Fear of Crying

Chapter word count: 3046

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*Pop*

“So,” Simon chewed some bubblegum. “Are you Dolen?”

Simon approached a gloomy person sitting alone at a corner table of some shabby bar-like location. They were thin and seemingly malnourished.

This Simon was not bloodied and still had their outfit intact, making it easier to determine. He wore light cargo pants and a cargo jacket. There weren’t that many pockets, but all of them were seemingly filled with something. Though they were all either empty or ripped open when Airot found him.

Whereas the gloomy man wore a ragged overcoat with a hood, though the hood was down.

They took a quick look at Simon before replying, “No, you’ve got the wrong person.”

“Ah, I see. My bad, then,” Simon shrugged, yet sat down at his table. “Then, who are you?”

“I’m just someone trying to survive.”

“Trying indeed,” Simon looked on the table. “You know you don’t have to eat these. You could go to some yapper’s restaurant.”

On the table was presumably a meal that the gloomy guy was eating.

It was a simple box of cereal, recently opened but obviously made when humanity still had a functioning civilization. No liquid with it, just the stale cereal. Only accompanied by some sort of canned fruit.

“It’s fine. You should go, I wouldn’t want to take up more of your time.”

“Oh, it’s alright. After all, I’m the one who’s going to be taking up your time,” Simon stared threateningly at the man. “But if you really want me gone, then why don’t you blow me away?”

Knowing Simon’s intent, the man annoyingly looked at him as his disheveled hair barely covered his eyes.

“You’ve seriously got the wrong person. Please, stop bothering me any more.”

Simon got up from his seat and walked to the side of the man.

He placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Make me,” Simon demanded while he blew a bubble from his bubblegum.

Once the bubble took a sizable form Simon bit it which led it to close, detach from Simon’s mouth, and float on its own.

The man stood up in response. He picked up his opened fruit can.

“This is what you want, right?” He chuckled as he forced it onto Simon’s hands. “You can have it.”

He began walking to the building’s exit.

Looking at the can Simon could see some bubbles form from the fruit juice.

“Disgusting… but useful.”

The very next moment Simon chucked the fruit can at the man.

Seemingly instinctually, the man turned to face the flying can and whispered something under his breath.

The can was repulsed away mid-air causing the can to bounce back as if it hit a shield.

But despite the can and all the fruit being blown away, it left behind bubbles formed from the fruit juice which had somehow detached itself from the can and expanded right in front of him.

Through the enlarging bubbles the man locked eyes with Simon, realizing what he had done.

“Crap.”

“See? As I thought, you are Dolen,” Simon proclaimed as he took bubblegum out of his pocket and into his mouth. “It’s quite rude to lie about your name.”

The bubbles from the fruit can suddenly have a single point protrude from each bubble all aimed at Dolen.

“Annoying,” Dolen announced as he jumped back and popped the bubbles. “I didn’t lie. I am someone just trying to survive,” he retorted with emphasis.

The other people in the bar had already distanced themselves from the two yappers and are trying to exit the bar, leaving the area freely usable for them. As such, a vacant table near Dolen was flung at Simon.

“Nah, you definitely lied about ‘Dolen’ not being your name.”

Controlling the size of the bubblegum bubble he blew while Dolen was still seated, Simon enlarged the bubble to cover himself fully.

With the human-sized bubble in front of him, the flung table would crash into it first.

As they connected the bubble didn’t burst but instead reduced the force of the table and flew backwards. It only popped after hitting the ground, and at that point the table was stuck there, unable to be flung again but still intact.

Simon wasn’t caught up in that attack, though. Due to the bubble blocking their view of each other, Dolon lost track of Simon in that instant. But like earlier, Dolen’s senses alerted him to turn to his side.

“Boo!”

Met with a hunched Simon blowing another bubble from his mouth he leaps back and attempts to repulse him.

Simon was blown backwards and crashed into a wall.

