Planning and Preparation
The long night had passed, and the first rays of morning light began to illuminate the school.
I had long since collected all the monster drops - which comprised only of a small amalgamation of health and stamina potions - and everybody had recovered enough to the extent where they could at least move their bodies again.
But with everyone’s speedy recovery came conflict.
“Kido!” The President shouted in blatant fury.
He paced around the abandoned classroom we were currently using as our base, before he stalked directly over towards a particular corner of the room. There, Kido sat, alongside the other girls as he donned on his signature clueless expression.
“P-Prez? What’s the matter?” He asked with almost believable virtue.
Such a response only served to further increase the President’s anger. His hand cut through the air like a hot knife on butter, and grabbed Kido by the cuff of his collar. “Don’t play innocent with me!” He growled out through gritted teeth.
The President’s tousled hair, coupled with his disheveled appearance, and dirty complexion was a far cry from the President’s usual demeanor. It was obvious that the recent events had taken quite a toll on his current mental state. Kido’s reckless actions last night with the Gila was the last straw for the mentally stressed youth.
“The fight earlier was supposed to be a group battle, but despite that, the way you fought, and the way you interacted with everyone during the fight was far from how a proper group was supposed to fight! You recklessly charged in without thinking! You monopolized the fight! You used everyone as bait!”
As the President spoke, there was a slight tremble in his shoulders, and at the same time, his grip grew increasingly tighter and tighter the more passionately he expressed himself. “Someone could have gotten killed because of you!”
Kido’s head was hung low, and his cascading hair blotted out whatever expression he was currently making. With my heightened senses in full effect, I could hear the quiet sigh of exasperation leak out from his thinly parted lips. “....If they did end up dying, then that just means they didn’t have what it takes to survive…” From under his breathe, Kido retorted in a voice as silent as the moon.
“What?” The President furrowed his brow, as a confused expression blossomed on his face. He could not hear what Kido had said earlier, but he had seen his mouth moving. He was sure he had spoken, yet he had no idea as to what Kido had said.
The President inadvertently slackened his grip on Kido’s collar, and Kido, as if he had been waiting for this moment, used this opportunity to escape from the President’s grasps. With one heavy back hand, Kido knocked aside the President’s hand, before he took a single step backwards.
“I thought it was a group battle...” Kido solemnly spoke with his head still down and his eyes still covered by a cascade of dark brown hair.
“Hah?”
“I thought it was a group battle, so I thought it was only natural everyone else should participate too. At the very least, I expected everyone else to be prepared.” Kido’s ice like tone matched with his cold and almost mechanical expression caused the President’s anger to resurface. Pushing back his original confusion, his expression twisted into a snarl, as he inadvertently took a step forward.
“You…..” His hands were clenched tightly into bone white knuckles, and his face was colored in a bright red fluster. It was apparent at first glance that the President was using almost all of his will power to control himself.
“Me what? Was anything I said wrong?” Paying no regard to the President’s anger, Kido relentlessly mocked. “You said it yourself just now, didn’t you, that the fight earlier was a group battle. Isn’t it only natural that in a group battle, everyone has to fight as well?”
“You little- The way you fought wasn’t at all like a group!”
“Hah,” he scoffed, “Well, I wouldn’t know how to fight like a group, considering you locked in that freezer for weeks-”
BAM!
Like a taut cord snapping, the President rushed forward and threw a white-clenched fist directly towards Kido’s face. As if the whole scene had occurred in slow motion, Kido’s eyes widened as the fist approached. His expression of pure surprise persisted up until the President’s fist connected, and a resounding crack filled the room.
Kido’s head jerked backwards as the force surged through his entire body. His legs rose an inch or two above the ground before Kido fell back onto the floor with a resounding thud. Blood slowly dripped down from Kido’s left nostril, subsequently staining his shirt and the floor beneath his feet.
Besides him, the girls, whom up until now had stayed silent during the whole conversation, let out a series of horrified screams. They immediately rushed over to Kido’s side, and supported his fallen body.
Kido himself, seemingly ignored them, as he gently touched his nose, all the while still sporting a surprised expression. the slight touch of his fingertips caused him to wince, a clear sign that the punch just now had broken the cartilage in his nose.
Kido’s surprised expression quickly turned into a vicious glare, as he silently stared up at the President.
