"Why didn't ya kill me?"
Jason sighed, staring up at the concrete pillar nearby. He focused on the cool sensation of mana, feeling it spread through his system. His limbs regained their strength at a glacial pace, but it was enough for him to move.
"Am I yer type or something?"
Ignoring his unwanted company, Jason forced himself on his side. His skin stretched and tore, and a ragged breath whistled past his teeth.
"I'd prefer if ya choked me to—"
"Can you shut up?" Jason asked, glaring at the redhead next to him.
Cecilia pouted, shaking as she laid on the ground.
Jason stared back, unimpressed. "Why are you such a child?"
"Right back at ya?" Cecilia asked. Suddenly, she tried to get up, but Jason already rolled over and shoved her back to the ground.
She hit the solid metal ledge with a breathless gasp, sending her into a coughing fit. Being so close, her teary eyed look caused Jason to freeze.
"S— see…" Cecilia said between coughs. "I just tried to kill ya again. Yer too kind. Yer the child who doesn't know what he wants."
Jason schooled his features, trying to hide the blush of embarrassment across his nose and cheeks. He settled on anger to hide how much those words affected him.
"Like you're one to talk. I beat you, so I won. You're at my mercy, and I can choose not to kill you if I want. That's how it works in the Basement, right?"
Cecilia laughed at his threat. A wheezing, cough-out-your-lungs laugh that grated against Jason's ears. When she was done, another smile just spread over her lips, dimpling her cheeks.
"What's so funny?"
"Yer funny." Cecilia said, still smiling. "Ya can rip apart a man and then still pretend to be a saint. It'sa bit funny, don' cha think?"
Jason's anger faltered, face falling into a grimace. He wanted to forget that day. Constantly tried to forget the day he came home, drenched in blood of a man he killed. How his mom looked at him like he wasn't her son anymore, and how she defended his actions –the same ones she always argued against– as a Delver.
"I– I didn't mean to…" Jason said after his pause.
Cecilia continued to smile. As if his hesitation and vague explanation were cute.
Jason's tongue was lead in his mouth. His words were slow, almost like they were painful to say. "It was… an accident. I had become a Delver just a couple days before, so Oliver wanted to try a harder gig. More danger, more Bits. Honestly, looking back, it was dumb."
Jason took a breath, taking the moment to gauge Cecilia's reaction. Contrary to the expected anger, she held a wan smile. As if she could understand what came next. However, what caught the teen most off guard was that she had placed her hands on top of her red coat, keeping the coat under her armpits and across her chest. For a moment, Jason studied the plethora of burn scars across her pale skin.
"A– And, when we got to the gig, it was harder than we expected." Jason continued when she motioned for him to go on. "My new senses overwhelmed me, and the guy–"
"Donnie."
"Donnie, he took advantage of that. Shooting at us, beating on me with a pipe, and harassing us as we tried to escape." Jason said, getting a little angry as he remembered the gig. "I was disoriented when I tried to fight back, and so I used too much strength. And… I don't even know why I am telling you this."
"No idea, either." Cecilia said with a shrug, wincing as her skin rubbed against the metal ledge. "Proves Donnie's an idiot for trying to fight a Delver. If anything, yer not too bad, Bello. It'd really suck to hafta try an' kill ya again." She then smiled, getting a dreamy look in her eyes. "Or maybe it might not be so bad…"
"You're still saying crazy shit."
Cecilia coughed out a chuckle. "And yer supposed to be dead. That last burst sigil should've been enough to blow your legs off or something. Yet, yer the one who can move right now. Yer sturdier than we heard."
Jason pursed his lips at that information. He always knew he healed faster than normal, and Julius had said his body was stronger than normal. Even the drug lord of the Zoo, Mikey, had said that stronger senses mean stronger bodies.
The teen just shrugged, wincing as his tender skin stretched. He then planted his hands on his knees to push himself up to his feet. He rocked back and forth atop the platform on his weak legs. Vertigo spun behind his eyes, but he shook his head and dispelled the dizziness.
A quick glance –with his eyesight that finally healed– around told him that if there were still contestants in this free-for-all, they had long since fled the area Jason and Cecilia fought in. He looked up to see a plume of smoke several feet above his head where Cecilia's last bomb had gone off, and Jason frowned as he realized they had only fallen for a couple seconds.
In that time, he had recovered from that massive blast and had the ability to move shortly after. Jason took everything Cecilia said as crazed ramblings, but he wouldn't deny that she was strong and knew more about her bombs than him. However, he didn't have the luxury to study what was up with his body at the moment.
Putting off his curiosity, Jason shambled closer to Cecilia, looming over the redhead. He ignored the visible excitement that built on her features, already used to her oddities.
