Crossing the Line
I was walking down the streets of Prontera, Rune-Midgard's capital city. It was always so crowded in Prontera. Merchants would be sitting in a corner of a street, selling and occupying the space. I was so enchanted with the buildings in Prontera that I wasn't even paying attention to where I was going. I was knocked out of my trance when I accidentally bumped into a Rogue with red hair. It took only 3 seconds for my mind to fully register what had happened. I reached for my pocket and I noticed my wallet wasn't there anymore. I ran to the direction of the Rogue and when I caught up to her, we were already facing the north gate of Prontera, where there aren't much people. I was impressed by her speed and agility, but I wasn't intimidated enough to be in another trance. I grabbed her wrist and gripped it as tightly as I could. She winced a little and gave me the deadliest glare I have ever seen.
"Give me back my wallet. I know you have it!" I said with a very angry voice but was surprised when I saw that she was chuckling.
"And what makes you think I have it?" she asked in a low voice. I managed to get a look at her free hand before she hid it inside her pocket. I pointed at her pocket and she let out a small scowl and slapped my hand away. She forced herself out of my grip and when she did she cast a skill that I haven't seen before. "Stalk!!" she yelled and she slowly disappeared. I then knew what she was trying to do. So I cast a spell of my own and yelled
"Sight!!" She slowly reappeared after I cast that spell so I took this chance to my advantage. I quickly grabbed her wrist but she kicked me in the stomach that caused me to fall to the ground. She had a smug look on her face while I was rubbing my back that broke the fall. I slowly stood up, giving her a glare, but she just smirked at me and started to run at the opposite direction. My back was still sore and my feet couldn't carry me anymore, so I just let her run with my money.
A few hours passed by, and I still couldn't forget what that Rogue did to me. I still had enough money to buy what I wanted in my Storage, but still. How did she become so fast like that? I almost couldn't see her. Well…almost. I was on my way to the sanctuary when something red caught my eye. I looked to my side and noticed the Rogue that had stolen my money. Her back was facing me while giving all kinds of fruits and vegetables to them. She wore a kind smile and was looking at the children with warm eyes. She seemed different than the Rogue I fought with earlier. I suddenly feel that I needed to apologize to her. She seemed like a nice girl, and apologizing seemed like the proper thing to do right now.
"Hey!" I called out, before she turned around and gave me a surprised look. But before I could say anything else, she started running to the other direction. And the only way I could stop her was casting a spell on her. So I did just that.
"Frost nova!!" I yelled, my hands and fingers pointing at the Rogue, my eyes shut tight. When I didn't hear anything, I started opening my eyes, slowly. And there she was, frozen stiff right before my eyes. Though she was frozen, I knew that she could still hear.
"I don't have any intention of fighting you anymore. The money is yours, do what ever you please with it." Then I put my hands on the ice and whispered, "Fire Pillar..." A small flame came out of my hand and slowly melted the ice. When the ice completely melted, she was shivering and very pale. She shot me a weak glare and that was the first time I noticed her enchanting green eyes.
"Was that the only way you could think of to stop me?" she said, anger booming in her voice. "Hey, it worked didn't it?" I retorted, trying to match the anger in her voice.
"Jeez, talk about appreciation." I muttered to myself. I mean, what was the girl's problem anyway. Here I am, trying to apologize, and she ungratefully, rudely speaks unkindly of me. A little 'thank you' would've been appreciated.
"Thank you." My head shot up; did I just hear her say thank you? Can she read minds or something? She was looking at her feet; her bangs covered her face, which made it harder for me to read her expression. "I also want to apologize for stealing your money and for being inconsiderate." She continued to look at her feet. There was an awkward silence that hung in the air. We stood like that for a few minutes when I decided to break the silence. "What's your name?" I know, pretty lame, but it was all I could think of. Her face shot upwards and looked at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and gave me a smile. Not an arrogant smile, but a sweet smile, similar to what she gave to the children, only a little sweeter.
"Hiroko. What about you?" She said. Her eyes filled with curiosity.
I gave her a weak smile and said, "Takeshi". "Takeshi" she repeated, "I'll remember that." A few seconds passed by when Hiroko suddenly said, "It was really nice talking to you, Takeshi, but I have things to do. Maybe the next time we meet, we'll really have a conversation and not just stand around here not talking." She started to walk away when I grabbed her wrist, causing her to stop and face me with a confused look on her face.
There was something about her that I just couldn't explain. I wanted to know something that kept haunting my mind. So I went straight to the point.
