A Congalala rushed out of the jungle, approaching the beach. Three hunters and a Melynx pursued it.
It reached the ocean and started to turn right. This attempt was cut off by "Looks like we've got it cornered." Riko commented.
"Don't say that, nya." Shoot complained "Now it's gonna get away."
A Lagiacrus jumped out of the ocean. As the Congalala turned around, a Ludroth appeared.
"It'll be fine." Anthony replied "Probably."
"This is just jinxing it more..." Zach pointed out "So how about we just kill it instead of just chatting?"
The Congalala charged at Shoot first, who quickly jumped away. Riko struck at it first, followed by Anthony dazing it.
The Congalala was unable to fight back, being attacked from all directions at once.
Unable to fight back, the only option it saw was to escape. The fanged beast leapt into the air, aiming for somewhere in the jungle.
Anthony watched it go. "Shit, so we did jinx it."
"Told nya."
Riko sighed. "I really don't wanna have to chase after it again…"
"Don't worry," Zach grinned "I've got a great idea. Shoot, get on my back."
"Why?"
"No time to explain."
"That's what you always say when it's something bad, nya."
"It'll be fine, this'll stop it from escaping for sure."
Shoot looked at him for a few seconds before muttering "Yeah sure it can't be that bad." And hopping on Zach's back.
"Aight. Zappy, launch us!"
"Wait no I changed my mind nya I should never trust you I'm-"
Zappy launched the pair in the direction of the monster.
"I'm gonna kill nya."
"Yeah sure, just leave it for after this."
"How are nya even gonna reach it? We're clearly not gonna make it, nya."
Zach readied his gunlance. A wyvern's fire pushed them through the air.
However, this only lasted a few seconds. They started to fall again.
"Was that seriously it?"
"Nah, this is."
Zach grabbed Shoot, who frantically clawed at him once he realised what was about to happen. The Melynx was hurled towards the monster in mid-air.
This still wasn't enough to reach it.
"What now, nya!?"
"Use one of your items to get to it!"
Shoot pulled out a rocket and launched towards the Congalala. It was a direct hit, the monster unable to dodge.
Shoot was now falling again.
"So what now? How are we gonna get down safely, nya?"
Zach stared at him in complete silence. Shoot returned his blank expression. A moment later they crashed into the trees.
"Ah, looks like they got it. Can't believe that worked." Riko noted.
"We should probably go help them, the fall looked bad."
"Yeah, sure."
They began to make their way back into the jungle, Zappy leading the way and Wave following.
"They fell somewhere in this direction, right?" Anthony asked.
"Yeah, probably. Wait… what's up with this fog?"
As Riko said that, Anthony finally noticed the fog that had surrounded them.
"This… ain't normal, is it?"
"Not really. Which means that this is probably-"
Before he could finish his sentence Riko was slapped to the side by Wave. A second later a purple monster crashed into the ground where Riko just was.
"Chameleos!"
The monster jumped away and disappeared back into the fog.
Riko got back up and readied himself. Poison was shot from somewhere in the mist, barely being dodged.
A tongue shot forwards, Riko blocked it. More poison followed.
A few moments of silence. They could guess what the next attack would be. The Elder Dragon pounced out of the mist from behind them.
Anthony and Wave went to the left of the monster, Riko and Zappy went to the right.
It was only when he was to the side of the Chameleos that Riko noticed the scar in the place of the monster's right eye. His mind froze for a second, before being knocked back into reality by a claw swipe to the chest.
He crashed into a nearby tree. The monster turned to Anthony, who hit it with a strike to the head immediately. Wave followed up by biting into its side and electrocuting it.
The Chameleos roared and disappeared once more.
Riko struggled to get back up, a second later he was under attack again.
The Chameleos charged, this was blocked. It followed this with spitting poison, Riko ducked to avoid it. Riko swung upwards, cutting into the dragon's chest. The Elder Dragon then went for a swipe, pushing Riko back.
