Zealous Will Not Fall

"A whole katana? Isn't this expensive...? They weren't super cheap for us when we made a bunch. What's so special about it?" Fudo asked. He pulled out the katana, and as it slid out of the sheathe, it all came out at once and revealed a handle and guard, without a blade.

"Huh? Where's the rest of it?" Fudo asked. He tilted it toward the floor, and a burst of wind came out, shooting out so fast that it ripped the grass out of the dirt and dug a hole in the ground.

"WHAT?! Woah... I've never seen a weapon do that. Can you see strands?" Fudo asked me. I couldn't see anything, no matter how far and deep I looked into it.

This is odd...

"What kind of weapon did Khalil give us? Was that like willpower or something?" Fudo asked again. He swung the weapon around, causing me to duck my head in fear. I had no idea if it would hurt if the emptied blade intersected with my head, and I didn't want to find out.

"No, it probably moves with the air or something... or maybe some weird power we don't know about yet. Gosh, why would he give us this? Do you think it would help?" Fudo asked me.

We both started to move toward the center of town in order to find more people. I assume they wouldn't be Cole in disguise again, but now I was cautious. Anybody could truly be the enemy, which was probably me just being paranoid.

I wondered why Cole disguised himself instead of getting the jump on me... perhaps he just wanted to be heard? Either way, I wondered why he revealed all of that information to me, and me specifically. Did he know that I was connected to Providence through The First Trial? Why didn't I ever see him? I know he was reincarnated afterward... but it was still so weird to me.

"Hey, Fudo, didn't that seem weird to you? Like, how Cole disguised himself to get close to me? Should we go help Sky and Dani? I'm not sure what to think of it all," I told him. Fudo shrugged while checking inside buildings and calling out to them.

"No clue either. I'm just here to protect... I know you might be okay fighting alongside Sky and Dani, but I couldn't hold it together. I can do it from a long-range, but I'm constantly worried if I were to hit one of you. Say, what do you think of their abilities? From the little I've seen, it's kind of scary what they're capable of," Fudo suggested.

"Half of the stuff I've seen Sky pull off was recently, but he was a normal kid for the first fourteen years... I'm not even sure what's going on anymore, but this stuff with Cole is making me confused as well. What about you, Fudo? Was it all confusing for you too?" I asked him.

"Uh, yeah! The first time I met the guy, he introduced himself as The Deity of Wrath... what an awesome name! I look up to him, even if I'm older than him... he's a really good leader, as far as I'm able to tell," Fudo explained to me.

"I think so too... he's never done me wrong, and he's always protected me. I wonder though, why people always hate on him, for absolutely nothing. He's not guilty of anything. I don't care what he did in the past," I adamantly told Fudo. He understood my appreciation and almost believed me more than anybody else.

"You know, in school, we're taught how Asterios are always the evil ones no matter what, and people who should be condemned without listening to them. However, Sky, Dani, and you, you're all people who I've come to trust, regardless of what others say about you. You can't all be evil, right? I trust you, no matter what. A month does a lot, doesn't it?" Fudo suggested.

We walked over to another collapsed home, searching through it to find any signs of life. Luckily, it was empty, and it seemed like everybody had made it out. Beds were cleaned of sheets, there were no stuffed animals, and all hygiene products were missing from the torn-apart bathroom.

"They must've made it out... but where did they go? The bunker hopefully. I don't want them to risk it out there," I suggested to Fudo.

"Kire and Ra were talking about that too. I hope they decided to stay in the end. Umbra and Ruby fought the two with Lia, so hopefully they came to a... harmless conclusion. Do you think I can expect that much from Lia?" Fudo asked me.

"I'm not sure, I don't know much about her, but she's trustworthy, I know that much. If you told her not to, I don't think she would," I said, setting down a fallen door near the front.

"Let's keep moving. I'm glad to see no dead bodies," I told him again. I was nervously looking around with strands prepared in case I needed to heal somebody. I never memorized how to do it effectively, and even during the fight with Illya, instinct healed me over my own ability. I could rely on that with others, but it'll never be as strong as it was when I tried to preserve my own life. I always thought of strands to be the weirdest thing, considering that so many of us could either use them effectively or not use them at all.

To me, it seems that the fight with Illya brought out a lot of necessary abilities to grow stronger. Could that have been on purpose? I know she's smart, but was she thinking this far ahead?

If teaching Sky how to be a Deity to fight her brother, or whatever they talked about, was the main reason for the conflict, was that the part of the puzzle I was missing? Could Illya have planned everything? The next time I see her, I plan on asking her to find out the truth.