After the fight, Torika had showed up to treat our wounds, she attempted to treat Celestia's wounds but Celestia had ignored her and then disappeared, no trace of her anywhere. Nobody was really bothering to look for her either, since she hadn't really made any friends during her time at The Eye, which was understandable given her personality and strength.

"You owe me a lot of explanations." I said bluntly.

"I feel like my only role since you've come here has been giving you explanations." Rudeus said.

"Oh you noticed?"

"Not even trying to hide it huh?"

"You also bashed my skull in that one time; I think I deserve it."

"I've got no response to that, can't really say it was an accident either."

…A silence hangs over the air. My eyes drift towards my palms, looking at nothing in particular.

"You have a confused look on your face." Rudeus said inquisitively

"Ah, I just feel like I'm saying and doing a lot of stuff I normally wouldn't do."

It feels strange, talking to Rudeus was very easy now. I wasn’t tense or scared or overthinking anything, I could simply talk to him and not give it a second thought.

"You must still be excited after that fight with Celestia, give it a while and you'll cool off eventually."

I go silent for a moment.

"Tell me how to get out The Eye right now. Don’t worry, I won’t run off since you have the information I need on Dundee. It’ll just be a contingency plan.”

Rudeus points towards the sky. "Follow the direction in which the sun sets, there will be giant rocks you can't miss to signify that you're going in the right direction. Eventually the storms will calm down and you'll reach the first and closest city to The Eye: Astrodam. You can decide where to go from there."

"What happens if I go in the other direction?”

"You’ll probably die. That side is when the blizzards, volcanic extreme zones, rain-storms with water coming down fast enough to pierce straight through flesh start to manifest as you get closer and closer to the boundary. Nobody knows for sure, but there’s been sightings of massive mythic-like creatures that are somehow able to live in those conditions as well.”

“Wait a second, the boundary? Does this extend across the entire world? Is only half the world inhabitable?”

“No… It’s—“ Rudeus pauses. “How can I explain it… It’s complicated, but across the border lives the Tetsudo. We are the Ankudo, and we’ve been separated for almost an entire eon by now.”

“What do you—“

“You know I can try to find you a history book going further into detail if you want. To be honest, I’m not much of an academic guy, I barely know anything about what you’re trying to ask me.” Rudeus interrupts me as I was about to go further into the questioning.

“Ah…” He’s right. It’s interesting, but has nothing to do with what I want to do.

“Then let me ask you about Dun—“

“I will not tell you anything about Dundee today. Telling you how to get out of here is already risky enough for me.” Rudeus interrupts me once again with a finality in his tone

For a moment I glare at him, but then calm down as I realize that haggling him further would be a waste of effort.

"You know, I've heard you mention it a couple times already, but what's this about a war? I remember... hearing from Celestia that you wanted me to fight in it."

"Well, yes. That's my endgame." Rudeus states bluntly.

I open my mouth, about to vehemently deny him, but then close it on second thought.

“I see." Was all I said, then I stopped talking. There was no chance in hell I was going to join the war; however, it would be better to keep Rudeus hopeful before I left The Eye.

"What, you don't want to know more about the war? You were so eager for more information about our world, it's hard to imagine that you would cut the conversation off with an 'I see.'”

I was actually quite interested in the war, but I didn't want to think about it. If I did, I would inevitably become more and more involved with the war going on. I did not want to fight other people for the sake of other people, all I want to do is to find out more about my past. Everything else is irrelevant.

I smile. "I'm quite interested in the war, I really am! But my primary goal right now is to find Dundee, if he's

like me then he should be able to to tell me more about myself."

“Is that so? Then I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to wait a while before I tell you anything.”

"…You keep saying that you’ll eventually tell me, but how do I know you actually know anything?” I place my hand on my mask threateningly.

“It is my resolve for coming to The Eye. I came here for you specifically and you alone. He told me a lot about you Taiga… Where you’ll show up, when you’ll show up, and yes, I know a fair bit about who you are, Taiga Akudani.”

