"Eh? You're saying you beat that fish, which was rank-5 by the way, all by yourself?"
Ann looked at it doubtfully, though the pride it felt from beating its opponent was practically washing over her consecutively like waves in a tide.
"And… you did this how?" She was just curious. She thought that since this person might just be a different persona of Ran – wherever she got that idea from – it would basically have the same combat prowess as him. To some degree at least.
Although, I think we all know the difference between the two at this point. Well, we know, but they don't.
"Heh, wouldn't you like to know…"
It spoke a single sentence, like it actually didn't need to explain itself and the situation in general; perhaps it was too proud to do so, for whatever reason. Yet, that only set off more alarms inside of everyone else's heads—this person, "it", as I like to call it for the time being, was just too different compared to the Ran they all know and love.
Of course, how can I, the author, allow such an arrogant character to be cast in this play without so much as a slap on the wrist?
As expected, it had merely said that single comment before its countenance abruptly took a turn for the worst. Its face turned a reddish-purple as it couldn't breathe from the sudden appearance of a blockage in its throat. Its body shook as it desperately tried to cough it out, but it couldn't and the pressure only grew because of it.
"Hey are you okay? Hold on…" Ann quickly went behind it and hugged its chest, forcefully compressing it. She did this over and over in a bid to force the blockage out.
Now, watching from the sidelines, the four-eared human and the black cheetah were reeling from what they were watching.
Bob looked at the scene in front of him; he only smiled in embarrassment as he pulled his hood over his eyes, after taking another look of course.
I mean, those movements; sis, I may not be well informed when it comes to these kinds of matters, but I mean I'm right here! At least, do it from the right side…
I understand you both lost your tribe, but you can't rebuild it all with just the two of you.
These were his thoughts, his sad sad thoughts.
Fluffy, on the other hand, was quite interested. It hadn't lived for long, merely a little over a year by now, but its life in the wild was definitely filled with odd experiences.
It had seen many ordinary animals do this kind of thing; they would hump each other for a bit and then a little version of themselves would pop out. In fact, she had even seen some creatures with souls ostentatiously display this kind of behavior occasionally when she would stalk the forest in search of prey.
So, was it the human mating season? She glanced at Bob. Poor Bobby boy, she thought. He had no mate, but from his reaction, maybe he didn't want a mate?
Well, either way, she would enjoy the show while it lasted…
Which wasn't very long as the blockage was finally forced out by Ann's strongman technique, which almost broke its spine.
Unfortunately, the goofy atmosphere that was cultivated quickly turned sour as everyone stared at the floor in shock!
On the white floor lay some bones covered in saliva. Except, these weren't the ordinary, prototypical bones.
No. It was a wrist! And not only was it a wrist, but a whole hand! It was completely intact too. It had all five fingers and its overall size and appearance was similar to Ann's hand. She was spooked and looked down at her own hands, wondering what just happened.
Damn… when I said I would punish it for its cocky attitude and at least give it a slap on the wrist, I didn't mean an actual wrist! Ah who am I kidding, I'm the author, of course that's what I meant.
"Huh… what'd you look at that." It grabbed the hand by the wrist before turning towards Ann.
"High five?" It held the saliva-covered hand in front of her, but she was too shocked by the situation to respond.
"Down low?" It held it lower for her, but she still didn't react.
"Too slow…" it casually chucked the hand into the water before wiping its hand clean of the saliva.
"Well, it was nice being here and all, but my job here is done and I'm super tired so if you'll excuse me…"
"Hey! wait a minute, what the heck was all this? What happened back there…"
Before Ann could finish asking, its eyes drooped as they became lifeless—Rans entire body collapsed on the floor thereafter.
…
Gasp!
Ran, finally, waking up, felt like absolute shit.
"What?"
His body was aching for some reason and felt ten times heavier; he had a tremendous headache that stabbed into his brain every few seconds; lastly, he was practically running on fumes! Since when did he use so much of his juice? He was completely baffled by the situation he was in.
Then, as if the sky was falling, he almost blacked out again thinking about the whole predicament with Ann. This was the most difficult and painful thing he had ever gone through. Forget about his mother hating his guts and almost killing him on multiple occasions, or his father's mood swings and odd behavior, this person…
She had given her life to him and in return… they went through everything together, or so he thought. Clearly not however.