However, just like the canned fruit, even though Simon was thrown back his blown bubble stayed stagnant and this time it shot at Dolen instantly.

Luckily for Dolen it wasn’t a stab like the fruit juice bubbles but just a blunt impact.

“So… that’s what a gut punch feels like,” Simon forced a smile as he got up.

Dolen, on the other hand, sat up with a bloody nose.

In terms of physicality, the malnourished Dolen was at a clear disadvantage. Even if Simon didn’t have an impressive build he was still able to get next to Dolen from their starting table in mere moments without being noticed.

He hurried up as Simon reached for one of his larger pockets.

“Why’re you even targeting me?!”

Simon paused for a moment before answering, “Who knows?” He gave a saddened smile. “I guess it’s ‘cause you’re the best fit.”

“Best fit for what?”

Simon didn’t answer and instead pulled out a bottle of dish soap and rushed towards Dolen.

In response Dolen directed his hand at Simon and sent another shockwave towards him.

Simon squirted his bottle before being hit, and from the squirted liquid formed more bubbles.

“You and your annoying bubbles,” Dolen angrily muttered.

The bubbles shot themselves towards Dolen while Simon dashed around the side after recovering from the blast.

The impact of the bubbles sent Dolen over the bar counter and crashing into the cheap bottles on display.

Attempting to capitalize on this, Simon ran with the intent of leaping over the countertop and landing on Dolen. However, just as he jumped the floor board beneath him shot up directly hitting him.

As Simon fell before the countertop, its front was shot forward from the other side with enough force to throw him back and let go of his dish soap.

“Why don’t you just stop and we go our separate ways?” Dolen nearly demanded as he locked eyes on the dish soap and made it explode mid-air, with none of the liquid going near him.

“Are you scared?” Simon mocked as he had another piece of bubblegum in his mouth. “Why don’t you just cry, then.”

Seeing Simon still chewing, Dolen stomped his foot and caused all the broken bar drinks to fly up.

Before falling down again all the shards were shot towards Simon.

With his speed he was able to dodge the shards without getting any lodged inside of him, but still got cut.

He ran towards a table and picked it up to charge at Dolen, intending to use it as a shield.

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“Your efforts bring me sorrow,” Dolen announced as Simon reached him.

Upon nearing the counter the table shattered but Simon pushed through and jumped over the countertop, revealing a bubble being blown.

As he was directly above the counter it flung upwards, crashing into the ceiling.

The bubble which he had blown from the table’s safety had also popped.

In the attic, Simon opened two of his pockets. One was a simple water bottle and the other was a solid bar of soap.

Drenching the soap bar he quickly began rubbing. Suddenly another crash came into the ceiling.

“Have you surrendered up here?”

Dolen launched himself up into the ceiling to catch Simon.

“If you’re wallowing in your regret, you shouldn’t have started this in the first place,” Dolen, extremely annoyed, declared.

Simon was blasted away yet again, and also dropped his lathery soap bar.

Getting back up, Simon faced his open palms towards Dolen as they were covered in bubbles.

“You really seem like you want to cry, so why don’t you already?” Simon put on another grin. “Don’t tell me— you have a fear of crying?”

Immediately the bubbles from Simon’s hands fired at Dolen at a speed faster than previous attacks.

Dolen attempted to dodge since he thought there was enough space between them to do so, but the bubbles changed course to target him.

Despite being small each of their impacts felt more painful than it should’ve, at least going off of previous experience. It wasn’t the final blow, but it was surprisingly potent.

Dolen attempted to make some distance as Simon reached for his bubblegum pocket again, but he failed to notice that he walked near the soap bar.

Simon controlled the bubbles on the soap bar and expanded them to throw Dolen closer to him.

Unprepared for the blast behind him, Dolen was the one thrown around this time.

Simon dashed towards him like usual but he was uninterrupted and successfully got to Dolen.