My heart throbs as I feel his words punch straight through them. Just as I instinctively knew that Taiga was my first name, I instantly knew that that was my last name as well.

I couldn’t help but smile. “I guess I’ll let you hold the reins for a little while.”

"Glad you believe me. Now…" Rudeus lunges straight for my throat, although this time he was more at the speed of a regular human.

I spring off the ground while simultaneously bringing my mask out, I slap it on, land in a roll, and hold my arms out adopting a defensive stance.

"Why are you so violent?" I murmur under my breath. Seriously, this man has been launching surprise attack after surprise attack, does he not know a better way to do things?”

"Why did you jump away?" He asks

"What's the point of that question? I dodged your attack didn't I?"

"If I had used anku you would have died right there."

"You think I don't know that? I don’t expect people I’m talking to to attack out of the blue like that."

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"But you dodged it anyways."

"Can you get on with the point?" I was getting annoyed with his antics.

"You could have easily taken me down right there, but you instead retreated far back to the point where it would be impossible for you to counterattack."

"Yea, do it again and see what will happen." I snarl. I don't have time for these games.

"What's going to happen is that I will predict what direction you'll dodge, and I then I will-"

I suddenly launch myself at Rudeus mid-sentence. I will not play by your rules Rudeus, tell me what you know and I will leave this place.

I got him! I flew through the air, Rudeus was still in the exact same position he was from before I launched myself at him, making no effort to dodge. I rear my fist back ready to slug him in the face.

Woosh, empty air. Huh?

"Urgh." I get hit with what could only be described with a sledgehammer to the gut. I fly up into the air a couple of feet and land on the ground dazed.

"Attacking when I’m talking? Not bad, but you should have put more anku into your eyes at the last second.”

"Sh-shutt u-up."

"Celestia already told you this, but right now you're even weaker than me, there's no point in me making this journey to The Eye, only to bring back a mediocre fighter to show for my efforts. So, before I fully give you what you want, I have one week to train you. After that week is over, I'll tell you all I know about everything you want to know, and then you'll be free to go wherever you want."

I laugh wearily. "What do you expect me to accomplish in a single week?"

"You've never fought someone stronger than you before you came here haven't you? Your fighting style makes this very obvious."

"What do you mean?"

"Every swing you take, every kick you do. All of them have the intent to take out your opponent in one hit. You never give respect to your opponent, giving them huge openings to take advantage of if they manage to dodge it."

"I-" Wait... I take a brief moment to reflect on my past battles. I guess... I never had to worry about somebody getting the upper hand on me, so I always just took people out with one motion.

"Your dodging is also unnecessarily large. Back then, I approached you without channeling any anku whatsoever. Your body seems pretty athletic, I left an opening for a counterattack, but you jumped away like a scared animal; you never heard the phrase to always just barely dodge your opponent's attacks?"

I bite my lip, everything he has said so far could not be refuted.

"Your extremely precise control and your generous supply of anku has been carrying you through all your battles so far. But, in a fight without anku. You are incredibly mediocre."

"So... What do you expect to accomplish in a week?" I grumble.

"I believe that I can make a lot of your problems go away in a week."

"How? It's not like I can break the habits I've formed over the last 8 years that quickly."

"No, you definitely can. In fact, comparing your first fight with Celestia with your second one. You've already improved quite a bit.

"Hm???"

"They say Dundee was an incredibly fast learner, so fast that it didn't even seem human the speed at which he picked up concepts and ideas."

"Hehehe, so I'm just as talented as him? I knew I was always talented." I smile cheekily and scratch the back of my head.

"You might be as annoying as Dundee too." I heard Rudeus whisper under his breath. I pay it no mind, my goal wasn't to be liked.

Rudeus takes a deep breath. "Yes, that's right. The blood technique you used during our fight with Celestia only took you four hours to learn, for others it takes months. That's why Celestia said that you would be able to beat me if you trained for a couple weeks.”

I smile happily, feeling good about myself.

"Well, don't be slow old man, lets get on with the training!"

