Chapter Twenty: Fireflies and Memories (I1B0C20)

         Chapter Twenty: Fireflies and Memories

 

“People have been doing what you’re doing since the beginning of time. You’re nothing special. Everyone believes their actions are justified. Every man who’s ever become a monster believed at some point that they’re a murderer with good intentions. But murder is still murder no matter how you disguise it. There is no difference between us,” said the familiar voice of the swordsman.

            Ashes and cinders drifted faintly in the air as the weak breeze swept through the city streets. The glow of smoldering flames reflected on the white walls of the canyon, staining the starlit city with a beautiful light. The houses behind Hatasuko and Vaida had been reduced to embers. He stood in front of her with his sword in one hand and his shield in the other. He did not watch the cinders as they drifted by. He did not watch the fireflies as they flew calmly over rooftops. Instead, his golden eyes glared at the other Astrodeus, standing alone in the street ahead. Though he could not see Vaida, he felt her left hand shake as she held it on his back.

“Do I have your attention now, Vaida? You must have forgotten. Surely you must have forgotten. But every memory leaves a scar, and you know as well as I do that scars aren’t something you can just shut away. You are marked forever; you were marked just for me. Maybe I wasn’t strong enough before, but now I’m the strongest man in the world,” Harvey announced with a twisted smile as he stood in the ash-stained street.

Vaida’s fingertips dug into his back. Hatasuko felt her body tremble. Since he had thought that Harvey killed himself back in Bones City, he was shocked by the villain’s identity. He never imagined that Harvey was the one following them through the cities, watching them, studying them. He never imagined that Harvey would discover the secrets of black fire.

With a furious glare, Hatasuko yelled, “Did you kill all these people just to get back at Vaida? You slaughtered an entire village! How could you possibly—”

Harvey interrupted and said, “Don’t you dare judge my reasons. At some point, we all come to realize that the only thing that actually matters is action. Intentions are worthless! Words are meaningless. Reasons are empty. Outside the scope of a single person, actions are the only thing that change anything. I don’t care at all why the Interfecti slaughter our cities. I doubt anyone has ever questioned their intention, because no one cares about their intention. It doesn’t change the circumstance! No matter why it kills us, the Interfectus still kills us. No matter why I killed these people, the only thing that matters is I did. Just like you. You’re a killer, and I’m a killer. There’s no such thing as a murderer with good intentions. Your good intentions don’t make you more righteous, and more importantly, they won’t make you stronger.”

With a sword in one hand and a small axe in the other, Harvey stepped toward his two enemies. When his giant foot hit the ground, it left a small crater in the street that a human foot could never cause. His face shone from the glow of the flames and stars. His brown hair flickered in the ashy breeze.

Hatasuko separated himself from Vaida and slowly approached the other Astrodeus. As he walked, he heard anxious yells from the tempest in his mind. He heard frightened whispers coming from nearby homes as people watched the two giants approach.

Hatasuko said, “Maybe it doesn’t matter to the world, but it matters to me. If you went through all this to hurt Vaida—”

“You truly are a buffoon, you know that? Even someone as lovesick as me had to realize that she’d never be mine. After how heartlessly she tossed me away, I decided I wouldn’t take her even if I could! She locked my heart and left it to rot, but it makes no difference anymore; an Astrodeus has no heart. So as I kill her, as soon as I remove all evidence that I was ever weak to begin with, I can finally be free from her. I’ll pay any cost to make it happen. I lost my whole life because of her,” Harvey retorted.

“Vaida, I want you to stand back for this. I may possess the strength of judgment, but we don’t know his Astrodeus power. He’s deranged! Anyone who’s ever hurt you deserves nothing but the ultimate punishment. Anyone who threatens you must be purged from this world,” Hatasuko said.

