Chapter 9
Grr, I'm mad at my computer. When I write, it keeps placing these odd black lines in between my sentences. It just does it randomly and they don't seem to show up in the final product but if for some reason there is one, you'll know why. So anyways I'm still going strong on this fanfic and its chapter nine already but I have many idea's still to come. I think it may be the kind of fanfic that runs into the future but I wont be like '2 years later' or something because that sort of thing just throws me right off. In my eyes there isn't much point to writing a fic if there is a huge blank in part of it, you know? I hope I am consistent with my character development at this point but feel free to give me some pointers if you want. Okay, onward!
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Asch was wide awake. The room was empty except for him. The bright sunlight poured in the window and onto the bed next to him, but she wasn't in it, and she wasn't beside him either.
He stood up quickly and looked around the room, even going to far as to look under the bed.
'Is she playing some sort of game again?' the god-general wondered but underneath the bed he found only dust
He stood up again, feeling stupid.
'She isn't here, end of story' he thought as he walked towards the door 'did she run away?'
His stomach turned over at the thought.
Just as he was about to open the door, he spotted a small piece of paper on the dresser. It was in his hand immediately.
'Out and about'
-Sin
The tension in his stomach lessened a bit at the note. Obviously she hadn't run away, he couldn't believe that he had even considered it. The idea made him want to burn down the whole damn inn.
Regardless of his relief though, the scene from the previous day flashed in his mind. The drunk man grabbing her, revealing her and his boot slamming down into the man's face faster than he thought he could move. It just seemed like a reflex somehow.
Asch grabbed the door and pulled it open, wasting no time in slipping through and thundering down the stairs at the end of the hallway.
When he reached the main floor, the bartender looked up from wiping the counter. The Inn was oddly clean compared to yesterday.
"Ah looking for the little one?" the man asked and Asch turned to him "She said she wanted to check a few things out and that you shouldn't have trouble finding her."
"There is no point in finding her if she's dead" Asch retorted. Why was he arguing with the man who was trying to help?
"Why would she be dead?" the bartender asked with a puzzled expression. He ceased his wiping for the moment.
Asch clenched his hands, "I don't know, why don't you ask you drunken friends out there?" he pointed towards the window.
The bartender caught on to what he was saying and let out a hearty chuckle "Don't worry about them," his wiping had resumed "they know when to back off. I heard about what happened yesterday, I think I would have had the same reaction!"
His comment was meant to be cheerful but Asch glared hard. The man shrugged with a grin.
"Go find her, she'll be just fine."
The God-General let it go at that and walked towards the door but when he pulled it open, everything was wrong. It was all right.
Men were bustling about in front of the inn. Some carried wooden planks or hay, some were punching nails into there house or smoothing clay into cracks. Everyone was working on something; a few even had small smiles on.
Asch walked out from under the porch roof and looked into the sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight; the whole sky was a perfect shade of blue and the sun shone down on the town like it hadn't been able to reach it in years. Another odd thing that he noticed was that there was hardly any smoke rising around him any more. Everything was perfectly clear.
"What's going on?" he asked a passer-by and the man responded with a duck of his head and said "The little lady woke up early today and came around threatening us all. It was weird because all of her reasons to build the town made sense…" the man scratched his head "and I've been talking to myself for years about why I shouldn't rebuild the town and all of a sudden BAM! I'm building my house again!" the man laughed and then walked off, shaking his head in confusion.
Asch stared at the ground.
'Sin is responsible for all of this?' he wondered as he glanced around the town out of the corner of his eye 'how did she manage to get everyone working in such a short amount of time?'
Regardless of his confusion, he couldn't help but feel slightly grateful and even…proud of the replica for what she had done. Though, how she had done it was simply beyond him.
Asch set off into the refreshed town to find his pupil and all around people looked renewed, rejuvenated and alive. There were few people that he glanced at that had sad expressions on; most were either smiling or had a burning look in their eyes.
He walked on silently until he came to the edge of the town, where horses grazed peacefully on the grass that hadn't been burned or upturned. There wasn't much there but now, if the town thrived again, that would change.
