn’t
that a bit unfair for us, Kallen?”
“What are you talking
about? This makes things faster. Maybe you should use your ability on the
villagers so that we can get away from this terrible place.”
“Can you take that
back? The Yokai gave us food and shelter even though we’re prisoners. Plus,
they aren’t even watching us collecting these woods.”
“Big deal.” Kallen
doesn’t seem to care at all. “I rather if we get to go somewhere else other
than being stuck in this hell hole of a place.”
“Kallen! You’re going
to bring trouble if you said that to the Yokai. What is wrong with you?”
Kallen stopped his
work and told me, “What is wrong with me? I’m not the problem here. The problem
here is why aren’t we running away and continue looking for White and Ethereal!
Plus, Zenith left us on her own.”
“But she’s with
Recordia…” Azreal interrupted.
“Shut up, Azreal!”
Kallen raised his voice to his fellow friend.
Hemrietta tried to
stop him, “Now hold on, young man. Just because you’re an ex-Watcher doesn’t
mean that you have to be the one in charge of everything.”
“Young man?! We’re the
same age for goodness sake. You guys needs to be fixing. Not me. I’m fine as
always.” He continued to collect sticks and twigs after that.
Then I suddenly said
something that triggers him, “You’re only mad because that’s the only thing you
are good at. That’s why you guys got told off by Sam the other day…”
“That wasn’t entirely
my fault, Aspye!” Kallen pointed his index finger at me. “Azreal, Ralph and
Yumiko were also at fault. It was a collective agreement.”
“So it wasn’t your
idea to play hooky? You only gave that idea because you think you have that
kind of power as a Watcher.” Hemrietta cuts him off.
“What do you know
about being a Watcher?!”
“I know that being one
leads to you becoming a more dangerous person. Remember what you did during
Sam’s campaign?” Hemrietta wasn’t letting him go that easily.
Azreal tried to stop
their argument, “Guys…can we stop fighting and get the woods now?”
Both Hemrietta and
Kallen shouted to him at the same time, “Shut up!”
Azreal was taken aback
by their words and decided to bring out his scythe.
I noticed that and
quickly noted off to him, “Azreal…what are you doing...?”
“Nothing…nothing that
will harm them physically that is…” Azreal was serious all of a sudden.
Azreal was focusing
his scythe toward Kallen. He gently pushed his scythe forward. Kallen who was a
few centimetres away from him suddenly felt a push.
“What the? What was
that?” Kallen was caught off guard from that.
I tried to stop
Azreal, knowing what’s about to happen, “Azreal, stop!”
“What’s going on,
Aspye?! What is that idiot doing?!”
“It’s his ability,
Kallen. Soul Touch. He can physically touch your soul. You don’t someone
touching your soul every day, don’t you, Kallen?”
“And what does
touching my soul will even do?”
Azreal explained, “Do
you know that your soul is the very essence of you living right now? Without
it, you are only a corpse. I don’t even need to strike hard enough on your soul
much as I need to strike on your body. I can just do this!”
Azreal forcibly pushed
his scythe forward which then made Kallen suddenly fallen to his knees with
both of his hands on his stomach.
“What…was that?!”
“I already told you,
Kallen.” I walked to him. “That’s Azreal’s ability. You should really stop
fighting. You too as well, Hem.”
“I’m not going to lose
to an idiot like him!”
Kallen unleashed his
shadows toward Azreal but Azreal simply moved his scythe just a little which
immediately stopped the shadow from moving. Kallen tried to force himself out
of Azreal’s control but then, Hemrietta makes his move.
“Is this some sort of
measuring contest? Then I’ll show you what I’m capable of.” Hemrietta clenched
his fist.
His hand started to
grow claw and his eyes was like a reptilian beast. He pounced on Azreal, which
releases Kallen from his Soul Touch control. Kallen quickly captured both
Azreal and Hemrietta with his shadow. But his ‘shadow rope’ was quickly broken
off by Hemrietta as he now grows some sort of spikes over his back. Hemrietta
ran toward Kallen as fast as a running reptile and caught his left hand. Kallen
tried to fight back by punching Hemrietta on the face but it doesn’t seem to
hurt him by a large portion at all.
“What the heck are
you?!” Kallen was scared.
“Dino DNA! It’s a
family trait that I happen to be master at. I was indeed born as some sort of
half human half dinosaur. But for some time, I’ve been able to hide my Dinosaur
side so I could probably use this to my own advantage.”
Then I suddenly
interrupted, “Wait…one of your parents married to a monster?”
“It’s called
interracial relationship, Aspye. Haven’t you heard of it?”
“Dude, that’s
just…weird.” Kallen expressed his disgust in full display with his disgusted
look at Hemrietta.
“I think it’s
awesome.” Azreal was amused.
“You think so?”
Hemrietta sounded happy. “See? Azreal seems to agree to my specialty!”
“Oh really?” I walked
to Hemrietta and touched him.
“Wait…Aspye, no!”
“What a great lie you
have there, Hem. You were never born as a Halfling to begin with.”
Hemrietta sighed and
told the truth, “You and your memory trip. Fine, my parent is just normal wizards
as I am. They are both beast masters, reptilian beast masters…”
“Way to make an
introduction there, Hem.” Kallen laughed.
“I was just showing
off! Can’t I take a break?”
“Now hold on, Hem. I
have another question. Are all beast masters supposed to be different? Because
you said that your parents are reptilian beast masters.”
“You must be talking
the difference between me and that girl from White’s class correct? What’s her
name again?”
“I think it was Rose
Lindow or something.” Said Azreal.
“Yes.” Hemrietta
snapped his finger. “She’s actually a Beast Master that can only transform into
a beast that she have seen before and defeated it and absorbed its essence. She
can’t change into a dinosaur or anything rare. Meanwhile, I already have some
of those dinosaur essences from both of my parent.”
“Huh…For some reason,
everyone just stopped fighting after your revelation, Hem. Good job.” I
applauded at him.
“Well I was aiming for
that originally. I didn’t expect violence would stop us from fighting.”
“Oh well…” Kallen
stood up and said, “Maybe we should just forget about that childish banter we
had just now and move on. You fine, Azreal?”
“I think I’m fine…for
now at least…” Azreal hides his scythe away from our vision.
It’s good that we
finally stopped fighting. I didn’t expect that Hemrietta would be the one to
stop us from fighting. I think it was probably because of how simple everyone
was. We all kind of had a simple mind and not as complex as anyone else. The
way I explained that sounded like the four of us are idiots or something. That
came out wrong. But still, I’m glad things are starting to slow down now that
we have the time to spend together. We’re only missing three other members from
this band of idiocy. Ziggs is on a different tour group and both Yumiko and
White had gone missing somewhere. I wonder where that two went…I hope it is not
something chaotic…
TO BE CONTINUED
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