            As fireflies quietly buzzed in the sky, Hatasuko and Harvey stepped within striking distance with their swords drawn. Harvey lunged forward, lowered himself, and swung his sword at a high speed. Since he had no time to block or jump, Hatasuko threw himself backward, narrowly dodged, and counterattacked with a clumsy slash. Instead of dodging, Harvey blocked the sword with the small blade of his axe; their weapons clashed with a bright blue spark. Harvey then counterattacked by jumping in the air, splitting his legs, and kicking Hatasuko in the face. The impact sent him stumbling backward.

Hatasuko shook his face to ward off the pain, but then Harvey attacked with a diagonal slash. With a grunt, Hatasuko pulled his shield up and blocked the sword, but the impact still knocked him back. When Harvey lunged forward with a quick high stab, Hatasuko activated his power and swung his sword with a booming shockwave. His body shone for this attack, but he ultimately missed; he had attacked too soon to strike his enemy. However, the powerful airwaves halted Harvey and sent him stumbling backward in the dirt street. Though he hated wasting quintessence on a failed attack, Hatasuko knew that his might slash had turned the tide in this fight.

Taking the offensive, Hatasuko charged after Harvey, slashed left, slashed again, and then tried a swift forward lunge; Harvey barely escaped by running backward. After the third strike missed, Harvey used his strong left arm to throw his small axe. With a flinch and a jump, Hatasuko lifted his shield to block the axe, but Harvey had planned this. Having emptied his left hand, Harvey aimed it forward and activated his Astrodeus power.

            With a flash of bright light, Harvey unleashed several energy beams from the palm of his left hand. The energetic rays of light shone so bright that Hatasuko saw them through his black shield. In a quarter of a second, an energy beam struck his stomach and exploded on impact. Sweltering flames scoured his skin; the power of the explosion threw him backward with his ears ringing. Pain paralyzed him as he flew through the air; he slammed onto the ashes and rolled to a stop. As he rolled, he heard other energy beams strike the dirt street; every beam erupted with a geyser of bright flames.

“Vaida, where are you?! Are you okay?!” Hatasuko yelled, throwing his head over his shoulder, fighting back the searing pain of the attack he had just taken.

Vaida crouched in the street behind him on a foot and a knee. She held her black shield in front of her. Smoke lifted from the shield, but the blasts had not hit her. Hatasuko glanced down and saw that his shirt had been destroyed. Smoke stains and painful welts scattered his skin. As he stood back up, his whip fell into the cinders. Vaida ran up to his side and held her shield, covering the part of his body that he could not protect with his own shield. With frantic eyes, she pressed her scarred hand onto his wound.

“Hatasuko, please don’t interfere in my fight. Please don’t risk yourself,” she said.

“That isn’t an option. Not only is he an architect of misery, but he’s also trying to kill you. This is my fight just as much as it is yours.”

“But there’s no reason for you to join me in my nightmares! Not in this one or any other. I know you want to save me from my misery, pointless as that may be, but I’m not in any real danger. This isn’t real, Hatasuko; it can’t be! It’s an ugly nightmare. One of many! I’ve been fighting these for all my life, and I will fight this too,” said Vaida as the breeze carried ashes through the starlit street.

“Wait, what? No, Vaida, this isn’t an illusion. This isn’t—”

But Harvey interrupted their conversation with another activation of his power. He fired a bright burst of energy streams which shot across the street. From this cluster, two blindingly bright beams struck their Interfectus shields. Just as before, each energy beam erupted with a massive blast; the impact sent them both flying backward. Hatasuko grabbed Vaida in midair so that she would not fly far, but he had to drop his sword to make this happen.

“Let go; I have a plan!” Vaida said in midair.

Right before Hatasuko would have landed in a pile of smoldering shambles, he threw Vaida so that she could land safely in the ashy street. She spun in midair, landed backward on her heels, jumped again, did two backward cartwheels, and slowed herself to a stop by skidding on both feet. With smoke lifting from her shield, Vaida swung it around and clasped it on her shoulders. A split-second later, she unsheathed her swords, and then she raced across the smoky clearing toward her enemy.