There she was. She was standing beside his own horse on the far end of the fenced field, gently patting its neck. He strode over to her quietly.
Her hair shuffled in the wind as he drew closer and his footsteps faltered for a moment for a reason unknown to him. He shook it off quickly enough though.
"How did you do it?" he finally asked when he reached her but she didn't jump at his voice. She must have known he was there.
"Do what?" Sin answered calmly, looking over her shoulder at him with a small smile.
"You know what I'm talking about- getting the whole town on its feet again," Asch stated "that doesn't happen magically in one night."
Sin shrugged and turned back to the shaggy horse "I used reversed logic."
"Reversed logic?" he echoed in confusion.
Sin gave the horse one final pat before turning away and starting to walk in the direction of a giant tree a little distance away. After a few steps, she turned around and motioned for Asch to follow her.
He strode quickly to catch up and in a few steps, he was walking silently beside her, the wind blowing calmly over them both.
They reached the tree after a minute and Sin smiled and walked under its large branches, the leaves painting dapples on her pale skin and on the ground. She pushed herself up onto a low branch and smiled down at him.
"So, like I was saying…I used revered logic on the villagers to get them to come around…"
"How can you reverse minds so broken?" Asch said a bit sharply and she tilted her head in response. He looked away.
"Most people," Sin began quietly as she lay down on the branch "think that once their loved ones are taken, there is no reason to go on living…"
Asch listened quietly to Sins words and sat down on a root, looking into the distance. She was making sense so far.
"But, I disagree with that logic…I think, that if your loved one it taken, you should never give up on life."
The tree rustled in the wind and both were silent for a moment while they waited for the other to speak.
"What makes you say that, replica?" Asch asked the girl on the branch but she didn't even flinch at the word. Perhaps she knew he meant no harm by it now.
"I say that because, giving up on life, is like giving up on your partners existence…and your own of course… would the dead want that for their families?"
"What if they just wanted to be together, and that's why they give up?" Asch responded as he turned to look at her, but her face remained untroubled.
"That is their choice of course but I think to make your partner proud, you need to live in order to prove you care."
"Revenge, that's what you mean." Asch stated.
Sin turned to him with a gentle smile, her long black hair falling off the branch.
"I think living, is the best revenge of all."
Asch let himself hold her gaze when he heard these words and in all honesty and logic, he couldn't find an argument to come back with. Deep down he realized, that he must have the same reason of thought and that's why he couldn't deny her. The replica, his friend and her ideas, were starting to make an unreasonable amount of sense in his mind.
Sin let her eyes drift half shut as she turned to look up through the branches of the tree.
"Isn't the whole point of killing, to kill the person and those around them? But, if you go on living, even if it's hard, you can reverse the whole effectiveness of the chain…that's my theory anyways and the villagers seemed to realize what I meant."
Asch stood up and walked over to her. Then as he reached her, he reached up and pushed her off the branch and she actually landed on her feet, smirking up at him.
"Besides being a childish, weak replica, I think it may be possible for you to command in battle someday."
"Childish, maybe, but weak…" she grinned up at him and then suddenly her weapon summoning chimed in his head and he raised an eyebrow.
"Going to try to prove something?" he asked, agreeing to it and unsheathing his own sword.
"Yeah, but not to you!" she chirped and then she shot out from under the tree, towards the village. Her weapons flashed on her forearms now.
"The towns men have gotten into the habit of calling me 'little lady'" she called over her shoulder as she ran "I'm going to show them that I am more than that!"
Asch followed behind her and found to his surprise, that he actually had to push himself a little more to keep up.
'The replica's getting faster' he thought as he watched her hair stream behind her and her training hoari whip around her with the speed. Her footsteps were practiced now; she was actually paying attention to where she was placing her feet with each step, and her movements were totally silent.
After just a minute, they reached the village and men and young boys looked up curiously at them.
The girl finally came to stop and turned around to face him, her face concentrated but excited.
She pointed the tip of her weapon at him, "Don't hold back" she said seriously and then she dashed so fast at him that he blinked in surprise at it before raising his weapon to block the strike that slammed into his weapon a mere second later.
