“You ready, asshole?”

“Lune, Ed, stop this!” Marina interjected, “You guys are friends, can’t you settle this peacefully?”

“No can do.” Ed refused to lock eyes with her, “Our friendship is special. When one friend falls off the deep end, the other one drags him back on the right path.”

This piece of shit…! He thinks what he’s doing is righteous?! Calling someone’s lover such horrible names, hitting him with a sucker punch and then having the gall to spit in his face?! What part of that means friendship?!

“Tch.” I clicked my tongue, “And if the other friend refuses, then we settle things with a good old-fashioned scuffle. That’s just how we are, right Ed?”

“Right you are, Lune. But remember what Aaron taught us? What’s a scuffle without a little warm up?” He said as he started pacing around me to try and test the waters.

Slowly, patiently, he made sure to look for an opening in my stance. Since neither of us were armed in any way, shape or form, we had no other choice but to close the gap between us if we ever wanted to deal some damage. Ed’s eyes are glimmering, but that could also just be me seeing things due to the rain hindering my vision. For a split second, I lowered my guard to wipe away the raindrops from my eyes, and in the very next moment…!

“Lune! Look out!” Marina warned me.

“Hey, no outside help, you damned homewrecker!” Ed cussed her out for warning me of his impending attack.

Well, impending wouldn’t be the correct term for it, cause it was all but already executed. Ed was fast, too fast. It’s impossible to have such reaction time to jump at me the very moment I let my guard down. The only way he could do such a thing is if he had known somehow what I was gonna do before I did it. Makes me wonder…

“Oi, Ed, you’ve gotten pretty nimble, eh?” I taunted him, “Must be the work of that nifty Brown Iro of yours, no?”

Ed chose to go in for the attack once again instead of giving me a straight answer, but actions speak louder than words. With this, I immediately knew for a fact that he can somehow accurately read my movements in advance. His attack didn’t have any harmful intent behind it, he mostly did it because he got flustered over the fact that I figured out his little shtick this quickly, so dodging it was easier than last time. Even still, I have no idea what a Brown Iro’s ability is, so I’ll have to do some testing with him to figure it out!

“Always curious, even now…” He notes, “Try and guess all you want, but until you figure it out, I’ll be taking this victory!”

Ugh, this annoying prick is really getting on my nerves again! Wait, mustn’t get impatient. Rage isn’t the way here, since he’s reading my movements somehow, I need to use my head more to try and juke him out. I haven’t done this in a while, but maybe Going Solipsistic is the way to go?

And so, I could feel my vision go monotone in color, as a black and white filter spread from the sides of my field of vision. This was it, this familiar feeling of seeing the world as devoid of color, unimportant, uninteresting. This was the power of the Gray Iro, one that believed in Elegance over anything. Those who lacked Elegance didn’t exist in the real world, they were but mere extras in my life, the life that was ‘true’.

“Oh ho?” Ed chuckled, “Going Solipsistic are we? Now that sure brings back some good memories! You haven’t done that since you and Cecily were a thing!”

Shut up, extra. Cecily and I never broke up! I love her, and she loves me back! Your jests mean nothing to me, someone who can see the world through the first person! I am the beginning, and so too am I the end. You began when I first saw you, and with but a mere chop to the throat, here is where you’ll end.

As each raindrop fell, I could hear his heart beat ever louder as I approached him. I wasn’t running, I wasn’t panting, I wasn’t even breaking a sweat. I simply walked towards him, and he did nothing. Then again, what could a mere pawn do in the face of the true one such as I?

“Whoa!” He jumped aside in the last moment before giving me a punch to the gut, “That one was really close! Just goes to show how amazing a Gray Iro is, eh? The power of the Generals… Don’t get discouraged though, you’ll get there eventually!”

W-What?! Such impudence! Could it really be that a lowly Brown Iro counters a pristine Iro like Gray? But that wasn’t supposed to happen! I need to get up before…!

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Ah, you figured me out.” Ed said with a playful tone right before breaking the ground where I was at just moments before dodging, “Looks like you memorized my fighting style from the years we’ve known each other.”

“Ugh, can’t help it.” I noted as the colors came back to my eyes, “It’s your fault for not switching it up since the last time we’ve faced off. It makes you easier to re-”

…Read, is what I wanted to say before realizing. Could it be…? Is the ability of the Brown Iro the ability to foretell the near future?!

“Bzzt! Wrong!” Ed kicked me in my side whilst I was down, “By the way, I think my fighting style doesn’t have to change, since it apparently still works fine against you. Kick the enemy while they’re down, that makes them the easiest target, no?”

“What a lame fighting style! Coward!” Marina yelled out from the sidelines, hurting Ed’s pride.

