“Roooawww!”
Something pushes me hard and I’m certain that I’m dead meat. But I hear this weird feline growl which tells me that I’m still alive, unless hell is some sort of cat shelter. Sent flying away again, this time I have no control as my body bounces and rolls on the ground. Everything hurts, but when I feel myself over, there is no hole in my chest. My head is still attached to my neck. Everything important seems to be okay!
I’m alive?
“Evil…hsssss! Go away!” The person I would least expect to show up, let alone do anything if they did, shows up to save me. She crouches on all fours, putting herself between Gatoa and myself. From behind her body, I can see a pair of blue shorts underneath her oversized cream shirt. It’s the cat-girl from Sines Town. However, at this moment, a huge tear runs along the flesh of her little arm, exposing white bone. Gatoa examines her blood on his hand with a look of surprise. Even though the girl can’t put any weight on her left arm, she continues to growl, “Hssss…AWAY!”
“A Demi-Cat? Why are you defending one of Lissandrei’s Hatchlings!” The demonic businessman flicks the blood off his hand irritably. “Little Cousin, I don’t wish to hurt one of my lord’s descendants, but if you interfere again, I won’t have a choice.”
“Hssss…!” Her hisses are growing weaker. It seems like it’s taking all the Demi-Cat’s effort to just remain standing on all fours. A little girl…just survived a hit from Gatoa? And saved me at the same time? Impossible! And even if you could…
“W-Why?” I choke out, spitting red crap from my mouth. Think I bit my tongue. “Why would you help me? I left you to be bullied by those kids…?” My words seem to speak for both Gatoa and myself. He even waits for the answer like a civilized gentleman instead of attacking. Though that might just be the surprise from being interrupted. The cat-girl kneads the ground, her limbs shaking. I can see orange fur in-between her hands, they’ve transformed into thick paws with long, curved claws. Arching her back, a fuzzy ginger tail pokes out from the back of her shorts. It’s all puffed up, like a giant, angry feather duster.
“Mother says…if I save a human…I can be friends with them!” She grunts, and swishes her tail. “I…would like that!”
Are you…kidding me?
You put yourself in mortal danger because you want a friend?
What kind of anime logic is that?!
“Tch…ah, a race traitor. So that’s what you are. Well then, I suppose there isn’t any need for me to hold back.” Gatoa takes a step forward. As usual, it’s followed by his form flickering out of existence. I vaguely track his approach through my peripherals. The cat-girl is barely standing, let alone combat-ready at the moment. Even still, she stumbles forwards to meet him, bounding across the ground on four furry paws, now fully-transformed. Thick muscles bulge underneath her little limbs, and she actually manages to achieve a near flicker-like speed. “Out of the way!”
*Whump*
“Nnnn!” I vaguely catch sight of a girl-shaped projectile smashing into a tree far away. Then Gatoa is in front of me. My reflexes bring up Mephis’s knife in defense. Romy’s training is amazing, even in this kind of life or death situation I try to fight back. However…heh, my swordsmanship skills are too weak. I raise the dagger as if it’s a longsword that can block his incoming claw. The disdain in his face as he appears in front of me is obvious. I’m about to be killed by a guy with one arm. How sad is that? In the back of my mind, I chant Chill, hoping to aim for his eyes if I survive the first blow.
*Clang*
It feels like someone cast Advanced Magic or something. That’s how powerful the sheer wind from her arrival is. My flaming tornado from earlier is put to shame. Normally when she trains me, the Eastern Raingoddess conceals her presence, and I cannot even sense the wind from her coming, unless she wants me to. But at this moment, Romy is not trying to hide herself one bit. All the speed in her body, it’s enough to blow Gatoa away from me, as she arrives and shoves her blade between us. The Demon Scout’s clawed hand skids off her sword and he flickers backwards immediately.
“Y-You! Why are so many people interfering with my work! He’s just a Hatchling!” Gatoa cries out in frustration. The demon may move like her, but Romy won’t fail like the demon. When she advances…it is to kill. And no one can stop her-
“So, it was you I was sensing all this time! Good…very good…taking advantage of when I’m with my husband to sneak around. Demon Scouts really are scum…” Romy sounds a bit cat-like herself as suddenly the raccoon mask appears on her face. A single short-sword hovers in the air between us and Gatoa as she steps forwards. Her voice changes as the mask comes on, becoming terrifying, cold, and deadly. Only Romy could look so scary with a raccoon mask on. Suddenly, the cute face seems terrifying, bristling with fangs as she charges, “Only one-arm and you dare to invade my territory?”
“Raingoddess! This doesn’t concern you!” Gatoa seems to know of Romy. He actually backs away, holding out his clawed hand awkwardly. There’s a cut on his forearm from where she blocked his strike. It’s leaking red blood. The skin, Glacia and I together, couldn’t break with our strongest spells, has been pierced just from touching Romy’s blade. “Since when did your sect serve Lissandrei!”
