*Niam Henka*
I didn't expect Tsuki to react like this at all. A usually shy and silent girl threatened to cut a man's throat in front of his allies. She even cut that man's pride, his beard. My view of her changed. 'Was it because I didn't react to the provocations in her stead?' I wondered.
["Silence!"] Sidika ordered.
The cafeteria fell into silence. I grabbed Tsuki's hand in which she held my Shoto with. Strands of hair were all over the blade, it was dirtied.
["Let's just eat, Tsuki."] I said and made sure nobody understood us.
***
After the incident in the cafeteria, Sidika warned us about attempts of revenge. She also advised us to share a room in case anything like that were to happen, I would be able to defend us.
Tsuki was now acting as she usually did. She was silent, focused and her eyes never wavered when she met mine.
The room was small. It had 2 beds in it and a bathroom.
There was no one in the room besides me and her. We sat on our beds ready to fall asleep at any moment.
"I shouldn't have done that, right? I saw how you looked at me."
Tsuki was indeed perceptive, recognizing my gaze and understanding what it meant.
"I wanted to see how you reacted to provocations. I didn't expect you to react like that at all. And if you're thinking that you might've upset Sidika or Omar, be at ease. They trust me more than they do the beardless guy." I answered honestly and laughed after I remembered what became of the "Vice-Captain".
"So..."
I knew what Tsuki wanted to ask next: "Should I just do what I think or what?"
"You can do as you like. And I'm pretty sure you haven't forgotten what you can't do, right?"
"Betray you."
"That's right."
A soft smile formed on her pink lips.
***
I woke up by a feeling I hadn't felt before. The feeling was very annoying and caused my heart to pound faster.
'Malice?' I guessed, I wasn't sure what it was completely.
"Galaxy-Sight"
I saw 3 people outside about 30 meters away and 2 more in our corridor.
'An act of revenge with this much planning? They are well-trained indeed.'
I had to think of something quickly, but 3 flaming arrows that flew at the room's window interrupted any thought I had.
I opened the window and swung my damaged Katana at the arrows. The arrows pierced the wall beside the window.
And as all this happened, Tsuki was still asleep. She would've been the first to react to our attackers, but she didn't use her Salan ability and that changed things. She was asleep and I didn't want to change that. Realizing that we were being attacked because of something she did, she would only blame herself even more than she did already.
The 2 attackers were now right in front of our door. I needed to incapacitate both of them without opening the door and making noise. Galaxy-Sight allowed me to see the objects that were in the corridor behind the door. I saw a bookshelf and a few pots with plants in them. All I needed. I used Independent-Control to create gravitation points next to their heads on the wall. Then, I imbued Mana into the books and pots behind them, used Supreme-Control to increase the gravitational pull on the objects.
*Wham*Wham*
The objects hit their heads while they were gravitating to the point behind. It wasn't loud at all, so the risk of Tsuki waking up was low. One was knocked unconscious, the other one was conscious but barely. I opened the door kicked both of them in the head just to be sure.
There was no time to do anything else as another set of flaming arrows flew at the window again. I parried the arrows the same way I did before.
'I need to clash with them directly.'
Our room was one the 5th floor and about 20 meters from the ground. A distance I fell and received no injuries from.
I used Supreme-Control on myself, making me 'lighter', I jumped down to clash with the archers directly.
Arrows shot in my direction after I landed. They weren't burning like before, they were normal arrows but reinforced with Mana.
'No Fire-Bearers, huh?'
I was too fast for the archers. So fast in fact, they couldn't even scream before I hit them with my Katana's scabbard.
***
I carried the attackers to Sidika's room. They were all tied up and unconscious. I tried to knock on her door but she opened it as if she was already expecting me.
"Thank you for not killing them."
It was the best thing to do after all. You don't bite the hand that fed you.
I walked to my room, cleaned up the mess I made in the corridor and entered the room again.
'I hope she's still sleeping.'
Tsuki was laying in the same position, breathing in and out slowly. I couldn't be sure if she was really asleep.
'I shouldn't sleep tonight. I might not wake up in time if someone decides to attack us again. I will just meditate.'
I meditated again. This time, I started focusing more on the Mana that was further away. My limit a week ago was around 40 meters but at this moment, I can feel the Mana in a radius of 100 meters. This also applied to Galaxy-Sight.
I tried different things with Mana. I sent the Mana from my Core to a specific area outside of the Station to experiment with it.
I first tried to see what would happen when I used my Mana to "attack" the natural Mana. I needed a few tries to really see what was going on, but at my 10th or so try, I observed that the natural Mana just moved out of the way.
'It's like throwing a rock into a lake. The water moves around the stone.'
This realization made me think about aerodynamics. The air also moves around an object. And with a special form, an object can use the air for its own benefit. Like a spoiler on a car. Or a wing on a plane.
'Can I also use this logic on Mana? How does Mana even behave? How big is the Mana source? How much of it do we have? Is it all even real?'
The more questions I asked myself, the more I doubted myself.
'I still feel like I'm dreaming, under the rubble, trapped with no help.'
The time I spent under there now felt different since I met Alejandro's squad. Instead of fear I felt anger and regret. I was well aware of the fact that something was not right. But what was it? What made me the way I am now?
I fell asleep while questioning myself.
***
*Knock*Knock*
I was woken up by 2 knocks on the door that were followed by a voice speaking to us.
"Carriage here, you go." A voice called out.
I turned to look at Tsuki. She was already awake and sat on her bed. Her hair was wet and she was drying it with a towel.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked.
"You looked exhausted."
I got up to my feet and went into the bathroom.
"The carriage is already here, we have to hurry." I said.
"I didn't expect it to come this early. Can you help, maybe?"
She wanted me to help dry her hair with a towel.
"Why not."
I sat behind her on the bed. Her head and hair were only inches away. I started wiping her hair with the towel.
Her wet, silvery hair was soft and really healthy. It was a very unusual color.
'I never asked her about it. Maybe it has something to do with Mana.'
"Has your hair color always been like this?"
"No. It gradually changed after the impact, just like my eyes. I can't really explain why it happened. It just started to get brighter by the day until it was completely white. After that, it took only a few hours to get to this color. It's the same for Sidika's eyes. I think no one has yellow eyes."