Mana Mark

"I'm sorry... Ruby. It won't happen again, you're right because I don't think I could do it again." I said with a smile, but she shook her head. Why was she crying so much? It was making me uncomfortable.

That's right... when I was blocking that [Bullet], I acknowledged how ignorant I was. I didn't care to understand other people's feelings, so I felt like shit looking at Ruby knowing that those words just came out of my mouth. I never understood her, and I might not until the end of time. However, that shouldn't stop me from trying.

"It won't happen again. End of story. I'm sorry." I told her with a straight face. I then looked at everybody else as we all fell silent. I didn't want them to split apart from me in case they were attacked, but I think I should be alone with Ruby for a moment.

"Guys... can you give us a second?" I asked everybody while looking at Ruby. Soul pushed everybody out of our vicinity and down the small hill close by. Afterward, I leaned in next to Ruby to sit down next to her.

"I thought... you would've died. I didn't know what I would do if you died there. Nobody could help me find my dad... Zeus would be too powerful and eventually wipe us all out... it overwhelmed me, I'm sorry, I don't want to control you at all." Ruby said. She was aggressive at first, but now she was defensive. Isn't that a trauma reaction?

Somebody in her past probably mentally abused her. Something she didn't like, at least, because she seemed to be ready to wince at any moment.

"You don't have to apologize, Ruby. You, of all people, should know that I didn't want to do that. People like you are the reason I even thought about it. The people that tell me when I'm too much or when I should limit myself, those people know me and how important it is that I can continue to be a Hero, whatever that may mean. It was reckless, but some things we can't run away from. I'm sorry I scared you, and I want to understand the way you feel, but as things stand, we don't have that luxury. I'm still sorry for what I did and I will think of every outcome to avoid it from now on." I said, bowing my head toward her.

I wasn't sure how to sincerely mean that, since I don't usually apologize for anything this profusely. Everything I do, at least I believe, is predetermined and shouldn't be argued at all. I do what I must, or at least I thought.

Now, I don't want to do it because I feel it's right, I want to do it because I want it to be right.

I put my arms around Ruby's body and pulled her into my chest. I held on tightly with a blushing face as I looked down her shoulder. What am I even doing? This isn't like me at all. I don't like physical affection...

You can't be serious, do I feel something right now?

Ruby was hugging me back?

Her cries were silent and buried into my shoulder, but her tears and grip weren't what I felt.

I could feel something deep in my heart start to move. I felt it once before, but haven't felt it since that time on Earth. That time with Destiny.

A memory blocked off from me for some reason, this was the same feeling I got when I looked at Destiny. When I waited for her to return to me after moving away, that's what I felt when Ruby held me.

Dammit... I don't want to be infatuated with anybody like that. I just thought this was the right thing to do... Well... sort of.

I can't lie to myself, not in my head. I'm not convincing anybody when I go against the voice that speaks first. I knew what I wanted, and I went for it. But why did I want it?

Being cared about sucks, because now I have to keep myself safe.

"We will find your Dad, with me there," I told her. Ruby nodded and we slowly let go of each other. With rosy cheeks and wet eyes, she smiled at me.

"It's funny seeing you with red cheeks. It's not like you." She said with an even bigger smile.

I don't remember being reincarnated into a dating sim!

I turned my head toward the ocean again and heard a small giggle again.

It was hard to constantly keep my eye closed, but I couldn't open them, or else it hurts to look through.

"Anima, are you sure you're alright? That mark on your eye, it's like the one you said Zeus had." Ruby mentioned to me. Once she got up and let her gear fall into the field, Soul turned her head toward the two of us and joined back up.

"Now, about that mark on your face. We should talk about it. How do you feel? When I open your eye, you say it hurts?" Soul asked me. I nodded, holding my hand over it again.

"You told me it's mana burn. What does that mean? Will I be able to use it anymore?" I asked her, fearing the bad news.

"Of course, it'll just take a bit. Mana burn is common, mainly an illness in Pretoria, right Ken?" Soul asked him. He nodded and crouched down by my eye as well.

"And your health potions can't heal this?" Ken asked me. I shrugged and chugged a potion, but nothing happened.

"Healing a mana burn with a potion infused with mana? It's like shooting yourself in the foot instead of the leg. Listen, you can't use any of your potions. They most likely won't affect you until your mana burn heals." Soul told me. I asked her why she knew so much, and she admitted to suffering one a while ago.

"How long did it last? We have a problem at hand here." I told her, getting up off of the ground. I looked everywhere to make sure nothing else was going to happen, but my vision was very limited.

"Mine lasted a week, but I also don't have Hero Stats, so yours might be cured even sooner. We can't fight Zeus without you at full power, we should retreat for now." She said.

"What if Zeus attacks us? We can't defend after that." I told her.

She sat for a moment and thought about something to say.

"Well... I'll try to explain it easily. Mana burn is the excess of mana put into one body at once. If that mana can't return to the user, because it was absorbed into a mana burn, then the user would be just as weak as the user. It has to do with mana and how it travels between people when you use attacks. For example, when you used your skills to buff yourself, you were expending mana, but it went back to you after they were done. If you buffed me and I got mana burn, that means I wouldn't be able to be buffed by your skills until it's done. Does it make sense? Soul asked me.

"Got it. So both of us are mana burned, but I'm burned because I absorbed too much. I understand it." I told her.