Suddenly, interrupting their heartfelt moment, Anya sprang out of nowhere and surprised them both, being obviously way too giddy and red-faced from the drinks she was consuming, making Lass follow right after her to prevent her from doing anything unpredictable right after that.
"Aha! So that's what you both are doing here! Oh, that's so cute!", an already drunk Anya said.
"Great, just perfect. What the hell are you doing, mutt?", Lass sighed as he grabbed her.
"Ain't it as obvious as the stars in the sky? I'm trying to get them together!"
"Whatever kinda stars you're looking at right now, I guarantee you, aren't up in the sky. Probably some trait your stupid mutt's ass would've got whenever there's a bottle of alcohol in a 10 kilometer radius.", Lass pulled her back.
"Who did you call a mutt?! You wanna go, bro?! Come on, step up!", she yelled in utter confusion
"I won't lie, her drunk state is quite the spectacle. 'Bro'.", Yuno humored Anya.
"Oh, is it? You deal with her then-ghk!"
Anya smacked Lass on the head, "Oops, there was a mosquito there."
"Why you little shit.", Lass got ready for a fight.
"'Little'? Dude I'm like half a meter taller. How's the weather down there?", she kept mocking him.
Lass smacked Anya back and sent her flying, crashing further back on the ground. He then approached her again, trying to subdue her to get her to calm down from her drunken state. Meanwhile, Ikarisa, being the only one with a reasonable amount of adultness and logic left in the group, simply watched as she herself grabbed a drink, calmly sipping with a relaxed look on her face.
"Excuse me, youngling, but are you capable of ingesting said drink.", Weise asked.
"I think I am, mister Weis. I have the common twist of being thousands of years old without showing it. So yeah.", Ikarisa calmly said, obviously annoyed with their bickering.
Weis softly laughed, "And still as petite and young as ever. I can see my words of relaxation reached your heart indeed."
"I will honestly deal with this another day. We already got into enough trouble with this behavior so...I'll just scold them later. That said, I am a little to blame for as well, since my 'superhero' side kind of showed a bit back there.", she nervously chuckled.
Detaching from Lilith, Yuno came back towards Ikarisa, "Are they always like that?", he asked.
"Not really, it happens instantly only when Anya is drunk and a little bit passively when they're both left together for prolonged periods of time.", she shrugged.
"I struggle to see any chemistry going on here...", he got worried.
"You'll get used to it eventually...I hope.", Ikarisa facepalmed as she saw Lass and Anya escalating the fight, "Such kids...but, at the end of the day, they're quite inseparable. It's kind of cute when you look at it from another angle I still can't figure out how to look from."
"I'm in for quite the ride aren't I?", Yuno looked at Anya and Lass fighting.
"You only enter that ride when Anya begins her nagging. Lass has been quite susceptible to it actually."
"You youngsters can have yourselves the guest rooms in the main hall, inside my house if you wish. After their...dwindling and the festivities, I'm sure you'll need quite the rest. The furniture, much like Yuno's home, is to your size.", Weis said.
"Thanks, elder. For everything.", Yuno said.
"Not a problem at all. Have a good night from me, this partying has taken quite the toll on an old-timer kaiju like me. I will be taking my leave. If I don't wake up soon enough tomorrow, then know that I wish you always stay like this and never get to change."
"Uhh...no. Can't really resonate with those words, sorry. There are some things I'd like changed now rather than later.", Ikarisa sighed, looking at Lass and Anya who still kept fighting.
"Believe me, goddess. These are the kind of moments you will wish never changed, once your journey continues. After all, the destination is when most of the excitement tends to return to the beginning."
With that, the old dragon left their side, making his way through the streets, and back to his massive house. The rest of the festival finished out smoothly, even after Lass was done fighting with Anya.
Exhausted from her day's work, and dizzy beyond standing, Anya had collapsed next to the rest of the four, as they enjoyed the singing of seemingly random songs vocalized by both talented and untalented voices, in a most enjoyable mood. Despite watching from the sidelines, sharing a single bench in the small plaza, the sight wasn't any less joyful for them all, nibbling on small snacks handed out at seemingly every single venue across the streets, while chatting about recent events. However, the talk of past events was the only thing Yuno and Lilith could focus on, as they reminisced about their memories together, both knowing that their agreed-upon separation was to come by the morning. Alas, the more time passed, the more their powerful, but still mortal, everyday bodies succumbed to fatigue.
