Burden Of Heroes

After a feast of a dinner prepared by Gavin, all of the Six Blades returned to their respective quarters in order to sleep.

"Make sure you guys get plenty of shut-eye, you worked hard today, you really did!"

Luken said.

It was midnight already.

The absence of light brought upon by the night covered the Niflheim.

As the new Six Blades member was still up reading books, his page flicking was stopped abruptly by something.

Or someone.

Zachary heard someone creeping about.

Footsteps.

From the sounds of it, it only belonged to one person.

Who was it? An intruder, a spy?

Zach heard it from the outside of the hideout.

He got up from his bed, placed the book down, and tip toed around the living room, watching from window to window.

His eyes slowly fixated on a silhouette.

A mirage of someone's shadow.

It was too far to make out who it was, or what it was, even.

But the silhouette resembled that of a person.

"Just who is that?!"

He whispered softly.

"I do not know as well."

Zachary was startled, once he looked at his right side, he saw Suna was already there, crouching beside her.

"H-How did you get here? Why are you even here?"

He asked.

"You are not the only one bothered by the footsteps, you know? I heard it as well as you did."

She replied.

"Do you think we got broken into? I will try to check the living room and the locks if something is missing or taken."

Zach said.

"Who would be dumb enough to steal from a renowned Slayer organization? Does not seem very wise, even I know that much."

Suna said.

After a couple of minutes, Zachary noticed that nothing was taken or amiss. Everything was perfectly as it was from the moment after they ate dinner.

But there was something wrong, the door was opened.

Suna examined the main door herself.

She got up and started poking around it.

"There is not a sign of forced entry. The bolts on the door are intact and were not damaged or forcefully opened in any way. That is pretty weird."

She said.

"The person is moving! No, it is running!"

Zach remarked.

He opened the door and ran outside, Suna followed shortly after.

After about a minute of running, they finally caught up to the person.

He was wearing a dark hooded cloak.

"Explain yourself! You are on Six Blades property!"

Suna shouted.

The person placed his arms up in the air and slowly turned around.

Everyone was both surprised and disappointed, leaning much more to the latter.

"Yin!?"

"Suna?!"

Both of them were surprised.

"What the heck are you supposed to be doing out here?"

Zachary's fears were instantly turned into anger.

"I-I was training! Is it not obvious?"

Yin responded.

"Why would you be training at night?"

Suna asked him.

Yin did not respond to her question.

"Hey, answer her!"

Zachary shouted.

Back at the Six Blades hideout, Luken was watching from his room.

Gavin knocked on his door.

"What are they doing outside? Shouldn't we stop them or something?"

He said.

"Nah, teenagers always snuck around places, specially at night! You should know that Gavin, we were like shadows back in the day, creeping around aimlessly all through the night…"

Gavin sighed.

"Whatever, I am going back to sleep."

"What's wrong, Yin?"

Suna approached him slowly.

"I just – I can't sleep, Suna. Every single time I close my eyes, I remember our comrades who died in our last conquest. I can see their hesitant faces, reluctantly charging into battle to fight for Niflheim. They protected me, they protected you as well! That is why I have to be stronger, even if it means training all the freaking time, I have to be what I was not back then – a hero."

Yin said as tears rolled down his face.

Suna picked up a wide and flat rock.

She proceeded to sit down on it.

"I understand that feeling. I know it all too well. The very first time I survived a conquest, was that time the Commander allowed me to join in on it, despite not having any Anima cells. I cursed my own weakness, contemplating whether or not I should have lived instead of them. I mean just look at me, I have no Anima cells, no affinities, I have nothing. It does not get easier, Yin. Every single time conquests end with fatalities, but what we experienced recently, getting decimated to less than ten after starting out with fifty Slayers, that was the worst possible start to your journey as one. I carry the burden of all my comrades who never make it out of conquests alive, not a day goes by that I do not think about them."

Suna said as she herself began to tear up.

Yin got up and hugged her.

He whispered into her ear.

"Let's become heroes, Suna."

She nodded.

Zachary looked up above the starry night sky.

"Yeah, maybe these guys are worth sticking around with. Just maybe."

He thought to himself as he cracked a smile.

"Are we going to spend the night crying and stuff?"

Zachary broke the silence.

"Or are we going to train?!"

He grinned hard and locked eyes with Yin.

Yin and Suna looked at him with anger for a split second there.

But it immediately changed into smiles after what Zachary said.

Luken was now looking at the three with a telescope on hand.

"Welp, I couldn't make out what just happened, but these smiles should lead me to believe that it was a good thing."

He laughed as he pulled his sheets and went back to bed.

The three rookies of the Six Blades trained for a couple of hours before going back to bed, unbeknownst to them, Luken and Gavin both knew what they were up to that night.

"To become heroes, huh? That's a goal I can get behind with, Yin."

Suna said as she shut her eyes for a good night's rest.