Damn, I can't believe that I can get away with beginning this at school. Holy crap, school!
Kendal: Err, I think you'd better not say that in Raine's face- She'll start one of her rants. I don't think she'll go in ruin mode, but-
Me: What, she'll go into "Pwner teacher" mode? Right now? How can she?
Kendal: Oh yeah, I forgot- She's going to be sent back in time, isn't she… (evil)
Me: Man, everybody would feel sorry for the infamous psycho teacher known as Raine Sage, but it's for the best.
Lloyd: For the best?
Me: No duh. She needs therapy for her god complex…
Sheena: What's a god complex?
Me: WHAT??? ARE YOU ALL IDIOTS? I'VE BEEN MENTIONING THE WORD FOR LIKE TWENTY CHAPTERS NOW!
Sheena: YOU IDIOT, YOU MENTION IT BUT YOU DON'T TELL US WHAT THE HELL IT IS!
Me: (throws dictionary at her)
Lloyd: Err, the guy who wrote this doesn't own anybody here except Kendal, and doesn't own Tales of Symphonia… Err, yeah… (ducks dictionary)
At the very least, we didn't have to go through the extravagantness and lengthiness of attempting to destroy another bacura while going through the mines yet again. Because, I was keeping Lloyd on a very leash.
That is, tripping him every time he attempted to go after a monster. Okay, I let him go after a few, but he just wouldn't stop leaping at every chance he got at killing a red bat or basilisk that came flying, crawling, or slithering his way. Warmonger.
The others, of course, didn't raise a single objection to me and my handling of little, little Lloydie. Obviously, the were just glad they didn't have to fight at every chance they got, and therefore didn't care a bit for how I tripped Lloyd every time he attempted to pull out the Saint Rapier blades that he had found in a chest here. Besides, Lloyd always stumbled but didn't fall flat on his face- Once I tripped him, I pulled him back roughly and shoved him in our general must-travel direction.
That's when Lloyd attempted to find a way into a pit that seemed to be holding a treasure chest. I wasn't for going for it- What if it happened to be an infamous Fake that spat out random dishes and items from nowhere and was somehow immune to everything except elemental damage?
I was worrying about that... Until a irritated voice, high-pitched and squeaky, not scratchy, said "Watch where you're going, idiots!"
I almost fell over with that one, but was stopped from doing that when the same voice yelped "You loser, don't crush me!"
I hopped backwards, straight into Lloyd, who, lacking my sense of balance in instincts, fell over and caused the next person in line, Regal, to fall over and cause the next person in line to fall over, ect ect. Domino effect, man.
So, I started looking around, until, the moment Lloyd behind me opened his mouth to complain- Well everyone, really- I saw something that made me jump back yet again.
This time, my head knocked into Zelos, who, yelping, hopped back and promptly fell over a pile of rubble, legs straight up. But not before his hand somehow snagged onto on of Sheena's... appendages. Well, yeah.
Bemused by a red-faced Sheena whaling on the poor dude, they turned back and...
They saw the object of my surprise. A little man with a blue pointed hat that was looking at us impatiently.
"You losers have any potion?"
We simply stared at it, until Lloyd broke the silence by stating the obvious- "Wow, it talks."
No duh.
"I've been traveling around to eat some potion. You losers have any?"
At that moment, I was thinking that this guy with the attitude problem didn't know just how well each of us could kick this guy to the moon on this dimension. But when he said the horrible grammar involving potions, I fell over and started rolling around, howling.
Okay, so that might have been worth a chuckle or two. But it seemed that the weirdest sense of humor belonged to me, because I was now thinking of the... thing... was so small and stupid. Amazingly.
I looked up (After making sure I hadn't busted any stitches in my side) and found everybody staring at me, with looks akin to hungry wolves.
Then I realized what it was. The thingie had mentioned potion. Each of them had seen my carry those Mizuho potions. So...
"NOOO!" I howled, backpedaling to the edge of the pit we were in. "I'M NOT GONNA GIVE UP MY MIZUHO POTIONS! I'D RATHER DIE THAN BE FORCED TO GIVE UP EVEN ON OF MY PRECIOUS, MY SWEET, PURPLE POTION THAT-"
The next five minutes passed with me ranting about the joys of Mizuho potions, but it didn't work. Finally conceding defeat, I handed it over and watched sullenly as the thing just went ahead and... well, eat the bottle and them comment about how it tasted like nothing.
Little bastard. He didn't know anything of the joys of drinking sweet things, did he...
Needless to say, we made it out in a few hours to the initial doorway, thanks to my mourning of the loss of one of utensils of joy. Well, I actually did let Lloyd start a few fights, but other than that? Hell to the no. I did not want to have to deal with hundreds upon hundreds of damned beasts on my back.At the very least, I managed to get the depressing thought out of me...
"Damn, we're running of exspheres!" A fat guy was saying by the entrance. "If I can't get some out o' this damn mine, I'm gonna go-"
"Vharley!" Regal's voice thundered.