Grabbing Anya in his hands, Lass began walking with Ikarisa back to their offered bedrooms for the night, waving goodnight at Yuno and Lilith, who headed towards Yuno's house instead. Making their way to the elder's house, they found their way around the main room, going on the second floor quietly as they avoided the sleeping, snoring giant down bellow, finding each two rooms on their left and their right, with 2 beds each, accompanied by basic, dark oak furniture and a small bathroom. Laying Anya on the bed in the right room, Lass headed towards the left room, leaving the two girls alone. Unable to sleep, Lass found himself in the small balcony area of his provided room, exhaling deeply as he watched the entirety of the village bellow quieting down and returning home as well, turning off the lights and lowering the festive music. Still reliving the fresh images of the carnage that happened in the now destroyed campsite of those monsters, he sat down on a chair as he began bickering with Mellistar this time, trying to realize just exactly where his stand took place.
"I'm not saying it wasn't a necessity, but me acting this way is because you didn't do it efficiently like you normally did. Can you just realize that I'm simply tired of being confused all the goddamn time?. There are millions of Obsulyte users out there, some stronger and some weak, but I didn't want to either use my powers or be selected by the dumb shit of a king that entrusted me with this because of them. How the hell does he even have the title of king anyway? There's a very good reason why monarchies aren't around in the rest of the world. Excluding whatever shit-show Gardard and all of Victoria became. Very recently, I almost killed Anya because of this. I can't even tell why, she's such a recent person to me, but I still like being around her too much for some god-forsaken reason, much like Ikarisa. Just...it's the same case with Yuno, like he told me with Lilith. He had someone to open up to. And as soon as I found someone else to do the same with, I just jump them? What is even wrong with me?"
"You know as well as I do, that we both want a better outcome from the curse that came to be our strength. It's no point bickering over this when it was inevitable that it would happen one day. I warned you like the flying Hyrusa midget. Bottling up the way you did, refusing to even live with Obsulyte normally like everyone else and locking it off, is like overloading a gun with bullets. You either fire it and let rounds fly by everything in sight, or it breaks. You began firing, and it sure as hell won't stop. Even I have my limits with your body, ever since that unknown day that I started leeching off you.", Mellistar echoed.
"Ain't that the biggest mystery in our hands.", Lass sarcastically said, "But aside from it all, please, just tell me. What is wrong with me? Is it my powers, or me as a person? Why the hell am I instigating all the time, saying what I don't mean, and can't just stay one freaking moment alone without going down this rabbit hole? I'm so tired, Mellistar. I really am...and you know me better than myself. What is wrong with me already?", Lass started to get desperate as he remembered the scene in the camp.
Mellistar paused briefly before continuing, "I don't even know. Maybe I'll answer you the same way Weis did. Age."
"You are the most bipolar character I know, seriously. Let it go at one point, and I let it go, only for you to then come up with all this shit. Like god dammit already. Am I one thing, or am I another? Hero, villain, good, bad or just some anti-hero. What do I do, how do I do it, when do I do it, is it good or bad if I do so?", Lass began rapidly tapping his foot.
"You really need to take in the sight that Ikarisa showed today and relax."
"Relax how? If I slow down, I'll just stay behind, and I don't want that. There are a million things I need to worry about if I want to stay alive nowadays, and battling isn't one of them. Just look at the same dudes drafted in Insinia to fend off the monster attacks, taken from their homes to do so. Aren't I kind of the same? The difference is that I chose to get myself into this mess. They didn't even get a choice. I might just be the asshole to feel entitled if I do what I say."
Mellistar got fed up, "Holy shit, kid, shut up. God. You really need to get into the same room with your friends for sure. I feel like every waking moment you spend alone is just a better way of driving yourself to madness with all these made-up insecurities. And unfortunately, since I'm literally a part of you, I have to experience it too. You are no different than the 'dudes in Insinia' because you essentially all have the same thoughts."
"If we all have the same thoughts, we also hesitate to share them for god knows what reason then. I want to talk about these things with someone who actually does know what it feels like. Don't you ever feel terrified when all everyone tells you is how strong you are? Not how you came to be that strong? Gift, curse or not, I keep getting more worried that it'll just be the fact that I've got powers that others don't, that'll be the deciding factor for who I become. Can you really not see what I'm truly worried about here? Screw being the good guy or the bad guy, but I want to make that choice in the end. It's not the morality that worries me but rather than what those choices will end up being. Corrupt man-killing asshole that does anything for their own agenda? I'll kill them no doubt if it made it absolutely certain that it'd be the end of it. Crazy monsters slaughtering innocents, just like now? Screw them, I'll wipe them clean. But that's what everyone would do. Everyone with a proper, working brain. But then I'm worried about how that'll also affect me in the end, given that it'll only naturalize how I want to choose something, and it sure as hell doesn't have to be the way it's going now. God...am I wording this right, or am I spouting bullshit to pass the time?"
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"I think...you kind of are. How you are doing so is literally news to me, but it's just vocalizing thoughts I already know-", Mellistar was interrupted.
"Nah, screw this.", Lass jumped up, "I really can't. Enough of this for the night. Talking about this with you is like playing a broken record back a hundred times over."