Asch spun, forcing her away with strength alone and coming in with a swipe to her side. She jumped out of range though and tried to shoot in at his exposed shoulder but he swiped his weapon back the way it came to keep her away. She almost ran into it but she managed to duck into a roll and tried to thrust into his stomach but he stepped back swiftly so her strike came up short.
Now she was on her hands and knees and vulnerable, so he raised his weapon and slashed down at her but she raised just one blade over her head and his blade crashed into it. Then, she took her other blade and thrust upward-but not at him. Her double blades came in on both sides of his blade and when he tried to pull it back, he found that it was pinned between her blades. She was pushing up on the blade that was blocking and down with her other double bladed sword to keep his sword restrained. It was taking a fair share of her strength to keep his blade locked though and her arms began to shake.
There were many people watching now with wide eyes and some were cheering to continue the sparring match. More people were arriving as the seconds ticked by.
"Here is the chance you wanted," he whispered to her "show me what you have learned."
Sin looked up with her blazing eyes into his. She was ready.
Sin yanked back her bottom weapon and shifted quickly to the side so his blade wouldn't get her and then she did something he had never seen her do before- she caught his sword between both her weapons again and then she flipped sideways- almost wrenching his sword right out of his hands. Amazingly, she must have known what she was doing because she landed on her feet on the opposite side of his blade.
He managed to keep his sword in his hands but he knew he would be feeling the strain of that move later. Snapping back into concentration, he pushed forward instead of pulling back in order to throw her off balance and it worked, she came close to tripping into him but she managed to withdraw her blades from their lock on his and she danced backwards and out of range of his next sword stroke.
The crowd was cheering now as they watched master and pupil duel in the field. Even the man from the bar was leaning on a post not too far off, a huge smile on his face.
Sin shot forward again, and jumped high above his head, tucking her legs into her stomach. Asch raised his sword high above his head and braced himself for what he knew would be a hard hit.
Just as she was coming down, she ducked her head and flipped- throwing even more power into her oncoming attack.
'She's going to regret doing that…' Asch thought a few seconds before both of her swords smashed into his. The crashing sound that radiated from it made the villagers gasp in awe and made Asch's knees buckle with strain; but out of the two of them, he wasn't the worse off. Sin looked like she had almost knocked herself into unconsciousness. Her eyes were dazed but she managed to stay on her feet in front of him.
Asch felt that this would be the best time to teach her a lesson for all attacks in moderation so he thrust his sword forward at her shoulder but she managed to shake herself out of her dazed state and dodge.
Asch kept up the offensive though, thrusting, swiping and slashing at wide angles so she had to look everywhere at once. He watched each defensive move carefully so he could give her advice later but he found that besides being tired and a bit slow to react, her dodging and her blocking seemed to be at their best. She always managed to get her blade up in time, even if she staggered with the blow. Asch noticed that she didn't seem to favor parrying though so he set off to test her on that; coming in with wide sweeps that were much more difficult to dodge then they were to block or parry. The replica seemed to notice this after a few minutes though and started to block more frequently than dodge but still she hardly parried. Her moves were precise and obviously had a decent amount of thought in them but like he had realized before, she wasn't weighing all her options to make the battle more favorable for her. She was letting him guide all her decision and if she wanted to keep going, much less survive in battle, she was going to need to parry and weigh all options.
'That's going to finish this…' he thought and then he prepared to perform the attack that would end the duel. It would be simple, but she seemed to learn best when he out performed her with simple moves, because she liked to end things with a bang.
The God-general stepped towards her quickly and tightened the grip on his sword; then he came in with a blazingly fast strike to the side and she responded just like he thought she would- with a block. His two-handed sword hit hers only lightly though and he began to spin back around, but he was feigning and when she turned her attention to the other side of his body where she thought the attack would follow through, he whirled back around the way he had come before and slammed his blade as hard as he could into her unprepared block, without permanently damaging her.
