Zero's POV
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There must have been a time when things were easy, when all these problems were not, and when I was just a normal girl.
It hides so back in time that even my mind doubts the memories I have, blurry thoughts of what I once was.
What bothers me is not to be wrong—about me, about my reasons—but actually the contrary, because that would mean that I'm, truly, just that: violence.
"Zero," A voice forcefully grabs my attention, ordering my eye to lock on to the figure. "Why did you run?"
Looking at where I am, my memories start to come back to me. The temple—that's right. I lied to get in here to be alone, but why did I do it again? That I am unable to remember.
"I... I just need time to think, that's all." Forcing a smile to surge from my lips, I rise from the debris and stand up, cleaning the dust off my kimono. "But I managed to organize my head."
Climbing down the debris carefully so as not to trip, I reach Aoha's side, where she stares at me unmovingly. "Let's get Vio; we need to-"
*Whoosh*
Grabbing my kimono, Aoha pushes me back to the debris, and I let myself fall. My companion clicks her tongue and sits down beside my lying body.
Turning her eyes to mine, I see something I didn't think possible; it is almost like she cares when her eyes soften just a tiny bit.
"We are not leaving until you talk. I might be unable to understand your mind, but I can listen to your words."
Letting a laugh escape my throat, I put an arm under my head and get comfortable, or the most I can, lying on spikey debris. "Why do you want me to talk? Weren't you who said to not expect a friend out of you?"
Throwing the bait for her seems to work; her brows contort painfully at being confronted by her own words.
"Indeed, I said that, and yet here I am, sitting down beside you and ready to lend an ear." She sighs deeply, rubbing her troubled brows. "Situations change, I guess. Last night, I had time to think.
"If we are going to do this, I can't have you running away from me when your head goes foggy. All I have right now is your ambition; I don't have one of my own, but until I find it, I'll lean on yours. After all, I promised to help.
"And by your own words, I am all you have. That's no lightweight to carry."
"Yeah, sorry for putting that on you."
"It's fine; I don't truly mind. But this isn't about me, so I talked; now it is your turn." Aoha locks eyes with me for a second before looking away, towards the center of the temple.
How do I start this? Do I just talk about what's on my mind?
"Uhm, well, it is hard to talk about what's in my head right now; I don't even know truly what bothers me. One time killing someone is satisfactory, fulfilling, and at other times, it stays—the feeling of hurting, of... guilt?
"I don't know; my head works in strange ways, shielding me from things and later making me suffer for others. Sometimes I ask myself if I am more wolf than woman."
Aoha slowly lays herself on the debris, grunting at the pokes from stone and broken wood, but in the end, she turns to the side and faces me, prompting me to do the same.
"I get some of it; my feelings since the prison have been volatile; sometimes I hate and question myself about the reasons I care for things, and in others I..."
The air shifts, like a strange gravitational pull. Aoha ever so slightly approaches her face, and without thinking, my body copies her. "I respect you, Zero, deeply. You're stronger than me, not breaking so easily, not running away.
"You face all things head-on, even things beyond your reach."
...
"Do you think you could do something for me?" My question, for an instant, breaks the moment, but as Aoha steels her face, the moment returns.
She nods her head, and the tips of our noses touch at her action.
"I want you to stop me when you think I'm going too far; that way I can be more efficient in battle and in protecting things."
"You can count on me; I'll help you control yourself, and you can help me with these... feelings of mine, right?"
Nodding my head, I gently place my palm on her cheek, filling the empty space of her face with my warmth and working on the last approach of our faces.
"There's something that I think can help, so just turn your face away if you feel uncomfortable."
The silence of hers is enough answer, and looking at her lips, I slowly get mine close to hers, giving her the promised time to refuse.
Fire starts to appear on her head, those same fire ears and tail, but I don't stop or let myself show surprise, choosing instead to focus solely on her.
"Hey, I finally found you people." Vio comments with ragged breathing as her head shadows the moonlight from our faces. "What happened? Why are you both laying down on this clearly uncomfortable mess?"
Aoha, embarrassed and in panic, shoves me away and makes me roll down the debris pile. Our lips barely had the chance to touch before Vio appeared.
"Nothing; we were just resting," Aoha comments rushedly and gets to her feet. "I'll go back to the hotel, bye."
With fire escaping her body furiously, Aoha disappears from the temple, walking fast towards the city.
"I feel like I interrupted something."
