"Aki, what are you doing~?" – A little girl with slightly long white hair asked a young boy.
The young boy who didn't look older than ten, with long blue hair and blindfolded eyes didn't answer her and continued his training.
He swung a katana with both hands while wearing long metallic-looking black gloves and weights on his wrists.
"Aki, what are you doing~?" – The younger Elizabeth poked Akihiko's cheek and repeated her question.
"…" – Akihiko's face showed no expression even when the girl kept pestering him.
Seeing that he wasn't answering, Elizabeth pouted and sat down on a nearby rock.
The green plains they were in, the futuristic city in the background, and the vision of outer space through a giant window in the distance would make anyone fall in love with the scenery due to how otherworldly it was.
"…" – Elizabeth absentmindedly gazed outside the giant window, at the floating destroyed-looking planet – "Hey, Aki." – She called out without looking at him.
"…" – Akihiko didn't answer, however, Elizabeth knew he was listening.
"Do you think we will recover our planet someday?" – She asked a childish question, befitting of her age, however, her tone strangely enough seemed more mature than what a child should have.
Akihiko stopped swinging his katana and turned to her.
Elizabeth looked at him and saw him shaking his head.
Elizabeth's eyes widened – "No?" – It was a straightforward answer she wasn't expecting.
Akihiko made some hand signals.
Elizabeth worked hard to understand what he meant, she was still learning this language.
After some minutes of getting lost and having Akihiko repeat what he meant, she finally understood.
"It's impossible because the planet has crossed the point of being restored?" – She didn't quite understand what he meant by this – "What should we do then?" – She furrowed her brows in confusion.
From childhood, everyone in the Gardens is told that their greatest goal is to recover the planet that is theirs by right.
The fact that they can't see their family members who went down to Pandora or that they are separated from their own family is also because they have yet to accomplish their goal.
"…" – Akihiko expressionlessly faced Elizabeth. He knew that she might be more mature than her age, but she was still affected by the indoctrination from the Garden's higher-ups.
Elizabeth watched as he made some hand signals.
"We should dream?" – She tilted her head – "You mean that we should sleep?" – As far as she knew, people only dream when they sleep.
Akihiko shook his head and explained.
"To have things I want to do and try to do them?" – The scenery started to fade away, like a mirage.
Akihiko nodded.
"Well then…" – Elizabeth's figure blurred and slowly became unrecognizable – "I already have a dream!" – She exclaimed happily.
Akihiko started to feel more and more distant as if he was becoming disconnected from there.
"My dream is to marry you, Aki!" – Elizabeth's fading voice exclaimed, shyness and determination clear in her tone.
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'Where…?' – Akihiko's consciousness gradually returned as a wave of confusion washed over him.
As his senses returned, he noticed that he was in a hospital room, much like the one from his base.
'What happene-' – Memories from what happened returned to him, crashing like a wave in his mind.
The previous uncomfortable feeling in his head grew and became a strong headache.
'I lost control…' – When he finished processing what happened, he heaved a sigh, his face morphed into a rare expression of disappointment, not with someone or something else, but with himself.
'I expected more.' – For a shinobi, losing control means death. And Akihiko knew it, he trained to control his emotions for years just so he could always respond in the best way to any given situation.
Yet, when the time came, he ended up losing control.
He didn't care If it was hard or even impossible in such a situation, he demanded it from himself.
It has always been like this.
While he was lost in thoughts, the door to the room opened and Elizabeth walked in.
"Aki!" – Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw him awake and she almost teleported herself to his side.
"…" – Turning toward her, Akihiko nodded, both thankful for her assistance back in the hall as well as recognizing her presence.
Elizabeth smiled in relief seeing that he was okay.
And then hit his head.
"Ouch!" – Elizabeth cried out and grabbed the hand which she just hit him with – "What is your head made of? Metal?" – She felt like she hit an iron wall.
Akihiko felt his headache worsening a bit but didn't complain.
"What were you thinking when you used that technique?" – Elizabeth put the pain in her hand aside and asked him with narrowed eyes.
"…" – He didn't immediately answer her but after pondering for a few seconds, he conveyed his reply.
Elizabeth's eyebrows twitched when she interpreted the signals and she wanted to hit his head again – "You lost control?" – Her voice took a sharper edge, the friendly aura she always had changed to a cold one – "You know better than anyone what that technique does to your body, Akihiko."
The technique he had used was supposedly among the last resources his clan developed. Shinobis or finishers in general don't have much to contribute in head-on confrontations, they depend on tricks and surprises, so to circumvent this, his clan created that technique.
The technique temporarily removes the limiters from a person's body, allowing them to exert more strength, be faster, and use more mana.
The problem lies with the fact that those limiters are there to protect people from destroying their bodies.
This means that upon using this technique, a single swing of an arm might be faster and more powerful, however, it might shred all the muscles and tendons from that arm, or even outright cause the whole arm to explode from disregarding all limits it had.