He suddenly tripped, realising he'd been pushed onto the poison. It took effect quickly, he felt he could collapse at any minute.
Anthony watched this and charged in, jumping straight for the monster's head, but before he could knock it out it disappeared from sight.
A few seconds later, it attacked from his blind spot. Anthony dodged, but was unable to dodge the follow up swipe, which knocked him into poison.
"I'm guessing you don't have any antidotes?" Riko asked.
"Nah, would've used 'em by now."
"Well, looks like there's only one choice."
"Yeah. Let's get outta-"
"Taking him down right now before the poison knocks us out."
"Wait no, what are you-"
Riko rushed for where the elder dragon was, swinging but only cutting through the mist.
A few more swings, as if trying to guess where it'd strike from next. There wasn't time to counter. All he could do was attack.
A sound to his left. Riko swung. He saw the Chameleos reappear just in front of him and attack.
Riko was knocked back, he dug his sword into the ground and used it to try pulling himself off the ground. This didn't prove successful. Still, he continued to attempt, staring down the monster the entire time.
In response, the monster just watched. Waiting for his strength to run out.
Anthony had been in a confused silence this entire time, but finally snapped out of it.
"Oi, Riko! The hell are you doing! You're gonna die! Let's just escape already!"
Riko took a deep breath before answering.
"There's no way I can stop now. Not after all this time."
He looked over to the Chameleos.
"It's you, isn't it? Kam!"
The air around the monster changed when it heard that name. Riko felt its wounded eye lock onto him.
It advanced. Poison wouldn't be enough. Not for him.
Riko watched it approach, still leaning on his weapon. The two stared each other down.
The distance between them closed in a few seconds that felt like an eternity.
Face-to-face there was no room for doubt. Both sides recognised the other.
The tension was interrupted by a Melynx knocking Riko away. At the same time, a gunlancer attacked the monster.
"What the hell are nya just standin' around for, we've gotta run!"
In the time created by the time by the distraction, Wave grabbed the passed out Anthony and Zappy grabbed Riko. Zach landed a few hits before turning to run with them.
Riko watched as the monster faded back into the mist, before the poison finally caused him to pass out.
By the time he woke up, they were at the nearest village. The sun was setting in the distance.
"Ah, yer awake." Zach commented.
"Why no, I'm not. Anyway, how long was I out?"
"A few hours."
Riko got out of bed as quickly as possible.
"Oi, didn't ya just get battered? I get that yer tough, but I can't believe yer okay after that."
"I'm fine."
"No really, I can't believe it. Go rest some more."
Riko stared at him for a few seconds, before just walking past him.
"...Rude."
Riko stormed through the streets, not paying attention to his surroundings. He just had to find the guildhouse.
"Well, isn't someone determined?" A voice asked from his side.
"...Who?"
"I'm the chief of this place. And you're one of the hunters who was just taken out by our Phantom."
"So that's what he's called."
"Yeah, real frightening thing, he is. Goes around the jungle targeting hunters. He's been at it for years, but the problem is no one can ever catch him. The moment a hunt on him begins he disappears, then shows up again whenever we give up."
"I see. Well don't worry, because I'm gonna go solve the problem now."
"Well I do have to admire your dedication, but you mean right now? Now, I'm not a hunter, so maybe I'm missing something, but it makes more sense to hunt an camouflaged monster when you can see, right? So are you really going right now?"
"Yeah." Riko started walking again, not even bothering to wait for a response.
The chief's smile faded "...Rude brat."
Riko finally reached the guild hall, but before he could enter he heard a voice behind him.
"Stop right there, pissed off greatsword guy!"
"I'm not pissed off, Anthony."
"Then why do you keep pushing everyone away?"
"This is something that I have to deal with myself. No one else should get involved."
"You almost died it to a few hours ago. You really think you can take it?"
"That doesn't matter, now leave me alone already."
"Ah, I just got it."
"...What?"
