Everything she heard she swallowed with all anticipation and excitement. It's crazy how Lemon looks at me and sees not a monster but a human being worthy to be excited for, to be cared for, to be loved. The night passed by quickly, we shared stories, laughed and ate Doritos till dawn, it became a core memory for me.
Later that day the local authorities came in and did their own investigation, questioning every single person in the hotel, then they left with the body. I watched as the body was carried away, my new line of sight helped me see through the body bag and I could see it, the blue mark of the knight. Apparently, the mark doesn't fade off even if you're dead.
I could not get past the feeling that people that would literally die for me were being killed. I had to get stronger in order to stop this so called Null Standing. Ratchina came back as promised, and the process of Freeform was explained even more to me.
"Freeform is a mental construct," she said while we walked on the beach that day. "It is an option hidden by your subconscious somewhere within your system. Do you know why they call it a System?"
We stopped at the coconut bar, sitting down and getting something to drink. Lemon sat close, in a sun hat and a nice bikini, with a shawl around her waist.
"Because it acts like a computer?"
She nodded. "Not just any computer, a super computer. You are the hardware and the software, that makes your brain the operation system."
"Yeah, yeah," I nodded, the winding blowing through my hair as I pondered on her words.
"Now unlike most operating system, yours is limitless. Think of it as your imagination, you can do almost anything with your imagination."
"Are you saying," Lemon said, butting in. "That if he wanted free form, he could just imagine it?"
"In a way, yes," she replied, watching Lemon suck on her straw. "But there are rules."
"The requirements?" I asked.
"That's right, the requirements," she replied. "You would need to have a proper control of your energy, power level should be at a minimum of ten and your training level should be at least five."
"What's the essence of these requirements?" Lemon asked, requesting another coconut smoothie.
"So that your brain doesn't fry or turn to a gooey mess that leaks out of your ears after you attempt to initiate freeform."
We looked at her shocked, wondering if she was serious or not. Her face did not show any sign of sarcasm. I reckoned it was probably because of the strength of the System, and since my system seems to be a more advanced version than any other system I had seen, I had to be careful.
"Earlier you said I had good enough requirements?" I asked.
"Yes, I feel they're good enough," she replied, getting off the stool and stretching and in the process, revealing her flat white tummy and shaking her broad hips in that mini skirt swimwear. "And as a Guardian, I believe you would be able to initiate freeform effortlessly even without the requirements."
"Better safe than sorry," Lemon and I simultaneously said, leaning our backs on the counter as we watched Ratchina stretch.
As soon as she was done stretching, a human guy, tall, dark and average walked up to her with a smile.
"I didn't know angels frequent this establishment," he said to Ratchina.
Lemon and I turned looking at each other, we tried our best not to laugh, and our shaking grins were struggling to keep it that way.
"Not today human," Ratchina replied, beckoning him to walk away.
So he did. Lemon and I looked at him as he walked away, then we turned and looked at her with a grin.
"Not a word from you two," she said.
We calmed down, resisting our intuitive thoughts. But it didn't stop there, yet another man walked up to her trying to hit on her. And another, and another and yet another, until Ratchina could not take it anymore.
"I'm going back to the hotel," she said, making us laugh even more.
"No, please stay," Lemon said.
"I can't tolerate this disrespect," she said. "I'm decades older than these tadpoles."
"Oh come on Ratchina," I chuckled. "Give them a break, bees are attractive to nectar after all."
"Well this nectar is off limits," she replied. "We leave for the training arena in three hours Gaurdian, we're days behind schedule. Prepare yourself."
At that she walked away, grumbling under her breath as she did. I looked at Lemon, she grinned, then we shared an outburst of laughter.
"I'll be leaving for the arena in three hours, what should we do before then?"
She shrugged, pulling the straw out of her smoothie. "Can I, come with you to the arena?"
I exhaled, getting off the stool. "Unfortunately you can't. Only Knights and Guardians are allowed in the Arena."
She got off, caressing her hair as she stared at me. "So when will you be back?"
"Probably sometime around midnight," I replied. "Time's different in the Arena."
She exhaled, her face filled with disappointment. Then she looked at the waves of the sea.
"Hey, you wanna surf before you go?" She asked.
"Let's do it," I smirked in reply.
That was two hours of surfing, volleyball and sand castling on the beach. We even met Tonji and his fiancée again, challenging them to a volleyball match. We won. Twice. I left Lemon in their care and found my way to the Arena.
Unlike last time, I appeared a lot closer to Xaion, the Guild of the Knights when I walked through the Gaurdian's passage. It was a trick Ratchina thought me…how to navigate my passage to the Arena. She was the first one I met when I came through, and we made our way into Xaion, meeting the others at the Keeper's bar.
After a few drinks and some anime jokes by Ezekiel about Gojo Satoru and Goku Kakarat, we set out to hunt down the boss of the Shilois. Ezekiel's anime jokes did not stop and Barbados could not stop bugging me with questions about my love life. Fargo was always ahead, blowing stuffs up with his gun and Ratchina sometimes, just up and wanders off, we had to go off course to find her and get her back on track. This happened five times. The team was not your natural team.
Although I learnt alot from them, a lot of stories and experiences were shared. This was how it went on through out the period that the vacation lasted. I spent some time with Lemon, leave her in the care of Tonji, then I spend some time with the team, amassing power stones and upgrading in knowledge and ability.
These were the fun times, the calm before the storm. Something bad was on the horizon. As we approached the climax of our vacation, Tonji got married, there on the beach…I was his best man and Lemon was the ring bearer. It was a small wedding, quite fun. Lemon had a beautiful dress on.
But then, the moment the party was over, we received a call from Yolo-Central. It was the chief. There had been another murder and the our names were written down using the victims blood. We had been summoned.