Joysaleen awoke to a room that didn't seem familiar. But them she reminded herself that she'd switched sides. She was no longer in her rented apartment in District Three, working as Baru's ally.
Now she was with the boy with a scar on his nose and the brawler Hitryel. She still had no idea how Ryuzio got such a well-known figure like Hitryel Hystryk to join his squad—and as his first squadmate no less. But she didn't care to ask.
As long as they could help her in getting inside the Shrinegate that appeared in Welkis, they were of use…
'Use…?' Ryuzio had said in a disgusted tone.
The black-haired boy was way different than Baru, and not just because he was about 20 years younger than the Augmentbright Volant. Ryuzio was…
As she was thinking about her allies, she flipped to the other side, to the right side of the room. Her body froze when she saw Hitryel going up and down on the floor between the beds. Not because he had his shirt off and his muscles were bulging and abs glistening with sweat…but because Ryuzio was sleeping there the night before—
She yelped with a blushing face, crawling away to the far side of the bed with as much of the sheet tugged as she possibly could. She clung onto it as she saw Hitryel's confused expression.
"Huh?" Hitryel said, getting off the floor, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "What in the smoke is your problem?"
She peeked to the floor by raising her head…and did not find Ryuzio there. Shame immediately took over her expression as she buried her face into the foldings of sheets she was clinging to, trying to hide it. Hitryel was just doing some push-ups. Not…what she thought he was doing…
The door of the room slammed open and Ryuzio emerged with a loaf of bread in his mouth and chicken drumsticks in both hands. He immediately ran inside and drop-kicked Hitryel on the back.
Hitryel turned around after taking the kick, punching Ryuzio's gut, making him throw out the bread in his mouth. "What was that for!"
Ryuzio let himself fall back to the floor, chomping at one of the drumbsticks with delight. "I heard Joy yell so I came inside to help."
"That doesn't explain why you kicked me!" Hitryel shouted.
Ryuzio simply offered him the other drumbstick. "You hungry?"
Hitryel accepted the drumstick, digging into it right after. "I am," he said as he chewed, "but I'll eat after I finish my workout. And what's up with you eating for the past hour?"
"I didn't have dinner last night," Ryuzio said simply with a shrug from the ground.
Hitryel handed him the bone of the drumstick he just ate, sighing. "Finish the breakfast quickly. Don't forget we need to leave before the search gets out of hand."
Ryuzio got off the ground, picking up the fallen loaf of bread with one hand, taking the bone off Hitryel's hand with the other. He turned to the door, waving as he walked out. "Okay."
'HM?' Joy was in utter disbelief at the situation. What the fluck even happened just now? She hadn't been with Baru's squad for too long, but she had a good insight into the dynamics of that group. This…was more bizarre to her than that. At least there was a hierarchy that Baru's squadmates followed. But here…they acted as if they were fr—
Joysaleen stopped her mind from going that way.
'This is just a demo of what will happen if you try tricks like this again,' a voice sounded in her head, suppressing her free mind. 'Why do you need them anyway? You have us!'
But even this was not enough to overpower her. She wouldn't let it, so before it had a chance to do so, she climbed out of her bed, focusing on the only thing that mattered. Grandshrine. The Shrinegate in Welkis. The last obstacle to freedom. She walked past Hitryel, who had started practicing some kicks, and reached for the knob of the door.
Upon pulling it open, her eyes lit up with the reflections of the three smiling figures at the dining table.
"Sis is awake!" Rivbe said, pointing at her with a spoon. "What do you want for breakfast, sis? We got bread and jam, a mountain of mountain chicken drumsticks, tenderized honey tr—"
"No, thanks," Joy said with an awkward smile, cutting him off by bringing a hand to the front. "I only eat after brushing and a warm shower." What was she doing? Why was she feeling so out of place all of a sudden?
"No problem," Jasue said, pointing to the entryway. "Our personal bathroom is just upstairs. No student is allowed to go in there so it's all yours."
The ends of Joy's sealed lips had curved downward. She hadn't ever felt this welcomed. A part of her had forgotten that people were actually very…kind—
'It's just a shower, Joysaleen,' she told herself, walking past them without making eye contact with Ryuzio. 'You earned it by giving something they wanted. It's just like always. A simple transaction. The moment you are no longer of any use to them…they're going to show their true colors and throw you—'
"Joy!" Ryuzio said, digging into another loaf of bread. "Take as much time as you want, okay? Hitryel's gonna take a while to eat his breakfast and we can't rush out without him."