“Shut up, tramp! I don’t need your opinion-”

In that very moment, a strong potential energy that originated from my fist near-instantaneously turned into kinetic energy that accumulated in his face. The punch sent him flying at least a couple meters, which in turn lead to me regaining the upper hand.

I spared no time in running in for a follow-up attack, but he seemed to have predicted that one and scuttled away in the nick of time. Ugh, why is his ability so difficult to figure out!? He predicted all of my previous moves, but the moment he turned around to address Marina…

“That’s it!” I yelled out as I closed my eyes, “You need my eyes in order to fight me, but I don’t!”

I think I figured it out! His ability is to ‘read minds’! But he needs to be making direct eye contact with the person he’s reading in order for it to work! Now that I think about it, he’s been staring at me the entire time with those glimmering pupils of his for the entire duration of the fight, so it’d all but make sense! Thanks to my instincts, I can roughly pinpoint his location due to audio cues, after that’s it’s as simple as one, two…!

“Wrong again.” He hit me square in the face, “Geez, to think the Famed Inventor Sol would be so dumb to not realize by now… What a sorry display of fighting prowess. Y’know, some say the human brain is in many ways similar to our muscles. Makes sense, given the fact that both of them atrophied in your body.”

“You…! That’s it!”

With my back cornered against the wall, I had no other option left. I didn’t wanna have to do this, but I’ll have to resort to Rage. Having said that, my vision slowly erupted into a vignette of flames dyed a crimson red as I lost my train of thought.

“Hm? Heh hey, Lune? Your noggin’s become empty, everything alright?”

He was making an amusing face. One that spelled fear, uncertainty and regret. I never got to understand what his ability was, but that don’t matter now, do it? All’s I gotta do now is give him a well-deserved serving of retribution, and that of course would be exacted without a second thought!

“Unf!” I slugged him as hard as I could whilst he whined and whined, “H-Hey! I can’t read your mind if you stop thinking, dumbass!”

Ah, so that was it? He only required cognitive thoughts to read someone’s mind? Interesting, but unimportant in the present moment. That’s information I certainly don’t care about now. For now, the only thing that’s important is to fight. Fight, fight, and win.

“Ugh!” Ed took another blow as I straddled him to do a follow-up flurry of attacks.

“How do ya’ like that!? Hahaha!”

“F…Fu…uck…!” He yelped.

“Muahahahaha! Die, die, die!”

“Lune, stop!” Marina grabbed my arm, “He’s already unconscious! You’ve won, now stop it, please!”

Looking back down, I noticed that his face was a bloody mess. Might leave a few cool scars, but other than that I’d say his handsomeness could only benefit from this. Now, to take that horrible thing from his belt…!

“S…” Ed murmured, “Stop… don’t…”

Not giving up until the very end, huh? Hmph, I can at least respect your bravery, so I guess I’ll hear you out before snapping the firestarter like a twig. Hahaha, I can’t wait to see the look on your face when that happens!

“A…”

“Hmm? What was that?” I mocked him.

“Avis… Furtum.”

In that moment, a bird from a nearby flock that just so happened to be flying by the island deviated from its group and tried to steal the pistol away from my hands.

“Wha-?!” I quickly tried to grab it back, but Ed got to it first, “Ed, what is the meaning of this?!”

“Cough! What’s the matter, huh!? Did you really think I didn’t have a trump card of my own?”

“Grr…! Give it here!” I lunged at him to try and take it away forcefully.

“Never!”

“Guys! Stop fooling around, it’s dangerous!” Marina jumped in as well.

The scene looked kind of comical in a way. Two guys and a pregnant lady fighting over a dangerous weapon that could almost singlehandedly destroy the world. Comical, up until the moment we heard a loud bang.

The gun had fired. We all stopped what we were doing at the same time, but no one could tell which one of us got shot. God, I hope it’s not Ed, I’d feel terrible if he died here. Then what would we tell Cecily and the others? Well, Ed’s strong, so I’m sure he could survive a gunshot if it didn’t hit a critical spot. Oh, but then again he’s the one who’s holding the pistol, so there’s no way he shot himself.

By the way, I’d also prefer if it isn’t me. I mean, checking my body resulted in me finding no holes anywhere. I’d say I don’t feel the pain, but then again I don’t even know how taking a bullet would feel, since I’ve never been shot before. You could also argue I don’t feel the pain because my adrenaline is pumping, but who’s to say. Even still, I need to be there to take care of Nelly and Licht (tentative), so I can’t die here. But wait, wouldn’t I be putting the cart before the horse here then? Isn’t there another person here who I’d want to not get shot the most?

“Me.” Marina chuckled as blood dripped from her mouth, “It’s me that it hit. Geez, I told you guys to stop, didn’t I?”

In the very next moment, she fell to the ground with a chillingly silent thud as the clouds above us started pouring out all the rain they had in them at once.