Chapter 6: When an angel fights
This? This sensation… Just a moment ago I was talking with Stephani about keeping Sora in line, something I had already done over a hundred time since we've arrived in this world. But for this to happen so suddenly. No, it must be miss Fil teasing me, if so I won't complain. I found myself in a fairy tale. Stephani has pulled me down and kissed me without warning. If it were anyone else I would have pulled away but in this instance Steph pulled away first. "This, this isn't what you think. I- I- I just wanted to say thank you for always saving me from King Sora. This doesn't mean I've fallen for you for real-" She tailed off at the end of her proclamation.
I can't help but back her against a wall. "Stop it."
"Wha- What?" She gets bashful, tilting her head down covering her eyes trying to hide her expression from me. She so cute when she gets like this. I feel like can't control myself when she does, I lift her by the chin.
"That's so not fair Steph. Using cliches on me is completely unfair." Enacting my revenge kissing her myself this time. Nothing over the top, just a peck. "Doesn't mean I haven't." Her face is so red that I thought for a moment that she might have somehow had all her blood rush to her face at once. Pretty sure she needs a moment to… Process what just happened. I poke her forehead and go on ahead. "Do try to hurry, Sora will punish us both if we hold him and Shiro up too long.
If only I knew, at the time, how right I was when I said that. Sora, you really are one crazy bastard sometimes.
Eventually we managed to make it to what used to be the "former" grand library of Imaniuty but now it belongs to this other being, a flugel that managed to defeat her grandfather for ownership of the library. I'm honestly more interested how this flugel managed to persuade the king to play the game. He probably had nothing to gain from her. I wonder what would have happen if the king had won the game. Guess that the canyon under the bridge at this point since simple water seems to not do the irrelevance of the thought justice. But I digress, when we entered the library, and I must say it is quite grand. I'm not sure if it is common practice here to have things floating around the structures but there's bits of the structure and many books floating around. "Ara, what brings these pesky little humans into MY library?"
A woman's voice rang through the library but if was hard to pinpoint the source, at least until I felt the magic cast to make her voice louder. She was right above us and sitting in a, what can only be described as, a makeshift throne of books. 'She looking down on us, in more ways than one.' I simply pat Sora on the back. "Have at it slugger." Oh how I regretted those words later. Damn you Sora.
Barely keeping up with their conversation what started as simple negotiations quickly took a turn. The two of them somehow start talking about erogenous zones and requesting permission to touch them to check for something that I'm, to this day, not really clear on what exactly the Flugel was checking for. I can't deny though, that the disappointed look on Sora's face after finding out what her erogenous zone actually was almost made what came next worth the trouble… Almost. After what I described to Shiro as, "Sora being a pervert," negotiatons seemed to be going smoothly. They decided on the game. I was actually a fan of the game too. Where you must use the last sound of the previously used world to start your word. But for some reason they didn't start right away. Instead Sora got Stephani and myself to be in the game, not participating but from what I could tell he still wasn't fully comfortable without both Shiro and I around to knock some sense into him. As for Steph, I could only imagine what he had in that damn head of his. Sora started the game with a literal bang.
"All right then, how about I start things off thens, 'Hydrogen Bomb.'"
The next thing I know a freaking nuclear warhead appeared above us and in a matter of seconds that explosion blinded the room. I tried to shield Steph from the blast knowing full well that it wouldn't help as a nuclear explosion this close would vaporize all of us before we could even feel it. We were lucky however, the Flugel had a magic barrier in place and the game itself seemed to take place in a pocket dimension of sorts so that nothing would happen to the real world should Sora decide to drop another nuke on our heads.
After the initial demonstration, the game became rather normal. Words like ice cream, cowboy hat and beach were used, not in that order of course. Do to the magic at play all of these things when mentioned appear or disappear which was quite interesting. Like for "Beach" we suddenly found the table and us on a picturesque beach… and then "The REAL" Sora came to play. Working in clothing words and the Flugel played right along, but at least she added stuff to make things more, let's go with, "decent" even though that definitely wasn't the intent.
