"How the hell am I gonna get in?" Tsuyoi looks at the door with his hand on his chin. He knocks on the door again. "Can I get a second chance? Come on! I'll get it right this time!"
The speaker answers once again but the voice's tone seems more annoyed this time.. "You mean a fifth one? No."
When all hope seems lost, Kori approaches Tsuyoi with a smile on her face. "Tsuyoi, I have good news!" Tsuyoi's face lights up when he sees her. "Oh thank god. With her, we get 4 more guesses!"
Kori giggles and knocks on the door. "Don't worry." Before the speaker even says anything, Kori says the password. "111111."
The speaker doesn't respond. But Kori keeps the smile on her face, patiently waiting for the door to open. Tsuyoi watches curiously.
After a while the man behind the speaker breaks the silence. He sounds like he is panicking. "U-Understood."
The door slowly opens as steam releases from it. Tsuyoi watches in awe and more importantly, in confusion. "At least now I know what my guess will be the next time something like this happens. How did you even know the password?"
Kori's smile appears softer than before. "Just a lucky guess." She winks.
Tsuyoi doesn't question it and follows her inside. "How do we even know if Pablo is here? Can you also guess that?" He says sarcastically. Kori stops and turns around, she makes eye-contact with Tsuyoi as well as keeping her smile.
"Can't you hear where he is?" She asks. Tsuyoi is confused, but her gaze leaves him unsettled. "What do you mean?"
Kori approaches Tsuyoi and puts a hand on his chest. "You know what I mean. You have talent, don't you? Aside from your Treasure. You can hear those who can't talk."
Tsuyoi gets uncomfortable. He is all about physical touch, but coming from her… "How do you know that?"
Kori doesn't answer that question. She just giggles and turns his back on him. "What do the walls say, Tsuyoi?"
Tsuyoi starts to get annoyed. One of the things he hates most is when people ignore him, when they act like he doesn't exist anyway. But for now, he doesn't feel like pushing her for an answer.
With a grunt, he focuses his attention on the walls and tries to listen for anything. He closes his eyes to concentrate more while taking a deep breath. "Fine."
His ears ring as he hears what the walls have to say. It's horrifying. The walls admit what others don't. It tells him the sins being committed here, the laws of God being violated for the sake of control…
Pablo opens his eyes after he finishes listening to the walls. "I got it."
Sanita nods and waits for Pablo to move. "Lead the way." In response, Pablo can't hide his amusement. Sanita asking for help from him…
"Alright." Pablo starts sprinting towards the location where he believes the doctor is. But on the way, he can't help but ask a few questions that were on his mind. "...Why are you doing all this? Do you really think you can topple the United Government? Afterall, all of this ends with them."
Sanita doesn't stop moving but he carefully thinks before answering. It seems that question really got to him. "You think it's better to sit and watch while I wait for my turn to be tortured? This is war, Pablo. It's not a matter of living or dying. It's about choosing what to do."
Pablo lets his words sink in. He starts to grow tired as he sprints and stops to catch his breath. He spits the purple blood collecting in his mouth while panting. "...Does it count if I don't know why I choose?"
Sanita stops and waits for Pablo to replenish himself. Before careful thinking, he answers. "No, it doesn't."
Pablo is left speechless. Deep down, he hoped for a different answer. A more helpful one.
Or to put it more accurately, he hoped for an answer that would comfort him.
"...Okay." Pablo recollects himself and starts walking again. This time he doesn't run to save his stamina for any threat that might come. Sanita follows him, unaware of the seed he planted in him.
Pablo notices a heavy stench in the air. He instinctively cringes. It smells of corpses, things that are awful and everything unlawful. Sanita doesn't seem bothered by the smell, he even follows it hoping to find any lead. Pablo reluctantly follows him.
When the two find the source of the smell, they find a room labeled "Project Prometheus." Sanita inspects the sign like he knows what it means. But without explaining it to Pablo, he enters the room.
But the sight gets to him.
The floor is filled with blood and mana fluids. Body parts are scattered on the floor. Corpses are hung on the wall like they were experimented on or even worse, like trophies. Sanita gags unwillingly. "It's worse than I thought."
"What, what is it?" Pablo curiously enters the room too. He freezes the moment he takes the sight in.
Ring Ring!
Pablo faints.
"Hey!" Sanita shakes Pablo in annoyance, realising he went out for good. But in response, he just shakes him more. "Damn it!"
Sanita leaves the room with Pablo, and rests him on the wall. "Even though you're a pain in the ass, I don't want a Magiborn to die on me."
Sanita checks his surroundings and closes the door behind him. He figures that he could at least wait for Pablo to wake up. "In the meantime…" He pulls out his daggers and starts to sharpen them with each other.
In the hallway, just to Sanita's left, Tsuyoi and Kori enter. Sanita instantly senses the two and directs his attention to them.
Tsuyoi notices Sanita, and the lying Pablo on the wall. Tsuyoi freezes in shock, anger and disbelief all together. It's as if time is slowing down.
