A Difference Between Struggling And Obsession (REUPLOADED)

February 21, 1976

The Fifth Realm, The Infinite Corridor

(Jezebel's POV)

After Yamato walked towards a white coffee table, she grabbed a random cup nearby and began boiling some tea.

With a couple of sips here and there, she relaxed for another moment and let out a quick sigh of relief.

Ignoring her exhaustion, I noticed that the sweat on her face was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, when she looked around to wipe it away, she didn't notice any of her usual white handkerchiefs lying nearby.

"Damn, and I told myself I was going to bring back some napkins the other day…" She mumbled aloud.

Since the Corridor was empty, devoid of any personality, Yamato had took it upon herself to liven things up whenever possible.

By importing materials from home, she brought over furniture and potted plants for beautiful decoration.

In fact, her and her siblings were the one who built this lovely gazebo. Different plants, vines and handmade ornaments she and some friends of hers handcrafted also brought a delightful splash of life.

She even baked treats like biscuits and crackers.

However, although it was freshly baked the other day, it was no longer warm. But they weren't exactly cold, so temperature was rather hard to describe.

At the very least, since time didn't seem to exist here, both the food were unable to grow stale, while the plants continue to somewhat flourish.

In any case, perhaps feeling a bit lukewarm from the unpleasant training, Yamato decided to cool herself off with a bit of magic.

After casting a small magic spell in front of her, it began to blow a very small breeze around her.

*Swosh….*

"So, what's Dazai been up to lately?" I asked, hoping to start up a pleasant conversation.

"Doing the same thing as usual. He's been doing nothing more but training with Troy, and holing himself inside his room, reading books of all things."

Something felt off with that sentence.

For some reason, I sensed a bit of unintentional dullness in her voice.

Usually, whenever we talked about that boy, her eyes and demeanor would carry a certain amount of cheerfulness.

However, today, whether it was because of her current exhaustion or something else entirely, that joyful spark wasn't really there.

Knowing that was a bit unnatural for her, this kind of put a bit on edge, making me a little more inclined to hear her next words closely.

Thankfully, she seemed to shake off a bit of that mood after getting a chance to relax.

But even still, I wondered about something.

"Ah yes. If I remember correctly, he's still training to become a knight right?" I asked.

Once she rested her head on her arm, she placed her cup back on the table before rubbing her finger around the rim.

"Eh, something like that, I guess. You see, even now, he's still pretty weak in his own right. Compared to other boys his age, no doubt about it, he's average and is easily outclassed by his peers….."

Wow, that's pretty to say about Dazai.

However, paying little to no mind about what she said, she continued.

"So you know, boys being boys, when they become too self-aware of their moment of weakness, they try too hard to fix that and try to go further beyond."

Okay, I have to stop her right there.

"Well, you do realize that's not a trait just specific to only boys you know?" I replied.

"What?"

"Take animals for example. Whenever they are under intense situations, they struggle with all their might to improve and adapt to their surroundings."

"Yeah, well, struggling and obsession are two different things."

"Obsession?"

That was a rather odd word I never thought her of all people would use to describe him.

"Yeah, with the way he's been so focused with his own training, he is starting to grow a little bit….."shortsighted" with other matters."

Shortsighted, huh. I think I'm starting to see the picture that she's trying to paint.

"Honestly, its as if he's becoming some sort of bloodthirsty beast…" She continued, feeling a little hesitant.

Her words greatly caught my attention.

And that was when I realized something important.

It goes back to the first thing that Yamato said when she first arrived here.

Whether or not she was joking, she did describe them as "monsters" of the sort, which also correlates to her now referring to him as a "bloodthirsty beast".

Judging from this, Yamato must have seen, even experienced first hand how intense they planned on taking their training.

The more she talked about Dazai, the more I was starting to get worried.

"I know the boy always had a thirst for improvement, but it somewhat sounds like he's gone off the deep end. Is there some sort of reason why?"

But Yamato only shrugged in a "beats me" manner, before stroking the bottom of her chin as if pondering about something.

Then suddenly, a thought came to her mind.

"I wonder if it's got something to do with what happened three years ago….."

"Three years ago?"

"Huh? Oh. Nothing. Just thinking about something..."

"I see."

Slowly but surely, with Yamato feeling less inclined to talk, it was starting to become obvious that this conversation was going nowhere fast.

Still, for reasons of my own, I had no intention on letting it die here.

So instead, I decided that perhaps, it would be better to approach this topic from a different angle and work my way back up from there.

"If I remember correctly, his birthday should have passed by the other day. What did you guys do then?"

Again, Yamato shrugged her shoulders.

"Nothing special. We spent it no differently than a normal day." She said vaguely.

"Seriously? Nothing eventful happened?"

"Well, I mean the only thing he really did was spend the rest of his free time till daybreak. It was honestly ridiculous." She replied as of matter-of-factly.

"That's…..unhealthy."

"I know right? I had to drag his ass back inside just so he could get some proper sleep..."

That was probably a smart move.

"And get this!" She suddenly exclaimed.

Just as I was starting to think about some more other things though, she stumbled upon a new thought.

Whatever it was, it made her angry enough to slap the table and address it to me rather loudly.

"He no longer cuddles with me!!"

Wow, how unfortunate.