            When Harvey had fought Hatasuko, he wore a twisted grin the entire time. But as Vaida approached, all signs of happiness were extinct. His dark blue eyes turned solemn. His brown hair ruffled in the breeze as he glared at the running swordswoman. Her little feet dashed agilely down the street, dodging every crater or shamble in her path.

“Vaida, do you really think this is an illusion? Are you really that afraid of me? How can fear something you created?!” Harvey demanded.

When Vaida ran onto the street where Harvey held his sword high, she noticed that the buildings were intact on both sides of the street. Harvey lifted his giant left hand and aimed at her. Vaida lunged leftward, jumped forward, slammed her feet against the wall of a house, and kicked off it as he unleashed his Astrodeus power. Several energy streams shot out from his hand, milliseconds apart, all barreling toward her. But because she had jumped higher than he expected, she soared over several bright beams which struck the buildings behind her.

The energy streams exploded all at once, and the fiery shockwaves forced her to fly faster. Once her running feet struck the ground at a high speed, Vaida jumped again, this time twisting and kicking off a wagon on the right side of the street. Though he had the opportunity, Harvey did not use his power to attack again.

After Vaida landed, she lunged at him with a swift right stab. Harvey jumped to the side and clashed his blade with hers, but Vaida was much faster; she swung her left sword and tore a shallow gash in his stomach. With all the force in his extraordinary arm, Harvey swung his sword in a quick counterattack; Vaida threw herself back since she could not block his strength. When her feet landed, she did an agile second jump. She landed in between Harvey and the building that he had refused to attack earlier. Harvey glanced down at the palm of his left hand and sighed; he once again chose not to blast in this direction.

“I didn’t create this, and I didn’t create you! I’m not guilty of anything. It’s not my fault you fell in love with me! I can’t say I understand it. I can say I wish it never happened. I wish I never knew you. I wish you never happened,” said Vaida.

“Are you really so delusional that you’d just forget the good times we shared? Can you really pretend that those memories mean nothing?” he demanded.

Vaida shook her head and answered, “No, Harvey… I can’t. I couldn’t pretend that. Those memories are untainted by the man you became. The sweet boy you used to be, the only friend that this hopeless burned girl had—he will not be forgotten. When I was in that hospital, when half my body was totally burned, you saw me and you cried! You held me in your arms and cried for me. You were screaming when they took me away. I’ll never forget. I’ll never forget that you were the only thing I had left. The only one who kept me going. Those memories are beautiful, but they’re also heartbreaking. After everything you said and everything you did, it only proves that my pain is contagious. Somehow, I turned that sweet crying boy into a monster, just like me. You’re as scarred on the inside as I am on the outside. So this hopeless burned girl lost her friend, and now my favorite memories torment me in my dreams.”

            A firefly landed on the rooftop of a nearby building. Its orange glow illuminated a small sphere of light around its body. The insect was undaunted by the wind and the smoke. Another firefly landed beside it, but the second was dim, visible only because of the first one’s glow.

“Then this sentimentality will be your downfall. I am an Astrodeus, I am heartless, and I am unrestrained by those poisonous memories. I have risen beyond my struggle,” Harvey declared.

“That’s why I know this is a nightmare. Just a vile dream—an evil illusion in my head. This just doesn’t make any sense! You’re angry at me, not the world.”

“Did you completely ignore what I said to the usurper?! I made it clear to him that I’m fine with being a villain; titles never mattered to me. Morals never mattered to me. The only thing that’s ever mattered is you. A future of you and me—that’s the only thing that means anything! The only reason I wasn’t a killer before is that I had no reason to kill. But now that it serves me, nothing can stop me. You’re the only one who mattered to me, and so I must do this. I must kill you so that I can be free from you. So that I can have myself back. After all, nothing can stop me,” Harvey explained as the flames illuminated his face.

With a sudden kick off the wall behind her, Vaida lunged at her former friend and unleashed a high right slash. Harvey spun his wrist and swung his sword to block hers. When their swords clashed, she ducked beneath the blades and swung her left sword at his ankles. Harvey jumped over the sword, landed a second later, and then hopped backward while lifting his left hand.