“Hah…. hah….” The President stood above Kido, looking downward with the same anger driven expression he had on before. His hand was still curled up into a fist, but was now covered in a thin film of blood. Whether the blood was his, Kido’s or both, I could not tell.
“Get off your damn high horse!” The President spat out. “I’m not going to let your stupid actions kill anymore people.”
“...”
Kido did not respond to the President’s provocation, merely choosing to stay silent and seated. The tense quiet lasted for a minute or two, with both sides not making a move. I thought about interjecting, but just as the idea floated to my head, the President moved first.
He turned around and stalked over towards the exit.
As he passed me by, in a hushed whisper, he spoke with subdued anger, “I don’t trust Kido. Just him being here is dangerous.”
Without further elaboration, the President continued forward and out of the room, leaving me with no chance nor opportunity to respond.
*****
After the incident, we took an hour long break in order to give those involved a chance to cool down. Afterwards, we assembled back in the same abandoned classroom once more in order to plan out the future.
The desks were arranged in a square shaped formation, and everybody sat dispersed amongst the space. The President and his party sat towards the left of the room, close to the windows. His anger had subdued somewhat, but he could not help but throw a glare towards Kido’s direction.
Kido, alongside his friends, sat on the right of the room, opposite of where the President sat. He was chatting nonchalantly with the girls, all the while maintaining a carefree smile. It was as if the incident from earlier had not happened at all.
On a side note, Cielle refused to heal Kido’s broken face, so his nose had to be poorly bandaged with what sparse medical supplies we had left.
Near the front of the room was where my group and I sat. As always, Cher was absent, due to her current unconscious state, but both Cielle and Hina were present. The side closest to the back of the room was occupied by the sparse collection of cafeteria survivors, which consisted of Mr. Tei, the chubby kid and the girl I had assigned as look out back at the library, as well as two other guys.
The room was tense, and for the majority of the time, silent. This was primarily due to the unrestrained tension between the President and Kido. The silence lasted for a good while too, before, seemingly out of nowhere, the President opened his mouth and asked,
“So, what’s our next step?”
I turned towards him, only to see a tired, and weary face. The earlier anger in his eyes were still present, but more than that, the resigned, almost dreary atmosphere he exuded was overwhelmingly stronger. A man who looked to be on the verge of both giving up, and persevering.
“To escape, we need to beat the Dungeon Boss.” From across the room, Kido stated. In comparison to the President’s own expression, Kido’s was a lot more mechanical. A neutral, almost indifferent smile that conveyed almost no emotion. “That should be our priority- no, survival should be our priority.”
“Hah-” The President scoffed, as he leaned back on his chair. His anger had flared back up with Kido’s every word, and like an easily excited preschooler he could not help but taunt,“Whose survival? The group’s or yours?”
“Prez,” I interrupted with a tired sigh. The conflict between the two of them and the sole fact that it had persisted even up until now was a marked sign of my incompetence and inexperience as a “leader”. In short, I did not know how to properly lead people. Yet, in this current situation where I had somehow or the other ended up in such a high position of authority, I had to atleast try to lead.
“That’s enough, We’re here to talk about the future, not kill each other.” I solemnly spoke to the President before turning towards Kido, “As for you… I’m not going to say much, just that…” I took a deep breathe, and slowly closed my eyes. As if to gather my thoughts, I took a quick pause before I immediately opened my eyes to glare at Kido. My mouth was flat, and my eyes were sharp. The indifferent expression I donned on was one I was quite familiar with. “...If you end up being more trouble than you're worth, then I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“...”
In response to my warning, Kido merely looked down at his lap without saying a single thing. Once again, the hair that cascaded over his head blotted out whatever expression he was making.
But as if to cover for the silent Kido, the girls next to him reacted with great fervor. Their faces were pale, sweat was heavily dripping down their cheeks, and it was apparent that fear, apprehension, and whatever else type of negative emotion that swirled around their heads was currently seizing their hearts. But, despite that, they still defended Kido.
They did not say anything but merely scooted their seats closer to Kido. As if to guard him from whatever danger appeared, two of the girls grabbed onto each of his arms, and held him close. The others sat besides them, their shoulders trembling, and their mouth half opened, poised to speak. They did not say anything though, it was as if fear had stolen away their voices.
Kido’s childhood friend, whose own dainty lips were parted with apparent tension, was about to speak, when I continued with no further regard or elaboration.