"The reason you're acting so different to normal is so that everyone will lose interest in trying to help you, right? You're doing the angsty swordsman character."
Riko didn't respond, he just awkwardly looked around.
"Unfortunately for you, I'm familiar enough with those sorta characters to know that they're always hiding a tragic backstory, so c'mon already. Explain how you know the monster. You can't get out of this, I remember you calling it something like uh… Cham? Cam? ...The poison might've been affecting my senses a little, actually."
Riko continued to look around "...Kam."
"There we go."
Riko sighed "Fine, you got me, you win. Let's just go find somewhere to sit down, it'll probably take a while."
The boy found himself isolated. It wasn't like there was any special reason behind it. He was just quiet and unimportant. He had no presence, so no one paid attention to him.
This left him without anything to do, so he wandered the jungle out of boredom.
The monsters never took any notice of him either. He was like a ghost.
There was a disruption to this life one day, when he found mist surrounding him.
He saw the eye inside the mist. The eye inside the mist saw him.
In that closed off world, the two invisible ones encountered each other.
Strangely, their meeting was peaceful. Riko didn't recognise the monster, but he could recognise it was dangerous.
The monster didn't attack. It just observed.
Riko saw an oddly shaped head come into view. More of it was gradually revealed. Purple scales. A sharp horn. A curled tail.
A moment of interest, perhaps some kind of understanding. They continued to observe each other, until that trance suddenly vanished. The monster disappeared once again, Riko turned to run.
When he found himself back at the village, curiousity took hold of him. After some research, he found out the monster's name.
A Chameleos. The mist dragon. More importantly… an elder dragon.
The kind of monster that's always defeated in legends. A monster that could cause disasters, disrupt normal life. What he met was definitely something terrifying.
Yet, he couldn't not be interested in the thing that had noticed him, the thing he felt understood him.
After a lot of hesitation, he returned the next day.
The Chameleos seemed to have felt the same thing, as it was back in its place.
Another silent observation. To avoid giving into his fear, he changed things up from before.
"I'm… Riko Ford! From over there. Who are you?"
The Chameleos made a noise to recognise this.
"Ah, I guess elder dragons really can't talk after all. Well uh… you're a Chameleos, aren't you? Cause you're like purple and invisible and all of that."
The Chameleos went back to observing.
Riko paused for a few seconds, before resolving himself again.
"I'm still kinda scared of you, cause y'know, elder dragon. But… you seem like the only thing that understands me so… I wanna be friends!"
The Chameleos didn't move.
"If you accept then uh, don't eat me. Though don't do that anyways, I don't wanna be eaten, so like-"
The Chameleos moved closer, making him go silent. Riko looked at its expression expecting something to change, but got nothing.
"So we're friends, right?"
Nothing.
"Nod if we're friends." Riko showed the monster how to nod. The monster copied him. A smile crossed his face. "Good, so it's decided."
The Chameleos seemed fine with this result.
"Wait, you need a name, don't you? Cause calling you Chameleos is too much." He paused. "I'll just cut some off so what about Cham?"
The Chameleos shook its head.
"Yeah, that does feel kinda weird. So maybe… Kam?"
This was received better.
The connection between the two who were unseen to everyone else was forged on that day. Their world was closed off, but they were happy there.
Riko aspired to become a hunter, so he'd spend his time telling Kam about what he'd learnt and what he wanted to do. Kam seemed to understand him. He was the only one there to listen to the boy, so there was a lot to hear.
As you could expect, this comfortable world eventually fell apart.
A day like any other. Riko didn't pay attention to his surroundings, so he just carried on like normal.
He arrived at the usual place. Kam appeared a few seconds later. The usual scene played out.
This was cut off by a hunter jumping out to attack Kam. Another one followed up with some gunfire.
It took a few seconds to process what was happening before he tried to disappear, but as he did a smoke bomb was thrown, keeping him in their sight.
Riko continued to stand in place, frozen to the spot. Kam was unable to fight back effectively, unable to use his poison.
