Note: I don't own anything.


Prologue 3: Good Morning?


When I woke up I still felt terrible, but at least I didn't feel tired anymore.

"So, what should I do now? An unfamiliar city, no money, no roof over my head, no phone, no documents and no one to rely on for help. That doesn't sound good. What do you think, partner?"

'I think that we should forget about all that for now and spend a bit of our time on experimenting with our power.'

"Yeah, you're probably right."

'Try to repeat what you did with the air yesterday.'

I reached out with my power for the air's soul and pulled at it with the desire for help. Breathing became easier, more comfortable. I tried to stop breathing for a while, then took another breath when it got uncomfortable.

"So, I still need to breathe like a normal person."

'Heh, what else did you expect?'

"I don't know, that the air would force its way in by itself?"

I tried the same thing again, but this time I pulled at the soul with the desire to help me breathe. As soon as I stopped breathing the air started going in and out of me on its own. When I closed my mouth it started going through my nose, and when I closed my nostrils with my hand the air started going through my ears...

'Yeah, that's a very weird feeling. I don't want to find out where the air will go if I plug my earholes as well.'

'Ahahahaha! Oh my god, you're such an idiot! You get a godly power to manipulate almost anything, and the first thing you test is if you can make yourself breathe with your ears?!'

"Hey, at least now I know that I won't suffocate if someone slits my throat!"

'What now, gonna cut yourself and see if you can stop the bleeding by controlling your own blood?'

"First of all, I'm not a masochist. Second, I have nothing to cut myself with. Third... there is no third, let's just try the breathing thingy a few more times till I get used to it and then move on to something else."

After about fifteen minutes of repeatedly pulling at the air's soul to help me breathe, I figured that it costs almost no energy to do that and that I didn't even need to reach out for the air's soul specifically in the first place. My desire for help to breathe mattered more than the focus on the air's soul did. I could probably do this for the whole day and not get tired at all. Now I have to do this for at least a few days, maybe weeks, to make the process automatic.

'Congratulations, you've learned the best power ever - super breathing. Let's move on to something more fun.'

"Hmm, I jumped to the roof of that house near Winslow yesterday pretty easily, and it is a useful skill, especially in such a small city, but this park is not the best environment for this kind of practice. Let's focus on speed now."

'Well, you are kind of a coward, so obviously a speed buff is one of the first things you wanna learn.'

"That hurt a bit, but it is undeniable."

Making a few quick and wide swings with my hands I tried to commit the feeling of the air resisting my motion to memory for comparison later. It was barely there, but I felt it. Then I pulled at the air's soul again, but this time I was more focused on the disturbance that my presence caused and slowly pushed against it until it almost disappeared. When I was done I felt slightly lighter, like a small weight that was always there got removed, like my body was one with the air around me. I tried doing those wide swinging motions again, but this time I felt nothing. While the experiment wasn't a complete failure, because making myself at least feel lighter and possibly removing air resistance could probably be useful later on, I still failed to achieve any significant increase in the speed of my movement.

I pulled at the air's soul and focused on pushing against its chaotic nature as well as the desire for help, for assistance. I didn't go all the way this time because making the air less chaotic was still quite difficult for me. Trying out the motions again I felt the air try to assist my movements, but all I got, as a result, was a weak gust of wind going in the same direction as my limbs. Tryin to run from one bench to the other gave the same result, but on a bigger scale, like running with the wind. Another failure. It could probably be used for making blades of wind or wind blasts out of solidified air with enough practice later, but for now, it was useless.

"Ugh, I'm done with the air tricks for now. Let's try something else" - I said with obvious frustration in my voice.

'Try the same thing with the ground now. It worked just fine yesterday when you jumped to the roof.'

The amusement in his... voice? Thoughts? Whatever. His amusement was just as obvious as my frustration. I pulled at the soul of the ground beneath my legs with a desire for its help and tried running around again. I didn't notice any drastic increase in my speed, but running was certainly easier than before. It was like the ground beneath me was full of springloaded platforms, pushing me forward. I tried to jump just like I did yesterday, but this time I didn't want to jump that high, and so I didn't. I wasn't sure exactly how high I jumped, but it was definitely at least three times higher than usual, and I barely felt anything when I landed. It wasn't exactly sure if it was a success, but I marked it as a "maybe" in my mind. I ran around like that for half an hour, trying to learn to switch this enhancement on and off on the run. While doing this immediately whenever I wanted was still beyond me, there was at least some obvious progress.

'Much better.'

"Yeah, I guess the desire matters much more than the focus. Maybe I just shouldn't try to micromanage everything, especially for vague and simple stuff like running, etc."

