by Aaron Oster
***
Hermit stood facing his sister, the power in his Core fighting against hers. They’d started with Essence, then moved up to Qi, Chakra, and now, Reiki. He knew exactly what this was, a test. His sister wanted to see if he was still the same man who’d left all those years ago, or if he’d allowed himself to fall behind. He had, in truth, done exactly that. However, not by so much that he couldn’t fight back, especially when it came to using Reiki.
Had he still been at his last stage of advancement, he’d undoubtedly have dropped like the rest by now. Hell, if he hadn’t pushed for his 1st Dan, claiming the title of Sovereign, he may very well have fallen as well. However, his mastery over the nine techniques of Reiki strengthened him in a way that that none but Sovereigns and Scions could understand. Reiki was a form of energy so pure that it completely restructured the fabric of a Martial Artist’s body.
The Immortal-Body wasn’t one crafted of flesh and bone, but rather, one made up entirely of energy. Sure, it still looked and felt the same to those on the outside, but there was a fundamental difference, one that could not be explained. One either experienced it themselves or were forever ignorant. And Hermit, much as he’d disliked having to advance, had come prepared.
His Core had been brimming with Reiki during his test, and the transformation had used nearly everything he’d had stored up. The excess energy that had been saved, due to his providing the power source went to empower him further, strengthening his body and spirit. If Ikari believed she could make him back down simply because she was a few Dan higher, then she was gravely mistaken.
They drew closer, both of them pushing with the force of will that only a Sovereign could muster. The world around them was awash in their power. It was not a technique, but the sheer force of their wills. Hermit saw nothing at all, nothing but the woman standing before him, and she saw only him. Everything else was unimportant, the two Martial Artists deaf to the world outside their little contest.
“Seems like you’ve gotten a little stronger since our last encounter, little brother,” Ikari said, her lips quirking upward.
“In case you’ve forgotten, I’m three years your senior,” Hermit replied, keeping his expression neutral.
“But you are still my junior in rank,” Ikari replied. “That much will never change.”
“Oh, I very much doubt that,” Hermit said. “You’re pretty much at the end of your Path, little sister. I can feel it. You have another Dan, maybe two, but you will never reach Black-Belt.”
His sister’s eyes narrowed just a hair, but as she opened her mouth to speak, there was a bright flare of power, followed by a horrendous scream of pain. Both of them immediately contained their power, the heavy pressure that was slowly crushing everyone vanishing in an instant.
Hermit’s eyes immediately landed on Roy’s prone form, the boy having turned himself around to face Aika and Ferry, both of whom were shaking him and calling his name.
“What the hell just happened?” Ikari asked as Hermit rushed over to the unconscious boy.
“Move back,” he commanded as he neared, dropping to his knees near Roy and pressing a hand to his back.
“Core! What happened?” he demanded, calling out to the Core inside of Roy.
“I don’t know.”
The reply was weak, the voice sounding muted and not at all like its normal self.
“Can you tell me what happened?” he asked, turning his attention inward.
“His channels seem to be horribly damaged and his Core on the brink of collapse. It’s almost like…”
“Damn it!” Hermit yelled, springing to his feet and whirling to face the room at large. “I need a Core-Restoration Pill, and I need it now!”
Ikari quirked a brow at him, though the others remained where they were, not daring to meet his gaze.
“And why should I provide you with such an expensive Pill?”
“Because if you don’t, he will die!”
“That’s no concern of mine,” Ikari said with a dismissive wave. “He’s just an Orange-Belt, and he’s, what, in his twenties? Someone like that will never advance past Green, so he’s hardly worth…”
“This boy is just like me,” Hermit said, making sure to meet his sister’s eyes.
Ikari’s eyes widened just a hair, then she nodded.
“Violet, go fetch the Pill my brother requested, and do be quick.”
The woman with the Purple-Belt, the one who appeared to be no older than eighteen, rose shakily to her feet and bowed to Ikari. Then, without a backward glance, she dashed from the room.
Hermit turned back to Roy, pulling a Power Core from his Soul Ring and pressing it to his back. There wasn’t really any way for someone to channel a different Essence type, but Hermit had discovered a few tricks of extracting Essence over the years. He injected a small amount of his own Essence into the Core, pushing it down and threading it into a sort of funnel. Then, using more of his Essence, he guided the Power Essence through the funnel and down into Roy’s Core.
It was somewhat crude and involved him opening a cut in Roy’s back to reach down to the Core, but it was the only way to keep him alive long enough for the Pill to be used.
“Hermit, tell me,” Aika said, grabbing his hand. “What the hell is going on?”
The girl was barely holding it together. Hermit could see the mix of worry, fear, and anger that was clearly showing on her face.
“I don’t know what he was trying to accomplish, but your friend somehow managed to use Qi before his body was ready for it. The damage to his channels and Core is quite extensive, though not nearly as bad as it could have been, had he not been so clear of impurities. Whoever managed to burn all of those out of him may very well have saved his life, even if they didn’t know it then.”
“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, her voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.