The Chameleos stared at Riko and he stared back, their eyes locked. By now, Riko could tell what emotions his friend was expressing. However, this was completely new to him.
One of the hunters brought down their blade, wounding Kam's right eye as it focused on Riko.
The monster turned and flew away, the hunters quickly pursued, leaving Riko there alone.
He only found out what happened when he returned.
Despite what he believed, people had taken notice of him. Every single day he would enter the jungle and return a few hours later. The hunters got suspicious, so they followed him, leading them straight to Kam.
"Still, that was dangerous." One told him "You've gotta be more careful, if we'd been any slower you'd have been its lunch."
"...What happened to it?"
"Ah, it escaped. Annoying, but hey, what can you do? At the very least, it won't be returning for a while. Don't worry, even if it comes back us hunters will drive it out again."
"Hey, can you stop bragging already? Let's go get drinks."
The group departed, leaving the boy in a state resembling despair.
The last thing Kam's right eye saw was him, meaning he was burnt into it. He knew that he was out there somewhere, but they would never be able to return to how things were.
After this, Riko returned to being invisible. He ended up becoming a hunter in the end, but no matter how far he went a feeling of emptiness followed him.
This led him to the present.
At the same time, unknown to him.
Four hunters wandered through the jungle. Mist surrounded them. A few seconds after they processed this, one of them was grabbed and dragged away into the mist, disappearing from view.
Another chased after them, but ended up stepping on some poison. One of the gunners was charged at by something invisible, getting knocked away into the mist.
Poison was released, hitting the other hunter.
The first one that was poisoned felt that he didn't have long, leaving them impatient. They heard a sound and swung straight for it, but the mist parted to reveal nothing. A moment later they were hit from the side.
The last one remaining glanced around frantically, but couldn't find anything. Any sounds were doubted. Fear took effect on their mind, followed by the poison taking effect on their entire body.
The monster had now taken revenge on the four that attacked it before. This left only one, the boy who'd betrayed him. He remembered his words, his dream of becoming a hunter, like those ones in legends.
He didn't know what he looked like now or where he was, but if he just kept attacking every hunter he sees, their paths were bound to cross. The phantom slipped off into the jungle.
This led them both to the present.
Anthony finished listening to Riko's story.
"I see, so that's how you know him. But, do you really think that taking him on your own will fix this?"
"It isn't about whether I can take him out or not, it's about settling things. The reason he's been attacking all those hunters is because of what I did."
"But it was the fault of the hunters, not you."
"If I hadn't talked to him, then they wouldn't have found him. Besides, it doesn't even matter if it wasn't, because he clearly blames me."
"...Alright, let's go with this."
"What?"
"Yeah sure, both of you had it pretty rough. You coasted for uh… a while, not really ever being able to connect with anyone. And he did pretty much the same, just more violent. In the end, I don't think you're that different. So what we've gotta do is fix things between you and him, that way this'll stop."
"Even if he stops now he's still gonna get hunted down. It's better if I'm the one who finishes what I started."
Anthony's face showed frustration, before suddenly changing to carelessness.
"Well, in that case, I guess there's nothing can be done about this at all. I'm completely helpless to stop it" His sarcasm had all the subtlety of being repeatedly hit over the head with a very large rock."In that case, I'll take the job too. After all, it'll be a lot of money, so I could use it. So on that note, let's go tomorrow, because it's too late now and I need time to prepare."
Met with Anthony's grin, Riko sighed with some slight happiness mixed in.
"Sure, I can't argue it."
"Your past isn't really my business, but my business is keeping you alive."
Later that night, Riko reflected.
"I know Anthony said that we should fix things, but he wasn't there, and I'm pretty sure he's biased anyways. You're clearly not gonna forgive me. But that's fine, because I'm not gonna forgive myself either. Right now… we're both like ghosts, aren't we? Well, we always were but, that's not the point. Both of us right now are basically invisible. Sure, I've managed to find a group, but no matter how much time has passed something's always felt empty. That's probably my regrets here."