“Like Kido said earlier, beating the Dungeon Boss is our priority. Unless we do that, we can’t escape this school.”
“But aren’t we trapped in the East building? All access to the rest of the school has been cut off, so how are we supposed to beat the boss and escape?” The President asked pointedly, his expression was one of calculating impassiveness.
I shook my head in response. “Not all the pathways are destroyed…”
I then explained the hidden passage way we had found weeks prior, the one that connected the bomb shelter to the Dungeon Boss’s lair, as well as our experience with the passageway.
“Going by the layout of the school, the Dungeon Boss should be located within the old fallout shelter beneath the Old School Building.” Hina further elaborated afterwards.
“The Fallout shelter?” The twin from the President’s group asked curiously as she tilted her head to the side.
“The Fallout shelter was part of the building’s original layout.” The Teacher from the President’s group began to explain. Since he was part of the faculty of the school, he had some knowledge as to its history. “Before this school was, well a school, it was originally a military compound. Back then, one of the most important precautions the Brass thought up was regarding Nuclear Fallout. The Fallout shelter was created with those fears in mind.
Although, nowadays, calling it a shelter is an exaggeration. The school removed a lot of the platings, and metal that kept the shelter in tact, mostly because they had plans to renovate the space. Those plans were cut short though, and the Fallout shelter was ultimately abandoned.
Nowadays, rather than calling it a shelter, it's more like a glorified basement.”
The President nodded, “That’s right, and I also heard something about turning the Old school basement back into a shelter. That’s probably why they connected the East Building shelter, with the one in the Old school building.”
“Either way, don’t treat that Passageway as the real “entrance” to the Boss’s lair.” I tacked on. “At most, the passageway is more like a back door. A 2nd entrance that exists outside of the intended entrance. In games, it would probably be the exit that the player uses after beating the Final Boss.”
“Because it can attack us inside the Passage, under normal circumstances, we would avoid using this entrance, and instead use the Fallout Shelter’s original entrance located at the Old School Building.” Hina elaborated.
“That may be the case, but we’re not under normal circumstances.” The President retorted. “We don’t have any other method. After all, We’re stuck here in the East Building.”
“...That’s not necessarily correct...” From out of nowhere, Cielle’s quiet voice responded. Everyone’s eyes widened as they all turned to stare at the usually silent and unresponsive individual.
I nodded from besides Cielle’s side. “That’s right. If it's just getting to the Main building, then that isn’t something impossible. We could use Cielle’s acid to erode through the concrete and bypass the wreckage at the skyhall.”
“Ah… there was that method…” The President nodded, as his eyes flared with realization. “Then, does that mean we’ll be using the real entrance in order to confront the Dungeon Boss?”
I shook my head. “If we head out as a group into the Main building, then we’ll be vulnerable to the horde that the Dungeon Boss controls. A direct confrontation with them is dangerous, and I doubt the reward are great enough for us to risk it.”
Memories of our escapade filled everyone with a sense of apprehension and no shortage of fear. While one Boss may be tough on its own, it was impossible to escape being trampled by a literal stampede out in the open areas of the hallway
“Then… what should we do?” The President asked with a heavy sigh, seemingly clueless as to what the best option would be.
“...” I paused and thought for a minute. In truth, taking into consideration everyone else’s current battle potential, I had already began thinking up a plan, but in the end, I still held some reservations. After all, confronting something that could potentially kill us ten times over was no easy feat. But, despite that, there was no other option left. This situation was due or die. Either we stay here and starve to death, or we die fighting a fruitless battle. Taking a leap of faith, I began to explain,
“A two pronged attack.
We will split ourselves up into two groups. One group will be the main group and attack from the passageway. The other group will be smaller, consisting of less people, but with more mobility. They will attack from the Old school building.”
“Splitting our meager forces into even smaller numbers… is that really the best way to go?” The President quietly mumbled after hearing my plan, and expressed his doubts.
In response I simply shrugged. “If it were a simple two sided attack, then I’d agree with you. But, this plan will be a bit special. In actuality, there’s one key feature that this plan hinges upon, and that is… you” I solemnly pointed towards Kido’s side of the room. My finger homed in on a certain Wizard clad female, who meekly jumped in surprise after having the attention of the room suddenly directed solely towards her.
“M-me?” She goofily said while mindlessly pointing at herself.