Vharley? Oh wait a minute…
Isn't he the exosphere broker?
No duh he was. He was instantly recognizable- A mohawk of brown hair, green clothes. And, as he almost always did, he had a pair of bodyguards with him. All armed with exspheres, of course.
"Regal!? Ah-ha! You must be the one who destroyed the guard system!" Vharley crowed.
"I… I thought that the Pope imprisoned you!" Regal growled. "Why are you here, free!?"
While Lloyd got some background info about this obese guy, I was beginning to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Vharley was an exsphere broker. He was supposed to e here looking for exspheres. Which meant that this mine…
"Haha!" Vharley laughed. "Do you really think the Pope would agree to a deal with a murderer!? You were supposed to capture Colette, but now you've joined them!"
This guy was really starting to get on my nerves, so I stepped forward. "Since when did our-oh-so holy Pope start allying themselves with criminals?" I asked sarcastically.
I really wondered why Regal had such a… regal way of saying things, so, just who was he before he was a criminal? And, just how did Vharley, scum as he was, know him?
"What the-" Vharley gasped, paling. The two guys with him took huge steps back. "How the-"
"If the Pope shall not hold his part of the promise, then I'll punish you myself!" Regal growled, and started forward.
My appearance, coupled with a very, very vengeful looking guy stalking towards them was enough to pretty much get anybody scared. "N-no way!" Vharley shouted, backing up surprisingly fast for an obese person such as himself. "I'm getting out of here!"
He turned, and yes, he ran surprisingly fast for a fat person.
Immediately, we rounded up on Regal. "Regal, how do you know him?"
"He called you a murderer," Colette said, whose voice was amazingly subdued this time around.
"I am a criminal serving time in prison for the crime of murder," Regal said bluntly. Just like that. Well, well, mister candid.
That's all we could do. Stare at him. Well, not me. I just tapped my foot for him to go further into the rather touchy subject. Well, hell, brutal but necessary, eh?
"It's alright if you look down on me."
Yeah, right. Like Lloyd would look down on anybody. Immediately, the one and only stepped forward. "I've commit acts like that. It cost other people," Lloyd said quietly. "With their lives, just like you. But I won't look down on you. I know the pain of that."
"I don't exactly know how to say it," Colette said, biting her lip, "But I think that in ourselves, a goddess named consciousness resides in very one of us. If you pray to her enough-" Whatever that meant- "You will find forgiveness."
Ah. Forgiveness. But how do you deal with my case, of something from a millennia ago, when you had to deal with something on your shoulders for so long it was a part of you?
Regal was mute the rest of the way out.
So was I, but for completely different reasons. For some of them, I was thinking about how nice of an experience that being with them was turning out to be. Reencounters with Yuan and Kratos, who were usually secluded within Derris-Kharlan. Or, in Yuan's case, the Flanior or Triet Renegade bases.
Otherwise, I was thinking of all the moral issues that I thought were dead, sleeping in me. I had thought that it was so useless to think about most of the stuff being brought up constantly with these guys, like how you dealt with killing people for example. To me, having my moral alarm turned off was a element to myself, as my profession heavily involved killing- In this type of business, you just couldn't feel any remorse, could you?
But now, with these guys actually trying to deal with it when I had given up with the mother-lode of moral dilemmas- the total, purposeful killing off at least five hundred living beings. You just couldn't deal with that, at least in my views.
But, if Lloyd really had caused a massacre, (Well, maybe he hadn't done it, but still) and he had a personality that was still standing throughout himself, not just on the outside, what could I compare? Maybe he was secretly offering prayers to their souls, the ones who died as a way of assuaging the guilt. Perhaps I should, but how? That had been a case that was supposedly closed a thousand years ago. Tightly.
And plus, hatred at Yuan. Mithos. Kratos. Feelings that were so indistinguishable from myself that now, I had no clue what would my current mindset might be like if I had never obsessed myself with them. Supposedly, it seemed only logical that'd I'd be far different.
Supposedly. That was the magic word. To be sure, I raged at myself often, when I was alone, with myself and maybe a pathetic monster or two. And…
Maybe, sometimes if I let myself just let go, I cried.
Me: God, this hefty SOB that occupied half a week. Hopefully, I can rest easy now…
Kendal: Man, this caused you that much stress?
Me: I wouldn't be smiling…
Kendal: Why-y?
Me: You'll be in insomnia next chapter.
Kendal: NUUUUUUU!!!
Genis: (jumps out with big-ass Pow Hammer) I'VE GOT YOU NOW-
Kendal: (starts running around) WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY SO UNFAIR WHY WHY WHY WHY
Me: Oh, wait a minute…
Genis: (misses and falls) AHHH!!! MY KNEE!!! OWWWWWW!!!
Me: And Raine Sage is still in yet another coma. With researchers going ape over her. D