Nature

Earth's slip of paper simply changed to '?????'.

I just kind of stood there, wondering what the problem with the human in front of me was. Earth's slip of paper returned to normal as he whispered to me, "Do you think Nature is nearby?"

"None of my business," I whispered back. "You do something about it."

"I can't just kill her if she doesn't make a wish!" Earth complained.

"Yeah, and I can't be bothered right now," I countered.

When I tried to leave, Earth grabbed a hold of my trenchcoat, pulling me back. "You can't leave me here! What if Nature comes around?"

"Um..." The human lifted a hand.

Earth turned to face the human. She then said to Earth, "I'm just looking for the station...? I'm meeting a friend, and I'm running late. I'm kinda lost, so could you help me with the directions?"

"Do you... want to make a wish?" Earth asked hesitantly.

"Huh?"

"I can bring you to the station if you want," Earth offered. "Uh..."

I tugged my trenchcoat back, telling him, "Let go of me already."

The girl scratched her head, saying, "But... my friend told me not to get involved with strangers."

"You're the one who approached us," Earth commented.

"Hey, there is no us," I told Earth, pointing at him. "There is you and a whole bunch of not my business. So either let me go or I'm hitting you again."

The girl kind of just looked between the both of us. She asked slowly, "Are... you two going through something...?"

"Station's down the street," I told her. "Take a left and it'll be in sight."

"Oh, thank you," She thanked and walked off.

I may have given her false instructions, but it was better than having Earth tug at me all day. Earth finally let go. I brushed my coat off, asking him, "What happened between you and Nature? I thought y'all were on good terms?"

"I made Nature mad," Earth pouted, folding his arms. "Some humans wished to industrialize this forested area. I didn't know Nature was living in there with the humans she liked!"

I softly karate-chopped his head. "Definitely your fault then."

Before anything wild could happen, I turned into flames and made my way over to the biggest mall in town. It was quite popular, and surprisingly, there weren't too many people around. Air was somewhere in this mall with Mevis. She could be anywhere. My only hope was that Mevis was smart enough to not simply go wherever Air wanted to go. Not that Air's untrustworthy, it's just that she can be a little bit of an... airhead. She likes staring at things, that's just something she does.

While searching, I noticed the girl who had asked for directions just moments ago. She noticed me, putting her hand up to signal for my attention. She made her way over to me, saying, "I wanted to ask you for more specific directions, but you already left."

"How did you find me here?" I asked.

"The magician just now did a cool magic trick and teleported me over here," She replied.

I noticed the flower on her head. I cleared my throat, telling her, "I'm not exactly familiar with the area. I think it's best if you ask somebody else. Also, I'm kind of in a rush right now."

"Oh, sorry to bother you then."

She stepped away. continued to stare at the flower. Wait, this could be a good opportunity to eliminate someone from the game. I asked her, "Uh... that flower, is it a hairclip?"

She patted the flower, saying, "I guess? It's important to me since my friend gave it to me."

I lit a finger on fire behind my back, hoping to do this quickly. However, that fire was extinguished when roots erupted from the ground to crush my hand. The root instantly burnt away. The girl glanced behind me, asking, "Is something the matter?"

"Rachel! Where have you been?" Someone called out from the side.

A woman ran over to the girl. She had long brown hair and wore a dress. She and Rachel hugged before the lady turned to face me. Her fringe was pushed aside enough that I could see her right eye. Her eyes were emerald green with a light green scar of a leaf inside her eye. Rachel thanked me. The woman in the dress who I was able to immediately recognise as Nature turned Rachel around, saying, "You go ahead, I'll meet up with you real quick."

Mature folded her arms as she faced me.

"Fire," She greeted with mild dislike.

"Nature," I greeted back. "How have you been doing?"

A disc appeared in her hands. It was wide, looking like a bronze shield. It had an intricate design of the cycle of life etched along the edges of the disc.

I put my hands up. "Nature, this might not be the best place for this."

An animal erupted from the disc, growing in size to the point that it reached the third floor. It was dripping wet with water as it towered over me. Nature's disc vanished, and so did Nature herself. The monster roared and slammed a fist at me. I evaporated its entire arm. Humans around me were already panicking and running for their lives. In one fell swoop, I completely evaporated the creature.

My body was steaming momentarily as I brushed off my clothes.

That monster was big, but it was not Water.

The steam from my attacks reached the fire alarm and the sprinklers activated. I stood there as my body constantly steamed and sizzled from the water being rained down on me. With so many humans being chased out, it was quite obvious when I saw two people completely dry under the sprinklers. It was as if there was an invisible dome over their heads. Bags floated in the air behind the two girls. One of them was just standing there, staring at one of the decorative potted plants. The other one looked much more concerned.

When Air finally looked up and noticed me, she waved, the area instantly clearing itself.

The sprinklers were broken as Air skipped across the wet ground in her boots.

Mevis looked much more hesitant to approach me. I faced Air, who had a cheery smile on her face. I sighed, telling her, "You shouldn't be participating, you know that right?"

She nodded. I continued, "Dark already started complaining."

"She protected me!" Mevis called out, stepping up to defend Air.

Air grinned and hugged Mevis's arms. I made eye contact with Mevis, but her gaze did not break. I waved her off, saying, "Yeah, I know. It's good that you're alive."

We made our way out of the mall.

"You met Earth, right?" I spoke to Mevis on the way out. "What did he tell you?"

Mevis paused for a moment. She then said, "He told me about the prize of winning this competition..."