Chapter 6: Girl, Speaks her Mind

 

 

 

Chapter 6: Girl, Speaks her Mind

 

THE pinball’s—or rather—Wolfie’s voice came from beyond the boulders. Nichika and the others noticed a honeyed fragrance wafting in the air on their way to him. They were blanketed in the comforting allure of sweet, sweet sleep.

“Eek!”

Nichika was on the verge of giving in to her sleepiness when the sound of something heavy hitting the ground shocked her awake. She turned around to find Oswald down on one knee, clinging to a boulder with his right hand.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay?!” She rushed to his side.

“So tired…” he moaned, pressing his left hand to his forehead.

“Get a grip! I know you love your naps, but there’s a place and time for that!”

She shook him by the shoulders until he could no longer hold up his own weight and heavily slid to the ground. Lambert began swaying on his feet a slight distance from them.

“Ahaha. You’re so lame…buddy…”

“Lambert!”

He collapsed to the ground too. She raced to him, rolled him onto his back, and heard him snoring away.

“Uhhh…?”

Irresistible sleepiness crashed down on her in violent waves. Nichika bit the inside of her cheek, staving it off as best she could. Mind a little clearer, she noticed a purple haze mixed into the white fog.

Hold it together, Nichika. If you pass out here, who will wake everyone up?

Motivating herself to keep moving, she used her staff as a walking cane and pushed ahead one unsteady step at a time. Before long the purple haze thickened into a familiar ominous shade.

“I knew it…this…isn’t…normal…”

It’s that color. The ill-omened, poisonous purple that’s devouring the world and made the Fire Spirit go crazy. Pressing her sleeve to her mouth, she approached the source while trying to inhale as little of the haze-infected air as possible. After a while she came upon her other friend.

Wolfie!

The sound asleep wolf was lying with his belly up in the middle of the road with snot bubbles coming out of his nose.

I must be close then.

Large boulders were scattered around the rocky area. The haze seemed to be emitting from atop the largest boulder there. Dragging her numb legs, she managed to clamber her way up. Her eyes bulged at what she came face to face with on top: a flower bud hanging its heavy head.

Including the stem, it came up as high as her knees at most, but its strong gray roots wound tenaciously around the stone boulder. The partially open bud shared the same sickening shade of purple as the haze it spat out in pulses.

“…!”

Extreme drowsiness whisked her consciousness away on a wave. How lovely it would be to curl up and sleep.

Ear-piercing cries from beyond the haze pulled her back just as her mind was ready to fly away.

“KOROROOOO! PETAROROOO!”

The petacolons were calling her.

Remembering why she came, Nichika stomped her feet against the hard stones, compelling her sleepiness into anger.

“…the hell…are…doing…?!”

Magic converged in the staff handle she gripped, transferring the fire mana within the magic orb into her. Crimson dyed her wide-open eyes, and the red butterflies symbolic with Nichika danced around her.

“Don’t…spew…that…noxious…gaaaaaaaaaaas!” she roared, bringing forth a burst of hellfire. She scooped it up with the staff and slammed it down on the venomous flower. “BURN BABY BURN!”

The area turned into an instant sea of fire. Was the blasted plant fire-resistant? It didn’t so much as wilt under the raging inferno. But after a while, the roots began to scorch, and it writhed like a living creature. A mighty shake racked it from the roots to its bud. She braced herself for what it had in store for her next, but it lost all color and crumbled.

“Did I…beat it?”

Extinguishing her flames, Nichika flopped back onto the boulder and panted. There was a sudden clang of something hard hitting rock. She looked to see a purple crystal where the flower had been. The color rapidly faded before her eyes and then it finally cracked in two.

She grudgingly stood back up and walked over to check on it.

“Awww, darn. How could you do that?” an unfamiliar voice groaned above her. “Do you know how much mana I wasted to create that? You’re awful.”

Nichika spun around. The mysterious person wore a robe that melted into the white fog and sat on a boulder swinging their legs like a small child.