I nodded in return. “Yeah. The main reason why this plan requires us to break into two groups is in order to inflict damage to the Dungeon Boss even before we actually start fighting, but to do that, I need her skill.”
Kido, who had remained quiet for the majority of my explanation, finally lifted his head up to look at me. With a voice filled with doubt, he asked, “... What exactly are you planning to do?”
“Collapse the Old school building.” I stated simply as I leaned back onto my crooked chair. “The plan is to use this girl’s overpowered destructive potential and blast a hole straight down from the 2nd floor all the way down to the basement. The subsequent debris and rubble should- if we’re lucky, cause significant damage to the boss, and at the very least, distract the Boss enough so that the main group can make it past the passageway without being subjected to that fire attack of his.”
“Blasting a hole straight through the basement… Is that even possible?” A hesitant voice wafted out from someone on the Cafeteria group’s side of the room.
“... It should be.” Hina chimed up, her brow scrunching up in mild concentration. “Her skill was enough to take down the library… if we aim for specific areas most vulnerable in the building, then it shouldn’t be impossible to bring down a large majority of the upper floors and basement.”
“Yes. It’s not that much of a far cry.” The teacher also added, “The old school building is old afterall, the majority of its infrastructure is still reliant on wood and low grade metal. Not to mention, the biggest advantage would be the fact that they already dismantled a large portion of the Fallout shelter’s thicker, outer exterior.”
Satisfied by their response, I cracked a small smile, nodding to myself in the process. “That’s why we’ll need a small group to escort Wizard Hat to the Old School building. A smaller group will allow us to more easily escape from the horde that will no doubt be guarding the building… If we’re lucky, then the group might just be able to get from here all the way to the Old School Building purely through the ventilation systems.”
“... despite how easy you make it sound, in the end, this is still pretty dangerous.” The President bitterly smiled as an inevitable sigh escaped from his lips.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“...” I nodded. It would have been foolish and impossible to hide the danger of this plan. “Without a doubt, just thinking about fighting the Dungeon Boss is dangerous. This plan isn’t any safer in that regard. People will die, the chance for failure is relatively high too. By all means, this isn’t a good plan.”
Hearing my words, the slowly growing smiles on everyone’s faces instantly soured. As if a rush of cold water had awoken everyone up from their flightful dreams, the room darkened, and the bitter atmosphere filled with apprehension and fear was once again seeping through the cracks of the classroom.
This was especially true for the Cafeteria group. They weren’t fighters, but they all understood that if this plan were to fail, and if all the combatants were to die, then they will surely be next. Their life and death was now purely reliant on the others’ survival.
“This isn’t a good plan,” I reiterated again. “So if anybody else has any ideas, then speak now.”
“.....”
“.....”
“.....”
Quiet silence filled the room, and my poorly thought out plan was locked into place.
*****
After checking out all the provisions within the Bomb shelter, it was discovered that we had enough food to last us a good 2 weeks before we ran out. It was decided that the remaining two weeks would be spent all on training and preparation for the upcoming fight.
Aside from that, the rest of the day was set aside for resting and recuperating. Rather than physical weariness, the group’s main cause for concern was everyone’s emotional stress. After non stop fighting and lack of rest, outbreaks like the one earlier between the President and Kido were bound to happen if left unchecked.
That’s why today, out of the remaining 2 weeks we had left, was allocated purely for rest. To the to others, it might have been a good reprieve from everything dangerous, but to me, it was a boring day. The day passed uneventfully, with nothing really exciting or stressful happening.
It was only until night had come that something happened. Unexpectedly, something good had happened that night.
Cher had woken up.
****
It was late at night, and everyone else had long since fallen asleep. I was the only one still awake, primarily because I was on self imposed night duty.
I sat idly next to Cher’s prone figure, when a subtle steering from underneath her sheets caught my eye. At first, in the dimness of moonlight, I thought my vision was simply playing tricks on me, but as the movements from underneath her sheets quickly grew more and more noticeable, I immediately dismissed that thought.
It was only after Cher’s tightly shut eyelids, which had not opened in the past two days, blinked open, did I finally managed to breath out an anxious, but all the same, relieved sigh.
“Uuu…” A soft groan escaped her cracked lips. Her pale complexion reflected in the moonlight conveyed fatigue and dreariness.
At first, her slightly opened eyes were blurry and hazy, but as she got used to the dim moonlight, her eyes quickly grew focus.