As all of this happens I try my best to keep Stephani safe from the abomination that I want to say Sora made, but I was too preoccupied with the damn thing to remember who exactly said it. "Damn it Sora, just win already or I'm gonna hit you so hard that you'll forget that I even hit you in the first place!" I've threats like this before, never really meaning it, of course but just to whip him into shape. Though this time he actually paused from my words.
Sora turned in his chair to me, at this point I was up a tree, Stephani in my arms, attempting to protect her from the creature. "You know what Tatsuya? That's actually a better idea than what I was going to do anyway, a lot cleaner too."
It's not often that Sora threw compliments at me. But at the time I was not at all aware what he was talking about, so I just tentatively nodded my head.
The game continued on, for what felt like hours. Luckily Sora got rid of that damn monster that was chasing Stephani and me. Giving the two of us room to breath and relax on the beach we were still on. But suddenly the game ended and we were back in the Library's basement.
"Huh? What just happened? Who won?" Stephani asked unsure what happened.
"I don't know." Sora professed, shrugging his shoulders.
Turned out no one could remember what happened at the end of the game. It was then that I approach the Flugel. "Hey, what happened? Who won?"
She sighed, as if saying, 'I don't even know myself.'
"Wait. so no one here knows who won? How is that possible?" Stephani followed up with.
At that moment Sora places a hand around my shoulder. "This guy is the reason that none of us know the outcome."
"What? How is it my fault? I wasn't even playing your game." I brush Sora off my shoulder. "Is there no way to find out who won?"
Just then Shiro held up her phone. "Hai." She said simply.
"Shiro? Did you record it?" I asked as I picked her up.
"Mmhmm." She nods with a big smile on her face as she showed all of us the video. Curious to the outcome as well Sora, Stephani and the Flugel all pushed against me. Sora and Stephani on either side and the Flugel hovered to look over my head. I felt something soft against my back but I refused to react… But man was it soft.
-In the video-
"Are you recording Shiro?" Sora's voice asked. As Shiro was sitting in his lap we could only see the Flugel across the table, smiling, enjoying the challenge that Sora brought her.
"What is your next word human?"
"I can imagine the smile Sora probably made as he said the words "Short-term memory."
The Flugel's expression then changed. "Excuse me, but who are you human? And why are we on a beach?" She couldn't remember what they were doing.
"I'm not sure but I'm not really complaining with the view from here." Sora's voice rang.
She looked down. "Eh? Since when have I been naked?" She raised her hand to try and conjure up some clothing nothing happened. "Ara?" She tried again and again nothing happened.
It was at this point the video ended as Shiro likely forgot what she was doing.
-Back with us-
"So basically because she couldn't remember what she was doing she couldn't say a follow up word and lost by default from the time rule?" Stephani asked.
"Bwahaha!" Sora laughed.
"What this can't be, are you telling me I lost because I forgot what I was doing?" The flugel was enraged at the results.
"That appears to be the case." I tried to ease the tension, even I was in disbelief at the outcome of the game.
"To be beaten by a lowly human… How could you have known that the effects would be so immediate?" She tried to see if Sora was just lucky or that he knew completely what he was doing.
Sora simply grinned and said to the Flugel, "You should never underestimate an opponent. No matter how weak you think them to be, I fought you with this in mind, you were cocky you'd take your time to add new phrases even if you had a word or phrase right away you'd just hold off on saying it and 'toy around with your food' it was a gamble as you could see but I had faith in the idea that my friend gave me."
His words made me wonder, I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sora, what was your original plan?"
To which he just grinned and said, "Does it even matter? We won thanks to the idea you helped me think of."
He was right to an extent, looking back, my threat was rather specific at the time, not to mention the idea had crossed my mind, but not once did I come to think that it would be able to win a game like that. But I wasn't about to let go of the genius' compliment towards me, so instead of arguing back with anything I just rubbed the back of my head. "I didn't really do anything."
It was at this moment that Sora addressed the Flugel, "Now then I do believe your stake was 'everything you own,' which means that this library and you now belong to m- Us." He managed to catch himself but his little slip didn't get passed me at least. By this point Shiro was tired and decided to take a little cat nap in my arms so she seemed to miss that little lapse in wording of his, lucky for him too, she would not have liked it at all.