Alarmed by that familiar attire, Nichika curled her fingers around the staff and yelled, “You’re the kid who attacked us in Cherry Blossom Kingdom!”

This was the same child who had stolen the magic wind bullets from Princess Yura and shot Wolfie in the alley.

Unfazed by her accusations, the child hidden under the white robe merely tilted their head. “Hm? Oh, I get it. So you did see me back then.”

The boy, at least they sounded like a boy, giggled, his mouth curling in a guiltless smile. He shrugged and mocked her in a cutesy voice that sounded like tinkling from handbells.

“You’ve got it wrong when you say ‘attacked us.’ I was only after you. What happened to that little wolf wasn’t what I was going for. He got hurt all because he tried to protect the likes of someone worthless like you.”

His biting remark sent pangs of pain stabbing at her chest. She didn’t know why, but it was clear the boy hated her. Did I do something to offend him without knowing it? She decided to ask him about it outright.

“Hey, did I do something to you? I’ll apologize if I did.”

“Wow, annoying,” he spat, stopping her from saying more. The boy pointed at her from above, his lips twisting in a derisive smirk. “Annoying. Annoying. Annoying. There you go making a face like you’re all pure and righteous like bottled water.”

“I-I wasn’t—”

“Your attitude makes me sick.”

Nichika broke into a cold sweat at the blatant disgust in his voice.

The boy hopped off the taller boulder onto hers and thrust his finger at her chest. This time he dropped the repugnance exuding from him and opted to persuade her in a gentle whisper.

“Drop this whole revive the Spirit Goddess farce. Why not quit while you’re ahead and smash that magic orb?”

“I can’t. Ini asked me to do it,” Nichika told him in a quivering voice. How did he know about her mission? She wasn’t in the right state of mind to even consider it.

He suddenly started cackling. “Ini! That swindler! Pfufufu! Ahahahaha! I knew it! So I was right!”

“…!”

The boy turned up his intimidation level and warned her in a hostile, low voice. “This is your first and final warning. I will destroy you if you continue helping that fraudster. Disobey me and I’ll smush you, tear you from limb to limb, and torture you until you tearfully beg me to please kill you.”

Nichika’s knees knocked against each other under the crushing pressure. Desperate to stay in control, she shakily asked, “Who in the world are you…?”

He turned off the intimidation like shutting off a stream of water by twisting the faucet and returned to his friendlier tone. “Me? Let me think… Guess I’ll go with Phantom for now.”

The boy—Phantom—took a step back and spread his arms. The bottom of his robe fluttered softly. Smiling with only his mouth, he left these final words: “Next time you meet Ini tell him: ‘I still haven’t forgiven you. And I will never ever forgive you for all eternity.’ ’Kay?”

“Agh!”

A violent wind ripped between them. Nichika instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. By the time she could squint again, she was the only one left on the crag.

“Phantom…”

Yet another random visitor swooped down when Nichika was about to work through what had just happened.

“Bacawk!”

“Whoa!”

A large eagle flapped its wings over her head. Nichika threw her arms up to cover her face.

“My precious Nichika! Are you all right, sweetie?!” echoed a nauseatingly familiar voice.

“Huh?” She jerked her head toward the eagle that landed on her shoulder. A single golden feather shined in its massive wings. Thinking it couldn’t be him, she asked to be sure. “Is that you, Ini?”

“You look safe to me.”

“You can shapeshift?”

“No. I’m simply borrowing the eagle’s body to talk with you,” the eagle eloquently explained, its sharp eyes burrowing into her. “On my way back to the Celestial Realm from Elminage—no, never mind. That doesn’t matter! More importantly, did someone attack you? Where are you right now?!”

He overwhelmed her with the seriousness in his normally giddy voice. She decided to honestly tell him what had happened from meeting the petacolon all the way to her encounter with the boy called Phantom.

“Hey, Ini, who was that boy?” she asked, worry coloring her voice after she summarized everything for him. “He seems to hate your guts. What happened between you?”