Vaida saw an opportunity, so she lunged forward and slashed the tip of her blade at his left hand. With a quick spin and a swing, Harvey dodged her attack and knocked the sword out of her right hand; her weapon struck a smoke-stained wall and fell to the street. Harvey then counterattacked by lunging forward with a straightforward stab. Vaida let out a quiet scream, jumped back, and knocked the blade off course with her left sword.

            Right after their swords clashed, Harvey charged closer, pulled his knee up, and slammed it into Vaida’s chin; the impact sent her flying backward. She crash-landed in the dirt street, stumbled twice as she tried to stand, and glanced up to see Harvey running at her. She jumped to her feet, twisted halfway around, and blocked his sword with the shield on her back. The impact sent her stumbling, and once she was far from the building Harvey had refused to strike, he lifted his left hand and activated his power.

Right before Harvey would have bombarded Vaida with energy streams, Hatasuko crashed his glowing sword into the ground with earthshaking speed. Though he was almost a block away, the impact summoned shockwaves that forced the whole canyon to tremble. Hatasuko knew that this would inconvenience the people of Lumipyla, but the shaking ground forced Harvey to stumble. This knocked the palm of his left hand off-center, and so his energy beams shot off into the sky. The flashing light was so bright that all fighters looked away. When the high-speed streams struck the distant canyon walls, broken stones rained down.

Even with the world shaking under their feet, Vaida dashed toward her former friend with her sword held steady. Harvey was blinded by the brightness of his own attack, leaving her with an opportunity. But when Vaida swung her sword with all her strength, a nearby window shattered. A small force-field materialized in the space between her sword and Harvey’s arm. Her weapon bounced off the floating barrier, and then Harvey counterattacked with a spinning kick.

Vaida let out a pained grunt as she flew backward, but Hatasuko caught her before she hit the ground. He stepped in front of her with his sword in one hand and a rock in the other. All three combatants stayed silent, listening as a fourth fighter emerged from the building that Harvey had spared.

Another Astrodeus jumped out of the broken window and landed on the street. He clenched a massive halberd between his two hands. This Astrodeus calmly walked across the glass and ashes until he stood at Harvey’s side. The glow of flames and fireflies illuminated both Astrodei. The new Astrodeus was slightly shorter and thinner than Hatasuko, whereas Harvey was larger in every regard, but their sizes were all relatively close.

“Who is this, Harvey? I thought you said no one matters to you except Vaida,” Hatasuko yelled out.

The other Astrodeus laughed and said, “He didn’t want to reveal his teammate before it was necessary! That would just be wasteful. Besides, Harvey isn’t equipped to take a city this large all by himself. The two of us will split the task and the spoils.”

“That is correct. After my second rejection in Bones City, after you and Vaida made it clear that I could never have her, I realized that I was standing at a crossroads. There was no way I could coexist with the girl who had done this to me. I thought that this meant I should take my own life as my only escape from unrequited love, but Spencer saved me before I could end it. He’s the one who showed me the truth of this situation. It’s because of him that I know one of us must die. When I told him I would set out on the journey to make it happen, he demanded to join me. He would not let me leave without him,” Harvey explained.

            Hatasuko listened closely as he stood in front of Vaida. She trembled as she stood with her scarred hand on his back. She peeked her left eye out from behind his left shoulder, inspecting the two Astrodei.

“Hatasuko, this isn’t a nightmare, is it?” Vaida whispered.

“It is not. I hate to say it, but this is real. Our enemies are human, or at least they were once human, and this fight is definitely real. That village has actually been burned. Scores of people have actually been killed,” Hatasuko said, clearly but bitterly.

As the stars pulsed down on her dark hair, Vaida grabbed his left arm with her right hand. He felt the rough skin of her burn scars rubbing against him. Though the four fighters stood in a standoff, she felt a surge of memories interrupt her consciousness. She remained on her feet, but she became unresponsive.

