Chapter 121 – The Paranoia of the Helpless

The ship sailed through the sky. The wind was stable. The people onboard were in their bunkers. Joshua stayed on the deck of the ship. He looked at the land below. He leaned on the rail of the ship. Zola was near him. She was playing with Titus, poking his nose.

There was nothing to do. There are times where the ship would sail down. Barbados was quite wary of the state of the ship. In that time Joshua would touch and praised the land. He would stay away from Leiko and Mia thought. He avoided them as possible as he could. Occasionally he would found himself playing patty cake with Kioko. The little pup Titus would join which made the little Cattus joyful.

Zola was the silent one. Only when the deck was vacant that she would speak. Joshua had asked her. “Why do you look so impassive when dealing with them? She looked at him meaningfully. “I just can’t understand them,” Joshua found that weird. “Yet we understand each other?” She nodded. “That’s because we both got sent into this foreign world. Yeah, you came from a different time from mine. But still, you came from earth. You are a member of the planet that I shed blood and tears. I am like a bird that flocks together to a fellow bird. “I see,” Joshua nodded. “But you seemed lenient when it comes to Archie,” She tilted her head. “That’s because he set me free from that medical pod. I would have rotted if he didn’t and I wouldn’t have taken care of that abomination. So I can at least courteous with him,” Joshua inclined his head. “I guess that’s reasonable. Still, you should try not scaring them too much,” Joshua jested. Zola smiled and said, “I might.”

Joshua understood why she was doing that. He wasn’t charismatic enough to tell her off and he felt like he couldn’t tell her otherwise so he just let her be. Joshua did nothing but idle around. Sometimes he would maintain his things. Archie was surprised how heavily armed Joshua was. But to Joshua, he felt like it was not enough. He felt like he was still lacking things. When Zola heard this she guffawed stealthily on how paranoid Joshua was. But Joshua could not help it. He believes that the little things are important. He doesn’t know if he would be facing many dangers sooner or later. Ever since Joshua arrived in this world and ever since suffering in that chasm where he dragged Silo out. He believed that he needed to be prepared. There were many dangerous things in this world. There were monsters. There were runes that could produce fire. There were abominations made of metal and flesh. There were so many dangerous things and the only thing that he had going for him was the floating words and his ability to survive. He considers himself already lucky to have the ability.

He didn’t have any magical gifts. He didn’t have any talents other than the things he learned normally. He was not a genius. He was just someone who got unluckily sent in this world. Joshua wasn’t optimistic about suddenly developing new powers. When he was in the chasm he didn’t develop anything at all. And only because of Zola that he was saved. So how could he rely on just luck? He didn’t want to experience that kind of hell so he crazily prepared. He had bombs in case he needs to destroy something or obscure something. He had ropes and medical supplies on his bandoliers. He had anything on him that might give him an advantage.

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Joshua learned hard that day. He would be stupid if he didn’t. Indeed, it seemed like it’s too much but he had no power other than his double-edged ability. He could only do this to give himself a sense of safety. That’s why when he cleaned and maintained his things. He was thorough. He cleaned his pistols. He made sure his bombs wouldn’t malfunction. He checked his medical supplies and made sure his ropes were solid.

When he was doing all of this maintenance Zola could not help but stare at him. There was clear fervor of fear in Joshua’s eyes. She had seen such kind of behavior in her life. It was a behavior of someone who feared. She could understand that. Unlike Joshua, she was an augmented human that could punch through solid steel. She can leap ten stories high with ease and run on walls without any difficulty.

Joshua doesn’t have anything other than what he has and his own tenacity of will. Admittedly, she admires Joshua. She admired him for dragging Silo out of sheer will from whatever hellhole he crawled. It was charming to her in a way. But she fears that his paranoia would get too him. She had seen how he acted when a ship bearing the sign of an Alva. She couldn’t imagine how fearful it was to live in this world. The people around him were used to this world because they were born in it. But he wasn’t. It was a foreign world far different from the peaceful world he had lived.

She had the abilities and augmentations to fend off most of this world. But that was different for Joshua. He had to be prepared in order not get killed. He learned how to cope with this world by preparing for the worst. Zola would like to help him more but what can she do? Inject him with her blood and kill him? She had already given him an ability to regenerate his wounds, albeit slow it does the job. She could no longer inject him anything other than that. Not like she had anything left either.

It was a shame that she could not help him get stronger. But at least she can watch his back when he needs it. And if anything, he was lucky enough that he had someone like Zola as his ally and friend watching over him like an angel.

Zola glances at Joshua. He was still painstakingly checking his things. This made Zola grin. She ambled near him and helped him maintained his things. She didn’t have anything to do and the journey to the demesne of Maltius La Fende was long.