Artemis soon pulled away from Riku, wiping her eyes and Riku gently rubbed her head. "Feeling better?" He chuckled.
Artemis lightly punched his arm in response. "Shush..." Her cheeks were red from the embarrassment from what she had just done.
"Sorry sorry." He rubbed his arm, giggling.
"I'm guessing you pretty much know the purpose of the resistance without me having to tell you?" Artemis tilted her head.
"I think so, but you should probably explain it, just in case." He took a seat on the bed.
Artemis sat beside him, only a few inches apart. "Alright..? Well, we essentially are trying to overthrow the royalty."
"Of this town? Country?" Riku spoke up.
"All around the world actually." Artemis stated bluntly.
Riku's eyes practically popped out of his head. "The world?!" He thought to himself, "I guess I should expect no less from F..." He then spoke aloud. "Wait a minute...so you're telling me stuff like this is happening all over the world..?"
Artemis looked down at the ground. "Not in every country, but..."
Riku paled at the thought. Hundreds, thousands of people being killed on a whim or for some mediocre reason, all over the world. The thought not only made Riku want to throw up, but it filled him with rage. "How far has F gotten..?" He asked in a whisper.
Artemis cocked an eyebrow. "F?"
"Oh, that's what I call the other Riku, Riku F. He calls me Riku L, so we don't get confused or anything."
"Ah, I see. Well, we've managed to skillfully overthrow about a third of the corrupt royals around the world. When we do overthrow them, we replace the royals with those who we know we can trust."
"That makes sense. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the resistance who would be capable, but I imagine most of them are needed for accomplishing our goals anyways..."
"Sometimes we don't even have to get completely new royals. Sometimes it's just the one at the head who is corrupt and their heirs are kind and trustworthy. Though at times, we've either had to find people in the city that the common people trusted, or someone in the resistance offered to take the position, who was already a part of said country as well. Everyone we saved in the slums are now members of the resistance as well you know."
"I see... That makes more sense. Everywhere is a little bit different, but it almost seems like every royal here is corrupt...and this land's heroes.."
"Not all heroes are as selfish as the ones here. The royals like to keep most of this land's resources and money to themselves however, so if the heroes want to survive, they don't have much of a choice but to take the high rewards from the quests the royalty gives out."
"Yeah, the rewards from all the quests I did weren't all that great... Even so...to do things like that just for a bit of cash and some materials..." Riku clenched his fists.
"It's sickening I know, but once we overthrow the royals here and give this land a new, rightful ruler, then some of the heroes may get less desperate." Artemis placed a hand on his shoulder. "Just try and see things from their point of view. This town has lots of heroes that didn't participate in that attack despite the large cash reward."
Riku glanced at her. He then glanced at the door as he felt someone with impressive magic power approaching. There was a knock at the door and Artemis looked at the door before answering. "Enter."
The door opened, but nobody stepped in. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" The young man at the door teased. Riku looked at the man closely, his eyes widening as he realized who it was. It was the hero who Makou was begging the day Riku met the Gilbinga family. He was impossible to forget, being pretty boy central and all. He had long blond hair tied into a pony tail, bright blue eyes, and had an athletic and lean build; the usual pretty boy look. One would think he was royalty at a first glance, until they saw his clothing. He was wearing a white robe with blue outlines, robes just like the other resistance members were wearing, except the young hero somehow made even that look royal. Riku noticed he was wearing a different type of outfit under the robes, different from what he saw him wearing when they first met. It was like the training armor Artemis' students wore, except it had the resistance's symbol on the chest piece, not to mention it looked like real armor.
"You..." Riku glared at him.
He began moving to stand up, but Artemis held her arm out in front of him. "Don't."
Riku growled. "But-"
"Yes, me. Before you go crazy I think I deserve to explain myself, do I not?" The young man stepped inside, looking to Artemis. She nodded as Riku continued to glare daggers at the young man. "The only reason I did what I did was to see how you'd react." The young man crossed his arms. "If I didn't see you coming, I would've given the man some money and been on my way..."
"Why would you do something like that?! And why wouldn't you just do that anyway?!" Riku howled, annoyed and angered at the young man's casual attitude toward the things he did.
The young man suddenly glared at Riku. "We had to see if you were even worthy of being here. I knew if you were who you really were you'd not only give that family money, but also plenty of food. If you had ignored it or acted like it wasn't happening I would've gutted you like the impostor you are!" A bright blue aura of magic encased the young man, making Riku jump.
Artemis shot up from where she sat. "Kei-"
This time, Riku held her back. "No. He's right." Both of them looked at Riku with confused looks on their faces. "What better way to get your leader to react than by attacking the innocents he swore to protect? It makes plenty of sense. But..." Riku looked at Kei, a distorted, mixed blue aura encasing him. "If you ever do something like that again, I won't be as nice as the first time."
Kei continued to stare, backing down. "You really are practically the same person... The different magic is the only thing that tells us you're not. And your memory, of course." Kei let his magic fade, Riku doing the same. "Yet your magic power is just as impressive. What exactly is your ability..?"
Riku sighed a bit before sitting back down. "I call it Edit."
"Edit..?" Artemis and Kei said in unison, tilting their heads, thinking of an editor for an author.
"Yes. I can 'edit' any nonliving thing anyway I want as long as I touch it with my magic. Meaning I can break it down, change its form, or store it as material for later. Like a sandbox game of sorts." Riku thought of a certain game that was entirely block based in his world and how it was unusually popular, even to this day even though it was created over a decade ago.
"Oh I get it." Artemis spoke up.
"I don't play games much, but I can guess what you mean." Kei muttered.
Riku nodded. "I can also edit myself in certain ways." Riku stood up, floating suddenly. "I can make myself fly." Riku lifted the bed with Artemis still on top, making her yelp in surprise. "Change my physical status." He set the bed down and was suddenly behind Kei. "And change my location at will."
Kei jumped back, almost drawing the sword at his waist. "Don't do that..." He grumbled.
"Sorry sorry." Riku snickered. "I can glitch to anywhere I can see basically. I can also make my body distort so things go through me. Doesn't really matter though if I can't see an attack coming..." He rubbed his legs, remembering all of Seto's small spikes that were impaled in them.
"Or if it's too fast." Artemis poked the back of Riku's head, a playful smirk on her face.
"That too." Riku rolled his eyes before looking at Kei. "So, I shared my power, what's yours?"
"Hm? Oh, I have copy magic."
"A little rare, but still pretty normal I guess..." Riku muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kei asked, seeming a bit offended.
"Well I mean it's just kind of a common thing to see in the anime I've watched. Copying other people's magic is also pretty-"
"What? No, not that kind of copy magic you moron." Kei cut him off.
"Eh?"
"Like this." He drew his sword and several copies of that same sword began forming around him.
"Ohhhh... Now that's way more interesting."
"Seems we're very similar. I can create copies of any non-living I can see..." There was a clone of him beside himself suddenly. "And clone myself."