--- [Arthur’s perspective]
It started out like any other day…
I woke up with a big smile on my face.
In the past I was always miserable, but after I met Alice…
Well, nothing was ever the same since then.
All I could think about after waking up was how excited I was to meet her again.
I never went to school, so I didn’t have anything to do.
I went to the river and waited for her like I always did.
When she finished her home schooling for the day, she’d immediately run to the river.
She’d always talk about how much she wanted to ditch school and just hang out with me instead, but we both knew that was a bad idea.
We knew her parents didn’t like me, so we didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.
I mockingly asked her what she’d learned, and she answered with some stupid joke.
She’d talk for hours about how annoying her teachers were, and I was happy just listening to her ramble.
While we were talking, we would always pay rock, paper, scissors.
Obviously, she’d win every time.
But it made her happy, so I didn’t mind.
We continued like this for hours, not knowing this would be our last time talking by the river…
Her parents hired a D-rank hunter from The Reapers Guild to take me out.
“Hey there!” – ???
We turned around and saw someone neither of us recognized.
“Sooooo, the thing is, I’m here to assassinate that young man. Alice, be a doll and step away from him for a moment.” – ???
Neither of us had done any Divinity Manipulation training by then, so we were for all intents and purposes normal people.
Normal people don’t stand a chance against a D-rank hunter.
He could beat us both in his sleep; the difference between us was simply insurmountable…
“Well then, bye!!” – ???
He pointed his finger at me, and a beam of some sorts shot out of it.
It was too fast for either one of us to react to, it was all over…
Or it would have been if not for out specialties…!
Alice jumped in front of me, taking on the blast with her own body…
How did she make it in time?
Just got ‘lucky’ I suppose…
“Shit! You weren’t supposed to do that!” – ???
That beam would have instantly killed me, yet somehow…
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She survived it…!
Had it hit me, I would have decayed away in the blink of an eye.
Yet…
It didn’t seem to affect her.
Her luck really was enough to overcome all odds…
We got lucky one final time in that confrontation.
He wasn’t told about my ability; Alice’s parents didn’t think it was necessary.
After all, he was so much stronger than us that it shouldn’t have mattered…
I ran up to him, and due to his big ego, he didn’t move.
I punched him right in the face and all he did was laugh.
“Ahahaha! That’s it?!” – ???
His laughter quickly ended though…
For the first time in my life, I was able to control my ability.
I could feel it; the power to change his destiny.
His heart stopped and he died before he could hurt us any more…
The first thing we did was run to the nearest hospital to stop the bleeding from her wound.
I couldn’t afford to stay there any longer; they would just hire someone else to assassinate me.
Alice was more than happy to run away with me; it’s not like she had any attachments to her family.
And so, we escaped.
We lived by ourselves in the middle of nowhere for a little while, then Alice’s health suddenly took a turn for the worse…
Turns out, that beam did affect her.
Her body was decaying, just like mine would have, it was just happening much slower.
We decided to travel around the world, looking for someone who could help her.
There wasn’t a doctor on earth who could save her, but that didn’t stop us.
On our journey, we met some people from an organization called ‘The END’.
They promised to do everything they could to save her if we joined them; and so, we did.
They threw all their best healers at her, but nothing worked…
The END isn’t the kind of organization you can just leave once you’ve joined, so although we haven’t done much work for them, we’ve been members ever since.
We were grateful for their training though, it proved to be very helpful in the future.
But once we realized they couldn’t keep their promise, our journey continued.
Along the way we found outcasts just like us; people who had been rejected by society.
We grew closer and closer until we became the closest thing I’ve ever had to a real family…
One day, I heard of a guy called Alex Minima…
I heard about him from some other members of The END.
They were very interested in him for unknown reasons, but all I cared about was his ability.
He could be the one…
He could be the one to save her…!
With his ability, he might be able to absorb the remnants of the specialty that hit Alice.
But…
I knew that I could never make contact with him.
If I ever did, The END would make sure stop me.
They couldn’t afford to mess up whatever plan they had for him, so they were very strict about us not being allowed to make contact with him.
If I broke that rule, the punishment wouldn’t exactly be a slap on the wrist…
But I couldn’t let an opportunity like this go to waste.
I had to somehow get him to help us, and it had to happen quickly too.
The moment they figure out I’ve made contact with him, it would be over for me.
The only plan I could think of would be to force him into helping us by threatening him and his friends…
It wasn’t a plan I was proud of, but it was something that had to be done.
Or at least I thought it had to…
Alice’s speech changed my mind.
I was getting so obsessed with saving her, I never stopped to think about what I was willing to do to achieve my goal…
Alex has people that he loves just as much as I love Alice, taking those people away from him would be beyond cruel.
Life is cruel, but that doesn’t mean I have to be…
--- Back in Arthur and Alice’s room
“Rock, paper, scissors!” – Arthur and Alice
“Yay, I won!” – Alice
“Hmph… You just got lucky, I bet you won’t win next time!” – Arthur
“Oh, let’s see about that!” – Alice
“Rock, paper-” – Arthur and Alice
Before we could finish, she suddenly vomited an alarming amount of blood.
“Alice!” – Arthur
“… Scissors!” – Alice
I grab her hand.
“You’ll be ok. I swear…” – Arthur
“You forgot to choose, so I win by disqualification. Let’s play again!” – Alice
“Yeah… Let’s play again…” – Arthur
“Rock, paper, scissors!” – Arthur and Alice
She starts looking a little dizzy.
“Rock, paper, scissors!” – Arthur and Alice
She throws up more blood.
“Rock, paper, scissors!” – Arthur and Alice
She’s struggling to open her hand…
“Rock, paper, scissors!” – Arthur
She didn’t say it…
“Hey, Alice! Are you okay?” – Arthur
“Y… eah…” – Alice
She’s struggling to sit upright and is swaying back and forth…
“You can lay down on my lap.” – Arthur
“Ok…” – Alice
…
I can feel her breathing slowing down.
“Let’s… Play one more round…” – Alice
“Okay…” – Arthur
“Rock, paper, scissors…” – Arthur
She didn’t say it…
“I’m… Sorry…” – Alice
“It’s okay, just rest.” – Arthur
“Ok…” – Alice
…
“Are you there?” – Arthur
“Yes…” – Alice
…
“Are you there?” – Arthur
“Yes…” – Alice
…
“Are you there?” – Arthur
…
“Alice… Are you there?” – Arthur
“Alice…” – Arthur
“Goodbye…” – Arthur