Despite not liking that she lost she couldn't fight the rules of this world.
"Oh and don't worry I still share to books from another world with you." Sora assured her, which got her very excited.
She kneeled down to the three of us, well I assume Sora and Shiro but I was carrying her so by extension I got included. "I Jibril, pledge my loyalty to the King and Queen of Imanity, I shall follow their every command without hesitation. I would also like to see the full extension of the strength you all hold."
I realized something from her pledge. "Now that I think about it, you never once gave your name to us-"
"Of course. Why would I give my name to lowly humans that once beaten would never come back here again?" She stated bluntly.
I couldn't say much to that. "I'm sure I would have done something similar were I in your position." In fact I acknowledged her statement as something that a warrior would have as a principle.
"Ok Tatsuya, that's enough flirting, we need to start researching this world further. From all the Exceeds to all the records kept on the history of each." Sora takes Shiro from me and instructs Jibril to guide him around. "Take the rest of the day off Tatsuya." He called out before disappearing into the far reaches of the library.
I took his advice and asked Stephani if she knew of any places that we could go to relax after such a long day. To which she smiled took me by the hand and said, "Follow me."
An hour later I found myself standing in front of a large building. "What is this place Stephani?"
She smiled warmly at me opened the doors and said, "The best place to relax on the entire continent. One of the only places no king of Imanity has ever put up as condition for losing of winning. A place that all Exceeds are welcome to come to, with no fear of being discriminated against. The hot spring resort that has been in the care of the kingdom since its inception. Konansou."
I could only imagine how exceptional this place must be if the kings of the past never used it as a bargaining chip before. My second thought was, 'I wonder if Sora knows about this place and is just scared to come here as he's still not good at crowds, or maybe he just prefers the royal baths-' The thought occurred to me that Sora just got a busty angel girl under his wing now, so to speak. "Oh no,"
Stephani clearly saw the change in my demeanor and became concerned. "What is wrong Dar- Tatsuya?"
"Sora, that Sora now has that Flugel, Jibril I think, under his beck and call. You don't think he'd do anything unsavory?" I decided to tell her up front instead of hiding my thoughts, probably not the best idea as she gave me a rather disappointed mug.
"Are you really concerned with him even with us being in a place like this?" She took me by the arm and pulled me inside. "Forget about his highness for now, you've been working hard by his side all this time, make tonight about you. For me?"
Her words struck a cord with me. Sora and Shiro are well off enough on their own and now with the addition of Jibril they have increased their influence by a great amount as having complete loyalty of a 6th Exceed. I give a deep exhale. "You know what Stephani, you're right. Tonight-" I stole a kiss from her. "-Will be for me and for you."
That night I forgot all about Sora and Shiro for the first time since their parents gave them that apartment to live on their own. All I could think about was my future and what it would hold.
I apologize to all my readers for the lack of updating like I had promised. As many of you might be able to attest the writing process can be tricky. I must have rewritten the game with Jibril over 20 times trying to get it to a point where it was different enough that I liked how it turned out. I thought about going into great detail even writing down every word said. But the focus isn't on Sora's perspective so I figured it would be a bit of overkill. I thought about having Tatsuya say the word himself, but ultimately I decided to have Sora be inspired by Tatsuya midway. Note: the super detailed version was nearly 5 thousand words as I wrote down the dialogue between Sora and Jibril as Tatsuya was watching the whole time. Had everything been solely up to that I would have finished some 2 months ago, but I was working on a language degree, then I met someone who I devoted much of my time too. For now school is not on my schedule so I will try to get the next chapter up soon to make up for the delay. Thank you to everyone who has supported this story thus far.
As of this chapter I will be diverging from the story of Sora and Shiro more and more. Tatsuya has made a decision for his life. For the decision I hope you will return next chapter to find out just what he has decided.
As always please feel free to comment, review, correct, rant, rave anything that fits your fancy. I welcome all criticism. I acknowledge that I am not perfect and strive to get better.