Instead of chewing on bubblegum Simon surrounded his thumb with a thick layer of bubblegum and closed it, thereby trapping air, thus a bubble. This bubble expanded itself and grabbed onto Dolen.

Unable to react, Dolen couldn’t do anything as Simon threw a punch to his face. Followed up by kneeing his gut and a heavy punch to throw him back.

Simon recalled him by using the attached bubblegum as a rope to reel him back.

“You pathetic prick,” Dolen glared with rage-filled eyes. “You live a sad life, don’t you.”

The bubblegum attached to his arm snapped free, but Simon’s control of it didn’t immediately get cut. He made it explode on Dolen’s arm, seemingly crushing it.

Ignoring the pain, Dolen continued, “You’re the one who’s got a fear of crying.”

Simon halted his movements for a moment longer than he would’ve liked.

“You’ve got this sad, pathetic, empty, and sorrowful look,” Dolen berated Simon. “And I’m done with it.”

The stalled Simon got sent down to the ground without breaking the floor.

After kissing the floor Simon was blown out backwards crashing straight into the attic wall.

This time Dolen rushed up to him and blasted him again, breaking the wall and throwing Simon out from a second-floor.

Dolen jumped out and hovered above the falling Simon sending another powerful shockwave leading to Simon being sent straight to the ground.

The grounded Simon, still conscious, opened another pocket and pulled out a spray bottle.

Spraying as many times as he could, special bubbles began floating around him as he forced himself up.

Dolen repelled himself and came crashing down on top of Simon, popping most of the bubbles and directly knocking the spray bottle out of Simon’s hands.

“No more pitiful jokes to make?” Dolen questioned the shocked and bleeding Simon.

Simon couldn’t force a smile anymore, he was far too injured.

He couldn’t even come up with a response.

Many thoughts filled his head but he couldn’t decide on what to do.

He tried to reach for another pocket but Dolen stopped him and blew open the pocket.

The last saving grace for Simon was Dolen ignoring the bubbles from the spray bottle, seemingly believing Simon was on the verge of giving up.

Secretly decreasing the size of a bubble, he led one to Dolen’s face and suddenly grew it to eye-size.

The sudden realization of a bubble so close to his face made Dolen jolt his head back and try to pop it. But the bubbles formed from the spray bottle were a little different, they were extra acidic.

The single bubble wouldn’t kill anyone but it was right in front of Dolen’s eyes.

As it popped it landed on one of his eyes.

Dolen cried out in pain as Simon used this chance to run away.

He ran down an adjacent alley to the building they were just in.

While running he pulled out a second water bottle from the same pocket the first water bottle had been in. He began shaking it rapidly.

“That hurt,” Dolen coldly stated as he prepared to launch himself after Simon with one eye closed.

Simon uncapped the bottle in response.

From the bottle came a bubble that was shot down the straight alleyway. It was repulsed just before hitting Dolen.

He then emptied his water bottle and spread numerous bubbles as Dolen repelled himself down the alley.

“Oh, come on! Aren’t you injured? Why don’t we have a timeout?” Simon, regaining his flow, blurted out.

The bubbles all formed different sizes and placed themselves between Dolen and Simon.

Simon distanced himself even more as he opened his last two pockets. In one was a bottle of classic bubble solution. The other had a long strip of plastic riddled with holes.

As he was taking them out Dolen had broken through the bubble wall. Though they spread out afterwards.

Those bubbles were fragile and weak especially since Simon was weakened, but that was only individually.

“Man, you’re surprisingly scary. I’m too scared to even shed a tear,” Simon began to smile again.

He splashed the bubble solution all over the plastic strip.

“Are you stupid?”

Realizing Simon’s intentions, Dolen was baffled that he would still try.

But Dolen breaking through the bubble wall scattered the bubbles which helped them spread enough to surround him.

Simon whipped his plastic strip which formed bubbles from all of its holes. Each of the bubbles intertwined and formed one entity.

“I think you’ve given me a fear of crying.”

