The Spicy Pepper's Admonition

It'd been three days since everyone had returned to the spire for a brief moment of respite from their training. The band of misfits sat together as they ate and chattered about nothing in particular. Reed stared at the dorm's holotank projector that relayed the morning news.

He wasn't paying attention at all.

Astor cracked a joke about something and snickered. Sebastian let out a snarky remark. Astrid kept silent as she ate her breakfast. Meanwhile, Ophelia and Lu'um spoke about something in hushed tones amongst themselves.

Horatio noticed the listless gaze Reed had as he stared at the holotank and said something, but it flew over his head.

"Hm? Yeah, that's true," said Reed. He threw out an inoffensive, vague response as he fiddled around with his breakfast. It seemed that the remark worked like a charm. He left Reed alone after that and focused on Sebastian instead.

"Who can endure the grand and breathtaking radiance of the blessed sun, Ka'an? No one. It is unique and without equal in all creation. To look upon the face of the sky is a grievous sin, and thus, is a transgression against heaven itself."

"It is only natural that all things under the stars tremble beneath it, my dearest. Who can look upon its terrible majesty and not feel the scorching heat of their father's beating heart?"

Her words buzzed in his head whenever he let his mind drift like a faint echo in the distance. She'd told Reed that she wouldn't help him this time around and left him with some final words on the subject.

Reed roughly understood what her words meant; they spoke of an irrefutable rule that he refused to accept as truth.

If he accepted her words, it'd be the same as Reed admitting that he was explicitly separate from the whole. That was unacceptable. He would rather deny himself than even consider breaking the illusion.

Lu'um imperceptibly glanced at Reed. Her lips pursed in slight pain but kept quiet. She understood that pain was essential in a person's growth; that did not mean she preferred this approach.

It was an inevitable part of living — only by becoming self-aware of it — by recognizing where it stemmed from, one could finally embark upon the voyage to the other shore of time...

She loathed the idea of playing the role but had no other choice.

"Why are you all afraid of Reed? Or rather, why have you all been treating him like a liability?" Lu'um asked. She let out a bombshell of a question without the slightest ounce of indecision.

Reed felt his heart sink when he heard the question and scowled at Lu'um in outright displeasure. He knew she was of the interfering type, but this was too much for him to handle. Did she have any goddamned boundaries?

Her query hit the group right where it hurt the most in a single second. The previously harmonious atmosphere they had vanished and an uncomfortable silence followed after for a brief duration.

"What are you talking about, Maya? That's not true at all. Where have these silly accusations come from? Are you alright?" Astor responded. He had a stiff look on his face as he frowned at Lu'um.

"I'm quite alright, Astor, but I don't think you are. Neither are any of you," she replied as she glanced at everyone else. "I can smell the fear on all of you. Mhm, yes. You all fear what you do not understand."

Astrid said, "What do you speak of, Maya? Make yourself clear or cease this slander at once. You aren't convincing anyone with your nonsense. Why would we, who've been friends with Reed since the beginning, suddenly fear him? Where's your proof?"

Lu'um sneered and said, "Oh please, have you seen how you've been treating him over the last week? Why is it that he's only been allowed to act as the bait? Why is it that every time he brought it up, you and blondie over here avoided the subject? He wanted to fight, but you never let him. Weird, huh?"

Horatio spoke up and said, "Look, you two have only been on the team for a week, so we wanted you both to get a feel how we operate before we let you out on the field in a combat role. The team's efficiency is paramount to our survival out there."

Ophelia chimed in and added, "It's nothing personal, of course. We have no qualms about you or Reed taking a more active role in team missions, it's just-"

"You already have a reliable unit and our introduction into your group has made you all uneasy, right?" Lu'um retorted. "What a load of bullshit; you have the most talented contender in the last millennium at your disposal and you're concerned about the team's efficiency?" She let out a hearty chuckle and cleared her eyes of the tears that formed out of reflex. That was the best joke she'd heard in a long, long time.

"Reed could raze everything into ashes and crush all your foes; there's no need for strategy in the face of overwhelming power. It's futile, you know." She licked her lips and finally got to the crux of it all.

"Here's the cold truth: He's too powerful for you to handle. You don't know how strong he really is and that intimidates you. He stands far, far above all of you and as a result, you don't know what to do."

Reed had enough and was about to speak but Lu'um raised her hand at him in protest. She glared at him; it was his turn to keep quiet.

"I am not criticizing you for this — it's not your fault — that's just how things are. If you let Reed fight, not a single one of you would ever have to raise a finger. But that wouldn't be helpful for you in the slightest, right? How are you supposed to grow if you're always being coddled by Reed? So you ended up shunning him out as you did..."

The group remained silent. She finally reached the root of the dilemma: they were too different. It exasperated them, but it was the truth. They couldn't keep up with Reed no matter how hard they tried.

Three months of arduous training didn't even bridge the gap between them in the slightest. When Reed told them that he'd already become capable of exploiting space-time, they finally realized that it'd be impossible for them to keep up with him.

At first, they thought that he was merely a little more talented than them, that they'd catch up with enough hard work. They were wrong. Hopelessly wrong.

A man could never touch the sun, for it existed far, far higher than they could ever reach. Just like Icarus they, too, would have their wings burnt away in the presence of the sun's tremendous heat.

"You mean well, I have no doubt of that — you cherish him as a dear friend — but you already understand that you and he aren't meant for each other. You will only hinder each other's growth as unfortunate as that may be. Instead of trying to force something that will never work out, why not accept that it wasn't meant to be and move on?"

She looked at them sympathetically and said, "You can still be good friends even if you walk different paths; there's no need to confound your duties as contenders with your personal lives."

Ah, I couldn't help myself, Lu'um thought to herself. She was unable to keep her own word, but that was fine. She'd rather deal with most of the fallback herself if it meant easing his suffering if only a bit.

Reed was still angry at Lu'um for her incessant meddling but understood where she was coming from. He couldn't deny that she was right, too. Over the course of the last week, he'd secretly been perfecting his Anima mastery and even experienced a breakthrough.

He was becoming increasingly skilled with each passing day and had long since felt that his surroundings were starting to slow him down. His friends probably caught onto this and they, too, had their own worries about it.

Astor scratched his head and said, "Man, you don't pull any punches do you, Maya? I- No, we have to be honest about it. You're right. As much as we all hate to admit it, you're too damn strong, bud. We love you, but you're a million miles ahead of us and it'll be a long, long time until we catch up with you."

Reed bitterly smiled. "Yeah, I know. But hey, at least the elephant in the room has been addressed. You guys don't have to include me for training; it's fine. I'll still come over, if you need someone to save your ass, though," he quipped. Horatio and Sebastian smiled when they heard the joke. Ophelia followed up with another joke and they all laughed.

Astrid nodded in approval, but something in her eyes suggested otherwise...

"But, man... What a woman you've got, Reed. Maya's a spicy little pepper, that's for sure. She's got a scorpion's tail, bud. Better watch out for these types, or you'll get a nasty prick one day," he whispered. Reed ignored him; he crammed his omelette in his mouth and minded his own business.

"Yeah, she's... very charming in her own special way," murmured Reed in response. He felt embarrassed that he had even uttered those words. Astor barely heard his reply, but when he did, he smirked.

Unbeknownst to the idiotic pair, she heard their conversation even though it should have been impossible to hear. No one noticed the extremely faint, almost imperceptible blush on her cheeks that disappeared as quickly as it came. If Reed had seen the lovely girl's face even he would have been instantly enchanted by the maiden's fleeting expression.

Who could have ever imagined that the spicy pepper would have had such a cute reaction? Certainly, not Reed...