"You kind of did," I comment with a shrug, and in response, I get a punch on the shoulder strong enough to make me fall again, starting to get used to it.
"Next time, I want to be part of it."
"Sure thing, Boss."
With a laugh from both of us, Vio and I follow the path down the mountain to reach the hotel.
In the hotel, we use some coins that Aoha stole from Arioch's table, which I give her a thumbs up for doing, and we go back to the room from earlier.
The lady that we paid told us that she would get a wooden tub with warm water for our room, and we didn't even ask for it. Are we smelling that much? Probably.
I drop myself onto the bed as we wait for the lady, placing my equipment and boots on the floor. I look at Aoha sitting on the other bed, carefully placing her katana on the table.
"You know you can sleep with us if you want, right?" I ask with a smug and lift the cover, and Aoha ignores me completely, lying on her bed with her face turned away from my direction.
Vio curls on my bed and stares at me without saying anything, but I can see what she wants from gazing into those adorable eyes adorned by the two candles lit in the room.
A knock on the door warns us of the front desk lady's presence, and by responding to her call, she enters the room with some other hotel workers and places the wooden tub on the edge of the room, then proceeds to fill it up with buckets of warm water.
It takes a minute until they are done and leave the room, but now with the tub here, we can bathe ourselves. Of course, there's a problem; two people can fit on it, but not three.
"I'll use the rest of the water when you two are done," Aoha says, turning her face to me, and before she can turn away again, I walk up to her side.
"You sure?"
She nods her head and gazes away from mine, and gently, using the opportunity, I lean down and give her cheek a peck.
"I'm sorry we were interrupted earlier, but I'll keep my part of the deal."
Aoha doesn't react, not because she feels indifferent, but rather because she freezes. With a smile on my face, I grab Vio's hands. "Let's take a bath; I'll wash your hair."
Nodding her head furiously, she turns the table and pulls me instead to the bathtub, taking her clothes and mine with incredible speed.
Aoha, at the sight, rises from her bed, grabs the room divider on the side, and places it so she doesn't have to see us naked.
"Get in first," Vio asks me, and I do so, climbing the wooden tub and letting my feet slide on its bottom till I'm seated down on the hot water. The feeling of it stings the scars across my body for a moment until it stops, getting used to the sensation.
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Closing my eye, I hear Vio's movements but decide to focus on the relaxing sensation the water brings and the strange weight on my lap.
Taking a peek, I see Vio's blond hair obscuring my vision as she entered the tub, but instead of taking the opposite side, she decided to be on my lap with her back turned to me.
Wrapping my arms around her waist, I pull her close for comfort and rest my chin on her shoulder, which she seems to deeply appreciate.
A strange feeling of sunken depth on the skin of her back makes me too curious to ignore it. By withdrawing my chin from her shoulder, I have full vision of her back, and so I see a familiar sight.
The old scars vary between big and small, all looking like they were made with spears; something tells me they are from those chains stuck to her beast form.
Asking is out of the question; she looks to be enjoying the moment, dangling her feet in the water, and bathing in this closeness of ours.
But one thing I'm unable to suppress is the feeling I have looking at the biggest scar she has, which is perfectly aligned with her spine, right in its center. With my index finger, I trace the front of her chest and see that it continues to the front. It fully impaled her, whatever it was.
The fact she's alive and walking must be something about spirits being harder to kill and healing at extreme speeds, still...
Placing my lips on the scar, I gently let her know the reason for my silence while providing the most comfort I can for her. The sound that escapes from her is neither happy nor sad; it is bittersweet, the intertwining of bad memories and good feelings.
Vio lets me know that she wants more of this comfort by the way she presses her back more against my body and places one hand atop my intertwining fingers on her belly.
We are all just outcasts, huh? Hurt people desperate for comfort, for affection, and for understanding. In the end, Aoha was right; I have a responsibility here to do whatever it takes to protect what I have while still doing what I must for myself.
Sino's long-lost words now make sense in my head: 'You're responsible for what you tame, and that's why I feel responsible for you'. Even after so much time, her words still guide me through hard times and teach me things I once was unable to fully comprehend.
Vio and I spent some more time in the tub, enough so that the water lost all its warmth, and we had to ask for more so Aoha could take a bath.
In the end, Aoha started her bath, and the fact she took her katana with her made it for a clear warning not to peek.
So I was left with all the tiredness from the day paired up with the comfort of a not-empty bed, making it so that the instant my body is laid down to sleep, it does automatically.