I waited attentively, staring directly at her still listless face.
“Hide…” She cracked a partial smile as she looked up at me with still half hazy eyes.
“Hey…” I quietly whispered, almost afraid to strain her ears with unwanted noise.
In reaction to my response, Cher swiveled her head around to view her surroundings. Her expression was clouded with confusion, and she could not help but ask, “Wh-where am I? How long have I been out? What happened?”
In response to her bewildered questioning, I took my time and answered. “We’re in the east building. You’ve been out for about 2 to 3 days, and we had to run away after… a few things happened.”
I then went on to explain what had transpired after our fight with Kido.
“Two days…” She spoke with open mouthed surprise. “That’s a surprisingly long amount of time…And to think, I was in dream the whole time.” She bitterly laughed, her pupils fogging with a look resembling nostalgia. She stared straight up into the ceiling, her irises fixated on the oblong stained spots that lay above her head. As she absentmindedly stared, Cher’s eyes grew moist and hazy, and for a moment, I was afraid that she would fall back asleep again.
Luckily, Cher quickly snuffed out those concerns, as she rustled in her sheets once more. Her neck craned forward with effort, and her torso wriggled with strain. The blanket covering her body slid below her shoulders as she forced herself upright. Almost instinctively, she attempted to use her arms for support, which only caused her body to tilt towards the left before-
Crash!
“Uuuu….”
She fell to the floor in a messy heap, her chin hitting tile as she went down. Her blanket had gotten undone, only to reveal her newly amputated arm sticking out from the covers. Cher stared at the stump on her arm for a good while, before a bitter smile twisted her cramped cheeks.
“So that part wasn’t a dream after all….” Her hollow voice echoed throughout the room.
I could not say anything. No apology, nor any words of encouragement. All I could do was swallow down a mouthful of dry saliva, and offer my assistance. “Here, let me help you up….”
“No.” She firmly shook her head. “I… I can do this by myself.” She spoke simply as she once again struggled to sit upright. It wasn’t so much as the arm that held her back, but rather, it was from the accumulated fatigue and weariness she acquired from sleeping for two full days straight. No, rather, her missing arm served more as a mental inhibition than anything else.
After a minute of struggling, she finally managed to sit upright. With a tired sigh, she shuffled her legs before leaning back onto the wall behind her. She sat besides me, and our shoulders, through one flimsy layer of cloth, touched.
We did not say anything for a while. Cher’s expression was vague and hazy while her hollow eyes stared absentmindedly at the preceding darkness of the room.
After a while of silence, she spoke in a cracked, and broken hearted voice, “I… I really messed up this time, huh?”
“...” From the corner of my eyes, I could see her eyes growing red, and moist. Her shoulders were shaking, and her lips were trembling.
She quietly sniffled, before she reiterated, “I really messed up. Losing an arm like that, aren’t I stupid. Just… completely stupid, stupid, stupid…. ah, so stupid…” She continued to lament, while berating herself.
Cher’s head was hung low, and without her even realizing it herself, she had started to cry. Slow going teardrops slid down her pale cheeks and onto her chest. Her sobs were quiet, and restrained, but within the almost dreadful silence of the classroom, those same sobs were as loud as thunder.
“No…” I shook my head. “The opponent this time around was just a bad match up. I heard his attacks could eat away at your shields… you… you did a good job surviving.”
“...*sniff*” She nodded quietly, but the tears did not stop. Her eyes wandered onto her severed limb, while at the same time, her free hand gingerly touched the tip of the stump.
For a while, she stayed like that. Unmoving, yet the sobbing sounds still persisting. Almost 5 minutes passed before her sobbing diminished and she suddenly said, “I’m sorry….”
In the face of her sudden apology, I could not help but utter a dumb sounding, “Huh?”
“I-I’m sorry…” She repeated again, this time with slight hiccup in her words.
After fighting a Psycho killer, being stuck in a 2 day comma, and finally finding out you’ve lost an arm, the only thing she could think to say was, sorry? Why? Why did you apologize? There’s nothing for you to be sorry about.
“What for?” I asked with almost open mouthed curiosity.
She sniffled and wiped at her face with her remaining hand, in the process, smearing snot and tears all over her red tinted cheeks. “It’s just that… I know I’m a pretty useless person….