He took a pause, now thinking of his former friend.
"As for your case, you feel something similar, right? Even if you try to leave, that eye still aches. So you can't forget your anger against me."
He thought about tomorrow.
"Right now, both of us don't exist. We can't. It's how we've always been, that day just set it in stone. But once one of us kills the other, whoever survives may finally be able to be seen. Everything will be settled in that jungle."
The next day, he prepared himself and headed to the gathering hall. He found Shoot and Zach waiting there.
"This is… unexpected."
"What? We're just here for fighting Phantom." Zach replied "Ya being edgy wouldn't stop us."
"Ah, yeah, sorry about that."
Anthony spoke up next "We should probably make a plan for dealing with him."
About half an hour later, the group departed.
The chief watched the caravan go.
Despite what Riko believed, he remembered that boy. He could remember sending the hunters to follow him out of concern, only to find an unexpected result. The boy seemed broken after that. A few years later, Phantom appeared.
His lapse in judgement was what led to this. Sure, he had taken the normally correct approach, but that situation was abnormal.
"This situation's strange as hell. So I guess in the end, taking a different approach to normal is the only thing that can fix it. You're the only one who's got a shot at stopping it, Riko."
The boy couldn't hear the man's thoughts, but they had the same idea.
A little while later, they arrived at the jungle.
"Let's begin." Riko started to head up. "You guys remember my plan, right?"
"Yeah." Zach answered "Lead it up to the top of the jungle, then distract it until we can blow it up, then chase it down wherever it ends up going."
The group advanced until reaching a spot that looked good, where they started to wait.
This took a while.
"Hey, is it really gonna show up, nya?"
"Yeah. Just wait. It'll show up the moment it spots us."
"Yeah, but this jungle's a big place, nya. When's it gonna get to spotting us?"
"...Eventually."
"Maybe we're better just finding it and leading it up here?" Anthony suggested.
"The moment the mist surrounds you, you're probably gonna struggle to get away. So it's safer to stay up here."
"Wait, why don't we just set up the bombs there? I mean, ya were pretty insistent on it, but is there actually a point? We'd probably be quicker if we just-"
"We're gonna stay here. Both of us wandering around will just lower the chances of us encountering each other."
Zach paused "Hey, why are ya so focused on staying up here specifically? Is there something yer hiding?"
Riko faced him, deep in thought, before his eyes noticed the mist behind him. "Now isn't the time, get ready!"
They grouped together in the middle as the mist surrounded them. A movement was heard to the side.
Shoot threw down a smoke bomb, getting rid of the mist.
The other three ran towards Phantom.
Riko and Anthony started hitting it to distract it while Zach prepared. He set some barrel bombs and began to charge a wyvern's fire.
Anthony noticed there wasn't much time and jumped back. He noticed that Riko didn't do the same.
"Oi, Riko! What are you doing!? It's gonna explode!"
Riko didn't answer, he just moved closer to the monster. Zach was unable to stop the wyvern's fire now, just as Phantom was unable to dodge the explosion.
Riko then turned to Anthony, letting out a "Sorry." Before both he and Phantom were knocked away, sent falling to the jungle below.
The monster crashed into the ground, knocking the human atop his back off, who tumbled to a stop nearby. Both rose to their feet.
Riko didn't care about his injuries, more focused on where they were.
"Hey, Kam."
Mentioning that name brought a response of visible anger.
"Do you remember this place?"
The monster looked around and understood.
"It's the place where we first met, however many years ago. Hasn't changed much, has it?" He avoided mentioning that it was also the place where everything had fallen apart.
A response of nothing.
"Yeah, fair point." Riko raised his blade.
"Hey, Kam." The young boy told his friend excitedly "One day, I'm totally gonna be like this guy, hunting down powerful monsters and stuff."
Kam gave a look of vague concern.
"Ah, not you though, since you're good. I'm only gonna fight the evil monsters that attack people! You don't have to worry."
