THE SAMURAI AND THE GENTLE PUDDLE STEPS
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“Make sure you girls travel safely.” Luna hugged both me and Fervis as we were preparing to depart.
In the backpack Luna had given me were 4 sandwiches for the trip, which there were two for both of us, a large supply of water, and an extra dagger for me. We decided to keep the pouch of money Luna gave me inside or Fervis’s invisible closet. Fervis doesn’t use weapons since she is a mage, and she said she can use her claws for melee combat.
“We will,” I responded to Luna and hugged her back before I turned back to the door of the house.
“I’ll visit soon, Grandmother.” I smiled and walked through the door of the house, with Fervis following right behind me. Luna exchanged one more wave with the two of us before she entered back into the house.
“S-so are you ready to go, Mimi?” Fervis nervously asked as she lifted me off my feet. Our faces were almost touching because of how close I was to her, and I felt her increasing heartbeat race against mine.
‘What is this feeling?’ I tried to put a label on it, but I just couldn’t understand it. Whenever I was close to Fervis, my heartbeat always seemed to speed up and my body temperature rose. ‘Dragons must have some special kind of magic that they release.’ I concluded and smiled.
“I am. Let’s go Fervis!” I exclaimed and raised one of my arms into the air as Fervis sprouted her wings from her back and they began to glow with the color red.
“Mimi, m-make sure you hold on tight.” She softly whispered into my ear, and we took off into the sky. As we climbed in altitude, we started to fly through clouds and when I looked back, I could see my figure molded into the puffy white clouds.
“This is so fun!” I shouted as I grappled my hold on to Fervis even tighter as we began to straighten out and fly into a straight line. Fervis seemed startled by my sudden increase in force, but she quickly adapted and began flying steadily again.
“Mimi?” Fervis called my name again as I was watching the clouds departing from view.
“Hmmm?” I turned my head to Fervis, who had a gaze filled with doubt over her face.
“Just who are you? No human would ever agree to fly with me like this,” she explained solemnly before continuing.
“Outside of the Royal Capital there is a lot of discrimination between humans and Demi-Humans such as myself, so I was worried that you might just be pretending to be my friend and then planned on departing from me the moment we got to the capital…” Fervis explained as she tried to blink away tears from her eyes.
“Of course, if that is what you wish, I would accept it, but I really hoped we could be good friends…” Fervis began to go on, but I placed my index finger on her mouth.
“Fervis, didn’t I say that I liked you already? I’m pretty sure we’ve been friends since the very first moment that you shot that giant fireball past my head.” I found myself giggling at the memory. ‘I see, so she can even be troubled by things like that. If anyone dares to disturb my best friend going forward… I will show them no mercy.’ My face scrunched up in anger when I thought of other humans treating Fervis poorly.
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I didn’t exactly understand what made me so upset to see her like that at first, but then I got it. ‘Fervis must be like a sister to me. That’s gotta be why I feel the need to protect her.’
“Thank you Mimi, I-I-I love-“
Before Fervis could finish her sentence, a loud boom was heard below us and suddenly, Fervis was trapped in a chain net, and she released her hold on me and began falling from the sky.
“Mimi!” Fervis’ hands enlarged and massive claws scratched at the net, but she was unable to break out and we both began our freefall towards the ground.
When I noticed the severity of the situation, I tried to scan the ground for the source of the net that Fervis had been caught in. A group of ugly middle-aged men looked to be the source as I saw a cannon that had more of the nets attached to it.
‘So, these greedy humans are already trying to soil Fervis with their mitts… I won’t forgive them, only their death can satisfy me now.’
Before I knew it, I was no longer falling towards the ground. I was jumping towards the falling Fervis.
‘Splash’
‘Splash’
‘Splash’
When I looked behind me I noticed I was creating puddles of water in the air as I jumped nimbly.
‘The Gentle Puddle Step is allowing me to run on air?’ When I realized what was happening, a smirk crept up my lips.
I continued my pursuit of Fervis before she was about a couple of meters from hitting the ground. She had already closed her eyes and looked to be bracing for the impact and I heard her whisper, “I’m sorry, Mimi.”
“Sorry for what?” I drew Minami from its sheathe and cut the chains while making sure to not graze Fervis’s skin and in a quick moment, I severed her from the chain net and grabbed her from beneath just as we touched the ground even though I unfortunately left a massive crater in the ground.
Fervis’s eyes fluttered open, likely expecting pain, but a wave of shock lingered over her face as she stared at me.
“Mimi?! How did you-“ Before she could question me I put my index finger over her lips as I sensed the approaching men who had tried to capture Fervis.
“Fervis, can you please close your eyes for just one minute?” I showed her a wide smile, and she meekly nodded and obliged.
“Well, what do we have here?” The first one asked in a tone filled with mockery.
“I can’t believe that girl was able to live that impact. Isn’t she just a normal human?” The second one followed.
“Well, that’s more fun for us after all. They’re both beautiful young ladies.” The third one took one step forward after his sentence, but none of the others had realized that he had already been killed.
I sheathed Minami after cutting his head clean off. The cut was so clean that no blood even remained on my sword and the man’s head slowly slid off from his neck and fell to the side as his head drowned in a pool of his blood.
“Next.”
After I softly spoke, the other men looked in horror at what they had just witnessed and one of them turned to run, but I didn’t offer such mercy.
“Gentle Rain”
The man was cut into several pieces and his blood splattered onto the last man, who was now sitting on his butt and tried crawling away while facing me. He tossed multiple kinds of magic my way as I walked him down. Fire, water, wind, but nothing mattered as each kind of magic he tried to attack me with was cut effortlessly with Minami.
He soon backed up against a tree, and his pupils had now been filled with tears as he now knew there was nowhere to run.
“Please, I’ll give you all the money you want so just don’t kill me!” He screamed at the top of his lungs, but I spared him no mercy and I beheaded him and then cut his now airborne head into so many pieces that nothing remained. Only then did I find my rage was satisfied and I went back to go find Fervis.
“Fervis! You can open your eyes now!” I shouted and began to walk back to the spot where she was positioned.
When she opened her deep red eyes, I hugged her tightly and a wave of relief washed over my heart. ‘Why do I feel so relieved by hugging her? Worry. I was worried about Fervis, but differently than what I remembered. I used to be worried about my comrades when we entered battle, but when I thought about Fervis getting touched by those disgusting men, all I felt was the need to protect her. I have to figure out what this feeling is. Fervis, is she really just a sister to me?’