His entire life flashed by his eyes, every single moment of every single day he had spent with Ann played in his mind within a single second—he thought about what Ann's soul projection had shown him. This, this was truly what Ann's life was like under that façade.
Worse yet, this was not the first time… why must she hide such terrible things!? So he doesn't worry?
Argh!
He ignored his pain and ran up to Ann, startling her, as he shook her shoulders vigorously.
"Why!? Why didn't you tell me? All this time..."
He was glaring at her, and with such force too that his clear eyes were now bloodshot. He hadn't gotten this angry in so long.
Ann too, can feel his frustration towards her, and she had only felt that from Ran once before.
"Ran I—" she paused, choking on her own words. She could feel Ran's arms shaking as they maintained a limp grip on her shoulders; she did not want them to let go.
"I—I'm sorry; I know what I did was wrong I just… I didn't want you to worry…" her words trailed off into whimpers as her eyes swelled. She knew she was wrong but she did it anyway. Her actions weren't necessarily wrong in what she did, but it was why she did it was what was sickening. And… that's why she hid it.
She knew Ran was just a normal person. What normal and decent person would stand to watch as their companion skewers themselves on stick for their sake? No one. That's the point.
In fact, considering the conditions he grew up in, it was already a miracle he wasn't cold, detached, and even mentally disturbed. Fortunately, he had enough power over the issue to try to resolve it himself; which was what led to him overly depending on other people or he would get extreme bouts of loneliness.
But she preferred for him to be a wuss than to lock himself up within himself to never see the light. In other words, they had the same problem! She hid it from him because she knew he wouldn't be able to take it and stand idly by; it would remind him too much of himself.
And that's why Ran could only cringe at her excuse.
His grip hardened as he took her into his half naked embrace, replying "no. I don't need to hear your explanation. If there's one thing that I learned from living my life, it's to cherish those around me. Now that I know, we can fix this… together."
This had gone on for far too long. The kind of relationship that they had was too toxic and it almost cost Ann her life. Fortunately, he already had an idea as to how to salvage the situation. Though, he knew not of its effectiveness.
His gaze was soft as he looked at her before it suddenly hardened and he slapped her upside the head.
"Geez! Do you know how close to death you are!? Did you see what your soul looked like? A single attack straight to your soul and you'd be more dead than the shit that comes out of my butt."
"In fact, you could still die! At any moment too! Just thinking about dying could kill you!"
"Do you understand the severity of what's going on?"
He looked at her seriously for once, only to find her cracking up and trying to hold in her laughter.
"What? What's so funny!?" He grabbed her shoulders again and shook her body back and forth repeatedly.
"You… pfft, you said butt." She couldn't help but look down to his lower body, where the only article of clothing he wore was his heart-printed undies, which only left her on the floor balling her eyes out in immature laughter. They were soaked from being in the water; the back-half was bare for all to see—two chubby cheeks and a deep crack in between. Let's not even mention the front-half, otherwise I would have to tag this as rated-18 and older.
Ran: "..."
Rans facial expression immediately turned blank as his eyes glazed over. He accidentally slumped over on some pillows that Bob had been laying on earlier—soul juice in the shape of a ghost slithered out from his agape mouth as he lay there.
Normally, he would laugh with her, but this time; she was just deflecting the issue! Thus, he could only admit defeat for the next thirty seconds or so.
Seeing this play out the way it did, the two finally joined to comfort him. Fluffy (the almighty) licked his face to soothe him while Bob just patted his shoulder. He was too busy vividly recalling what Ann was doing just a few seconds ago, though there was nothing really there to begin with of course. Yet his mind still wandered.
Luckily, Ran was able to recover with the help of Fluffys super-effective treatment. He said to her, "don't worry buddy, I'm fine. And, it's sad, but we're going to have rough times ahead of us."
This only caused a look of confusion to appear on her face, whatever confusion looks like on a cat. And what he said next only confused her more, and not just her but Bob too.
"But… I still meant what I said. That goes for the both of you too—you guys can always talk to me and I'll try to help in any way I can."
He looked at them in such a way—it almost made them spill the beans right that second. His eyes were too compelling; they were just that sincere.
It was only then that the two figured out how lucky they were to have this kind of person in their life while living in this kind of world.
After he spoke his mind to his companions – which felt quite liberating – Ran moved his gaze back to Ann as he got up.
He knew what had to be done.