***

“Harvey, do you ever think about the Interfectus? I don’t mean the night when it attacked… I don’t want to talk about that. But, um, do you ever wonder why it acts the way it does? Why does it kill? Was it really sent by God? I don’t understand,” Vaida asked her friend.

Vaida and Harvey watched as the breeze picked up in the street by the orphanage. Though her model sail-rana was small, its large sail caught the wind. The miniature vehicle rolled slowly along the ground. She smiled and walked behind it while Harvey followed closely.

            “I don’t wonder because I don’t care. Nothing can change what it did. No one gave them permission or anything, but they still attack cities. They still kill people. I don’t care about that. I just hate the Interfecti for what they did to you. I’m gonna become big and strong, then I’ll never let them hurt you again.”

Harvey caught up to Vaida and wrapped his arms around her. She stopped walking and returned his embrace, though she watched her boat sail on. While she had already decided to leave Bones City, this embrace made her reconsider her decision. She felt warm and safe in his arms, but the warmth could not stop the crushing memories from playing in her head. This embrace could not undo the words of the children in the orphanage; she could not free her mind from their judgments and insults. Even in this embrace, she shivered as the pain came rushing back in. The children were viciously mean, but the adults said the same things silently with their shifty stares.

“I know you feel empty. You always seem down or hurt, but now it’s deeper than that. Are you alright? Please talk to me. I want to be here for you,” Harvey whispered to her.

“Their insults are the only shield I have. When I hear what they say, I can forget about the fire. At least for a second, I can forget about the night I lost everything. Instead of watching memories, I can just stand in silence and hate myself. It’s refreshing! Like a daydream in a nightmare. I think I’ve relied on their insults to keep me distracted! Just long enough to make something that matters. If I was left alone with my memories, blaming myself for his death like every night in the hospital, then there would be no Vaida. Not anymore,” she said to him as she slowly stopped shaking.

As silent storm clouds slowly crossed the starry sky, the streets of Bones City gradually grew dimmer. The westward wind started to die down, and so the model sail-rana rolled to a stop near the end of this street. Vaida let go of Harvey and walked after her little vehicle.

“So are those your only options? Get insulted or relive your pain? That’s not okay! I’m so tired of seeing you in pain,” he called after her.

After she picked up the little model, Vaida turned back to face Harvey. Small droplets of rain fell from the clouds and sprinkled the dirt road.

“I feel like I’m locked in place, Harvey. One eye can only see the past.”

“Then keep the other eye on me. I’ll always be here.”

***

Vaida shook herself free from her memories. As she stepped back into consciousness, she saw red marks on Hatasuko’s arm beneath her fingertips. She had dug her fingers into him during her trance. She then looked out from behind him. As she glared at Harvey with her one seeing eye, she realized that in a way, he still resembled the sweet boy from her memory. Though his body was now massive, muscular, and stained with ashes, his glowing face resembled her former friend.

As the last of the memory fog cleared from her eyes, Vaida noticed that the glow of fireflies reflected in the wet blood on Hatasuko’s body. He glared silently at the other two Astrodei. All was motionless for almost a minute, until Harvey threw himself backward and lifted his left hand.

Hatasuko activated his power first, forced his left arm to glow, and then catapulted his rock at a near-supersonic speed. In any other circumstance, this rock would have inflicted tremendous damage before anyone would even hear the boom, but Spencer was familiar with this technique. Therefore, he materialized an energy barrier to deflect the rock; it struck the barrier and crumbled into gravel. As Spencer upheld this barrier with his power, Hatasuko saw a faint glow encase his enemy’s body.

            The barrier disappeared as fast as it appeared, and then Harvey activated his Astrodeus power. Hatasuko and Vaida threw themselves on the ground to dodge his energy beams; they both landed on their backs and rolled so that the shields on their backs faced Harvey. As the cluster of blinding energy streams struck the ashes and shambles, Vaida slammed her eyes shut and felt the shockwaves jostle the ground. A single stream struck the ground by Hatasuko, exploded with a burst of flames and dirt. He protected Vaida with the shield on his back, but he knew that they were pinned. Harvey could attack again at any moment.