When the sun starts peeping through the windows, everyone grabs their stuff and leaves the room. Going down the stairs, this time the hotel is much more empty, probably because we woke up so earlier than yesterday.
On the single breakfast table taken, sits a familiar figure with a gentle expression and a drink in her hand.
"Come on, girls, let me pay for your breakfast before you leave," Arioch says, waving us closer to her.
Well, who is dumb enough to pass on free food, right? Walking to the table, everyone takes their seat and orders something to eat. The front desk lady takes our orders and leaves with the promise of coming back with some good and warm soup.
"How did you know we were leaving?" My question comes with an amused laugh from Arioch.
"It is obvious; you were not one to stay put in a single place," She makes a serious face and starts to imitate my way of acting very poorly. "'Staying means creating roots, and roots only slow one down.'"
I cringe at hearing her quote my words from when I was still acting ragefully at the world. Will my past words haunt me forever?
"Haha, very funny, Miss Crybaby," I say mockingly with a grin, reminding her of the time me and her got trapped in a net together, hanging from a tree, and she got to a point where she cried from anxiety, something about fearing small spaces.
"Resorting to low blows, I see." Arioch nods her head, and instead of sighing, she grins widely in a challenging manner. How good is her memory anyway?
As she opens her mouth to continue her attack on my pride, the food arrives, and everyone on the table takes their meal and focuses on it—everyone but Arioch.
Her eyes wander outside the window and get serious for a second, but catching me staring at her, she smiles.
"My time is up; I have some injured boys to take care of." Rising from the table, she walks to my side and places her hand atop my head. "Stay safe, and anytime you want, come spend some time in the association.
"We are about to strike a deal with a witch, so the other headquarters will be all connected, so if you find one on your way to the other cities, enter them, and you'll find us. At least some food, drinks, and a bed I can provide to your group."
Nodding my head and having to endure Arioch petting my head like I'm some kind of dog, she takes her leave without saying more goodbyes. The fact they got enough coins to buy the services of a witch means they are not as useless in this era as I thought. Which means more jobs if we need them.
"Eat up, people. When we are done here, we just have to talk to Mouse and start traveling to the nearest city."
My words are met with a serious nod from both my companions and with that, we resume filling our stomachs for the road ahead.
As we finish breakfast and prepare to leave, the front desk lady approaches and hands me a backpack.
"Your friend asked me to hand you this before you took your leave." Bowing her head, the lady has her attention turned to the other customers coming down to eat and resumes her work.
Tilting my head, I open the backpack and find inside some arrows and camping supplies. Arioch, someday I'll repay all you did to me.
Putting the arrows on my quiver, I hand the backpack to Vio. "Could you carry this?"
Nodding her head, Vio takes and puts on the backpack as if it were the lightest thing there is, which, with that many things on the camping supplies, sure isn't.
Into the dim alley we go. Upon entering it, we take less than a second to spot Mouse anxiously walking back and forth with dark circle on display under her eyes.
"I see someone didn't get any sleep last night, worried about me?"
At the sound of my voice, Mouse perks up her ears and comes rushing straight in my direction with a crying face. Getting to me, she hugs me as tightly as she can, but with not much strength behind her form, it is quite pleasing.
Hugging her back, I pet her back to help wash the worries she had away.
"It's okay; I'm safe. But there's one thing I need to ask of you." I say to Mouse with a smile, and she looks at my face confused.
"What is it?"
"When we get to the next city, can you help us navigate?"
Mouse widens her eyes and nods her head quickly, swaying her thin tail around.
"Good, I knew I could count on you. Now, go rest for some hours; we will see each other again in the next city."
Petting her head, Mouse's head starts to hang to the side from the extreme exhaustion taking her small body, so with a nod of her head and a tired yawn, she walks to the shadow and disappears.
"I don't know if it is just me, but a question: how exactly does she do it?" Vio asks with a tilt of her head.
I shrug and shake my head. "I don't know; I never asked before, as I assumed she wouldn't want to talk about it. Does it really matter?"
"I guess not." Vio drops her curiosity and looks at the exit gate of the city. "Time to go then, right?"
"Yeah, it was a short visit, but in the next city we will have the opportunity to go slow; at least I hope so."
"Many things will happen still: problems, emperor guards, and new enemies. Maybe this time this can work, so keep an open eye and protect each other's backs."
With everyone on the same page and vibe, the first steps toward my plan began. It was about time to start this party.
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