Fascinating World - Fiery Girl - Part Two

Twisting and turning.

Twisting and turning.

Twisting and turning.

The canvas in front of him twisted and turned as if cloaked in watercolor paint. His entire world spun around him once again as he found himself returning from a new realm entirely.

Or at least—something like that.

He wasn't sure what to make of it, although the closest word he could think of was certainly within the realm of magic. After being teleported again, he had too many questions that were buried under his uncertainty.

That uncertainty boiled its way up into his veins, overwhelming his whole body with fear… With Bismuth, and Irvelle, and this mysterious demon girl, he had so much he needed to stay alert to, and so much he needed to be afraid of.

He was unable to keep up with it all. Unable to keep running away from all the things he feared. Unable to pick himself back up only to be knocked down by someone else. In this neurotic, spinning hell, he felt himself slipping further and further away. Further and further out of reality.

That is, until…

He finally opened his eyes.

Being closed too tightly, trying to hide from the world in front of them, those eyes were forced open by something. Something unconsciously, that pushed him completely away from his self-destructive thoughts, and in that moment, his lashes finally pulled themselves away from each other.

First slowly, but then finally bringing themselves all the way open, his eyes almost felt as if they had left Cobalt's head entirely, revealing the real world, which had now stopped spinning.

A brighter, much larger world than he had ever known existed from his limited perspective. Feeling unchained from his limited mind, which tunnel-visioned itself into self-destructively seeing things in such a small aspect ratio, the scene in front of him now was much, much different than that. Everything had zoomed itself out for Cobalt, and his filmy eyes reflected the spectacular sunrise which sparkled in his own widened eyes.

As if the black space around his peripherals disappeared…

A sudden flutter of wings.

And a falling feather.

That abrupt change in perspective flipped the scene over in his mind like an old movie flipping through rolls of film.

As the falling feather passed from in front of his eyes and out to his peripheral, he immersed himself in that scene, which was completely cloaked in a golden light. This scene, which he had imagined for years. This scene, which he was too scared to grasp. This scene, which he was too tunnel-visioned to ever understand before this.

To the cascading forest scape, painting the entire planet in marvelous hues of yellow, amber, orange, red.

To the wide mountain peaks, jutting down from all directions towards the sparkling streams, shimmering waterfalls, all radiating a thick layer of mist which caked the surrounding autumn trees.

To the millions, if not billions of multicolored autumn leaves, which scattered themselves across that marvelous canvas he became encapsulated in,

To the never-ending view, which might as well have been from the very top of the world…

And to the magnificently warm sun which devoured the distant blue mountains, which covered in a "Rayleigh scattered" haze, igniting the entire scene like that of a timeless photograph, an utter paragon of the masterfully utilized color wheel.

This scene, which he could only imagine in the wildest of dreams...

Devoured the entire sky in its golden rays of life, bringing about a new, long-awaited day with all the waking colors wishing him a good morning.

It was enough to capture the hearts of anyone who could possibly bear witness—the ever so short time of the fleeting colors of fall.

But more than that, to Cobalt's touched heart…

This marked the beginning of an entirely new series of emotions.

One of which couldn't possibly be described with words alone…

For this marked the first time—in so many years…

That Cobalt had seen a real sunrise.

『Is this what… I've been missing all this time?』

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

Sparked alive with a charging battle cry, Cobalt's racing and excited mind went completely blank, being smacked so hard in the rear side of the skull that his entire upper body was suddenly sprung forward into action in tandem.

At this sudden lunge, his feet crumbled under the centripetal force, allowing his entire body to roll itself haphazardly across the hill, flipping and spinning away from that beautiful scene.

Just like flipping through rolls of film, that spectacular masterpiece flashed in front of him, washing its way all the way down from out of his vision, replacing it with the cold and wet morning grass.

His thoughtless mind was plunged down to the dew, sending his entire body flipping over it like a gymnast. After that flip, his knees dug into the angled soil on their way back down, springing his torso into action once more and smashing into the dewy grass where it would stay.

Having resigned to his own defeat, drool escaped his agape mouth onto the dirt, his mind clearly not having adjusted to the sudden ambush.

The assailant had flipped back as well from their somersault, preparing to land themselves onto the grass behind him—

"!!!"

Just as their foot caught at a sharp angle, throwing their entire body backwards into the wet grass behind his collapsed frame.

Now both victim and suspect lay defeated on the grass, the only individual left standing after the ambush—being the rising sun.

…

…

"T'hell with that!!!" Cobalt was the first to yell out while thrusting his arms against the ground to support his upper body, which now rose above the grass in which he once resigned himself to.

"No! Stay down!!!" was the only reply from higher up on the hill.

A girl's voice…?