“Vaida, is it okay if I kill him? I need to know. I have the reason to do it. I have the power to do it. But do I have your permission?” Hatasuko asked as he pulled his black shield forward.

Through the light of the stars and the flickering flames, Vaida glared at the distant face of her enemy. She could still see the face of the boy who had held her in the hospital, crying as he hugged her, screaming as she was taken away. A pang of sorrow struck her heart, but it was overruled when she remembered what he had done to her in Bones City. She made up her mind as she smelled the stench of burning bodies in the smoky air.

“It’s not my decision. He sealed his own fate when he became a murderer. He is a monster who terrorizes the innocent. It is our duty to stop him,” she answered, though her quiet, shaky voice revealed her ambivalence.

As he climbed to his feet, Hatasuko said, “I’m sorry that it’s come to this. I know this feels like a nightmare. I know it feels like everything in the world is working against us, but it won’t be long. It won’t be long until we’ve purged them. It won’t be long until every Interfectus falls at the feet of my judgment. It won’t be long until our fight ends, and then we can sail away from the shore of Bones City. You and I can live forever on the rocky islands. That’s the future you deserve; that’s the future I will give you.”

“I can already taste the ocean air. I can already smell the albapomus trees. I force myself to imagine it every time I close my eyes. It’s all I can do. This life needs me to kill the only friend that that little hopeless burned girl ever had. My nightmares continuously replay the night my world ended in fire. These daydreams are all I have, and I only have them because of you. I only have anything because of you,” Vaida whispered as she stood back up.

“Then let’s go, Vaida. Let’s take them down. Let’s purge the world of misery.”

Despite their bruises and exhaustion, Hatasuko and Vaida ran together toward their enemies. He slowed himself down so that she could keep up. When Vaida stepped onto the same block as her enemies, she lunged forward, twisted, and hurled a rock with all her strength. It flew at Spencer, but he did not create a barrier to block it. Instead, he lurched to the left, dodged the rock, kicked off the wall of a building, and lunged at Hatasuko while swinging his halberd.

Caught off-guard, Hatasuko jerked his shield to block the swinging halberd. As sparks flew overhead, he then ducked and counterattacked with a quick sword lunge, but Spencer blocked it with the shaft of his halberd. Vaida charged at Spencer’s side with a swift sword slash, but he blocked her blade with a glowing barrier.

As if the energy from Vaida’s attack transferred into his body, Spencer swung his halberd so swiftly that the hilt-blade plunged into Hatasuko’s stomach. Spencer then jumped up and kicked his shield, knocking him back and ripping out the blade. Vaida tried to retaliate with a swift low slash, but Spencer clashed his halberd against her sword. A spark flew into the air, Spencer jumped away from his enemies, and then Harvey unleashed his power from a short distance.

Hatasuko crouched and pulled his shield upright. Vaida threw herself behind him and held on as the energy streams flew around them. Harvey then moved his left hand and aimed at the smoke-stained buildings right beside them. His streams detonated instantly, and the buildings blew apart with bursts of wood and fire. Shambles and debris flew from every burst and rained down upon the street. Though it did not sound like anyone in the buildings had died in this blast, Vaida winced from Harvey’s pointless destruction. Like the Interfecti, he was exploiting their obligation to safeguard the innocent.

The building was too damaged to uphold its own weight, and so it collapsed on itself with a burst of smoke and sparks. As a cloud of black smoke engulfed Hatasuko and Vaida, who were both trapped between Spencer and Harvey, she stared somberly at her former friend. Sparks and fireflies flew through the smoky air. Bittersweet memories hung in the air like these glowing lights. But the lights were transient; the happy memories were ephemeral. The sparks faded from the air, and the fireflies chose to dim their lights one-by-one.