The replica staggered with a blank expression on for a moment before collapsing to the ground, the breath totally knocked out of her. It was going to take a few minutes for her to recover from that.
Asch sheathed his sword and dismissed her weapons while walking over to the barely conscious girl on the ground. She managed to turn her dazed stare to his face though she was clearly shaken.
"Ouch" she said weakly and then followed through with something that could have been shaky laughter. Her eyes were unfocused.
"Good fight" he said as he bent down and reached under her, lifting her easily into his arms.
The onlookers clapped excitedly for them both and cheered, calling out 'amazing' and 'nice moves' to him and the girl in his arms as he walked back to them all. Sin seemed to wake up a bit at the commotion and turned to look at all the villagers, a small blush staining her cheeks.
"Don't be disappointed…" Asch told her "you did well, though I think you can figure out what caused you to lose."
"I should have parried…" the replica said in a shaky voice, though he knew it was more from the blow then from being upset.
"We will work on that" he responded with a flat tone and she nodded, closing her eyes and leaning her head against his chest; she obviously wasn't embarrassed from being held like that and Asch wondered if the talking from the night before had somehow altered their relationship. Nothing seemed to get very awkward.
The man from the bar was beside him then, offering to carry her back to the inn where she could rest but Asch shook his head and his insides twisted oddly when Sin grasped at his tabard. She didn't want to be handed over to an almost complete stranger.
"Asking her to sleep in the middle of the day is like taking candy from a baby," Asch told the man "regardless of what people may think, it's not that easy."
The men and boys around them burst out with howls of laughter and out of the corner of his eye he watched Sin's mouth twitch upward.
"Let's at least get you both something to eat" the bartender stated with a smile "It's the least we can do for you both."
Asch was about to agree for Sin's sake but when he turned to speak with the big man, he wasn't beside him anymore.
Asch stopped and turned around. The man was standing a few steps back with wide eyes.
"I'm going to throw a party tonight" the man suddenly said and Asch raised an eyebrow. That was certainly a fast decision for a town that had had no life until a few hours previously.
"You'll both come of course!" the man said with a huge grin and Asch's mood faltered a bit. He would much rather be off doing something productive then watching pointless dancing or drinking contests.
"What of the bandits? You know they will be coming tonight," Asch stated in an attempt to thwart the plans "how can we be prepared if there is no one to be a look out?"
The man thumped his chest and gave Asch a confident grin "Don't you worry about that, we'll be all set for your command before first sign of those bastards!"
Asch refrained from sighing too noticeably in front of the man but when he looked down at Sin, she had an eager look on her face that clearly stated 'it's a good idea' so Asch scowled and turned to the man again with an agreement.
The bartender clapped him on the shoulder as he strolled by "That's the spirit! Well, c'mon, you two need something to eat."
Asch followed after the man as they walked back to the inn. A party wasn't exactly how he had planned to spend his time.
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Sin's P.o.v
Asch pulled a stool out from under the counter and set her down. Her head was still spinning a bit from exhaustion and from the jarring blow so she gripped the edge of the counter to keep herself upright.
'Ugh stop spinning' she told the room 'you totally deserved to be knocked unconscious for that stupid mistake' she then told herself sourly.
A hand was suddenly patting her head gently and she turned to Asch in surprise but both of his hands were crossed in front of him as he waited patiently on the stool beside hers. His fierce green eyes were boring into hers though and she snapped out it and looked at the man who was patting her head, the bartender of course.
"That was a pretty amazing fight" the man cooed and Sin turned slightly red in the face for making another stupid mistake and thinking Asch would pat her.
"You had a lot of pretty complicated moves out there!" he continued "if I saw that stuff coming at me, I wouldn't have any idea how to counter it!"
"I still need some practice, but thank you" she mumbled as he placed a bowl of soup in front of her. She stared at it, wondering if she would be able to keep it down. She had no idea why her insides were doing summersaults.
"You eat it." Asch stated in a sarcastic tone, making her scowl at him while picking up her spoon.
The bartender started to polish his glasses as he watched them both with a smile and Sin refrained from glancing at either him or Asch while she slowly ate her soup, though her eyes had a tendency to stray when she was thinking.