“Lissandrei? The Ice Witch?” I can almost hear the sneer under Romy’s mask as she blurs into motion. “You Demon Scouts always spout so much nonsense. Please…you touched my cute nephew. The sentence for that always has been and always will be…death!”
Yes Romy!
Get him!
Take his head off!
I cheer her on while mentally preparing to cast spells to assist her if necessary. But it’s over in flash. With only one arm, Gatoa is hopelessly outmatched. She only uses a single sword, not even deigning to draw her second blade as she ducks under his claw and stabs forward into his heart. The Demon Scout sinks back, clutching at his chest as Romy’s blade smoothly slides out. Little droplets of scarlet blood run along the tip as she spins and decapitates him with a second blow. His body begins to fall, however…it does not hit the ground.
*Ssssshuuuaaa*
The wind blows as Gatoa’s business suit disintegrates into black mist and he fades away. An angry expression of shock runs through his face as if he cannot believe Romy actually killed him. But her next words dispel my misunderstanding.
“Tch…bloody Demon Scouts. They never come in their true form. Killing their clones is a waste of time…although it might disrupt their ability to tell what’s going on. If we’re lucky, he’ll just assume that someone dangerous is in this area.” Romy sighs, watching the demon blood on her blade turn into mist. She turns around and takes off her mask, “You okay, Myrr?”
“Y-Yea. Now that you’re here…” I can talk surprisingly. Examining myself closely, I realize that the only injuries I sustained were when that girl pushed me out of the way…
“Nnnn…friends…” A pitiful groan echoes from my right. Romy’s head snaps sideways like a bird at the sound, and I remember that someone might be in worse condition than me. Underneath a red-smeared tree trunk in the distance, a small figure twitches. There’s a puddle of blood surrounding her body. Way too much blood for someone so small. Oh crap, she blocked Gatoa for me! I forgot!
“Romy, she saved me! Please help her!” I yell, and fortunately Romy is not one to panic in a situation like this. She immediately flickers and appears beside the cat-girl who is curled at an unnatural angle around a tree root. Her tail is limp, but it still twitches weakly as she moans. I call out as I run over, “Is it bad?”
“We need Mark.” Romy’s reply shoots daggers into my heart. Oh crap…it must be bad then! “Will you be okay going home on your own, Myrr? I need to take her now or she won’t make it!”
“Y-Yes! Please hurry then!” I reply and Romy nods. Within seconds, my auntie is gone with the Demi-Cat girl and I’m alone in the clearing. The signs of our battle are everywhere, great clumps of burnt grass and footprints smashed into the dirt. It should be a victorious moment. However, as I rush home, a sick, nauseous feeling of guilt is the only thing in my stomach. Something I knew little of in my last life, but I feel like I know way too much of now. I…I left her to be bullied by those kids. And yet she came to help me anyways. Blinking away the stinging in my eyes, I sprint faster, running as Romy taught me, with all my might. All of a sudden, I’m terrified that the cat-girl won’t make it.
Please don’t die!
I…I wouldn’t be able to handle that!
#
At the house, I find the dining table cleared. Romy has set the patient atop the hardwood and Mark is working furiously to save her. The light from his hands is gentle and warm, but the girl’s small hands, which have reverted to human form, are blue from the cold. Or blood loss. Suddenly, I’m reminded of a similar situation many years ago. Before I came to this world. Another girl being worked on while her life gushed out from inside her, atop my penthouse. At that time…I wasn’t so useless. I was enough to save her myself. Well…at least I think I did. I mean then I woke up here, so who knows what happened to her?
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“Damn…damn…DAMN…Yuel, give me more strength to heal your creation!” Mark sounds strange when he’s serious. His voice doesn’t match his face. Unexpectedly, when the silly man takes charge, he seems completely different.
Almost reliable.
However, right now, it seems his power is insufficient. Sweat pours down his face and Romy hurriedly dabs it off his forehead before it can land on the girl’s wounds.
“C-Can you save her?” I ask as he takes a break. It’s awful, the noise coming from the girl on the table. She’s wheezing, as if she can’t get enough air, choking on something I can’t see. Her shirt is pulled up, and though her chest should be flat, instead, it’s all wrong, things are sticking out where they shouldn’t be and red-splotches are showing underneath the skin itself.
“I…I might. But…I’m afraid I have to warn you. Healing Magic has risks. In a situation like this, to guarantee a successful operation, we would need a cleric. I’m just a paladin. My studies were only to stabilize patients! Though I can try to heal her wounds, my knowledge is insufficient for such a delicate operation. One wrong move and she could be crippled for the rest of her life! I…I just don’t know where to start! Goddamnit why didn’t I pay more attention in class!” Mark looks like he’s about to pull some of his hair out. However, this version of my uncle, serious Mark, stays calm. He holds it together. “I just…want to prepare you, in case I fail. She was your friend, right?”