'Or maybe you're just doing it wrong even now. Desire? Really? You may be a fake, but you are a Fullbringer. You should demand things, not ask for them. The souls of non-living things are simple, they probably don't understand your "flirt".'

"I... really didn't think about it like that. Demand, you say? Like a ruler? Maybe there is something to it."

Trying to do exactly as he said, I started running around again. This time there was a very obvious increase in my speed. Everything except for what was right in front of me became a blur. It wasn't much, as far as superspeed powers go, especially when compared to what so many Shard based powers could do, but I finally got something useful, something that could save my life later, and it filled me with happiness.

'I'm glad that you feel so happy about yourself, but you probably should try demanding your clothes to self-clean. We can't leave the park as we are now. People will think we murdered someone.'

And he was right, again. My clothes were still sweaty from everything I did both tonight and today. And I also had some dried blood on my jacket. Yeah, I definitely looked like a murderhobo. At least I didn't stink as much as Taylor did when I caught her falling out from the locker. I reached out for the souls of my clothing and demanded they clean themselves. A few seconds later I stood in a puddle of sweat mixed with dried blood and dust. It was a pretty large puddle and it looked disgusting. It didn't smell much better than it looked either. I stepped away, looked at it again and stepped away again, much further away this time.

"Well, at least now I know that my clothes are all magical and self-cleaning." - I said with false cheer in my voice. Even though I knew that my clothes were clean now, I still wanted to burn them and get myself another, fresh set.

'This was a terrible reference. It was bad and you should feel bad'

I ignored the harsh truth once again and changed the subject.

"So, only two things left to try out now."

'And those are?'

"First, trying to pull at my own soul. And second... trying to manifest my Fullbring."

'My first Fullbring' - I thought as I looked at the broken wristwatch on my left hand. It wasn't anything special, but I was fond of it. A gift from my father, and the only thing besides my clothes that I carried with me to this world. I don't remember when or how it broke, so it probably happened when or after I died. There wasn't any obvious damage besides the missing glass.

'I hope I'll be back soon. It promised me my old life back for saving the girl, but I'm still here, so either Taylor didn't survive, or there was some other, possibly bullshit reason why I'm not back home yet.'

'Maybe there was a misunderstanding? Miscommunication? It sure didn't speak as normal people do.'

'Yeah, if mind rape was a language then it could teach it. Alright, enough distractions. We can think about it later.'

I reached inwards for my own soul and pulled at it. It was such a strange feeling, like grabbing your hair with your hand and trying to pull yourself up. I felt like I lost control over my body, and like I found it for the first time in my life. And then I fell right on my face...

"Ow, fuck!"

'Ahahahahaha-'

"Stop laughing, this isn't funny!" - I groaned

'-hahahaha! Only you! Nobody else could ever be this clumsy! AHAHAHAHA!'

"Hey, I wasn't ready! I didn't know that pulling at my soul would turn my body into a puppet controlled through my power!"

'I don't know if I will ever get used to it. It feels so weird.'

I was sure this time, it was too much, I wasn't ready for it yet. I could barely make simple souls do what I wanted them to, and here I was trying to do the same with my own. I didn't have enough control and experience to even make my body stand in place with my power, and so I fell.

"If you have any better ideas, then please, go ahead, don't be shy." - I said as I finally got up.

'You could just make your energy flow through your body. That should give you an overall power boost, no?'

"Then why didn't you say this, like, two minutes ago?!"

'Entertainment.'

"Oh, ha-ha. Look at silly Odis doing silly things. Very funny. What if I pulled our soul apart by accident?! Would you be laughing then as well, huh!?"

'Well, I wouldn't be there to laugh then, now would I?'

"Ugh, whatever. Let's try your advice."

Instead of pulling at my soul, I let my energy flow out of it and into my body. It made me feel like I could do anything. I tried to run around as I did before, and to my surprise I was even faster than when I pulled on the soul of the ground. But there was one big problem with this method of boosting my body's abilities, and it was my stamina. I didn't move around that much, and yet I already was feeling a bit tired. I tried to pull on the ground's soul, demanding its assistance at the same time as I was boosting my body with the energy. My speed almost doubled. I was stupidly fast now, and this time the world didn't blur when I moved, I could see everything clearly.

"It worked... It worked! I have actual super speed! Now if my life is in danger I can probably run away like a coward!"

'Let's finish this already. Try to manifest your Fullbring, and if, no, when you fail then we can finally go grab something to eat.'

Ignoring his comment, I reached out for the soul of my watch. I could feel that just like I was attached to it, it was attached to me. There was a bond between our souls, but it was only half-formed. To finish it I would have to pull its soul out, and so I pulled...


Author's note:

Feeling really lazy right now.