"As wonderful as this conversation has been," Jason said. "I need some answers."
Cecilia shimmied over to his shins, resting her chin on the top of his feet. Jason pulled away as if he touched something repulsive.
"I can't say much, Bello. Or maybe I can? Going to torture the information outta me? I hafta say that I am pretty tight lipped." She said, batting her eyes with a suggestive look.
Jason scowled at her. "Why did you immediately target me?"
"What d'ya mean? I just thought of ya as cute and wanted to get to know yer insides."
"You had information on me, though." Jason said. He caught her flinch and then the instant reaction to smooth her features. As much as he wanted to believe that reaction was fake, too much lined up to be a coincidence. "This was a setup, wasn't it?"
Cecilia's smile told him more than any words. A wan, pitying look broke through her crazed emotions, but a second passed before it was wiped away as if it never happened. Jason barely noticed it as he internally went over his interactions with Oliver again, wondering if there was something off with him.
A spike of anxious uncertainty settled in his gut. He didn't want to believe it, but the facts were too damning. A gig that was too good to be true, and Oliver's ambiguous relation to the Zoo.
It all added up to a picture he could not erase.
"Could he be controlled?" Jason asked aloud. He thought back to the Draken and the smoke that Mikey had used, and the teen wished for that to be the truth. A desperate wish. A desperate distraction to his distress.
"Want to share yer troubles with me again?" Cecilia asked by his feet.
Jason's face twisted into a vicious glare. He stomped down next to her head, embedding his food into the metal and shaking their platform. "Shut up!"
The entire pillar shook as well, like an earthquake had hit.
Jason staggered over from the edge of the ledge to the pillar, catching himself on the wall. As the vibrations subsided, he lifted his foot, staring at it like some kind of alien. He caught the incredulous gaze of Cecilia as well.
"Yer definitely not the cause!" She said.
"Of course, I know that." Jason said, ignoring the pointed look she was sending him.
He steadied himself against the wall, frowning as the sensation of an earthquake hit again. This time their platform trembled like a leaf in the wind, and the teen had to dig his fingers into the concrete to stay upright.
A quick glance over to Cecilia told him she wasn't going anywhere. The girl rocked back and forth inside her coat, and Jason had to stifle a laugh when he thought she looked like a worm.
Knowing she wasn't going anywhere, Jason turned back to the wall he leaned on. He pressed against it, feeling as if the vibrations were stronger this time. He could almost hear a constant thump of something within the concrete; as if the pillar were a cocoon, waiting to open up.
Another thump rocked the entire pillar again, but this time, Jason jumped back in a panic.
The wall exploded in a shower of concrete shards. Jason shielded his face with his arms, hissing through his teeth as the debris hit his tender skin. His nose twitched as two scents traced back to the newly opened hole in the pillar. Along with the blood; so much blood that it drowned out almost everything else.
Jason gagged, clutching his nose. He landed next to a confused Cecilia, but he spared her a quick look before he turned back to what was in front of them.
Two men. One looked ruined, broken. He was the Yakuza's Shinobi whose legs were twisted and bleeding from torn skin. At points, peaks of white bone poked out of his black bodysuit. The Shinobi's labored gasps for air sounded like an out-of-tune flute; one that Jason could only describe as being submerged into water.
Jason stood like a statue, watching in horror and morbid intrigue. The Shinobi's fingers trembled as they tried to form a hand sign– his fingers interlocked with his palms curved above them, forming what looked like a cup. A wispy blue cloud formed around their fingers before it fizzled out. Blood pooled in the man's exposed lips as he expired.
Goosebumps broke out onto Jason's skin, spreading a chill up his spine. His gaze trailed up to the other man. At the same time, they turned to him, and Jason feigned calm as his heart leapt into his throat.
They were dressed in an impeccable, light gold kasaya. As they stepped through the hold they had created in the pillar, Jason could see that no blood or dust stained their clothes. A whisper-soft clink of metal alerted the teen to the metal shoes the monk wore. His hands were tucked behind his back, meaning Jason couldn't see if he had any other weapons, but Jason didn't dare look away from man's placid face.
Their features were stone, refusing to budge. He simply regarded the dead body on the ground with as much attention as a pebble on the road.
The monk then turned his black eyes to them, causing another wave of trepidation to pass through Jason. The teen's forehead broke out into a sweat as the man strolled over to them, stopping a little ways away.
To his infinite confusion, the monk bowed.
"Pardon for the disturbance." The monk said after he got up from his bow. "I ask of you to hand the criminal to me."
Jason felt Cecilia's hand grip his ankle. He forced himself not to take his eyes off the monk, but he was distracted with how weak her grip was. He felt her hand tremble against his skin.