Rudeus pauses for a minute. "You know, before we start. I'm glad that your real personality is finally showing through, even though it turns out you are quite an annoying person, you were being pretty cold and distant before our fight with Celestia."

I pause and realize the exact same thing. I had lost myself having fun talking to Rudeus. Why am I being so friendly with this man? He's almost killed me before!

"Honestly, I never knew I had a personality like this either. I thought the me that you saw when I first came here was the true me."

Rudeus smiles. "I'm glad to hear it. Now, take off your mask. Your control of anku is not your problem, your lack of experience fighting equally matched or stronger opponents is your problem. Let's start by only using our raw strength."

"How's an old man like you gonna beat me in a contest of strength!" I take off my mask and charge at Rudeus again.

"I'm only 36." Rudeus grumbles as he once again side-steps my charge. "Got you!" I immediately pull back my punch and swing a kick in the direction of Rudeus' dodge. I had visualized his movements beforehand and reacted accordingly. However, Rudeus catches my leg out of midair and kicks the feet I was using to keep my balance. With a thud I land on my back, the air driven out of my body.

Rudeus stares at me as I lay on the ground.

"Got you."

We fight from morning to dusk without any usage of anku. By the end I managed to score 5 hits on Rudeus, while Rudeus scored 175 hits.

I lay on the ground gasping for air, my body feeling worse than its ever been before. Rudeus made sure to avoid causing long-term damage to my body, but damn! This doesn’t feel good.

"By the way, what was that little capsule of blood you and I drank when we fought Celestia?"

"Ah that? I just talked to Torika for a bit in preparation for our fight. She was able to cram nearly all her anku in those capsules. That’s why we were able to briefly surpass Celestia’s power.”

“Wait, she can just give her anku away just like that?”

“I don’t know how she does it either, Sananku isn’t really my strong suit.”

Rudeus sighs. "Well, it doesn't matter anymore, we beat Celestia, and all turned out well. I'm not going to comment on how you nearly got us both killed at the end. I personally would have killed her, but its good that you stick to your ideals, even under extreme situations like that."

"My ideals huh?" Was I really this against killing? I was fine with dying before I came to this world, but when I learned my name I realized that I didn't want to die anymore. I've finally began to value my own life in pursuit of my past yet, when I chose to spare Celestia, I essentially chose her life over mine. Celestia was not as important as a person for me to do something like that. So... why did I do it?

"Don't think about it too hard, you did what you did alright?" Rudeus comes up to me and pats my shoulder.

I grab his hand and thrust my body backwards, his feet leaves the ground and he flies over my shoulder.

"And that's six." I had grown a slight animosity towards Rudeus from how badly I got beaten today, I finally got my first couple of hits towards the end, but that didn't make up for the hours of beatings I got.

"Yep, you really are an annoying person." Rudeus looked towards my face.

"However, I have to give it to you, your rate of improvement is truly inhuman. I've been fighting since I learned how to walk, and you're already at the skill level I was at when I was around 11 years old."

"Somehow, hearing that I'm about as good as an 11 year old doesn't make me feel any better." However, the second I say this Rudeus quickly thrusts his legs out kicking my feet off balance and toppling me towards the ground.

"Well you started out as me when I was 5 years old, don't get so upset over a compliment." I lay with my back on the floor, it was truly a familiar position to be in at this point.

"In any case, maybe a week longer of training, and you'll most likely become stronger than me when you have your mask on. It's a rough estimate, but I'd reckon you could approach my current skill level with a month more of training, this is the last time I'll say this because I don't want it to get into your head; however, you really are special."

"Thanks, I guess... and, thanks for everything you've done for me so far, I know you have an ulterior motive, but I think I wouldn't of made it this far if you weren't there first to greet me."

Really.

"So I guess we're friends now." Rudeus smiles and offers me a hand off the ground

Really.

"Ye-yea, I guess so." I take his hand without trying to grapple him and throw him to the ground this time around.

Really.

"I'll cook some dinner, lets take the night to rest and then we can resume training right tomorrow alright?"

Really— This feeling of kinship was really troublesome.