Chapter 6: Girl, Speaks her Mind
THE pinball’s—or rather—Wolfie’s voice came from beyond the boulders. Nichika and the others noticed a honeyed fragrance wafting in the air on their way to him. They were blanketed in the comforting allure of sweet, sweet sleep.
“Eek!”
Nichika was on the verge of giving in to her sleepiness when the sound of something heavy hitting the ground shocked her awake. She turned around to find Oswald down on one knee, clinging to a boulder with his right hand.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?!” She rushed to his side.
“So tired…” he moaned, pressing his left hand to his forehead.
“Get a grip! I know you love your naps, but there’s a place and time for that!”
She shook him by the shoulders until he could no longer hold up his own weight and heavily slid to the ground. Lambert began swaying on his feet a slight distance from them.
“Ahaha. You’re so lame…buddy…”
“Lambert!”
He collapsed to the ground too. She raced to him, rolled him onto his back, and heard him snoring away.
“Uhhh…?”
Irresistible sleepiness crashed down on her in violent waves. Nichika bit the inside of her cheek, staving it off as best she could. Mind a little clearer, she noticed a purple haze mixed into the white fog.
Hold it together, Nichika. If you pass out here, who will wake everyone up?
Motivating herself to keep moving, she used her staff as a walking cane and pushed ahead one unsteady step at a time. Before long the purple haze thickened into a familiar ominous shade.
“I knew it…this…isn’t…normal…”
It’s that color. The ill-omened, poisonous purple that’s devouring the world and made the Fire Spirit go crazy. Pressing her sleeve to her mouth, she approached the source while trying to inhale as little of the haze-infected air as possible. After a while she came upon her other friend.
Wolfie!
The sound asleep wolf was lying with his belly up in the middle of the road with snot bubbles coming out of his nose.
I must be close then.
Large boulders were scattered around the rocky area. The haze seemed to be emitting from atop the largest boulder there. Dragging her numb legs, she managed to clamber her way up. Her eyes bulged at what she came face to face with on top: a flower bud hanging its heavy head.
Including the stem, it came up as high as her knees at most, but its strong gray roots wound tenaciously around the stone boulder. The partially open bud shared the same sickening shade of purple as the haze it spat out in pulses.
“…!”
Extreme drowsiness whisked her consciousness away on a wave. How lovely it would be to curl up and sleep.
Ear-piercing cries from beyond the haze pulled her back just as her mind was ready to fly away.
“KOROROOOO! PETAROROOO!”
The petacolons were calling her.
Remembering why she came, Nichika stomped her feet against the hard stones, compelling her sleepiness into anger.
“…the hell…are…doing…?!”
Magic converged in the staff handle she gripped, transferring the fire mana within the magic orb into her. Crimson dyed her wide-open eyes, and the red butterflies symbolic with Nichika danced around her.
“Don’t…spew…that…noxious…gaaaaaaaaaaas!” she roared, bringing forth a burst of hellfire. She scooped it up with the staff and slammed it down on the venomous flower. “BURN BABY BURN!”
The area turned into an instant sea of fire. Was the blasted plant fire-resistant? It didn’t so much as wilt under the raging inferno. But after a while, the roots began to scorch, and it writhed like a living creature. A mighty shake racked it from the roots to its bud. She braced herself for what it had in store for her next, but it lost all color and crumbled.
“Did I…beat it?”
Extinguishing her flames, Nichika flopped back onto the boulder and panted. There was a sudden clang of something hard hitting rock. She looked to see a purple crystal where the flower had been. The color rapidly faded before her eyes and then it finally cracked in two.
She grudgingly stood back up and walked over to check on it.
“Awww, darn. How could you do that?” an unfamiliar voice groaned above her. “Do you know how much mana I wasted to create that? You’re awful.”
Nichika spun around. The mysterious person wore a robe that melted into the white fog and sat on a boulder swinging their legs like a small child.
Alarmed by that familiar attire, Nichika curled her fingers around the staff and yelled, “You’re the kid who attacked us in Cherry Blossom Kingdom!”
This was the same child who had stolen the magic wind bullets from Princess Yura and shot Wolfie in the alley.
Unfazed by her accusations, the child hidden under the white robe merely tilted their head. “Hm? Oh, I get it. So you did see me back then.”
The boy, at least they sounded like a boy, giggled, his mouth curling in a guiltless smile. He shrugged and mocked her in a cutesy voice that sounded like tinkling from handbells.