He jolted his rising body around at a 180 degree angle, in an attempt to get the advantage before the assailant could have time to recover. But what he saw would only further his complete and utter confusion.

A small girl, maybe only a meter and a half tall, sat on the wet grass rubbing the side of her head frustratedly. She had a look of pain spread across her face—or maybe it was anger or annoyance instead?—and scratched fiercely at her temple, pushing her long and orange unkempt hair out of the way in the process.

"Tch—you're stupidly resilient for someone so pointless!"

"W-what?!"

Having so cruelly been called out by the demon in the "Tomb", bites from a little girl like this lost all their luster.

Almost like a middle schooler just learning the right way to insult people.

"You! You failed so hard just an hour or so ago but then suddenly you have a skull of steel!!! Ow—! My foot!!!"

"What, can you dish it out but can't take it?! Don't go smashing me in the back of the head if you're gonna whine if you fall!"

"For your information, creep, I didn't smash you in the back of the head! I punted you with a flying kick! It was really cool, actually!"

She's…

Absolutely nuts.

Between the girl with the fiery eyes, and the girl with the fiery personality, he was completely torn between which of their personalities were more detestable.

He wanted to laugh at her, having basically been just as battle-crazy the night before, but he couldn't let her crazed mannerisms go unchecked.

"What the hell do you mean really cool?!" He practically stumbled over her own insane speech.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to fly, like, horizontally through the air?! Let alone even hit someone with it!" Her voice was tight, shrill, and almost difficult to listen to—and yet strangely enough, almost singsong. She seemed to enunciate some words differently than others, in such a way that made her seem like she was trying to "steal the show".

"Why even kick me in the first place?! Are you not even going to explain yourself?!

"I needed to make sure you weren't going to run away! Wait no! I shouldn't have to explain any of this to you, you idiot!"

"You sound like a broken record. How am I supposed to feel insulted if all of your jabs sound like rehashes?!" He had now completely renavigated the conversation into insulting her own insults. There was absolutely no reason for this sudden change in approach; it's just simply where his mind went to. He was frustrated, of course, but for one reason or another this was the approach his mind settled on.

"Ow—? I don't know! Just find a way to take it more personally if you're gonna complain about it! Or should I come with a list of insults prepared next time?!"

His feet went plopped onto the ground and he thrusted his body up, now looking down on the girl, who was still sitting defeated on the ground.

Her annoyed face returned his look of frustration and annoyance.

"Yes! Please do! I think that would make this situation a lot better for both of us!!"

With that line, the repartee between the two of them collapsed in on itself into silence. Cobalt breathed heavily, reflecting on the absurdity of this situation. And the bizarre girl, who appeared unreadable to Cobalt, did the same.

Silence falling between the two of them, Cobalt felt something building up within him, and after the stupidity of the last minute or so, he just couldn't hold it anymore.

Amidst his attempts to retain the atmosphere of their heated quarrel, she was actually the first to crack.

Snort.

After that light chuckle, both boy and girl burst into obscene laughter at their own stupidity.

Throughout this entire conversation, the two of them constantly changing the subject has thrown the entire dialogue out of the window. If anyone was here watching the pair, they would say there was never a subject to begin with. The entire confrontation has just been the two of them wasting time, but for some reason, being at least self-aware enough to see how stupid they both were, all they could so was laugh.

Cobalt didn't understand who she was, why she was here, or why she kicked him in the head, but none of that really mattered in that very moment. To Cobalt, it was just… funny. And that's all that mattered.

The moment they shared with each other lasted a while longer, before the girl, choking on the laughs she tried to hold back, resisted it.

"No, no that's not funny."

"Then why are you still laughing?" he followed up in between breaths.

This repartee between the two perfectly reflected what would be banter between siblings. In Istheria, he had no one to really compare this interaction to, save maybe Bismuth.

Regardless, the astray and absent vagabond that is Cobalt found a little semblance of solace in this fiery girl, although he wasn't exactly sure why.

The reaction he got from retorting her insults was surprisingly positive, so even if further provoking and teasing such a loose cannon of a girl would sound insane to anyone else, Cobalt wouldn't let his own better judgment deter him. He sharpened his resolve and once again returned to the battlefield.

"So… Are you gonna apologize for kicking me back in the head or what?" was his second attempt at dialogue.

"Apologize? If anything, you should be apologizing to me. Or, instead of that, thanking me, or no—How about groveling instead? Whichever you prefer."

He clicked his tongue. "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. There are literal demons out there that are easier to read than you are—what the hell would I have to thank you for? Giving me a concussion?!"

Her supercilious expression fell into a look of surprise and confusion. Her grin sunk to a resting frown, and her eyebrows raised slightly. "…Do you seriously not remember?"