...Before I met you, even before the whole world went to hell, I was always… Useless. I was the type to get berated at by my parents for not doing well in school, the type who stayed up late playing games I was bad at, the type of person to turn in their assignments months after the deadline, the type of person who would lose their all their money to easy-to-win crane games, the type who would trip on flat surfaces, the type of person who would find wet washcloths and tacks in their shoe locker… I was the type of person people would call useless.”
Cher cracked a melancholic, yet strangely nostalgic smile as she recounted her bitter past. With each painful word, with each break in her voice, with each stutter in her speech, she spoke it all out in one breathe, a breath that showed neither anger nor regret.
“...That was the me before the apocalypse… and even when the blue screens entered our vision, and people died left and right, I was still that type of person. The type of person to only rely on others, the type of person who would betray others for their own convenience, the type who…. who lived for the sake of surviving.
It was when…. It was when I met you- you, Hina, and Cielle- it was when I met all of you that… I found myself starting to change. Of course, the start wasn’t like that at all.” She nostalgically giggled, with an almost odd sort of fondness. “Back then, you were really scary Hide, and even now, sometimes you still are scary, not to mention being always bossy, rude, and a generally all around negative person, most people would hate you- but in the end…”
Cher abruptly stopped. As if she could not find the proper words to convey her emotions with, she tilted her head to the side and scrunched up her brow in an effort to think. After a few seconds of silent pondering, in a quiet, almost fragile voice, she whimsically said, “... In the end, I learned to survive for the sake of living.”
She tilted her head in my direction, and smiled a toothless smile. The type of smile you’d only ever see on a girl maybe once or twice in their lifetimes. It was a smile that was aged, yet innocent all at the same time. A smile that almost made my heart skip a beat.
But, just as quickly as that smile had come, it had vanished. Cher tilted her head back to stare at the open space in front of her. Like the darkness that extended past our feet, the darkness in Cher’s mind continued to writhe and grew.
In a solemn voice filled with bitter regret, she said, “ Now though… like a glass window being smashed, that life of mine… that dream of mine has shattered. Now I’m afraid I’ll be going back to being the sort of useless person I once was. So… sorry.. After all, the only thing I was semi-decent at was using those shields you made me, and now- with only one arm....I...I...”
Cher’s voice cracked. The words she had been trying to utter had died down deep in the middle of her throat, refusing to come out, as if she were afraid that the moment they came out, everything she said would come true. Like every self-deprecating word she had used to describe herself would be etched in stone the moment they left her mouth.
“...Hah…” In the face of her poorly restrained sobs and all too obvious silent plea, I unconsciously uttered out a sigh.
“Stop being an idiot.” I bluntly stated.
“Huh?” Her sobbing abruptly stopped midway as she turned to stare at me with a rather perplexed expression.
“I said stop being an idiot.” I reiterated, scratching my head in a fit of mock annoyance. “Worrying about this and that all the time… this is why I can’t stop calling you ‘pitiful’”.
“Hah? Wait, Hide, something isn’t right here.” She immediately straightened her back, as she hastily spoke out, her quiet sniveling diminishing with each frantic word. “W-wasn’t this the part where you comfort me? The part where you rub my head and tell me, ‘everything will be okay’? I know if it was Cielle, you would have done that! Heck, you probably already did!”
“Guh- S-stop being an idiot!” I hopelessly repeated once more, ignoring the sudden tinge of red on my cheeks. “Enough about all this, this is a pointless conversation.”
“Haaaah? Hide, despite my current condition aren’t you being extra mean today?” Cher’s mouth hung open as she hopelessly retorted. New tears, brought about by a different sort of sadness began to congregate beneath her eyes.
“... Idiot.”
“Stop calling me that!”
“hah…” I sighed out once more, turning my gaze away from Cher and looking out into the receding darkness. The slight smile on my face was barely noticeable in the dim of the moonlight. “Do you remember what I said when you first asked to join our group?”
“Ah… um…” In the face of my sudden question, she immediately paused. Cher tilted her head and silently thought for a moment before she came out stating, “Didn’t you repeatedly call me Pitiful?”
“No, you idiot.” Her terrible memory caused me to inadvertently sigh once more, “Didn’t I tell you, that from now on you’d be my slave?”
“Eh, Slave?” For some weird reason, Cher’s cheeks cramped, and as she mentally processed my statement, a tinge of red quickly colored her pale complexion. “Ah, um, Hide I don’t think now's the time…. but, if you want… but… ah, slave….what should I do….”