"I think I'll finish my breakfast before you, Ryuzio," Hitryel said from inside the room he was exercising in. "So eat fast if you don't wanna get left behind."
"I can't let you eat alone, Hit," Ryuzio said to the door. "Finish your workout already. I've been waiting to eat breakfast with you for the past hour."
"Is that the reason you haven't left the table!" Hitryel said, his voice sounding baffled.
"Yeah," Ryuzio said with a smile. "Food tastes even awesome if you eat it with friends!"
"100%, bro," Rivbe said, raising his glass of…milkshake. "You dropped some wisdom on our heads this early in the morning."
"Can't deny," Jasue said, then wiped beneath his eye. "But you'll be leaving soon. That's so not cool."
"But that won't change the fact that we're friends, Brother Jasue, Brother Rivbe," Ryuzio said with a smile.
Jasue and Rivbe started tearing up. "Brother Ryuzio…!"
Joysaleen did not even realize that she'd stopped beside them, just looking. Trying to decipher the feelings bubbling up inside. She had known them once. Now she'd forgotton. If she kept experiencing something like this, she was sure she would remember—
She had no reason to, so she left, going upstairs, finding her way to the bathroom.
###
The water from the showerhead fell onto the tiles below, raining down on Joysaleen's body. Warm water splashed on her skin and wetted her pink hair. Through her purple eyes, she was looking down at her feet.
So why were her eyes warmer than the water that was not even falling on them?
Looking at her feet, she wondered how she'd ended up in this situation. The past wouldn't leave her, but to move forward…she had to take steps away from where she stood.
Was the falling water only there to hide her true feelings, the ones her eyes could not hold anymore?
She should've been feeling relieved under the warm rain, so why was she feeling so heavy?
Maybe because she knew things would not go too well if she listened to her heart.
And maybe that's why…her heart was trying to convince her otherwise so badly.
But she stood frozen under the warm water as it dripped off her cold fingertips, uncertain hands shaking. For the first time in ages, she was even feeling bad for something as natural as lying to others.
However, she could not let THESE feelings overpower. So she turned them toward the smaller lie.
Joysaleen never liked showers. But she could only dive into a lake in her memories. As the child that took a swim there had drowned, the coldness of the moment she felt after getting out of the water froze Joysaleen even to this day.
But what could she do other than to convince herself that she was no longer that child? The numbing cold was simply just inside her mind… A fragment of fiction. A small, irrelevant piece of the past. It didn't matter…
But if it were that way, then why was she trying to convince herself of it so badly?
###
Ryuzio stood with his squad in front of Wavecrash Dojo, smiling at the owners who fed them. The breakfast was delicious, even his squadmates agreed to that.
Hitryel scratched his cheek, not looking directly at the Wavecrash duo. "Thanks for finding my bag, you two."
They both gave him a thumbs-up with a smile, saying in unison, "No problem, bro—"
"And stop talking like that," Hitryel said, turning away. "Master Honei wouldn't be proud to find out what you two have become."
Jasue grabbed onto his funky-looking shirt, leaning against Rivbe. "That cut deep!"
"Why'd you have to put it that way, bro," Rivbe said, keeping Jasue from falling.
Ryuzio followed Hitryel soon after, waving at the Wavecrash duo with both arms. "Thank you guys for everything! Let's have a big party the next time we meet!"
Jasue and Rivbe held onto their tears, folding their arms, nose running. "1000%, bro…" Rivbe said.
Joysaleen walked beside Ryuzio, showing him a map of District One on her handphone. "Now, the quickest route on foot to District Three is this one…" She trailed off as Ryuzio stopped abruptly.
Hitryel put a hand behind him, indicating them to stop… The reason was the twelve figures walking toward them. From their uniforms, even Ryuzio knew who they were…
"An entire squadron of skyguards?" Joysaleen said quietly. "Fluck! This is bad."
The skyguards marched on without hesitation.
Joysaleen slid behind Ryuzio, trying to get closer to Hitryel for some reason.
Hitryel exhaled softly. "You take the ones on the left, Ryuzio—"
Joysaleen gripped his wrist, keeping him from raising his left fist.