Hold on… Did this weird instigating girl genuinely expect him to grovel before her? That wasn't a joke?

He thought back to where he could have seen her before. The wild orange unkempt hair, and the ripped red cape she wore underneath her long auburn mane… There was probably only one other place he could have seen such a striking appearance…

"You're the orange blur!!"

"Blur?! Is that what you've been calling me?! I went through so much trouble saving you and that's how I'm repaid? There's no way I deserve that epithet!"

Technically, she was right. This orange blur's destructive distraction gave him an opportunity to escape.

She may have scared the shit out of him, but if she really was the one raining down missiles to the cultists, then Cobalt may hate to admit it, but…

"You… saved me?!"

"And here you are trying to run away from me!! I don't do this work for free!! Do I look rich enough to be able to be some kinda philanthropist hero?!"

Looking at her unkempt hair, ripped red cape, and doll-like clothes that didn't at all suit her fiery demeanor…

He bit his tongue on that question, hoping it was rhetorical.

"No, no, no… You owe me big time!" She stood up, dusting off her lace blouse and skirt—ones which gave her the appearance of a devil inhabiting a doll—and faced him as an equal. Well, as much of an equal as she could face him as, given the thirty centimeter-or-so height difference.

He gulped quietly, and faced those fiery eyes with a slightly melted, albeit slightly enduring resolve. "I owe you…?"

"Yes! Yes you do!" she stared him down—stared him up?—with the glare of a hundred suns, a glare which he could swear burned brighter than the actual sun behind him.

"What exactly did you have in mind?" with a girl this unpredictable, he couldn't even imagine.

She blinked hard, and reopening her eyes, braced herself for her unreasonable demand.

"I was on a pretty important mission when I saved your ass, actually. And I kinda missed my shot at that when I saw that those bottom-feeder cultists were about to dismember and roast you like a turkey. Let's just say—I'm a pretty big deal around these mountains, and right now, you're lookin' at the number one tomb raider this side of the country!"

Just like that, puzzle pieces clicked together in Cobalt's mind.

That demon had told him about the Tomb below the mountains, the cultists have been gathering around it as well, and now this girl, too, was describing her ambitions as having to do with the same entity. Something about this Tomb had been bringing all sorts of people together around it, and although he didn't understand fully, he tried to fill in the gaps with his knowledge as a useless gamer NEET, some of which happened to involve a Tomb or two.

"Er, uhm, I've only ever raided this one Tomb, but I'm like… Almost positive there's just the one… Aaaaannnd since I'm the only person there, that makes me the best overall! Erm, right-?" her roundabout logic clashed after it had already escaped her lips.

"Wait… You're the only person here?"

"That's right! Wait! I don't have to explain anything to you! You haven't even heard my demands yet so my secrets are my own until then!"

The contradicting girl had infected Cobalt's own mind with her inconsistencies. Had she never met the demon girl? Were the cultists not in the Tomb either? Why wouldn't people be exploring this? It seemed like such an important location at first glance, and now learning that this girl's the lone explorer here… Cobalt would need a new approach to wrapping his head around this Tomb.

She cleared her throat. "Because of you, my mission was completely botched. I need to get back in the game, but doing all this raiding stuff by myself is super hard after a while. So, wouldn't it only make sense to want some help? Someone to carry my bags, help with food, be my meat shield…" she added that last part under her breath, somehow expecting Cobalt not to hear it.

"And you want that person to be me?"

"Naturally," she replied, preparing herself to run mental gymnastics to defend her outrageous demand. "If you think about it, you're completely indebted to me. You owe me your life, if not more, right? So, that being said, I mean, it makes perfect sense that—"

"Yeah I'll do it," with that quick reply, he nipped her ramblings at the bud.

"Eh-? I mean, uh, really? I mean! Of course, really! After all, I totally saved your life, and—"

"You don't need to justify or defend yourself. You want help, right? There's nothing wrong with that. I want to. There's nothing wrong with that either, is there?"

"So you'll be my obedient dog??"

"Sure."

"And follow my every command??"

"If that's what you want."

She paused, contemplating his response. From the sweat on her forehead, it's clear enough she wasn't expecting that response. In fact, almost no one would accept such an outrageous demand. But Cobalt was far from normal.

He had reasons for this answer. Many reasons, actually, but the smartest choice came down to this girl's abrasive personality itself. With Irvelle, his cunning smile hid levels and levels of deception and psychopathy, and with that demon, that deception was put forth upfront. However, with this girl, he knew exactly what to expect.

He didn't want to be paranoid anymore. And with a girl such as this, he wouldn't ever have to be. Her flaws were practically displayed in a glass box, so he wouldn't have to dig for them in a fit of distrust and paranoia.