"How are the villagers at using swords?" Asch asked the other man a minute later.
The large man shrugged "I suppose some of them can fight decently when they have to but it hardly goes beyond stabbing or throwing a pitchfork."
"Would they be willing to learn?" The God-general asked "If this town wants to get on with its life, everyone, and at this point I mean everyone, is going to need to learn to defend them selves properly."
The man rubbed his chin as he thought "I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to convince the men to learn to fight. They are already starting to rebuild the town, most of them anyways, and I bet seeing such a small girl fight like that would be enough to convince anyone that they could learn in time."
Sin was flattered and annoyed at the same time as she lowered her spoon back down to the bowl. The whole point of that fight was to get people to stop thinking of her as a little girl.
'Why do I even want to prove that?' she wondered but then her gaze flicked over to Asch and she saw that he was watching her out of the corner his eye. There was a slightly annoyed expression on his face too but she didn't know where it came from.
"I don't suppose the little one would want to stay and help get the men back on their feet again?" the bartender said and Sin choked on her next spoonful of soup. Asch whipped his head in the direction of the bartender, a murderous look on his face.
The bartender was stunned at their reaction and took a step away from the crazy general, confusion in his eyes until a second later when he realized what he had come off sounding like.
"What! No, no! I didn't mean like that!" the man said frantically, waving his hands around "I meant that the elder would love to have such an enthusiastic and strong hearted girl on the council! Please put that sword away, I didn't mean what it sounded like I meant!"
Sin's forehead was on the counter as she coughed from choking her soup down but through her blurry eyes she saw that Asch did indeed have his sword pointed at the man, his eyes were blazing with anger.
"A-Asch…" she managed out before another coughing fit took her and she held on to the counter to stop herself from toppling over. Was all this coughing and dizziness just from the soup?
Reluctantly, Asch put his sword away and came over to her, stopping at her side as she tried to get her breath. He placed hand on her back, surprising her at the small action of comfort.
"I think you really do need sleep," he said as he leaned over her "your face is white."
Sin nodded through another small cough and got down from the stool but the floor kept turning oddly and slanted itself and she only got a few steps before she fell to her knees.
"Ah damn it…" she said from her position on the floor "I can't walk straight…"
"Yes I can see that" Asch said from behind her and then he reached down like before and lifted her into his arms. He walked smoothly towards the stairs and just when they were about to go up, Sin remember her manners and leaned over Asch's shoulder.
"Thank you for the soup," she said weakly to the bartender who still had a bewildered look on his face " was very good…" she mumbled as she laid her head down on Asch's shoulder.
'Maybe they are right…' she thought sadly as Asch's strong arms carried her up the stairs 'maybe I really am…just a child…'
The thought of looking like a child in front of Asch was sickening. She couldn't believe he had managed to put up with her and her weaknesses this long. Did she seriously act like a child at her age? She had never noticed before, until now when Asch carried her up the stairs like some small newborn.
'No…I have to quit being so weak…I'll get up the rest of these stairs by myself…" her thoughts told her.
"Please put me down…" the girl mumbled into his shoulder "I can get up the stairs by myself…"
Asch stopped halfway up but he made no move to put her down. She couldn't stop a tremble from rolling down her spine at that moment. She was so pathetic.
Asch reached up then, grasping her shoulder and pulling her face away from his shoulder. She didn't look him in the eye; she kept her gaze safely on the steps of the stairs.
"You are young, but you aren't a child," he stated in a low voice and she immediately shifted her eyes to look at him. Bull's eye.
"How-?" she began in confusion.
'How could you know what I was thinking?'
"I see your reaction every time someone calls you something along those lines. I know it bothers you."
Sin went limp in his arms. Was she really that easy to read? Great, another childish feature. It seemed like it was impossible to win around him, no matter what she was doing.
"You really need to stop thinking about what others think of you and move on. You aren't a child, you can at least make decisions on your own, can you not?" his voice was comforting in a way but it also held a sense of pain mixed with it; almost like he was trying to convince himself with his own words.