Akihiko nodded. He didn't have any excuses, it was as simple as that: he lost control of his emotions.
Elizabeth's gaze grew increasingly colder as time passed – "I know that you are aware of your limits, and I want to respect it." – Her voice took an eerie tone – "However, I hope you won't use that technique again unless the situation desperately calls for it. I don't want to go through the same thing as years ago." – Her eyes darkened to an abnormal degree – "If you make me go through something like that again, I might freeze you alive to keep you by my side." – Her lips briefly twitched up, indicating an involuntary urge to smile at the idea.
Akihiko showed no particular reaction to her ominous words, he was already aware of this strange nature of hers.
He nodded and Elizabeth returned to normal before heaving a sigh.
"*Sigh* Why can't you just stop worrying me?" – She mumbled – "So, how are you feeling?" – She dragged a chair from the side and took a seat.
He was still feeling pain across his whole body and his left arm was once again wrapped in bandages. He could barely feel anything from it aside from constant bolts of pain.
His left leg was attached back to his body and seemed to be working normally, with no problem so far.
Akihiko touched his upper body and belatedly noticed he was feeling somewhat strange.
He was not only without his armor but without most of his hidden weapons, he had on his body, making it lighter than what he was used to.
He conveyed his condition to Elizabeth whose face contorted.
"Forget about those damn weapons and rest, you crazy bastard." – She wanted to hit him again but hearing that he had a strong headache, she decided against it – "At least you're fine…" – Her gaze landed on his arm – "As "fine" as you can be."
"…" – Akihiko felt the hidden sarcasm in her words but couldn't refute them, it was true.
"By the way, we're currently on "vacation" as instructor Evelyn called it." – Elizabeth changed the topic upon seeing that he understood her message – "We'll be here for two weeks until they finish all the medical exams and are sure we aren't affected by malice anymore."
'This is different.' – Akihiko remembered that after the Conference, the game proceeded in a different direction. They went through several medical exams but were swiftly deployed back to their bases, continuing their training – 'Although I don't know if this is exactly a good thing.' – Truth be told, Akihiko never really cared about the plot, if it goes accordingly, that's fine, and if it deviates, that's also fine.
"Also, are you able to move?" – She suddenly asked, and seeing him nod, she smiled at him – "How about we go to the cafeteria then? Your team was worried about you, you know?" – She grabbed his hand and helped him up.
Akihiko accepted her help and got up.
'It seems I really overdid it.' – He thought as a bolt of pain jolted through his legs.
"Are you okay?" – Elizabeth worriedly asked when she noticed he abruptly stopped.
"…" – Akihiko nodded his head and continued to walk with her support.
Exiting the room, Akihiko noticed that instead of a long and empty corridor as he had grown used to, he was greeted by several staff coming and going.
'Is this the rearguard?' – He was familiar with the base of the vanguard being empty, so he surmised this shouldn't be in the frontlines.
A short walk later, they arrived at a cafeteria where examinees, students, acolytes, and servants were eating and talking with each other, clearly way better than they were in the Conference.
They seemed to be all the survivors of the massacre. All of them together were barely 150 people, a far cry from the more than 2.000 that attended the Conference.
As soon as they entered, Elizabeth looked through the crowd before finding who she was searching for. She then took Akihiko toward a table.
"Morning, everyone~" – She happily greeted Lathz, Melody, and the others.
"Morn-" – Beatrix was the first to react but her words died midway when she saw Akihiko.
The people on the table also had similar reactions to her.
Elizabeth took Akihiko who then sat down as she went to grab food for both of them.
"A-Akihiko?" – Darlan asked unsurely while looking at the young man before him.
The person sitting with them was a stark contrast to the masked man who always walked around with weapons.
With his long blue hair let loose, and a black blindfold covering his eyes, they could see some of his tattoos and athletic build, as well as his feline ears and tail.
"…" – Akihiko nodded at him.
"W-Woah…" – Beatrix unconsciously blurted out.
"Damn, you're really a professional in stealth. I didn't know you were hiding this handsomeness." – Darlan joked but everyone at the table knew he wasn't joking at all.
Some of the others nodded at his words, they shared the same opinion.
Akihiko's face remained expressionless but his feline ears slightly moved from time to time and his tail calmly swayed behind him, giving a strange but calm feeling to those around him.
"Hum…" – Olivia looked at him, seemingly studying him – "I can't read you at all…" – Her murmur was heard by everyone, who also agreed with it.
If before it was because of the mask and suit, now it was because of his lack of reaction.
"Akihiko." – Olivia called him after pondering about something.
"?" – Akihiko turned to her.
"Would you like to have sex with me?" – She asked out of the blue.
"…" – Akihiko didn't answer and inclined his body to the side.
*Bam*
A tray of food was bashed against the table, almost hitting him.
Elizbeth looked at Olivia with a calm smile but cold eyes.
"I apologize but he can't."
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