If he could overcome her abrasive personality, the rest would neatly fall in place.

But to the girl, his strange candid response didn't click in the same way.

"What the hell are you, some kinda masochist?! Who says something so creepy like that?!"

"Wh-what?! Who the hell offers something like that?! Do you just like hearing yourself talk, or what, you nutcase?!"

"Of course I do! Did you hit your head or something?! You make it sound like you wanna lick my boots!"

"Actually, I did hit my head! This half-wit blindly flew at me like a child! I'm just fine having that be the only time your boots are ever near me! That hurt, damnit!"

This was without a doubt the most interesting and, almost fun, encounter he's had in six months or so.

And after a second or two of silence, he burst into unison laughter with her. Hearing that laughter in stereo reassured him a little. Maybe this crazed girl feels the exact same way, even if she'd sooner die than admit that.

She stood up, showing a genuine smile which reflected the rising sun ahead of her. "Since you're my slave now, erm, I mean partner, we should probably exchange names, huh?"

"Real subtle with that jab, y'know."

"Subtlety's my specialty of course."

That was a cruel irony, but he hoped it was intentional.

She sighed, before slapping her hand to her hip as she leaned to the side. "How about I go first then, my little pet?"

He raised his eyebrow subtly as he gave a slight nod.

Compiling what seemed like a bunch of feelings at once, she took a step back, cocking her head to the side as she pounded a thumb against her chest.

All of it seemed like a bold attempt to make a memorable entrance, or a big reveal of some kind. But while that was true in her mind, to Cobalt it just looked like a middle schooler's attempt to look cool.

"You probably already had the passing thought, but to put your mind at ease… You're looking at the Arabelle, in the flesh."

But as all of that energy fell towards Cobalt…

"Just Arabelle?"

Just like that, she went silent.

"Erhhmmmmmm…" with that hesitation, she seemed to be deliberating something to herself.

And her momentum slid down an entirely different track almost instantly.

Noticing this hesitation, he followed, "What?"

Just as suddenly as she prepared that "surprise" entrance, it was shot down,

"Uhhhhh, nothing. Surnames aren't tha-at important anyway, so you shouldn't need to know mine."

This response was definitely unexpected to Cobalt.

She just made a big show out of her introduction, and just at the last second decided to go back on it.

He wasn't sure why someone would want to hide their last name, but he resigned to it, not wanting to pry.

"In that case… My name's Cobalt. Cobalt Aspire."

After his greeting, he felt taken aback for a moment. He had introduced himself twice within the last half hour, but something about this introduction felt different. Did he forget something last time?

Oh well. He was probably just tired. His memory wasn't the best by default, let alone after the night he had.

"Aspire… Like aspiration?"

"Uh… Yeah, I guess so."

She snorted a short chuckle again, however this time without the mutual laugh.

"What's that for?!"

"Pffft that sounds so cheesy! My surname's practically perfect compared to that!"

"It's not like I came up with it, myself! What kind of a name is Arabelle anyway? With that name and clothes, you look like the splitting image of a doll in a display case. If it weren't for your angry, shrill voice—hell, I might have even mistaken you as one."

"Hey, that's a low blow! What makes you think I don't want to look like a doll? It makes it easier to ambush people when you don't look like a threat, or something like that, right?"

Surprisingly, she didn't seem to take that much offense to his retort. Nonetheless, he brought it back in, in the closest thing to an apology she would get.

"All jokes aside though, Arabelle… I like that name. It suits you pretty well," he followed that up with a cheeky smile, however, having a better read on the atmosphere, he might have been able to see that as the fatal flaw it was.

A blush festered across her freckled face, which twisted into something between anger and disgust. She shook her head dramatically, before stomping on his toes with all of her weight.

"Don't force yourself to suck up to me! I'm not gonna fall for that crap, got it?!"

Arabelle's heel dug in, twisting his toes against her imprudence.

"Ow—what the hell?! I was being genuine! I swear!"

"Ew, that's even worse!!!"

Her repulsed scream sent a flock of birds flying from their roost into the morning air, flipping the scene once more towards the mostly blue sky.

This girl, Arabelle, was abrasive, impulsive, and had her entire small body filled from head to toe with unreserved fury. But despite all of that, something about her to Cobalt represented hope.

He had nowhere to go, but suddenly appearing in his life, this doll-like angel with wings of thorns had given him a brand new opportunity. And albeit just as rash as Arabelle herself, Cobalt would certainly seize that opportunity. In the name of meaninglessness itself, he committed himself to sharing in that meaninglessness with her.

And to Arabelle, perhaps Cobalt represented something similar.

Or, just maybe… Cobalt really did just represent a leashed dog. A frothing mutt.