“So long as we get that Pill into him, he’ll be fine,” Hermit assured her. “Things like this happen, and though they’re rare occurrences, the damage can be repaired if treated quickly.”
“I think we can call this meeting to an end,” Ikari said from behind him. “We’ll readjourn tomorrow, and my wayward brother will be in attendance.”
Hermit turned to eye his sister, who was looking quite pleased with herself. He knew that he would owe her now for the Pill, and she wasn’t one to just accept money as a form of payment. No, Ikari would want something far more valuable, a favor, and it was one that Hermit would have no choice but to accept.
16
Roy swam in an endless sea of pain, the world seeming to roil and swirl around him. Geon floated next to him, the Core looking quite beat-up, with a myriad of cracks running across his normally smooth surface. Confusion reigned for a few long moments before Roy started to become more aware of his surroundings. He was standing, oddly enough, in his first Trial, the place where he’d faced the massive golem and started along the Path of Power.
Except, there was no golem, and Geon was floating in the air before him, instead of being inside his body. Roy panicked for a few moments, before realizing that he could still feel his connection to the Core, though it was oddly faint, as though he were trying to talk to him through a wall of cotton.
“This is quite the mess you’ve found yourself in,” a familiar voice said.
Roy turned to see Azure, the man who’d shown up at his trial and one of his tests.
“Where am I?” Roy asked, having a hard time remembering how he’d gotten here.
“Technically, you’re lying in a bed in the infirmary wing of the Itachi castle, being tended to by several healers as they try and stabilize you enough to mend the damage you did to yourself.”
“Huh?” Roy asked, blinking stupidly.
“Figuratively, we’re in a construct formed by your mind. A place where your consciousness has fled to avoid the pain.”
“I’m sorry…What?” Roy exclaimed, trying to wrap his mind around what the man was telling him.
“I see your mind isn’t working at full capacity just yet, but that’s fine,” Azure said with a shrug. “We are inside your head, after all, so you’ll remember all of this when you wake up. So, listen closely. What I’m about to tell you is of the utmost importance…”
Blinding, burning pain from the center of his chest wrenched Roy back into the waking world. His body jerked, spasming uncontrollably, and he let out a muffled cry of pain.
“Hold him down!” someone yelled.
Roy felt strong arms seize his own, dragging them down to the bed and holding them there as something very long and sharp was shoved into his chest. Roy bucked, reaching for his Essence, but strangely enough couldn’t find any. He really began to panic then, throwing himself to one side, then another. But no matter how he moved, he wasn’t strong enough to free himself. Another sharp pain in his side was followed by a warm sensation in his chest, heat spreading from the point of the sharp object.
His body began to lock up again, then relaxed as his mind began to grow cloudy. Roy slumped back, his eyes rolling up into his head as he fell into unconsciousness once more.
When he woke this time, it was to a very familiar sight: The Waterwood, home of the Shah clan. Except, something seemed off. Everything looked bigger, and his surroundings were oddly hazy. Additionally, he was holding someone’s hand, and it was much larger than his own. Strangely enough, though, he wasn’t alarmed by this at all.
In fact, he squeezed the hand a little tighter, feeling it squeeze back in turn. He felt safe, happy, and loved. Looking up, he saw the shadowed outline of a woman, her features blanked by the sun coming down behind her. He did see one thing, though — a smile. It was warm, happy, and loving. Then, there was a loud explosion, and Roy felt the hand being torn from his own, his small body thrown clear and landing in a ditch. He was dimly aware of shadowy figures moving about the slumped form of the woman, then, a blurry face came into view, before a rough cloth sack was thrown over his head.
Coming back around the second time was far more pleasant than the first. This time, his trip back from the land of unconsciousness was a slow, easy thing. Roy’s eyes blinked open, and he found himself staring up at a dark ceiling. There were also a pair of familiar faces looking down at him worriedly.
“What’s going on?” he asked, slightly slurring the words. His tongue felt thick and swollen, as though he hadn’t had a drink in days, and his throat felt raw and sore.
“You’re awake,” Aika said, smiling down at him.
“How do you feel?” Ferry asked.
“We were so worried that you’d done too much damage, but…”
“Can someone please explain what happened, and why I feel like I was caught in a landslide?” Roy asked, wincing as his head throbbed.
“You used Qi before you were ready and nearly died as a result.”
Roy craned his head to the side and saw Hermit, sitting with his legs folded beneath him and an annoyed expression on his face.
“I used Qi?” Roy asked, trying to piece together his fragmented memory. “But that’s impossible. I’m not a…”
“Green-Belt?” Hermit finished for him. “You don’t have to be a Green-Belt to use Qi. You do need to be one to use it safely!”
“But I don’t know how…” Roy said, still confused.
“Clearly, you do,” Hermit replied. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t have burned your channels and nearly shattered your Core.”
“I what?!” Roy exclaimed, trying to sit up.
“Stay down,” Aika said quickly, placing a hand on his chest and forcing him back down onto the bed. “You’ve just been through a tough ordeal, and you need to rest.”
Hermit rose and headed for the door.