"Don't do it…" she muttered under her breath.
"What…" Jason wet his lips, tense. "Are you going to do to her?"
"Kill her."
It was how he said it that caused Jason to shiver. The man's face didn't even twitch when he expressed his desire to kill someone. As if the act was something normal.
"She's… injured." Jason tried only to find no change in the monk's expression. "I'll make sure she won't hurt anyone else in this tournament, so you don't need to execute her."
The monk judged Jason for a second. After the terrifying moment where Jason expected a fight, the man started, "This one does not understand you. She is part of the blight on this city. This one is willing to make an exception for your ignorance, but ignorance does not give credence to another."
"She's not a threat right now."
Cecilia hacked out a wet cough as if to emphasize his point.
The monk just shook his head. "Right now." He echoed, emphasizing the phrase. "You think kindly, but misplaced mercy is just tomorrow's sorrow. This one asks you to move aside."
Jason pursed his lips at the monk's words. He couldn't disagree with them. Cecilia was a psychopath; she had admitted to trying to kill him, and there was no evidence to say she would stop. She was a threat. Someone he couldn't even begin to understand and reason with.
Yet… for a reason he couldn't quite understand, Jason didn't move from his spot.
"I want to die by the hands of someone that's not bald!" Cecilia said suddenly, drawing the attention of the other two on the platform.
Jason, used to the girl's craziness, took it in stride. The originally tense and morbid mood evaporated on the spot like a bubble that had been popped. Even the stone faced monk blinked at the girl as if he couldn't understand what went on in her head.
"He's gotta at least be six foot, as strong as me, and uh… can survive an explosion I pour most of my mana into!" Cecilia added on as if her previous declaration was being considered. Jason ignored the furtive glances she shot his way; he hoped he imagined them.
"You desire to protect one who made attempts at your life?" The monked asked Jason, taking the teen's stance to ignore her as well.
Jason shrugged, and then he shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, getting ready for a fight. "Just felt like it, man. Besides, I don't like your whole schtick. I thought you monks from the Infinite Monastery were all about balance and peace."
"This one's convictions need not be explained to one so ignorant of the greater picture."
"You talk funny."
Without warning, a golden rudimentary mana domain expanded over the entire platform. The foreign mana caused Jason's lungs to ache as his mana veins lost stopped recovering his reserves. At the same time, Jason experienced his exhaustion all over again, feeling as if someone sapped the energy from his veins.
Just as quickly, another red rudimentary mana domain expanded by Jason's feet. It enveloped him and Cecilia faster than he could react, and he only had time to curse when he realized that something occurred at the intersection of the two domains. The red mana domain acted like a fire, burning brightly for a second before disappearing. As it dissipated, the golden rudimentary mana domain started to sag like metal in a furnace, which caused the domain to fade away in the area they intersected. Soon, a small space around Jason and Cecilia was free from foreign mana, letting the teen catch his breath and mana.
"G– give me a push, Bello." Cecilia said with a breathless gasp. Jason found that she was paler than before, sweating more than before.
He didn't need to be told twice; all this time, he had been wary about any last minute trump cards, so he took the chance to get rid of the annoyance. Jason hooked his foot under her stomach, earning a gasp of pain from the girl as he touched burned skin. Another squeal of –he really hoped– pain left Cecilia's lips as he kicked her off the edge of the platform.
When he saw her disappear over the edge, he turned back to the monk, finding the man's hands in front of his body. Metallic gauntlets covered his fists up to his elbows. The monk fell into a stance with his right fist pointed at Jason like the tip of a spear.
"This one's name is Balakrishna. My fists have no eyes."
Jason huffed, breathing the atmospheric mana around him. His body was still a mess, and his limbs trembled as he pulled them into a basic guard. However, the renewed mana that pulsed along with his heart gave him confidence to pull through.
His recent experiences told him he had a chance.
Balakrishna's next moves destroyed that fragile confidence.
Jason's gaze didn't stray from the immovable figure of his opponent, and Balakrishna held his martial stance with nary a twitch. The light gold rudimentary mana domain seeped into the monk's metallic gauntlets and boots, causing Jason's eyes to narrow.
Then, the monk moved. He was not faster than Jason, nor did he do anything fancy like use an obscure Innate talent. Balakrishna simply reduced the distance between them such that Jason could not react.
The teen merely felt the blow land where his sternum met his stomach. A strangled gasp tore open his lips, ripping the air from his lungs.
Reflexively, he swung at his opponent, but each attempt was bat aside with contemptuous ease as a barrage of fists and kicks responded. A punch turned Jason's gaze skyward as two more cracked on his ribs. A kick stopped him mid swing, and another one snuck through his desperate guard and bounced off his temple.
