Echoes of Strength

** 

"Why am I doing this? Was it camaraderie?" Mae thought to herself.

"A sense of responsibility?" She said to herself as her fingers hugged the cold metal and braced herself.

"Why am I doing this?" She pleaded to herself again, as Mirai pulled out his katana, it gleamed in the rays of sunlight that was filtering through the trees.The sound of crunching leaves could be heard, as Esther also readied herself.

Mirai then disappeared like he did the previous time as well.

"Where the hell is he!?" Esther started to frantically look around and...

𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘨!

Mae shot her gun upwards, and Esther did not understand why she did that.

"What are you doing, Mae!? Focus!" Esther's eyes then focused, and finally spotted Mirai rushing in from behind Mae.

"Mae, behind you!" Esther screamed, but Mae couldn't even turn around in time to face him.

Mirai was right behind Mae, his katana drawn.

"I like your confidence, Mae." Mirai said, and before he could complete his sentence, a big branch unexpectedly fell down between them, catching him off guard.

Mirai's eyes widened as he took a step back, but it didn't startle him enough to move out.

and then... 

𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘨!

Mae instantly shot in the direction of Mirai through the tree branch, and it kicked up a lot of debris.

The explosion sent Mae flying back again, and Esther caught and stabilized Mae.

"Are you okay, Mae?" Esther asked as she held Mae in her arms, who was exhausted.

"I...am...fine..." Mae tried to stand up, but her knees gave way. It felt like she had just run twenty marathons back-to-back without taking a break.

She turned to look up at Mirai, but he was absolutely unscathed, but he had gone back quite some distance.

"Goodness Mae, You've exhausted all the magic you had, rest easy now." Esther said, and gestured Leona to come over.

"You take good care of her, Leona. I'll handle this." Esther said with a stoic voice, and got up to face Mirai.

"W-wait, Esth-"

"It's okay. I need to face off against him."

"But why?" Mae asked, but she wasn't even looking at Mae and she answered without hesitation "This is beyond you right now, Mae. Please. Stay out of this."

"I put myself in front of you Esther, and you're telling me to stay out now?" Mae asked, as she propped herself up with the gun as her walking stick.

"Yes. I told you clearly that this is beyond you." Esther quickly turned to face Mae.

"B-but I did the best I-" 

"Did I ask you to?" Esther asked, her voice in a lower pitch. Mae just stood there, speechless.

"Wasn't it no? Then shut the hell up and watch." Esther said and turned to face Mirai again.

She pressed the concealed button in her staff again, and the staff popped into two tonfas.

"I will beat it back into you, Mirai. You've gone and gotten way too strong in your head." Esther said, as she dropped down low to the ground, building up to a jump.

"I-It's not like that, Esther!" Mirai shouted back, but it was too late.

---

"Esther!"

"Esther!"

A small kid was running down a busy lane, being chased by a bunch of other kids.

"Get that white-haired brat!" A slightly taller boy shouted, leading the group.

They chased him down, and eventually, the young Mirai's exhaustion got to him as he tripped, and kissed terra firma.

"The brat fell! Get him now!" The group closed in on him, but he managed to get up and dragged himself into a small alley.

"You've got nowhere to run now, boy!" The group cornered him as the supposed leader walked up and picked him up by his neck.

"You imbecile." He said in a low voice, turning to the group for validation, and the five of them nodded along.

"Why are you even here? Why are you alive? Just die already." He let go of him and kicked him hard in the gut.

The boy fell back, and into the arms of a young girl who caught him.

"Who are you, bitch?" The boy sneered.

"You okay, Mirai? Sorry for being late, I won't be late next time." Saying that ,she stood tall and formidable, her presence alone enough to make the other kids hesitate.

"What's the problem here?" Esther demanded, her gaze fixed on the group of bullies.

"It's that white-haired brat! He thinks he's better than us!" one of the kids spat out.

"He's weird! Always reading books, not talking to people, and he won't answer us!" another added.

Esther took a step forward, shielding the young Mirai with her body. "Is that a good reason to chase someone down?"

The leader of the bullies, a slightly older boy, sneered. "We don't like weirdos around here. We're just having some fun."

"Oh, Time for me to have some fun then." Esther pulled out her staff, and stood as still as time for the bullies who were starting to turn tail now.

Esther's eyes narrowed, and she started to attack. In a matter of seconds, the alley was silent, the bullies sent running.

"Run along and leave him alone!," Esther shouted after them as a warning, and turned to him.

Mirai stared at Esther in awe, grateful. "Thank you, Esther. You're amazing! I wanna get as strong as you, you know?"

"You don't have to, Mirai. Not until I'm alive." Esther said, with a chuckle.

"Why not?"

"You just can't." Esther said, with a cold look.

Mirai got up with intent, and clenched his fist "Just you watch me, I will get strong!"

"Yeah, whatever." Esther shrugged it off, and walked away.

---

𝘵𝘩𝘶𝘥

With a resounding thud, the corpse of the dragon finally fell, it's body kicking up plumes of dust as it came to rest.

Everyone around them couldn't believe what they were seeing. A new bounty hunter, out of nowhere, took part in a group quest, and finished a dragon alone.

"Oh my, M-Mirai has done it! He beat that Dragon all by himself!"

"I... I did it... Yay." He put up a singular hand as the crowd erupted into cheers.

A girl ran up to him and bear-hugged him "Oh my god Mirai how strong are you actually!? That was freakin' crazy!"

Mirai couldn't be bothered about this girl hanging off him right now.

The thought that ran in his mind was:

"Have I grown strong enough now, Esther? Am I strong enough to protect you now?"

**