She began creepily muttering to herself, her eyes were swimming in circles around her skull, while a slight line of drool ran down her chin and onto the blanket by her chest.
Seeing this reaction, I subconsciously shivered. “No, stop with your weird train of thought! What I’m trying to say is that-” In a fit of frustration, I haphazardly scratched at my head of hair, before letting out a tired sigh. “Just because you lost an arm, that doesn’t change the fact that you're still our vanguard.”
“...” As the words flowed out from my lips, Cher’s eyes slightly widened, as she wordlessly stared at me. Through the veil of darkness and dim moonlight, I hoped that Cher could not see the tinge of growing red on my face..
“...Just because you encountered a little setback doesn’t all of a sudden mean you're no longer a slave. Manual labor isn’t that easy to escape from.”
“....”
“...So, um, depressing thoughts like before… those are useless, pointless infact.”
“....”
With one final sigh, I truthfully stated, “No matter what, you’re still part of this party.” That’s right, there was no way I could simply just toss Cher aside like an old rag. After all, I hate to admit it, but I’ve grown attached to her. Her idiocy, her sometimes weird comments, her constantly pitiful expressions, she was someone I trusted. One of the only people I’ve grown to trust throughout this whole ordeal.
“...” Cher, did not say anything for a long while. Her silent awe was sort of overbearing, and together with her constant stare, caused a cold shiver to run down my spine. I could not help but speak idly in order to break the overbearing awkwardness.
“So, um, next time, try not to lose your other limb, wait- that sort of thing’s insensitive right now - what I mean to say was that, um, uh…”
In the middle of my jumbled up speech, Cher suddenly laughed lightly. Her eyes squinted in full crescents while her mouth curved upwards into a simple smile. “Thanks, Hide…”
“....No problem.” I coughed slightly as I leaned back onto the wall behind me. I readjusted myself in order to gain a more comfortable position before I suddenly jumped up, “Ah, wait… I had something for you….”
After remembering, I immediately fished around my back pocket and pulled out a thin, ten page long paperback book. Its edges were frayed and splintered, and its original red cover was dull and stained with a more crimson shade of red.
“This is…” Seeing the book, Cher’s eyes followed it closely as her mouth mumbled in curiosity.
“Don’t think of this as a gift, but rather, as a shackle.” I said in a tone of mock harshness. “Since I’m giving you this, that means you have to work twice as much now.”
In almost reckless abandonment, I tossed her the precious skill book. She fumbled a bit, before awkwardly catching it with the lap of her thighs.
“....” She stared listlessly at its cover for a few seconds, before she hugged it close to her chest, and nodded in appreciation.
She did not immediately learn the book, but rather, gently placed it on her lap before she leaned back once more, and stared back up at the ceiling.
“....”
“....”
For a short time, she did not say anything, and neither did I. We stayed in an almost transient like silence, one as peaceful as the gentle pitter patter of rain. This silence was broken by Cher’s abrupt voice, that sliced through the dark and transient night like a hot knife on butter.
“Hey, Hide….”
“Yeah?”
She hesitated for a moment, but after hearing her swallow down a mouthful of saliva, she continued, “... Let’s escape okay?”
“....”
“Let’s leave this dungeon, escape from all the monsters trying to kill us. We’ll go outside, eat something decent for once, and… maybe look for our families or find a safe spot and rebuild our base… Let’s… Let’s make it all work, okay?”
“....Yeah.” I answered simply. Her whimsical, almost childlike expression of her desires was almost… mesmerizing. It was like a bright light at the end of a tunnel. Something rare in a dark and dreary place like this. “We’ll make it work, and maybe if we’re lucky, we can get your arm fixed. I mean, there’s a world full of magic out there waiting for us, something like a limb or two is nothing. Heck, if you want, we could probably get one of those cool bionic arms instead.”
I turned to Cher with an uncharacteristically optimistic and bright smile.
In return, Cher looked at me with a dazed expression, her eyes wide open and her mouth slightly ajar. She maintained this expression for but a split second, before she broke off into an equally as optimistic and bright smile.
“Then… I’ll be waiting.” She spoke with finality, as she leaned back against the wall and drifted off into content sleep.
*****
Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, or the story please take time to rate or review. Thank you.