Phantom’s tone made it sound like his hatred ran deep. Ini held his silence. Tired of waiting, she pressed him harder.

“Say something. He said he’ll stop Yuna’s resurrection. Why is he getting in our way?”

“I’m sorry, Nichika. I still can’t tell you anything about this matter.”

Unconvinced and unhappy with his cop-out, Nichika opened her mouth to argue, when he shouted loudly over her.

“HOWEVER! Please believe me when I say there is absolutely nothing wrong with the journey you are taking! You’re the only one who can prevent the world from being devoured by dark mana!”

“You’re full of crap, Ini,” she accused, her blind trust in him until this point wavering. “But I also don’t feel it’s right to allow that dangerous haze to have free rein over this world…”

Did he notice her waning trust? The eagle lifted its head and plucked the gold feather out of its wingspan, effectively ending the conversation. “You just have to collect the spirits without thinking. I swear I will tell you everything one day.”

Once the feather hit the ground, the eagle returned to being an unspeaking bird.

 

***

OSWALD awoke from shallow sleep and forced open his heavy eyelids. The unchanging white fog brought a frown to his face, but he blinked when he realized Nichika was sitting very close to him.

“Morning,” she greeted, her expression hard.

“This isn’t a comfortable bed.” He ran his hands over his body in search of damage as he sat up. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the smaller petacolon mob bouncing around the moving big blobs. He spoke while looking at them. “What happened? I assume you figured out the cause since we’re all awake?”

Several long seconds of silence stretched between them. Finding it odd that she didn’t answer, Oswald shifted his questioning gaze back to Nichika. She was squeezing her hands on top of her lap with an unbelievably rattled look in her eyes. When she finally did speak again, it was in a grave voice.

“You know, you’ve called me thoughtless and stupidly carefree so much I’d be a millionaire if someone gave me a penny every time. But I’ve always thought things through in my own way.”

“Nichika?”

“But maybe you really were right all along. I didn’t think too much when I readily accepted Ini’s request. Was that the right choice? Was I being stupid?”

All of the tiny insecurities growing inside Nichika joined hands and became one massive lump of worry. Once doubt came into the picture she couldn’t escape it. Sinking in a world of uncertainty, her trembling voice accelerated.

“What’s true? What kind of things am I forgetting? Who was I? What will happen once I collect all the spirits? Does Goddess Yuna even exist?”

The doubts wouldn’t stop piling on. Her hands trembled on her lap, and her tears splattered on her thighs, splashing onto the nearby rocks. Maybe the ground I’m sitting on right now doesn’t exist either. Even the man I’m complaining to could just be a figment of my imagination.

“Can I actually go home? What the hell is Arcanshiel? Who are you, Oswald? What if all of this, every last detail, is just some elaborate dream of mine—”

Something strong struck her head, knocking her back. Flailing her arms, she managed to stay upright. Eyes wider than the two moons, she watched as Oswald brought down his finger to flick her for the second time. His displeased, low voice cut through the foggy air.

“Worm for brains! Don’t go making people a figment of your imagination.”

His second flick hit the mark. It hurt enough for her to see stars, as usual. Tears welled in her eyes as she held her hands over her aching head. Her master pointed at her.

“Is your pain an illusion?”

He seized the bow on her mantle and pulled her to him.

“Mmmnn…” Her lashes fluttered while she willingly accepted the kiss.

After a long moment, he freed her lips and exhaled. “…Is the way you feel when we do this an illusion too?” he asked in a quiet, husky voice.

Nichika didn’t know how to answer him. Mild irritation flared in his blue eyes only inches from her face. A roguish grin soon accompanied those devilish eyes, followed by his absurd declaration.

“I don’t like being relegated to nonexistence. I’ll sear myself onto your soul.”

“Huh? What are you say—”

She nearly gave in when he wrapped an arm around her waist, but she shoved a hand in his face and pushed him away before she was swept up in the moment.

“I always tell you there will be none of that!”