“Where are you going?” Aika asked, turning to look at their mentor.
“I’ll probably be gone a few days,” Hermit said. “Thanks to Roy’s stunt, I now owe my sister a favor, and I’ve got a feeling that will include running some sort of errand. She’ll arrange your training while I’m gone. Oh, and don’t tell her anything about yourselves, including your family names.”
Before Roy could so much as defend himself, Hermit stalked out, closing the door and leaving them alone.
“Why does he seem so upset?” Roy asked.
“Because you nearly killed us, you moron!”
“Geon?” Roy asked. The Dungeon Core sounded strange, as though he’d come down with a cold, which should have been impossible.
“Who else? Your stupid stunt nearly broke me! I knew I should never have joined with one of you squishy meat bags. You’re all too stupid to even think!”
“I’m sorry,” Roy said, still having a hard time remembering anything past entering the meeting room.
For some reason, he was just drawing a massive blank.
“He was worried about you,” Aika said, giving him a weak smile. “You really gave us all a terrible scare.”
“Yeah,” Ferry said, leaning in a bit too close and sniffing at his chest. “You almost died, and Geon would have gone along with you. But you smell much better now, so I’m not worried anymore.”
“Sorry,” he replied again. “I just can’t remember anything after going into the meeting room.”
“That’s strange,” Aika said, rubbing her chin. “Maybe if I tell you what happened, it’ll jog your memory.”
“Worth a try,” Roy said with a small shrug.
So, Aika told him what had happened. How Hermit and his sister had entered into some sort of staring contest that almost suffocated everyone in the room, and how he, for some reason, had decided to fight against it.
“Your entire body lit up from the inside for an instant, and your skin was almost transparent,” Aika said. “Then, you collapsed. After that, Hermit did something with a Core, while someone fetched some sort of Pill. Once they administered that, you seemed to stabilize enough for them to move you here.
“They had healers come in to treat you. You woke up again at that point, and it took several people to hold you down while they stuck these massive needles into your Core to give you injections of Essence. After that, you passed out again and stayed that way for the past twelve hours.”
“Seriously?” Roy asked, hardly believing that all that could have happened, and without him remembering even a bit of it.
“Yeah,” Aika said, rubbing tiredly at her eyes. “It’s now around three in the morning, but neither of us wanted to leave. Even Hermit stayed until you woke up.”
“I’m sorry again to have done that to you,” he said, holding a hand up to his head. “I just wish I could remember any of it.”
Aika just gave him a tight smile and patted him on the chest.
“I’m going to try and get a few hours of sleep. Apparently, we’re expected to meet with Hermit’s sister at half-past-seven, and I’d rather do that with at least a little rest.”
“I’m sleeping with you,” Ferry said, already shoving him over to make room for herself in the bed.
“Is that really necessary?” Roy asked, wincing as his back twinged with the movement.
“One of us needs to stay here,” Aika said. “In case something happens. Ferry can alert the healers just as well as I can, and since I don’t much feel like sleeping on the floor in here, she’s the perfect candidate.”
“I’ve never slept in a bed before,” Ferry said. “This is so exciting!”
Roy let out a sigh as the Beast slid into bed next to him, cuddling into his side and wrapping an arm over his chest.
“I’ll be back in a few hours,” Aika replied. “According to the healers, you should be good to go by the morning. They don’t want you doing any heavy training for a few days, but you should make a full recovery.”
“Thank you,” he managed to say, just before Ferry clamped a hand over his mouth.
“No more talking. Go to sleep.”
Aika let out a light chuckle, then turned to leave, sliding the door closed behind her and extinguishing the lamp, plu
nging the room into darkness.
Ferry shifted around a few times, yawned right in his ear, then promptly fell asleep. The same could not be said for Roy, as his mind was far too troubled to allow him to do so. He had a distinct feeling that he was forgetting something important. Something he should really know, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t wrap his head around it.
Instead, he spent the rest of the night talking with Geon. It was the first time in a long time since he’d done something like that, but he felt that both of them needed it after what had just happened – even if neither of them could remember it.
17
Hermit left the infirmary and headed down the long corridor. It was late – or early, depending on how you looked at it – but despite the hour, he knew Ikari was waiting for him. When one reached their levels of power, sleep wasn’t at all a necessity, rather, it was a luxury, and when one had to run a clan as large as this one, it wasn’t a luxury in which one could usually indulge in.
Though the layout was a bit different and the decorations had all been changed, this palace was as familiar to him as it had been the day he’d left. It even had the same feel, which was why he’d had no trouble navigating the corridors when he’d first entered. Sure, he’d known where his sister was, but his senses didn’t give him detailed directions on how to reach her, only her location.
The halls were well and truly empty by now, so Hermit didn’t bump into so much as a single person as he headed back to the ornate meeting room. His sister was already there, waiting. Honestly, Hermit wasn’t sure how to feel about her. They hadn’t parted on the best of terms and seeing her again had definitely brought up some old memories. But she was still his sister, even if she was a manipulative and conniving woman, and he couldn’t help but love her. They’d simply been through too much together for that to go away.