"I know this isn't any of my business, but why do you steal from people?" She was slightly taken aback by this question and her expression turned from a confused one, to a surprised one, to a sad one. She stared at her feet again and started twiddling with her index fingers.
When I saw how uncomfortable she was with my question, I waved my two hands in front of her face and said, "Forget I asked. It wasn't my place to…" Before I could finish my sentence, I saw a hand in front of my face.
"No, I want to tell you." She said as she placed down her hand. "I'll start from the very beginning. My mother died when I was only 4 years old. I'm living with my father right now, but he's very sick. He's illness has gotten worse over the past few weeks and I'm very worried. I just became a Rogue, but the only reason I became one, was to make money for my father. Nobody hires me in a proper job because they say I lack education. And so this is the only way I can make money, by stealing. The medicine is very expensive, so is the payment for the doctor. I tried my new Rogue skills on you to see if I was better. And when I managed to get your wallet without you even noticing, I was satisfied. That's the reason I steal." She said twiddling with her index fingers, again, while staring at her feet. I felt a strong pang of guilt inside of me.
I wanted to help her in any way I could and that's when the idea hit me. "Why don't you join my party and help me hunt down a boss card? We could sell it and the money would be divided into 3." I said, mentally praising myself for being a genius. But my thoughts were interrupted when Hiroko's irritating voice spoke to me and said, "Three? There's only the two of us, how could there be three? Unless you know someone that can help us get a boss card." Hiroko said as she arched an eyebrow and crossing her arms in front of her chest.
I furrowed my eyebrows and said, "Yes, luckily I do. Her name is Keiko, my sister. She's a priest and the reason why I'm here in Prontera. I was going to pay her a visit." The two of us remained silent for a couple of minutes until Hiroko broke the silence and said, "So are we going to go meet your sister or are we just going to stand here all day?" I nodded my head twice and started walking towards the sanctuary.
While we were walking, Hiroko tapped me by the shoulder and asked, "Takeshi, how old is your sister?"
I turned to look at her and noticed that she was a head shorter than me, "She's 18." She then stopped me from walking by turning me around by the shoulder.
"What about you then? How old are you?" She asked while she tilted her head at the side. She looked cute that way.
"I'm 22 years old. And you?" I asked as I looked at her with a questioning brow.
"20 years old. Oh look! We're here!" My eyes widened in surprise and looked in front of me. It really was the sanctuary. It seemed as though it became slightly bigger. I walked towards the door and pushed with all my strength when I noticed that Hiroko was at my right side pushing with me. The doors opened easier that way.
When we opened the doors, the first thing we saw was the corridor. There was a pink carpet on the floor that went straight ahead. The second thing we noticed was that the whole place was lit up by the candles on the ceiling. I continued to move forward while Hiroko waited by the corridor and was shocked to find my sister kneeling down and praying. She still had that long blonde hair that reached down to her waist and a circlet was still there placed on her head; her eyes were closed, showing just how serious she was during a prayer. I quietly moved closer to her, I didn't want to disturb her prayer.
"Keiko? Are you there?" I called out, tapping her twice on the shoulder. She faced me with her bright blue eyes that went wide when she saw me. She stood up from her kneeling position, her eyes watering. She walked towards me slowly and circled her arms around my waist. She started crying. And I honestly didn't know what was wrong with her and why she was crying. So I asked her the question that most big brothers do.
"Keiko, what's wrong. Aren't you glad I came to visit you?" I said while rubbing her back.
"Of course I'm glad! It's just that, I'm so happy I get to see you again." I pulled away from her and gave her a serious look.
"I'm not alone this time. I'm with a Rogue who has financial problems. We're planning to hunt for a boss card, but in order to do that; we need a priest to support us. You're the only priestess I can trust around here." I said my arms on my hips.
"So what's the Rogue's name? How did you guys meet? What kind of financial problems does she have?" Sigh this is going to be a long, long day. I started to answer her questions one by one. I decided to just introduce Keiko to her. We slowly walked down the corridor. I could already see Hiroko's red hair in the distance.
When we reached Hiroko, she was smiling so brightly. She was looking at Keiko with excitement in her eyes.
"Hi! You must be Keiko, I'm Hiroko." She said as she stretched out her arm, waiting for my sister to accept it. I looked at Keiko, then back at Hiroko again. There seemed to be an awkward silence between them. Keiko was eyeing the rogue's hand, while Hiroko waited silently, her smile still plastered on her face. I thought that Keiko was having second thoughts about Hiroko. I looked at her worriedly, I didn't know why I wanted to help Hiroko so badly, but I did. Seconds passed by, Keiko finally accepted Hiroko's hand and smiled at her. I practically sighed in relief. For a moment there, I thought Keiko was going to back out just because Hiroko was a Rogue. But she's a priest, helping others in need is a second nature to Keiko. I was glad that Keiko and Hiroko were getting along well. I wouldn't know what to do if they didn't.