“Why not? Aren’t I just someone you dreamed up? Who cares what a hot illusion does to you, right?”

“Fine! I’ll acknowledge you’re right! Sorry for calling you a part of my dreams!”

Face flushing, she turned her back on him and held her overheating head in her hands. The crushing anxiety she felt moments ago had been stamped out by the raging tumult of emotion he caused her. She placed a hand on her thrashing heart and used her brain.

It’s no use overthinking. It’s not an issue of him being real or not. The moment my feelings became this way, I…

She glanced over her shoulder to where her master was waiting with a mischievous grin. He threw her own words right back at her in a teasing tone.

“You’ve got tofu for brains. What’re you doing wasting time with adult worries? What happened to that favorite theory of yours? Wouldn’t you rather take action first, think later?”

Yeah. My feelings haven’t changed since that time.

Cheeks puffed out, she pouted before bursting out laughing. Refreshed, she stretched her hands as high as they could reach.

“You’re right. I won’t come any closer to the answer wasting time thinking about what I don’t know.” The light of determination reignited in her newly opened eyes. “The only thing I can do is keep moving.”

“And I’m stuck moving with you.”

Oswald stood and walked off to wake the other two.

“……”

Nichika stared at the black back ahead of her then quickly averted her gaze. Only the petacolon at her feet noticed the red hue staining her cheeks.

 

***

BEEP!

Ini ended his connection with the eagle. His expression was grim, and he didn’t move from where he stood for a long while. He gave his head a light shake and started down the celestial corridor made of white mineral. His feet eventually brought him to a room and he pushed open the old door. The interior was shrouded in darkness except for the light reflecting off the stark floor from the glass tubes lining the walls.

Ini advanced deeper within until he reached the end of the room. He raised his gaze up to what was housed there.

A woman was floating in a huge glass tube filled with clear liquid. Long hair floated around her stark naked body. Beauty and godliness defined her facial features, but her eyes were firmly closed.

Ini ever so gently rested his hand on the glass tube as if just her presence within made the machine sacred. The corners of his lips curled slightly as he spoke to her.

“Yuna, it seems I’ll never find forgiveness from that child. I’ll probably be hunted to the ends of the world. Aah, but even if that’s so…” He leaned his forehead against the glass and whispered as if in prayer. “…I will gladly sacrifice everything if it means I can hug you again… Though I know saying so angers you.”

Her eyes didn’t flutter open even at the heartbreak and sorrow permeating his voice.

Only the sound of popping bubbles droned on endlessly in the silence.

***

“HMM…”

Nichika nudged Wolfie awake and they regrouped with Lambert who showed up from beyond the white veil. All together again, they set off to make their way out of the valley. The petacolons showed them a shortcut, so the rest of their journey should have been easy sailing, but Nichika was too busy glowering and groaning at the crystal pieces in her hands to enjoy herself.

“Something doesn’t add up.”

After the wicked purple flower withered, the crystal at its core drained of color, turning gray. On closer inspection, she noticed deliberate messy lines marring the surface, which nagged at her. She pushed the two halves together and inspected it closely.

“…?”

“Nichika, you’ll trip if you stare too hard at that thing while walkin’,” Lambert warned with a wry smile.

“Maybe she’ll pay more attention if she falls off the cliff again,” Oswald heartlessly supplied.

“I won’t fall!”

“Oh yeah, you already fell once. You lack the intelligence for learning your lesson.”

“GRRR—!”

Geez! He’s a genius at rubbing people the wrong way!

“Hey, hey! Those scratches look like picture letters from down here,” Wolfie observed with interest, looking at the crystal from below. His observation stopped Nichika from throwing a snide remark back at Oswald.

“Does it?”

“I can’t read it. Maybe Master can?”

She flipped over the crystal and the three of them stared down at it. Now that Wolfie pointed it out, the scratches did look like letters if viewed through the distortion in the center of the crystal. In other words, Nichika had been looking at it upside down.

Reading what it said shocked the words right out of her. Unaware of her reaction, Oswald inclined his head, a puzzled look on his face.