Jason struggled to breathe as he suddenly found himself weightless, swept off his feet. He reached for the ground, but unlike before, his fingers couldn't get a grip on the surface. Another kick sent him tumbling end over end as his back collided with the concrete pillar, letting him catch his breath with the renewed distance.
His gaze found Balakrishna as the man lowered his leg from the previous kick. The monk wordlessly settled into the same martial stance as Jason wheezed on the ground.
After a tense silence, Jason realized the monk wouldn't move till he got up. And with that, the teen couldn't help but laugh. His mouth tasted of sweat and blood, but he continued to laugh, feeling how outclassed he was.
Cecilia's blows were manageable, but Balakrishna made him feel like he was a normal human again. Normal metal might as well be thick paste to the teen, yet the monk did something to it. Something that came back to the rudimentary mana domain Jason still had no idea about.
So, he laughed, digging his fingers into the concrete behind him and pulling himself up. A manic grin spread across his face as, instead of fear, Jason wanted to know just how strong Balakrishna's metal was.
The monk advanced again, faster than Jason could react. However, he was ready this time. He pulled himself up the wall with his fingers right as the monk's punch landed.
A tremendous bang shook the pillar, and Balakrishna's arm was embedded in the wall all the way up to his shoulder. The bald monk looked almost perplexed as he caught Jason above him, and the teen already stomped down on the man's shoulders before he could back out.
The platform they were on buckled with the blow. Whatever Balakrishna did kept it intact, but Jason tore it off the bolts that held it in place. The monk fell along with it and the shower of debris that followed, staring up at Jason as he descended.
Jason didn't waste his chance, using his handholds to move along the side of the pillar. He navigated his way over to another platform and then collapsed on his side, controlling his labored breathing. His whole body was a bruise, and his bones ached as he tried to move. It felt less like he'd been in a fight and more like he'd fallen off a building.
"You have taught me something."
Jason stilled as the voice lanced through his calm. With a great effort, he tilted his gaze up to see Balakrishna as the monk walked up the side of the concrete pillar. The monk's boots dug into the concrete, creating small holds for him to walk along. A hollow chuckle escaped his lips at how effortless Balakrishna made it seem.
"This humble monk has been too focused on the perfection of one movement, and thus, has realized the folly of such a process." Balakrishna said as he stepped up onto the platform Jason rested on. "Stand up, child of the Abyss, let this monk show you how deep the paths you travel are."
Jason spat a globule of blood near the man's feet. "I– I refuse."
For the first time, the monk's placid face twisted into a small frown. He wordlessly picked Jason up like a child, tossing him up to his feet at the far edge of the platform. Jason wanted to resist, but his limbs felt like lead as he collapsed back down to his knees.
"You are like a child with a gun he has no knowledge of. You try to threaten adults with that gun, and some may be swayed, but ultimately, you are a child. Ignorant and unprepared." The monk said as he got into his martial stance. However, instead of his fist being held in front of his chest, his hands were together in a familiar hand sign.
His palms facing inwards while his fingers were laced together. The only thing different were his pointer fingers that were held straight and slanted upwards where they only touched at the fingertips. A light gold rudimentary mana domain expanded around the monk, which was sucked into the right gauntlet.
"If you survive this, let this be a lesson to you. You are a child no longer; the actions you make, they always have consequences."
Jason wanted to question what Balakrishna meant. He wanted to move and get out of the way. Yet, he only stared, slack-jawed, as the monk swung his arms.
In his chest, Jason felt his mana veins twitch at the movements. He recognized, instinctively, that they were important like the symbols Cecilia carved on her pebbles, but all the teen saw was a monk as his arms waved around in wide arcs, as if it were a dance.
"Mana desires to be defined." Balakrishna said as he slowly came to a stop. His right hand's fingers were fully extended towards Jason like the point of a spear; the monk adjusted it downwards to the teen's stomach. "If you are directionless, it will define you, so you must find a way to define your desires. If you do this, then–"
Balakrishna twisted and his hand shot forwards. The metal gauntlet on his hand lost its rigidity, flowing like water on his fist as it extended forwards faster than Jason could catch. All he saw was a blur, then a crack of something breaking followed by distant pain.
Jason fell off the side of the platform. His limbs bonelessly flapped in the wind as he saw the monk bow down at him from above. The man's voice trailed into his ears.
"Your actions have taught this monk's first spear. Know you have this monk's respect."
The teen ignored the monk as his voice grew distant. All he could focus on was the warmth that fled his body through the bleeding hole that went through his stomach. Blood traced a red waterfall that marked his descent.
"F– fuck…"
And then, darkness claimed him in his utter defeat.