"I-I'm a replica…h-how can I-" she started in a hushed voice but she stopped quickly when his expression turned dangerous. That was the wrong answer, she realized.
"Would anything be different if you were a normal human being?" he asked, his tone dark "would you want it to be?"
Sin stared at his angered green eyes in almost fright before she looked away, ashamed that she had caused this in him.
This too, was the wrong response and he was suddenly furious; taking the stairs two at a time and flinging the door to their room open when they reached it. She didn't know how he had managed to open the door and slam it shut without dropping her but that small thought rushed from her mind when her back was suddenly pinned against the wall. She didn't dare look him right in the eye. She had never seen him this angry, not even the night before compared to this.
"Don't look away. I want you to answer me" he said in what seemed like a calm tone but anger rolled off of him like thunder. His hands were on either side of her head.
"I-if I wasn't a replica, I wouldn't have met y-you…" her voice was shaky, scratch that, her whole body was shaking as she tried to raise her eyes but they didn't even make it halfway.
He leaned closer to her "and you wish you were normal, so that that never happened?" he accused and when she looked, shocked, back up to his eyes there was nothing but pain and betrayal there "I never knew you thought this," he motioned between them "was a mistake."
"No!" she yelled as he pulled away "listen to me!" she cried but he didn't look or even seem to hear her. This couldn't be happening. How did something so small turn into the most painful misunderstanding of her life?
"Stop!" Sin yelled and she lunged at him, pulling downward on his tabard so hard he went down with her. Asch went down with her.
Her back slid against the wall until she was sitting on the ground, Asch's tabard clutched in both hands. His knees were on either side of her legs but she didn't dare move them. Her eyes were boring into his now. He needed to listen. He needed to understand.
His hands came up then and tried to pry her hands loose and he was successful but when he tried to stand back up, she reached around his neck and held on tightly. Nothing in the world would make her let go, though her trembling was making it hard to follow through with that. That's how scared she was.
"No you don't understand!" she sobbed into his shoulder "my whole life was a mistake until I met you!"
Asch stopped trying to pull away and remained still. She could hear his breathing over her shoulder and loosened her grip just a bit, just in case she was choking him. He still didn't pull away.
"Listen…please listen…" she whispered "I would choose to be a normal human being over being a replica any day…" she gripped him a bit tighter again, like he was going to disappear "but I would never, never choose that life if it didn't involve you! I've never had a-anyone…" her tears poured over then and she silently cried.
'I'm so sorry…that's the best I can do' Sin thought finally but she still continued to hang onto him. If he was going to disappear and leave her, she wanted to feel that she had done all she could have to make him stay. No more regret.
But obviously he wasn't about to leave because his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, his fingertips brushing her sides and making her actually cry harder in relief.
She pulled herself closer to him and cried into his burning red hair. There was nothing for her to say right now. All she wanted was to be wanted in return and right now, she was. The smell of autumn clung to him still and she allowed herself to calm down a bit. He wasn't storming down the stairs or burning down the whole inn so she figured it would be okay to get a grip on her trembling.
"That's all I need…" he whispered close to her "don't ever believe that you don't count…" she nodded into his hair to let him know that she was listening and that she understood.
They stayed like that for a minute longer before she reluctantly pulled herself away and leaned against the wall, a shaky breath coming from her lips.
"I wouldn't change anything with you but I wish I was older…or maybe taller" she stated as she covered her eyes with her arm and smiled just a bit. He was going to stay, everything was going to be alright.
"Why do you want to be older so bad?" Asch asked as he shifted over to sit beside her against the wall "It's not that great"
"I know I'll be older in time but I don't want to just be seen as a child…"
"You were a crazy child when we first met" Asch put out there and she smiled when she remembered.
"I was angry"
"I know…"
Sin thought back to when she had first arrived at the castle, the way the guards had handled her, like a piece of garbage or something even worse than that. She remembered Asch coming into the room with his cold eyes and his long red hair. His harsh training for the next 3 weeks straight…but now she was stronger, she could fight. He had protected her in so many ways- even risking himself in the process. She realized she looked up to him, she admired him. She wanted to…
"Asch, I know why I want to grow up" He deserved to know.