"No one understands the dude with immaculate powers. How original.", Mellistar got offended.
"Then tell me what's gonna happen once we either end this conversation here or continue it until I pass out on the bed. The next time I wake up everything will be the same and until the next time I think of the exact same thing, we will restart this entire process. For the love of god, Mellistar, this is the definition of insanity, that's keeping me from going paranoid. Ever since that old bastard decided to jump into those Enmities. We repeat the same thing periodically, thinking of a better result but doing nothing, and then do it all again. It's like a New Year's resolution. But thing is, I can never tell if acting on what we say is better than not, since that means I live like an absolute psychopath, looming over every single decision I make and start doubting it after I do it, until I decide to eventually jump off the nearest cliff, or simply keep going along worrying to shit about what's gonna happen without paying attention to details. I am losing my mind here."
Silently approaching them bickering with each other, Ikarisa was able to overhear a little bit of what Lass had to say in the end, surprising them both when they turned around to face her after opening his mind in ways he would never even think of doing in the presence of anyone else but himself. Ikarisa then slowly approached him as she leaned on the balcony's railing, folding her arms as she waited for Lass to snap out of it. After a brief moment of awkward silence, she chuckled softly before she decided to break the forming ice with a few words of her own.
"It's ok. I didn't hear the entire thing, just a little bit of the ending. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I was surprised. Not because of your thoughts being vocalized, but because it's you vocalizing them. To whom, I wonder, but we all have our ways of dealing with things. Really, Lass, it's fine. You can open up to me a little bit more if you ever feel like it, like how Anya told me you did with her, if you'd like, of course. But I still don't know if it was as deep as I heard it is from the last couple of sentences. And as for the reason I'm here, well...bedrooms are two separate beds each, so I doubt it'd be an issue if I slept here for the night, right? Anya is kind of...snoring. Way too much. To the point where I wish my body was as old as the elder's so that I could lose a little bit of hearing.", she softly chuckled, trying to joke around.
"It's nothing.", Lass snapped out of it, trying to take control of the situation.
"It always is.", Ikarisa softly sighed.
"I'm sorry, but I'm fine. No need to worry about me."
"There you go making a really, really bad attempt of making it look alright. Lass, I heard a bit of it and saw you, your face and your foot rapidly tapping. I just thought of returning the worrying favor for once, since you always seem to be worried about all of us. Your face started turning a little bit grim when we went our separate ways with Yuno back there, more so when we went into separate rooms. I mean, of course, it didn't really show a lot but...I'm sure I know you well enough to tell by the smallest ques. Even if a few days acquainted. I know how someone like you would act in times like these."
"Weren't you the one who presented herself to me for some piss-off reason a few days ago?"
Ikarisa blushed, "It was a...bad moment. I actually am starting to become a little bit more 'myself', I guess. I was rather...monotonic, is the word? Air-headed? But after coming into contact with the Key Of The Gate, and getting a portion of my powers back, my mind becomes less and less hazy. I can see things way more clearly now, and I guess that includes you too. Regardless, it didn't stop me from being the least childish person in the group. Somehow."
"Look, I'm sorry, again. Just that Anya won't shut up when she needs to. Is this a redemption moment where you come to hear me say sorry instead?"
"Let's call it even, for now, since my own shortcomings actually put us in uneccesary danger back there too. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not enjoying it, not because you say it, but because it makes me completely sure now."
"Sure of what? That I'm sorry?"
"That you care. You always did these past weeks, and I'd go so far as to say from even the start. In between tournament placement matches in our daily lives and everything. I get that the way the world works at its core won't come without conflict and battles, given the monsters in it, but battles are momentary situations that can also end in a similarly small moment. But I tend to focus more on what happens outside of them instead. I know inside those battles will always be a show of caring for having each other's backs, but that doesn't mean it's the whole deal. That aside, said battles more often than not tend to show another side to people."
"Look at you talking like you do. When all you knew days before was that the sky was blue under a bridge full of tears.", Lass somewhat annoyingly said, "I just wish there was one part to me. If I could at least narrow down the complexity of everything going on to one thing, then maybe, things would be better. Do you know how that feels? Having another side to you that you will always know will be haunting you? Another...'you'?"
"I do, actually. Feeling lost, then found, lucky to be safe and sound. And the different side of myself...I know that too. Lass, I'm telling you this the same way I remember it all the way back when I was held by the 'Chaos Sect'. People have their sides. One good and evil, it doesn't matter. What matters is how they interact with each other. I've seen prisoners like me turn to sheep and others go berserk, beating and killing everything they could their hands on to survive, even on people with similar fates, like me. But what does seem good or evil to you might not be the case for others."
"It'll take me a while to disect that in a way I can actually say that I got it."