“This dumb—”

Dolen was cut off as the bubbles surrounding him suddenly unleashed upon him with new force.

He attempted to repulse as many as he could but there were too many.

It was an oversight of Dolen to ignore them when he broke through as he thought the battle was about to end. And on top of leaving the majority of them untouched, they seemingly multiplied and took advantage of his blind spot.

“You and your fear of—!”

Dolen was interrupted yet again. This time, however, was from the interconnected array of bubbles made from the plastic strip. It wrapped around Dolen.

This rope-like structure slammed Dolen into the ground only to pick him back up and crash him through the wall of the building they started in.

Dolen spat from the impact.

Attempting once more, and failing once more, Dolen yelled out, “Your fear—”

This interruption came from a bubble entering his mouth.

Using the same shrinking and sudden growth method Simon already used, he was able to prevent Dolen from speaking as the bubble filled his mouth.

Dolen performed a concentrated blast inside his own mouth to pop the bubble, but before he could try a third time, an offshoot of the bubble solution bubbles appeared right in front of his lips. It forced its way into his mouth and popped on its own, leaving behind a numb sensation.

“You’ve gotta stop asking. I’m rather shy about my fear of crying,” Simon entered through the open wall with his initial mocking tone.

Dolen tried calling him out but he only spouted a slurred mess.

Aware of the situation, he placed his hand on the floor and sent the debris near him flying up. Then shot all the debris at Simon.

Simon countered everything with his remaining water bubbles.

Rejuvenated with newfound strength, Simon rushed forward.

Dolen attempted to blast him away but Simon was able to power through it.

He landed a clean hit on Dolen’s face causing him to be knocked down.

While Dolen was lying on the ground, Simon kicked him across the floor.

“Yuhve… freally… emptied muy zorro,” Dolen muttered through his slurred words.

Simon walked towards Dolen.

“Hm? Emptied your zorro?” He put his hand on his chin in an exaggerated manner. “Ah, you mean ‘sorrow’. You’ve said that earlier, too,” Simon looked down at Dolen with a saddened face. “I see, so you’ve emptied your sorrows.”

Contrary to Simon’s belief, he was the one stunned.

He was blown to the side with enough force to crash back out to the alleyway.

Dolen got up hunched and prepared to chase after Simon, enduring through the pain.

Repulsing himself to catch Simon before he does anything else, Dolen further blasted Simon through the wall behind him, entering the next-door building.

They entered into a large kitchen from a wall that hung various utensils. Most notably, various kinds of knives.

Simon saw this and wanted to do something, so he reached to his last cargo pocket but before he could, Dolen spoke.

“Fear of crying.”

In a rush, Dolen fired knives at Simon without caring for accuracy.

Along with the prior injuries and his current state, Dolen failed to strike any vital points on Simon, but he managed to cut the cargo pocket open.

Though just as wounded and with his last pocket gone, Simon reached for the last bits of bubblegum he had on him.

Simultaneously, as Simon put his hands in his pockets, Dolen blasted him through the kitchen wall into an open dining area.

Just as Simon pulled out his bubblegum, Dolen sent Simon flying to the front door.

To reduce the impact Simon squeezed the bubblegum to create a controllable bubble and sent one to the door to catch him before he crashed into it.

He tumbled outside on the main street.

Aiming to get up, he was interrupted as Dolen followed swiftly and sent him flying yet again.

Using his second and last handful of bubblegum, Simon threw it at the wall he was destined to crash into.

As the impact was made, a handful of knives lodged themselves into the same wall.

Dolen slowly walked up to the downed Simon.

“And stay down!”

Simon, who was already bleeding out on the ground, was crushed downwards even more.

“Never approach me again! I never wanted anything to do with you.”

Dolen turned to walk away down the street. Trembling and bleeding just as badly. It seemed like he would faint at any moment.

*Flash*

Airot’s vision returned back to the present with Narro.