< System Space >
After many hours, Ragna then decides that it is time for him to look over Battle Maiden once more, realizing that maybe it is time for him to actually talk to her.
"( I hope the Maiden's mind is at ease after hours long since I kinda want to ask her something regarding... )" Ragna holds his thoughts as he arrived at the person's chamber door inside the System Space.
< Location: System Resident Chamber #5 >
Ragna approached the door, trying to hear any voice that was produced behind that door. He leans his head to it, wondering if the Maiden is still there.
But, at that very moment.
" Come in, Ragna! " Battle Maiden calls him from her chamber, telling him that the door is unlocked.
"( She really knows that it's me, huh? )" Ragna wonders for he remembers that the Maiden was supposed to be blind before receiving some physical buff from her Divine Gifter Athena, giving her eyes to look things more completely.
Probably during her 'blind' years, she's adapted to seeing things in a different way, sharpening her senses even more than those who have eyes.
"( Guess I wasn't wrong that the Battle Maiden is the real-life 'Toph' from 'The Last Airbender'..., but ironically the Maiden's fate is better than hers as her defect is covered in the cruelest situation ever done, the Abyss Tower Raid. )"
"( So sad for her that her first day on 'seeing things' is a brutal tower with carnages and corpses everywhere..., even I don't wanna see that if I was her, it's so great that she could still hold it through the end of that event. )" Ragna recount things from back then, he realized that it was he who 'spared' her from her doom against Adrian.
While recounting things, Ragna enters her chamber, asking her permission as the Maiden already sits in her chair, telling him to sit in the chair in front of her.
" I believe this is 'my front', right? " Maiden asks, still adjusting things after her blindness was cured, still adjusting to her new eyes.
" You had a hard time knowing directions, Maiden? " Ragna asks her, wondering if she had trouble with directions (since she was blind back then), how could she even fight?
" I relied on my senses and instincts, and my 'inner eye'... "
" I simply follow what it tells me about my surroundings, hence why I could arrive at one point to another despite my eyes being closed and not using a cane to help me know which direction. "
" That's why I had trouble when people gave me 'directions', for their directions often clashed with what my senses told me. "
" How keen are your 'senses', Maiden? " Ragna asks after she explains it, taking the chair in front of her.
" Are your senses as sharp as 'Toph' from 'The Last Airbender' or it simply tingles like 'Spidey Sense'? " Here it is, Ragna just asks if things were like every fictional story he read, what a nerd, even after all of the change he's been through, his looks, his charm, all looked good but his nerd mentality still can't be gone.
" Can't say. " Battle Maiden answers as she now forgot how it felt after being cured of it.
" I don't know if it actually worked like the characters you mentioned but what I know, is I could simply 'feel' the object or movements. "
" After all, I still had my ears to hear things, but... "
" I still don't understand how to explain this to others, but... "
" Let's just say that when I closed my eyes, I simply changed my 'view' over my surroundings, let's agree on that part, could we? " Battle Maiden tries to finish her explanation about how she sees things, she couldn't even explain herself how it really works for her, even after she had eyes.
" But aside from movements, I could also sense someone's intention," she tells.
" Intention? " Ragna asks her.
" Yes, of course. "
" Your intention is to ask me more about 'him', was it? " Battle Maiden asks, telling Ragna that he had some balls to ask her this right after her emotional meltdown.
" You sensed my intention perfectly. " Ragna replied to her.
" Anything you could tell me more about my uncle, before you... " Ragna stops as Battle Maiden stares at him, already knowing if Ragna had known how his uncle is gone from him in the first place.
" We end him, Ragna. " Battle Maiden tells him.
" We end him at his peak, just like Waterson if you could say it... " she tells Ragna about it, as simply as she can.
" End him at his peak, how quick... " Ragna replied.
" Guess Uncle Andrew being the 'Dark Avatar' is such a short-lived waste, wasn't it? " Ragna asks the Maiden, asking if his uncle is so powerful in that state or not.
Battle Maiden, listens to what Ragna just asked, she still stares at him but this time she closes her eyes, recounting the past that happened.
" Your uncle was such a Berserker and an Assassin... " Battle Maiden says what she thought about the Subject.
" He fights with no honor and only thinks of victory, fighting him was a dirty fight if you ask me. "
" I wonder if the way you fight is actually inspired by him, remembering that you actually lived with him for a while before Mrs. Kent take care of you," she asks, asking Ragna about his free-style way of fighting, his usual attacking approach and strikes that usually targets the opponents' weakness first.
" Yes, Maiden. " Ragna tells her.
" Ending the fight as quickly as possible is my uncle's way of fighting, hence why he would do anything to shorten the fight's duration. "
" Do anything? " she asks.
" Yeah, by any means necessary if he had to. "
" He once told me that only fools prolonged a fight while there are more that needs to face. "
" Hence why he fights so quickly since he once was a soldier and a spy before, he once told me that, it happens before you knew him as the 'First Gen Hunter'... "
" I see...., does that experience make him dishonorable? " Battle Maiden asks.
" Of course, he fights using his usual dagger sword, and gun, didn't he? " Ragna asks the Maiden which made her eyes widen.
" It was the case then, he still uses his usual battle weapons. " Ragna chuckles for a bit.
" I remember him telling me that he likes using the two for close range and long range, it helps him defeat his enemies faster, he even told me that he once killed shot, and sliced ten soldiers during a quick draw. "
" A great feat despite being 'Ungifted', isn't it? " Ragna asked the Maiden which surprises her.
" Andrew is 'Ungifted'? " she stands up, she was very surprised to hear such a fact.
" What's wrong, Maiden? "
" Don't tell me that uncle actually fight you when he was already in the 'Dark Avatar' stage or something, hence why you didn't know he was once an Ungifted, just like me back then. " Ragna tells her which makes her more surprised.
" Impossible, no, it can't be! "
" Pardon? "
" You said he was 'Ungifted', back then? " Battle Maiden asks which made Ragna confused for he didn't predict this reaction.
"( Wait, why is she reacting like this? )" Ragna wonders.
"( I didn't see this using the [Twelve Eye] back then, before the 'Aether Metamorphosis Ritual'* is in process. )" Ragna recounts it, for he sees many things before the Eye is on hiatus for it's been regenerated, currently.
" Maiden? " Ragna tries to ask the Maiden while the Maiden shivers as she listens to what was unraveled before her.
" Ragna... " Battle Maiden says to him.
" Your uncle Andrew..., "
" Actually had a 'Gift Core'. "
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Extra:
*the 'Aether Metamorphosis Ritual':
A ritual that made Ragna like this right now, like on the cover, was first mentioned in Chapter 151 (Abyss Tower Raid #2) and performed at 194 (True Sin: Avarice Part 3).