The current Riko took a deep breath. He charged forwards with a yell. "Let's finish this, Kam!"
His opponent disappeared from view before Riko could attack, so he dropped a smoke bomb, revealing him to be standing directly behind him. A mist of poison was released.
Riko jumped back and drank an antidote, before dodging around Phantom's tongue.
He charged forwards and landed a hit, before being blasted away from the wind created by the monster's tail. More poison was shot onto the ground.
Phantom attacked using his tongue again, this time hitting and stealing an antidote.
Riko pushed down how worried this made before him and went for another charge, this time avoiding the wind blast after his attack. He was unable to avoid the poison mist this time.
Their battle continued on like this for a while, with Riko pursuing Phantom, while gradually having his items deplete. Before he even realised it, he had no antidotes or smoke bombs left.
Phantom seemed to pick up on this instantly, disappearing from view. Riko glanced around anxiously.
Thinking he perceived a shape, Riko attacked, but found nothing. A moment later, poison mist hit him. He was knocked back by another attack but managed to stop himself from collapsing.
The mist continued to surround him while he felt the poison take effect. Even if he tried to attack, he had no way of spotting his opponent. This felt like checkmate.
He felt like he was about to fall, his life began to flash before his eyes.
The start felt very empty to him. Every memory of his time with Kam just caused him pain. All the memories after were even more empty. It was only after he joined the group of monster-riding hunters that he felt a change from them.
Even when it was so bright, it was wasted on him. To compare it to a sun, it was like all the light was passing through him. He truly was invisible.
The feeling that followed was a surprise to him. After distancing himself so much, staying away because of his regret. All that did to him was create more regret.
"That's right, I want to be in that light. Maybe I could've before, but my mind was stopping me from realising that I wanted to. Working out that I wanna live to the fullest while I'm dying is a pretty smart move on my part. "
He stood up again.
"Hey, you know what this battle is about, right? If I win, I can finally stop all the problems that were cause of mistakes. I can't forgiven, but at the very least maybe I can finally leave this behind. And if you win, then your revenge will be done. The only way for one of us to stop being invisible is if the other dies. You get that too, don't you?"
The mist continued to swirl around him.
"...A little while ago, I didn't really value much at all. Knowing that you could live if I died would've just lead to me letting you kill me. But now I've got a guy who's gonna be super pissed at me if I die here. He'll probably find some way of bringing me back from the dead just to yell at me. But really though... no matter what, I'm gonna stop being invisible. I want to exist.."
He took a deep breath, before getting ready to fight.
"I think you're right, I probably deserve death. This is all my fault, I can't forgiven. But I'm a terrible person, so I'm gonna survive!"
After all this yelling to resolve himself, he could feel the poison wearing him down even further. It was unlikely that he had more than a few minutes.
So, he charged. Phantom remained hidden, confident that the hunter wouldn't be able to follow him. Riko ran into the mist, but suddenly changed direction, taking Phantom off guard with a swing that knocked him over.
A quick glance was all that Phantom needed to understand. The man had not relied on his sight, hearing or smell to find him. There was no trick to it either, he was out of smoke bombs. It was just pure instinct, the same that had caused their meeting to begin with.
Riko charged forwards. Phantom tried to stop him with a claw swipe, but he pushed past, it landing a strike to Phantom's head.
Phantom attempted to push him away with some wind, but Riko dug his weapon into the ground to stay in place. Phantom took the opening to bite at him.
The hunter saw it coming and raised his left shoulder, causing the Chameleos' jaws to clamp around it. Pain flared through Riko, but he pushed it down to grab his weapon out of the ground and slam it into his opponent's neck.
Kam released his grip as he was knocked back. Riko's left arm wasn't responding anymore, but he didn't have time to care. He just rushed forwards once more, only using his right arm to lift his greatsword.
Phantom stretched out his tongue and swung it from Riko's left, he failed to deflect it and it slammed into his head. His vision in his left eye was cut off. Yet, the man continued to attack.