"At least you're being honest for once, not saying that you got it when you didn't."
"But with what little I did get, I've been meaning to ask you about all this that you're doing. That I and no the others are and will. If you're in a journey you absolutely know will affect the world, that your actions will shake the daily life of a mere office worker in one way or another...how do you move on with it, knowing that what might be evil in their eyes? You're strong and were blessed to have that strength so...what gives?"
"You're reflecting too much and overthinking it."
"Am I? Or is this a simple cart problem? Pull the lever one dies on your hands, don't and 4 will instead? Risa, I can't balance life and death, have people's lives improved at a chance or ruined completely the same way, just because of mine, yours, or anyone's powers."
"Then if someone else tried to use their powers to balance the exact same way, in a way they see fit, what would you do? Stand by and watch? When that also affects you directly, or those you know and love, what then? Because I almost did that once and...it was bad. A world that I knew would burst into flames because of everyone acting that way."
"I...I don't know."
"Lass, you want to know something really weird, now that my memories are coming back to me?"
"Hit me with your wise words.", Lass gave up amidst all his confusion and let her say it.
"There's no evil in this world. And there is no good. But every single soul will inheritably be good. Why? Because whatever action you take will always be good in your eyes. You will always gravitate towards good. And that good will be judged into turning evil, once it stops being seen as good in another person's eyes. Destroying a world because it's suffering all the time is good, seen by someone's eyes. But for someone who lives in that world and strives to survive, hanging off hope that might objectively be false, that they could revitalize it, that person would see that world's destruction as pure evil."
"But anyone with a properly functioning brain and morals will say it's batshit insane."
"I heard your worries about your morals upstanding, which is why I'm saying what I am. Truth be told, in the end, I probably don't have exactly what it takes to look at everything objectively. Neither will those who judged you."
"I always get stuck on this, how things work. For example, your breaking inside my house? I was really ready to beat you into submission after some point you assaulted me, knowing that it was wrong not to call the cops to take you in but not seeing it as wrong to stop you myself. The way it derailed how it did...that's weird enough on its own."
"And those morals guide the common ground for where good passes to evil and vice versa. But put emphasis in the 'common' part. It's weird to explain, but easy to understand. But I gravitate towards my own good, for now. The good I deem will rid this world of all who want control over it and let it be free. And I am glad you're walking with me. The world and everyone in it will never not be complex. And as it stands, I'm not justifying my cause or condemning the evil to it, but rather trying to explain to you that the reason they exist is that simplicity, in the grand scheme of things, is impossible. If there's something I can tell you to do is....find your good. And when you follow it, I'll return the favor and walk it with you, ok?", she yawned, "Now, let's leave those worries aside and go lay down, ok? We tormented each other with thoughts enough as is, and we have to get some sleep for our travels tomorrow, plus handling a hung-over Anya."
"Yeah, I guess so."
As Ikarisa went in and left Lass alone on the balcony, it was then that he came to realize how his anxiety turned into relaxation once she entered the balcony, stepping inside a conversation he never wished for her to hear, but rather put aside in favor for asking her a simple, turned complex question. He looked at the last lights of the village turning off before the moonlight was the only thing illuminating the now empty, quiet streets, relaxing further to the silent atmosphere.
"I sure as hell don't know what happened to her but...I'm glad it did. Her being so grown-up like, conversable like this, I kind of like it. One less thing to worry about when leaving her alone, I guess."
"You shouldn't underestimate her. It takes time for people to show their true colors, idiot. And this is just the start for her. Be it the Key Of The Gate or something else, that is."
Lass got weirded out, "Ok...sure? I guess you see something more, so I'll leave it at that. Marry her if you want, but I'm off to bed."
He whispered to himself, taking her words at heart before getting in his own bed and preparing to close his eyes. It wasn't long before his focus stared on the white ceiling above and his complete mental and physical fatigue drifted off into black, having him resting in no time. And as little time they both had to rest for now, there would be another time when they knew they would rest together again.
"There's so much more I want to tell you. So much more I want you to know from so long ago and yet...why do I feel like I'd be that evil we talked about in your eyes if I did so. And why am I evil when I think of why I'm not doing so? I'm, sorry...to both of you. 'Lass'...I don't want you to suffer the way you do. Neither do I want him to see you be like that. It's not...fair. If only things could go back to how she remembers. Back in the same carefree days. If only she too would see you how I do now, and love you like I do. Such things she says and doesn't believe herself about you, too blind to see what a kindhearted person and friend you are to me...if only she opened her heart to be loved and love her friends she can't even see standing in front of her...I'm sorry for all the confusion between her, you...all of you."
Her sad voice whispered as she too tried to let out and vocalize her own thoughts that she wished to share only by herself before a pair of her silent tears sealed her eyes and made her drift into her sleep.