“You’ve got it wrong when you say ‘attacked us.’ I was only after you. What happened to that little wolf wasn’t what I was going for. He got hurt all because he tried to protect the likes of someone worthless like you.”
His biting remark sent pangs of pain stabbing at her chest. She didn’t know why, but it was clear the boy hated her. Did I do something to offend him without knowing it? She decided to ask him about it outright.
“Hey, did I do something to you? I’ll apologize if I did.”
“Wow, annoying,” he spat, stopping her from saying more. The boy pointed at her from above, his lips twisting in a derisive smirk. “Annoying. Annoying. Annoying. There you go making a face like you’re all pure and righteous like bottled water.”
“I-I wasn’t—”
“Your attitude makes me sick.”
Nichika broke into a cold sweat at the blatant disgust in his voice.
The boy hopped off the taller boulder onto hers and thrust his finger at her chest. This time he dropped the repugnance exuding from him and opted to persuade her in a gentle whisper.
“Drop this whole revive the Spirit Goddess farce. Why not quit while you’re ahead and smash that magic orb?”
“I can’t. Ini asked me to do it,” Nichika told him in a quivering voice. How did he know about her mission? She wasn’t in the right state of mind to even consider it.
He suddenly started cackling. “Ini! That swindler! Pfufufu! Ahahahaha! I knew it! So I was right!”
“…!”
The boy turned up his intimidation level and warned her in a hostile, low voice. “This is your first and final warning. I will destroy you if you continue helping that fraudster. Disobey me and I’ll smush you, tear you from limb to limb, and torture you until you tearfully beg me to please kill you.”
Nichika’s knees knocked against each other under the crushing pressure. Desperate to stay in control, she shakily asked, “Who in the world are you…?”
He turned off the intimidation like shutting off a stream of water by twisting the faucet and returned to his friendlier tone. “Me? Let me think… Guess I’ll go with Phantom for now.”
The boy—Phantom—took a step back and spread his arms. The bottom of his robe fluttered softly. Smiling with only his mouth, he left these final words: “Next time you meet Ini tell him: ‘I still haven’t forgiven you. And I will never ever forgive you for all eternity.’ ’Kay?”
“Agh!”
A violent wind ripped between them. Nichika instinctively squeezed her eyes shut. By the time she could squint again, she was the only one left on the crag.
“Phantom…”
Yet another random visitor swooped down when Nichika was about to work through what had just happened.
“Bacawk!”
“Whoa!”
A large eagle flapped its wings over her head. Nichika threw her arms up to cover her face.
“My precious Nichika! Are you all right, sweetie?!” echoed a nauseatingly familiar voice.
“Huh?” She jerked her head toward the eagle that landed on her shoulder. A single golden feather shined in its massive wings. Thinking it couldn’t be him, she asked to be sure. “Is that you, Ini?”
“You look safe to me.”
“You can shapeshift?”
“No. I’m simply borrowing the eagle’s body to talk with you,” the eagle eloquently explained, its sharp eyes burrowing into her. “On my way back to the Celestial Realm from Elminage—no, never mind. That doesn’t matter! More importantly, did someone attack you? Where are you right now?!”
He overwhelmed her with the seriousness in his normally giddy voice. She decided to honestly tell him what had happened from meeting the petacolon all the way to her encounter with the boy called Phantom.
“Hey, Ini, who was that boy?” she asked, worry coloring her voice after she summarized everything for him. “He seems to hate your guts. What happened between you?”
Phantom’s tone made it sound like his hatred ran deep. Ini held his silence. Tired of waiting, she pressed him harder.
“Say something. He said he’ll stop Yuna’s resurrection. Why is he getting in our way?”
“I’m sorry, Nichika. I still can’t tell you anything about this matter.”
Unconvinced and unhappy with his cop-out, Nichika opened her mouth to argue, when he shouted loudly over her.
“HOWEVER! Please believe me when I say there is absolutely nothing wrong with the journey you are taking! You’re the only one who can prevent the world from being devoured by dark mana!”
“You’re full of crap, Ini,” she accused, her blind trust in him until this point wavering. “But I also don’t feel it’s right to allow that dangerous haze to have free rein over this world…”
Did he notice her waning trust? The eagle lifted its head and plucked the gold feather out of its wingspan, effectively ending the conversation. “You just have to collect the spirits without thinking. I swear I will tell you everything one day.”
Once the feather hit the ground, the eagle returned to being an unspeaking bird.