Tsuyoi furrows his brows, rage in his eyes. Without hesitation, he aims his hand at Sanita. "That bastard got Pablo!"
Magnificent blue flames erupt from Tsuyoi's hands, filling the hallway and aiming towards Sanita. Sanita can't react in time and he has nowhere to dodge while the fire is coming towards him. He shields himself by coating his body in Mana.
The flames burn him, but his mana protects him from turning into dust. Even though it still hurts like hell. "ARGH!" He yells out in pain as the flames pass by him.
"Who the hell are you two..?" Sanita pushes through the pain, facing Tsuyoi and Kori. Kori looks at Tsuyoi and nudges him. "He looks like one of the guards. Look at what he is wearing. Kill him so we can continue." She says.
Even though she knows exactly who that is.
Tsuyoi nods and walks towards Sanita. "Got it." He clenches his fist. He figures because of the mana defense, ranged attacks wont really help him.
Sanita gets his guard up and enters a stance using his daggers. "I think I recognise you." He grins, also walking towards Tsuyoi.
Tsuyoi doesn't falter and starts to walk slightly faster. "If you knew who I was, you'd run away."
Sanita matches his pace as well. "The same goes for you."
Blue flames cover Tsuyoi's fist as the distance between the two gets shorter and shorter. "Again, if you knew who I was, you'd know I wouldn't."
Sanita starts sprinting towards Tsuyoi, ready to swing his weapon. "Such a way with words!" But to Sanita's surprise, Tsuyoi does the first attack by throwing a jab with his right. "My fists can talk for me!"
Sanita quickly dodges to his left, and pierces Tsuyoi's lungs with his right dagger. But what he doesn't expect is,
Tsuyoi doesn't stop.
He backhands Sanita with the Jab he missed earlier, slamming him to the wall. The hole in Tsuyoi's chest quickly closed as it ignited with his blue flames.
Sanita's eyes widened in surprise. "So he acts with no self-preservation! How do you beat a man that doesn't care if your attack hits him or not?!" He ponders.
Tsuyoi followed his attack by rapidly punching Sanita who just crashed onto the wall. "You'll need a bigger knife to take me down, damn it!"
Before Tsuyoi's punches made contact, Sanita turned into a swarm of flies and surrounded Tsuyoi. "So you were the user!" Tsuyoi looked around him in surprise.
He quickly unleashed his flames in a radius around him, but he makes sure to create a field close to him where the flames don't touch Tsuyoi.
For whatever reason.
Sanita reforms into his body in that safe-radius and stabs Tsuyoi's chest, aiming at his heart.
"Argh!" Tsuyoi vomits blood right in front of him, which gets into Sanita's face and blinds him temporarily. "Ugh!" He wipes his face quickly in disgust.
"Dumbass, the heart is on my left, not my right! You don't know jackshit about the Dawnthinker body, do you?!"
The flames disappear as Sanita dashes to the back to regain some distance. "You could've bluffed and acted like I didn't miss. But thanks anyway."
Tsuyoi takes note of Sanita's sorcery, and waits for him to make a move. "Ranged attacks are a last-resort. They are too exhausting. Close-range attacks are tricky too, if he can just turn into a bunch of flies." He thinks to himself, the flames on his hand mesmerising Sanita's eyes.
"You'll get tired eventually." Sanita turns his left arm into a swarm of flies and sends it right towards Tsuyoi. His goal is to tire him out. If Tsuyoi burns the flies, that will deplete his energy quickly. If he doesn't, the flies will collect his blood and replenish Sanita. It's a win-win either way.
"Once I'm done with you, I'll make sure to take the anomaly for myself." Sanita patiently waits for Tsuyoi's move.
As the flies approach Tsuyoi he unleashes his flames to burn them mid-air. He exhales, hinting fatigue.
"What the hell are you even talking about?" He starts sprinting towards Sanita and starts to send punches in rapid fashion. Sanita predicts where the punches will land and transforms the hit area into swarms to avoid damage.
"Don't play dumb." He turns into a swarm once again and collects all of the flies into a 'sphere' form. The swarm then dashes towards Tsuyoi's stomach and carries him through the air.
"Let go!" Tsuyoi thinks twice before using his Treasure, realizing the possibility of fatigue is very real. But the hesitation is not left without a consequence, and he is slammed onto the wall. Sanita reforms to his body after slamming Tsuyoi.
"Even I must admit, The Aura Link is impressive. That is how you Dawnthinkers care. The Aura Link is your ability to connect. Empathy, Treasures, Love…"
Tsuyoi realises he is having problems moving his left arm. Left with no choice, he listens to Sanita's rant.
"...Let's say theoretically it is worn out by repeated usage, would you lose your ability to connect?"
Tsuyoi's eyes widen as Sanita's claim sinks in. He heard the existence of the Aura Link, even if he didn't hear it by name. He realises what Sanita is trying to achieve.
"Your species can't love without it. That's disgraceful." Sanita spits at the floor, showing his distaste of Dawnthinkers.
Tsuyoi struggles to lift his left arm up and holds his head in pain, trying to regain his balance.