His head turned to her and she turned to look directly into his eyes. She owed him this.
"I never thought about my age until I met you…" Sin stated quietly "I want to be able to stand beside you and be seen… I want them to know you trained me. I want them all to realize that I can fight and that I would…"
"Do you really need to be older to prove all that?" he asked. She furrowed her eyebrows.
"It would be helpful if I wanted to be taken seriously, or looked at…" she tried to explain more clearly but she trailed off a bit when she saw he had a slightly surprised expression on.
"Looked at?" the God-general asked and she flushed, realizing she had let that one slip accidentally.
"Yes I suppose…but I meant more like noticed" she mumbled in embarrassment, looking away.
He stared at her for a moment longer and she fidgeted a bit. That didn't go exactly the way she planned but still she felt like she had managed to say exactly what she meant.
'Noticed…hmm' she thought in the silence. It seemed right.
"You don't need to be older in order to prove yourself" Asch stated a moment later "If anything, it would work to your advantage to be younger."
Sin looked at him with a puzzled expression. She didn't agree yet.
"In battle, it is better to not be too noticeable. The less attention you draw to yourself, the more damage you can do. Often this turns the flow of battle" Asch told her smoothly and she nodded but she had a question now.
"Then why do generals wear such noticeable colours," she motioned to him "if what you say is true, shouldn't the stronger people draw less attention to themselves?" That seemed a bit savage.
Asch shook his head "No because part of being a general is to attract attention away from your comrades."
Sin leapt to her feet "You mean like a decoy or a sacrifice!?" she yelled frantically. She couldn't stop the fright from coming out in her voice. Asch. A decoy. Danger.
"I suppose so yes, but if you are rational and well trained, it's more like drawing the enemy into a trap because they don't know what to expect."
Sin relaxed "A bit cocky aren't we?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I've gotten this far, I think I've got the right" he responded and she shook her head with a small smile "I guess so."
The God-general stood up then and walked over to her. His power washed over her and she felt stupid for thinking he was in danger. It was Asch. Grow up.
"A little more training and you will be a formidable foe," Asch said, making her look up at his face at the compliment "age means nothing and besides…" he paused with a small smirk "if you are half as wild in actual battle as you are in training, you're going to have to chase after enemies…"
Sin grinned evilly back at him "I'll try to control myself" she promised and he nodded with a smoldering look in his eye. Sin stared back curiously. She had never seen that emotion in him before. Why was her heart beat suddenly so fast?
"I will too…" he said and then the look vanished and he glanced away, pointing at the bed.
Sin blinked and turned around to look at the bed. She had forgotten the whole reason they had come up.
She walked over slowly and crawled under the covers, trying to sort out the beat of her heart that would have any dancer tripping over their own feet, trying to follow along.
She curled into a ball, wrapping her training hoari around her as well of the blankets. Sleep would take her eventually.
The door to the room creaked open and Sin turned around in her bed to watch Asch leave. Something stirred in her as the door was closing and before she understood what she was doing her mouth opened and words almost came out. Her shock was practically the only thing that stopped her. The door creaked shut.
'Oh my god…no…' she thought in horror, her eyes slamming shut. It was impossible.
Her shock was overwhelming but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake it off.
She wanted to say them, she wanted to try the words out to see if they were right.
"I love you…"
Damn it.
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Already then, so that's the end of chapter 9. It was originally going to be WAY longer and have action but if I went on with the next part of the story, it would have probably added another 20 minutes of reading and that really is long. I hope you all liked this chapter because all of it came off the top of my head and none of it was planned lmao. Well I know what I'm writing for the next chapter so it'll be fast…and so will the one after that…and probably after that and then that (I'm counting all the parts of the story in my head haha) so you get the point. It'll be a few more chapters before I actually slow down and think. Lmao I was totally terrified when I wrote…shhhh… bastard…lol. I never swear so that was new to me.
Well thanks all for reading thus far. Review please and make me happy.
Kazink