“I…no…” I pause, realizing that this poor girl on the table is only here because of me. There is literally no other reason. FRICK! I owe her! She just wanted a friend! “I mean, yes! Please save her! Whatever it takes!”
“It’s okay, Mark. You can do this. Remember how you saved me?” Romy dabs away at her husband’s brow, for the first time seeming like an ordinary housewife. Though her knowledge of killing is great, in this situation, when it comes to saving lives, she is not in charge. “It’s okay. No pressure, just do your best!”
“Hehe…easy for you to say…” Mark clenches his teeth. “Alright, there’s no time, she’s bleeding out…I’m going in!” He raises his hands and prepares to operate-
Wait. You just need to know what to do, right?
“HOLD ON!” I yell so loud that everyone is surprised, even me. Mark frowns, the light holding steady at his fingertips.
“What is it, Myrr! This is no time for hysterics, she could die if we wait another minute!” He chides me and prepares to go again. However, I run up and hold his wrist. “What are you doing, Child!”
“Just…just wait.” I murmur, focusing with all my might. Come on…come on…let me see! The future keeps slipping away. Images of Glacia’s broken body, the horrible way her stomach crumpled underneath Gatoa’s fist, keep invading my mind. It’s breaking my focus. “Give me one minute! I may be able to tell you what to do!”
“Myrr? You’re really going to joke around right now?” Mark raises his palm and slaps me back. “Stop playing around, you’re not a cleric!”
“N-NO! I mean it! Please, listen to me! One minute! JUST ONE MINUTE!” I touch my stinging cheek. Mark didn’t hold back. My vision blurs, the half-naked girl on the dining table turns into two and then three afterimages before condensing back into one as I try to steal information from her future. Please…don’t die…just don’t die! The two adults look at me doubtfully. Romy, however, holds back Mark’s wrists the way I couldn’t.
“Let him try…” She mutters. “He’s…different. Believe in Myrr!”
“Ugh…one minute. And then I operate even if I have to throw you both out!” Mark says dangerously. In the operating room, he has the final say, and Romy nods. They both watch me, but I shut my eyes tight.
Come on...why can’t I see it. Think, Myrr…think!
It’s been weeks since I’ve successfully viewed the future without panicking.
There must be some reason!
Every time…I see Glacia when she was hurt.
That has to have something to do with it!
If I can just figure out why…
“Myrr…hurry up!” Mark barks as the girl on the table begins to buck and writhe. I open my eyes as Romy tries to hold down her legs. “CAN I OPERATE NOW!?”
“Thirty more seconds…just wait…” I mutter, while closing my eyes again. A disbelieving sigh comes from the paladin, but he holds on. Think it through…I see Glacia when she’s hurt.
That was a traumatizing experience.
I don’t even want to think about it now.
But it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to see the future.
Being able to see what will happen will let me fight back more effectively.
It will help prevent bad situations from happening again.
So…why…why am I so afraid to look?
Suddenly, the moment before Glacia was hurt comes to me. And her words during the lesson after she recovered. I remember her vividly outside the forest, after I purposely failed my Ice Spear. As always, my teacher was trying to help me solve my problems.
She said something…what was it?
Her words run through my head-
“Perhaps you are unconsciously afraid your magic will fail and so…”
Did she really say that?
Yea…she did.
Before Gatoa hit her, I failed to cast a double Disguised Spell.
That’s when I started to have trouble looking into the future.
Come to think of it…it was the same way with Mephis.
But then…so the reason I don’t want to use Foresight is because I’m scared to fail?
No…it’s not just that…it’s because I’m scared, I’ll see myself failing!
Before Gatoa hit her, I failed my cast because I looked into the future!
If I hadn’t peeked, then the spell would have gone off successfully…
That has to be it!
Understanding dawns on me.
After constantly failing in the most important situations in my life, I’ve begun to expect the worst of the future. Unconsciously, I must have become scared of seeing my possible failure, so I’ve been avoiding it. Okay…I know what’s wrong with me now. But how does that help?
“NNNNN!!”
“Myrr! I’M STARTING NOW SO YOU BETTER NOT INTERFERE!” Mark can’t wait anymore. The sounds from the table are ghastly as the girl convulses. I can hear her limbs thrashing around. I can hear Mark’s indecision as he tries to think of where to start healing first. He’s trying to figure out how to avoid crippling her.
Heh.
This is stupid.
I’ve done this before.
Didn’t I save that girl on that night?
Why am I thinking so much?
Even if I fail…would it be better to blindly let Mark operate on chance?
Who am I…
Am I really that useless?!!!
NEVER AGAIN!