“…No, I’ve never seen these letters before. There are only three and they look difficult to decipher.”

“I can’t make sense of ’em either. What ’bout you—Nichika?”

The crystal trembled in Nichika’s shaking hands as Lambert’s question went unanswered. She read it. The three letters spelled the word for sloth.

The problem was, those letters were Japanese kanji.

“H-How?”

What in the world did this mean? Why were Japanese letters carved into an item left behind by the boy cloaked in a white robe? Not even Cherry Blossom Kingdom, the one place with a similar culture to Japan, used the Japanese writing system. Nichika kicked her brain into high gear to figure it out, when someone suddenly yanked on her ear, causing her to shout.

“Ow! Ow! OW!”

As expected, it was Oswald who rescued her from drowning in thought.

“Why don’t you explain it to us before you start forcing the rats in your brain to turn those wheels?” he demanded without a shred of guilt for pinching her.

“Fine! I will! Just stop hurting me!” Nichika rubbed her red ear as she considered suing him for assault. “It looks like letters from my world.”

“It does?”

“Well, I think so…at least.”

She couldn’t say for sure because the lines making up the letters were so sloppy they looked like an earthworm squirming through dirt. Someone could write with their non-dominant hand and it’d still look better than what was carved into the crystal.

“Oh yeah. I forgot you were summoned from another world, Nichika,” Lambert said, only just now remembering that tidbit about her.

“So? What’s it say?” Oswald pushed.

Nichika ran her eyes over the crystal again. She slowly read the letters aloud, confirming each one. “Sloth…I think.”

“Sloth?”

That’s weird…

Nichika had naturally read it out loud in Japanese, yet Oswald heard it in his own language. Strange as it was, Oswald began hypothesizing with the information she gave him, so she set that suspicion aside for the time being.

“You could call the petacolons sleeping the day away a form of slothfulness. Basically, they were doing exactly what was carved into that crystal.”

True enough, the haze the purple crystal spewed could be said to have caused slothfulness in those who inhaled it. Everyone present became dead tired the moment they breathed the corrupted air.

Nichika thought of a particular piece of knowledge from her world and decided to share it with the others. Reluctant over how to breach the subject, she balled her hand in front of her chest and carefully picked her words.

“Hey, do you guys mind hearing me out for a minute? There’s something called the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ in my world, and sloth is among the seven.”

“Seven deadly sins?” Wolfie repeated the curious sounding words.

Nichika drew on her vague knowledge. “I don’t remember the nitty-gritty details because I only ever read about it in books… Uhh, what were they again? It has to do with people’s desires. So you’ve got sloth, right? And then there’s greed, lust, jealousy…and I’m forgetting the rest.”

She dug through her mind for the remaining sins but came up short and hung her head.

“In other words, there’s a chance other magic crystals pertaining to each sin are out there?” Oswald summarized for her.

“I think it’s a possibility,” she affirmed with a nod.

As long as she was going to continue collecting the Great Spirits against Phantom’s wishes, they were undoubtedly going to clash during the journey ahead. Her theory was still within the realms of guesswork, but it never hurt to be wary.

“The seven deadly sins, huh? First I’ve heard of it,” Lambert said, folding his hands behind his head.

Oswald looked back at his apprentice. “What if the kid in the white hood calling himself Phantom comes from the same place as you?”

“What?” Her jaw dropped at the reality she never considered.

“Didn’t you call it Japan? Phantom used a writing system that doesn’t exist here and even knows about this seven deadly sins thing. It’s a real possibility, don’t you think?”

“Phantom is…Japanese?”

Then was he summoned here like I was? By who? For what purpose?

“Next time you meet Ini tell him: ‘I still haven’t forgiven you. And I will never ever forgive you for all eternity.’ ’Kay?”

His parting words echoed in her head. A boy with knowledge from her world had appeared to prevent Yuna’s revival. Indescribable worry flooded Nichika’s heart at this new discovery.