Rob POV
'Do I feel…fear?! Why do I feel fear!? This is stupid! That's only Daz. Good he may be, he is just as old as I am, so get a grip Rob!' With a sharp twist I turned my head around, no longer willing to let my emotions get the better of me.
And yet, my hands refused to shake slightly. I tried to convince myself that the shaking of my arms must come from the exhaustion and taxation of the battle and all that it had included but I knew, deep down in my mind, that I wasn't fooling anyone. I was afraid and it made me sick!
After all, how could I hope to climb to the top of the world, in order to achieve my dreams of justice, if I was shaken from the sight of a nonchalant smile and…humming?
Glancing sideways I watched as Daz stepped aboard the marine ship, all the while humming a song I had never heard before, which wasn't much to go off of but it painted such a stark contrast to the scene at our backs that it only increased the negative emotions whirling inside of me.
Clamping down on the wooden pier I was sitting on, knuckles growing white and hands still shaking, I counted in my head down from five to one, hoping that the fear would go away and to my relieve, it did.
Letting out a breath of air I slumped backwards and gazed up at the slowly brightening sky, wondering what the hell had just happened. This had never happened before, which baffled me somewhat as I had spent quite some time in the company of Daz.
Admittedly, we were not friends but I had come to believe that we were at least more than simple acquaintances. And now this!
'Damn it, I need some sleep. Maybe all will be better tomorrow or this whole scene was just a coincidence to begin with…' I thought to myself, argument over argument coming to life inside my mind while disappearing just as fast. All the while my gut, the one thing that had never lead me astray until now, told me that something had happened with Daz. Changed him.
With another sigh I closed my eyes and fell into a faint slumber. After all, a lot had happened and sleeping had always helped to put things into perspective. Hopefully, this session of shut eye would do so as well…
/
Daz POV
'My, what a day!' With a crunch my teeth sunk into the fresh and crunchy flesh of the apple I had just grabbed out of a nearby barrel after wandering back onto the ship. Ravelling in the sweet and sour taste of the fruit in my hand my eyes wandered over the deck of the ship.
Marines were bustling over it, though it was easy to spot the fatigue and weariness the last night had piled on top of the men and women who had not as much vigour in their steps as the day before.
'Who can blame them really, heh. It was a fucked-up night, no doubt. I wonder where our instructor whatsherface is…Did she maybe not survive?... Possible I suppose. Would be rather disappointing though.' With another bite I reduced the size of the apple to an even smaller size while grinning slightly at the atmosphere of this very morning.
'Ahhh, the sun rising on the horizon, a nice breakfast, what more could you want after such an eventful night!' Thinking back on his crusade against the pirates back in the town though, a small frown crept onto my previously grinning face.
'I suppose it isn't wrong to say that I snapped a little back there… But it felt so good to not worry about anything aside from your opponent. No thoughts about the future, the past, the world government and all that crap! Just me, my opponent, his weapon and our wills to crush each other! I wonder what my old man would say if he could see me now…' The thoughts about my dad once again brought my mood down a bit but another bite from the glorious apple in my hand solved this little problem, once again clearing my head from further depressing thoughts.
'Ye, definitely got some issues to work on there. Coping mechanism at its finest if there ever was one…' It was pretty clear to me now, why I was so obsessed with fighting and training, and yet this didn't change the fact that I had enjoyed the thrill of battle immensely, which was in and of itself not really a good sign for my mental health all together but honestly, I didn't really care.
This world is, without a doubt, fucked up from top to bottom and after dying once already I didn't really have a mind to be a paragon of virtue only to die again and be sent into an even shittier world!
'If that is even possible, hehehe' Grinning up at the sky I suddenly became aware that maybe I would fit right into this world after all, now that I had cut loose the beast inside of me a little and no longer feared the insanity on my insides that every human carried with them as much.
'Time will tell I guess, so no use reflecting over it overtly much. Now then, time to grab some shut-eye. I believe I've earned myself as much.' Standing up I crunched down on the last piece of the remaining apple and while munching away with a carefree expression on my usually so stoic face disappeared into the quarters of the marines to do exactly that.