I pull deeply on the future. Open my eyes and see both future and present. In my head, I have both, now and then, in mind. I can see what Mark is about to do. He is going to try to start at her right shoulder. The phantom image of Glacia, vomiting blood, floats over my second sight but I shoo it away by remembering her face the day she left. That glorious moment at the carriage station when she smiled. A purely innocent happiness which she has no idea she shared with me because I never actually turned around to capture it in the present. Looking at the future can bring good as well as bad!
I need to believe that!
I’m still scared.
I’m terrified that I will mess up.
But so long as that face is smiling in my memories, I can try.
I won’t let you die!
Stay with me!
“MARK!” I yell and point my hand at the Demi-Cat’s clavicle, “Start healing here! Go slowly and listen for my instructions before moving on!”
“Myrr?” He is startled. However, when Romy clasps his shoulder, he nods. “Okay, I’ll trust you! Don’t let her down!”
“Move down to here!” I motion with my finger to the exact spot. “No…stop! Go back!”
“Go back to where! Damnit, be specific!” Mark is stressed. I’m making incredibly unreasonable demands of him. However, in the end, I trust him to be reliable today. “You have to tell me where!”
“It doesn’t matter! Just follow my finger! If I say stop, you need to stop! If I say start, you need to go fast! Don’t think, just listen to me!” I instruct him like some sort of dance teacher. It takes hours. Or maybe minutes. I have no idea how much time passes as we work, the three of us. Romy helps too, by holding our patient down. If I hadn’t done something similar in my past life, there’s no way I could have stayed calm. The girl on the table would have died instantly the moment Mark touched a wrong spot. But I always tell our doctor what to do, even when he doesn’t quite understand why. Maybe I should be a doctor. We fall into a strange rhythm, this choreographed dance as Mark heals, Romy holds, and I predict.
“W-Wait!” I’m exhausted. This is the first time I’ve glanced at the future this much since Glacia left. “I think…here! And then…yes! Stop…she looks…I mean…the color…its better, right?” I’m not making sense. It’s like I’m fast casting a spell, omitting syllables and words, but over the course of the operation, we three have all begun to understand each other as if we are one person, one entity. A three-headed hydra working together to save a life.
“I…by Yuel, I think Myrr’s right!” Mark’s hands stop glowing. There’s blood everywhere, but the girl’s chest no longer has broken patches of internal bleeding. All the jagged edges and jutting bones in her chest have disappeared. She…she looks…almost normal!
“Is it…over?” Romy sounds unsure since this is not her domain. She wrinkles her forehead, her brunette hair falling over her crystal blue eyes. As she pulls the sweaty strands out of her face, she leans in and examines the newly healed skin. “I don’t sense weak points anymore. And her breathing is clearing up…”
“Keep healing.” I tell Mark. “I don’t think you need my instructions anymore.”
“I can’t.” He replies with a wry smile, “I ran out of mana. But I think…I think she’s going to make it.” The paladin feels over the cat girl’s torso, tapping areas and checking for breaks in the bone. Still unconscious on the table, she makes no noises of pain or anything. “This is insane. Even an archpriest would have needed Advanced Healing to make any sort of headway on a wound like that. But we actually fixed it with just Intermediate Healing. No…you fixed it. A perfect operation. This should be impossible! Myrr, how did you know where to heal?”
“I…” Tiredly, I drop my palms to the table. They’re burning since I’ve been holding them up to point this whole time. Shaking, I realize that I’m covered in cold sweat. But I feel so goddamn relieved. “I just do.”
“It’s because he’s our Myrr!” Romy declares, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me in. “Are you okay though? Did that Demon Scout hurt you?” She worriedly checks me over even though I already told her I was okay.
“It’s fine. I’m just…a little tired.” I barely finish my words before my legs give out. Romy holds me up and carries me over to the couch. Her strong arms are steel cords which will always support me no matter what. “Let me…sleep for a bit. Wake me up if anything…happens…”
“Rest, Little Myrr. Just rest…” She tucks me in like a baby. Finally, after the longest time, I let the future slip away. Now, only the present remains. That haunted picture of the past, the terrifying memory of Glacia’s wounds, my failure to save her that night, I let those heavy things go too. All the tension slides out of my body and I feel light. As I fall into a deep slumber, my eyelids flutter. It seems that my teacher will return to me in my dreams tonight. But the dark memories, which have been tormenting me since she left, have been replaced by something else. Glacia stands in front of me, whole and unbroken. Her arms out to hug me like I always remember her. An angel to guide my way out of the darkness. My lips curl up into an uncontrollable grin. I think…I won’t be afraid to look into the future anymore. Because Glacia’s always looking out for me, trying to show me the right way, even when she’s not here. And one day, even if my Foresight can’t see that far, I know I’ll find her again.
Heh…good thing I have such a good memory.
After all, if I forgot that smile…I think the whole world might just get darker…