"It took you long enough." I said, facing Keiko who glared at my comment and stuck her tongue out at me, childishly. I rolled my eyes and patted her head with my hand, earning another glare from Keiko. I looked at Hiroko through my peripheral vision. It seemed she was watching intensely. I didn't know why but random emotions were currently displayed on her delicate features, as I continued to pat down on my sister's head. I decided to disregard Hiroko's strange behavior and continue with the boss-card hunting.
A few weeks had passed and still no trace of the monster Baphomet they have been searching for. We're already in Glast Heim and still no Baphomet! Where could he be? I looked to my left to see Hiroko with her eyebrows furrowed. She seemed to be thinking about something very seriously.
I just kept starring at her like that until, "Where is he? We've been traveling for over 2 weeks now searching for this Baphomet guy and we still don't know where he is! That Knight told us that he's in Glast Heim. Now we're here, out in the open, but still no Baphomet!" she yelled.
Hiroko had just finished another of her rants about the fact that Baphomet had still not appeared when I suddenly felt a small rumble. The hairs on the back of my neck were raised as I looked down and saw the pebbles dance rhythmically on the ground as it shook. Something was coming...towards them...and it was big. I looked up at Hiroko's face and it had drained of color. Her wish is about to come true and whatever bravado she was displaying in the last several days had washed away like mud down a wet slope. She was about to meet Baphomet. I looked to my left to see Keiko with the exact same expression on her face.
"Get ready, you guys." I them look at me with worried faces; they were scared, I could tell. But they brought out their weapons nevertheless. There was no turning back now.
The crumbling continued for a few more minutes, and then it stopped. I turned around just in time to see the Baphomet crashing into the wall. Some of the bricks hit my head and was starting to bleed. Baphomet was so huge! I looked up to see Hiroko's face she was terrified! But then, who wouldn't be? I looked back at Baphomet only to find that he was staring back at us with his red eyes. I couldn't move. We were about to face the most powerful monster in Rune-Midgard, and even if I didn't want to admit it, I was afraid. I decided to make the first move.
I waved my hands and yelled, "Jupitel Thunder!!" Baphomet tried to block the magic using his scythe, but it only increased the impact and Baphomet fell on his back. Before he could stand up, someone was shooting arrows at him. Arrows? We don't have an archer. Then I looked at Hiroko, she was holding a bow and there were arrows on her back. Before she could shoot that arrow at Baphomet, Keiko had cast 'Blessing' on her. I focused my attention to Baphomet, who was having a hard time standing up because of his scythe's weight.
I waved my hands again and whispered, "Heaven's Drive..." and pointed them at Baphomet. But Baphomet teleported even before my spell could even hit him. And without warning, he was behind Hiroko and me. He positioned his scythe at the level of our heads and was about to cut it off my body when a barrier circled us.
I looked at Keiko who looked back at me and whispered, "Magnificat!!" A beautiful glow surrounded us and on top of our heads was a Valkyrie with wings. I felt myself regenerating slowly. I could feel the barrier reaching its limit and was about to break. So I took this chance to my advantage. I whispered my spell as quietly as I could and waved my hands at the Baphomet. When my spell ended, he was frozen stiff. Hiroko stopped attacking and looked at me, as if asking what to do next. I wasn't sure either. I did a random spell and whispered a little louder than the first. When one looked up, you could see fire falling from the sky. It would've been a beautiful sight if it weren't aimed on attacking you. By then, the barrier had disappeared, and the three of us had to take cover. We all heard my attack hit on Baphomet and he just started screaming.
Once the smoked had cleared, we looked up to find Baphomet's scythe lying on the ground, burnt and bloodied. But there was a rectangular object beside it. I picked it up and was shocked to find a Baphomet card. This card cost at least five hundred million zenies. It was a very strong card. All of your attacks will be 9-cell splash when compounded to a weapon. I showed it to Keiko and Hiroko. Keiko was happily smiling while Hiroko was speechless. She was about to cry, when Keiko hugged her. Then, there was a smile tugging at her lips. We finally defeated Baphomet. Hiroko's financial problems were solved, and I could finally buy a Phen clip. Our problems were over.
Once we got back in Prontera, Keiko immediately refused the money. She wasn't greedy I knew that. Hiroko thanked me and from that day on, we had a very strong bond and nothing could break that friendship.