"Yap yap yap, is that all you ever do?" Tsuyoi grunts in pain. He stretches his body as Sanita waits for Tsuyoi to move with a grin on his face. "Wouldn't expect someone like you to understand."
He waits, as he is playing the long-game here.
"Yeah yeah, just don't you dare forget my name." Tsuyoi charges forward once again. He puts out the flames empowering his fists. Sanita's grin only grows bigger. He reaches his pocket to look for his daggers, but he freezes when he can't find anything. "My-"
Tsuyoi shows Sanita's daggers in his hands, swinging them as a taunt. Sanita's eyes widened with his grin dropping. "Looking for this?"
Sanita takes a step back in shock. "How…"
Tsuyoi throws the dagger aside, to a place Sanita can't reach without getting past him. "When you transform into a swarm, some of the flies carry the daggers with them. When you slammed me a moment ago, I snatched them from you. Piece of cake for someone from Thalorien!"
Magiborns are superior to Dawnthinkers in almost every way when it comes to Magic. To no one's surprise, the species made out of Magic is better at Magic.
But Mana is this fragile thing.
That means Magiborns are physically weaker than the average human. With Tsuyoi not being the average human, Sanita was at a disadvantage without a weapon. He could shield himself using Mana, but that disables his movement and disables his Sorcery usage.
Tsuyoi starts sprinting towards Sanita, intending to punch the shit out of him. "What's up?!"
Sanita stares down Tsuyoi, reading him. After careful consideration, he acts on his ultimate plan.
Sanita starts to run away in the opposite direction. Tsuyoi is caught off guard by this and falters a little. "Huh?! Hey, get back here you coward!"
Tsuyoi thinks of sending fire after him, but he realizes that he will encounter Sanita once again and it's best to save energy for later. "Whatever, this counts as a win."
As Sanita disappears, he looks at Pablo laying on the ground. "Dude, buddy, friend, buddy-o-pal!" He shakes Pablo as well as using his Treasure to heal Pablo in case he has any wounds. It wouldn't hurt to spend a little energy for his friend.
Pablo slowly opens his eyes, regaining consciousness. When he opens his eyes, he sees Tsuyoi's face inches away from his face. "...you stink." He struggles to speak.
"Oh yeah, my bad gang." Tsuyoi backs off and gives Pablo some space. Pablo puts a hand on his forehead to ease the headache. "Ugh… I want to die..."
He slowly but surely gets up, Tsuyoi watches with interest and worry at the same time. "You good?"
Pablo's ears are ringing, he doesn't hear Tsuyoi's question. "Give me a second." Pablo holds onto the wall for balance as he feels like he will faint again.
Ring Ring!
The ringing doesn't fade away.
He turns towards Tsuyoi. He is surprised they could find this place. But at last, he is relieved.
"How did you find me?" Pablo can barely speak, it feels like a hammer is hitting his head. Tsuyoi shrugs. "Apparently a bird told Kori."
Pablo doesn't question it much and lets it slide. "Oh, happens to me all the time." He lets go off the wall and slowly takes his steps.
"That's what I said- Wait where are we going?" Tsuyoi followed Pablo anyway. Pablo ignored his question, already frustrated with everything that was going on. He just continues walking.
Tsuyoi is annoyed and pushes further. "I asked you a question man!"
Pablo violently turns around and yells in anger. "Just shut the fuck up for a second, okay? Just for one second, please! PLEASE! I don't know where we are going, I never know where we are going! I'm just slowly drifting in a lake as the waves drag me to the unknown. The worst part is, I don't know why I went into the lake."
Pablo grits his teeth in anger. Tsuyoi is taken aback and freezes when he hears Pablo snap. Seeing Tsuyoi's reaction, Pablo's rage slightly disappears. But the frustration is still visible.
He turns around and starts walking again. Awkward silence fills the room as Tsuyoi doesn't respond. Even though Pablo is the one that asked him to shut up.
He expects Tsuyoi to yell at him. Punch him, attack him, do anything that will let Pablo vent out his frustration.
"...Why can't you just be mad at me, damn it?"
He speaks in a tone Tsuyoi can't hear. He feels guilty for snapping, but he is just going through so much.
Surely that makes it okay.
He tries to act like that never happened and turns towards Tsuyoi. "...where is Kori? You said she brought you here."
Tsuyoi looks around, also surprised by her absence. As if he remembered her existence just a second ago.
"...She must've left when I was fighting Sanita. I'm sorry for not paying att-"
Pablo gasps, as if he remembered the existence of someone… just a second ago.
"...?" Tsuyoi raises an eyebrow.
Pablo turns his back on Tsuyoi again. "How did you even beat Sanita?" He tries to hide his embarrassment and not let Tsuyoi know.
"He ran away. So much for being the superior species." Tsuyoi rolls his eyes.
Silence fills the conversation once again but Tsuyoi is the one to break it.
"So you weren't paying attention either." Tsuyoi chuckles, the tension eases just a little. Pablo nervously chuckles with him. "Shut up."