One of the skyguards walked up to Ryuzio. "I have something to ask you—"
The Wavecrash duo jumped on top of the skyguard, trying to take him down… But were immediately restrained and cuffed.
"You two are charged with assault on a squadron captain," said the skyguard putting Jasue down. "I'll make sure you get the appropriate—"
"Is this any way of treating civilians?" said the skyguard who'd been attacked. "Release them at once."
"But, Captain Salis," said the one holding Rivbe. "They just attacked you—"
"I won't repeat myself, soldier," said the captain of their squadron, Salis. "As long as they didn't hurt any other civilians, they are innocent as a child to me." He turned away from his subordinates as they bitterly followed his command.
"Now, where were we," Salis said, meeting Ryuzio's eyes. "Ah, yes, I was asking you if you had any information about the Volant called Payback Baru."
Ryuzio laughed to himself. "Oh, Balloonru, yeah, I beat—" He yelled as someone pinched him on the butt. "Are you dumb!" He found it was Joysaleen.
She stepped forward. "Sorry, sir," she said to the squadron captain in a softer tone than her usual, "we're a bit new to Sonas so we don't know much about the happenings around here. Can you tell us what you are actually looking for?"
"A rational young lady, I see," Salis said, nodding to himself. "Last night an incident happened not too far from here. The people who witnessed the incident reported that the Volant Baru was fighting against another of his kind, some even going so far as to say that the Volant with a bounty of 22 million splinters on his head lost to the one he was fighting. But after we arrived on the scene of the incident, we could not find even a single trace of that man there. The search for Payback Baru is still going on and we're taking the help from civilians around the area of the incident."
"Is that so?" Joysaleen said, letting out a nervous chuckle. "Sorry, but we don't have any idea about that, sir. We didn't even know such a thing happened."
"That's nothing to apologize for," Salis said, stepping away from her. "Have a great day, all of you." He gestured toward his men. "Let's get going, soldiers."
"Yes, sir!" they said together.
After they'd left, Jasue and Rivbe celebrated with Hitryel—though he was mostly just getting annoyed by them—for the fact that not a single skyguard from that squadron could recognize them. Their names weren't even mentioned in the report told by Captain Salis. Joysaleen turned toward Ryuzio.
"If this is the level of information they have," Joysaleen said with a smile, "getting to District Three will be a breeze—" She cut herself off when her eyes finally fell upon Ryuzio.
Ryuzio had shrunk to a squat, drawing circles on on the ground with a finger, gloom emanating from him.
"Huh?" Hitryel said, noticing Ryuzio sitting. "What happened? Aren't you happy that we don't have to waste our time and energy on fighting unnecessary fights? We don't even have to walk to District Three anymore. Ain't that good?"
Ryuzio gave a little nod, and then lifted his head, eyes rolled sideways, expression dull. "None of them recognized me, Hit," he said with a gloomy softness. "I'm a Volant and not even a single skyguard tried to stop me…"
"I'm surprised too," Joysaleen said. "But if they couldn't even recognize an ally of the Volant they were looking for, you shouldn't feel too bad about yourself, Ryuzio."
"It seems we're not notorious, Ryuzio," Hitryel said, giving him a hand. "Or at least, not enough."
Jasue and Rivbe eyed Hitryel, pointing to him with baffled noises. "Wait a minute!" Rivbe blurted. "Why didn't they recognize YOU!" Jasue asked.
"Huh?" Hitryel said, confused. "Maybe they just don't watch ABC."
"This is SONAS!" Jasue said loudly. "If the skyguards don't recognize you here, there's no chance you'll be recognized in any other place."
"That's a good thing," Hitryel said, Ryuzio's gloomy eyes finally rolling toward the hand offered to him. "Because that just means…"
Joysaleen nodded. "That we can move freely without having unnecessary setbacks—"
"That we need to work even harder to get bounties."
Ryuzio smiled instantly, clasping Hitryel's hand before getting pulled to his feet. "OKAY!" He turned around, inhaling. "Just watch me! SOON YOU'LL KNOW WHO I AM!"
His squadmates jumped to stop him from shouting this loudly.
Ryuzio smiled, marching on. "Ezlus, here we come!"
After all, a skyjet made a Volant a Volant.