Riko swung and connected. Phantom retaliated with his claws. Riko went for another attack, but his target disappeared into the mist.
Riko spun around, accurately guessing the direction of the attack. But even when he got it right, there was no way for him to prevent it.
Phantom lunged out of the mist, jaws wide open, his head sideways. Riko's torso was clamped around, the fangs piercing his sides.
The fight seemed to be over. This is what would normally cause the ending. Phantom recognised that. His opponent was injured beyond what a normal human would survive and poisoned on top of that. Despite all of this, Riko didn't drop his weapon.
It was a moment of surprising clarity. Riko got the feeling that between the poison and his injuries he had only a few seconds left. His remaining eye locked with the eye of his opponent. They both understood what would happen in the next move, yet neither seemed that concerned.
Riko somehow managed to speak.
"There isn't long, so I'll end this by saying what I never got the chance to say back then."
He gripped his weapon more tightly and stabbed it forwards. Phantom raised his arm to deflect it. Neither had the strength left to yell, putting everything they had into their last move. Phantom was less than a second too late to stop it, the blade pierced through his neck.
"Goodbye, Kam."
The grip loosened, causing Riko to drop to the ground. Kam gave Riko a look of frustration, before this shifted. The emotion in his eyes was peaceful, the look of finally being allowed to rest.
While this was happening, Riko found himself unable to move anymore. He could hear someone approaching in the distance, but was too tired to pay attention to it.
Riko slumped over and fell asleep, lying next to his companion.
By the time he woke up again, he was indoors. He noticed the figure standing beside his bed.
"Ah, Anthony. I'm-"
"Dipshit-liar-destroying-justice-seeking-extreme-ultimate punch!"
Riko let out a sound of pain as he was punched in the stomach.
It took a second for him to recover "Wait, this is completely wrong, isn't this the part where I'm supposed to say something nice to wrap things up, why are you-?"
"Because you just went to fight him on your own! After a bunch of talking about fighting it as a team and surviving you decide to ignore all that and fight him on your own! What was even the point?"
"To settle things ourselves. A 1v1 makes more sense, if it was just a group fight it wouldn't solve things."
"All you did was get more injured than you would've! You don't even have both your eyes working anymore!"
"Wait, I don't?"
Riko felt around the left side of his face. Bandages covered the majority of it.
"Ah."
"Yeah," Riko only then noticed that Zach had been sitting in the corner this entire time "What was even the point of that? We've already had a character growth eyepatch, ya can't just show you've changed by losing an eye now, find yer own body part that isn't completely necessary."
Anthony turned to face Zach.
"Don't encourage him."
"I'm not just going around getting injured for the sake of getting injured!"
"It sure looks like you are!"
"Don't yell at injured people!"
"The injured person wouldn't be injured if he wasn't stupid!"
"Ahh, I've already forgotten what I was gonna say cause of this."
"All you did was put yourself at risk, you're not gonna get some nice scene out of it."
"I barely survived, just give me this."
"...It's not like I'm not super glad you survived. I'm just mad cause you shouldn't have been a situation you could've died from to begin with."
"...Well anyway, how long was I even out for?"
"Few days." Zach answered.
"A while, then."
"Mm. And I know ya just woke up, but ya might as well go to sleep now. Sun's already setting."
"Sure."
Riko completely ignored this advice and found himself sitting on a roof an hour later, staring at the moon.
He felt his bandages.
"Hey, Kam. You listening? Aren't we just a pair of opposites now? Maybe this works out, I take your right eye and you take my left. Just kidding. Not like you'd even wanna listen to me if you could."
He continued to stare aimlessly into the sky.
"I really hate myself. It would've been better to just die. Then you could've finally lived. But I was selfish. Hell, it would've been better if my selfishness hadn't hurt you to begin with. It would've been better if I was never born, wouldn't it? Hah… after all that I yelled about how I want to live, I can't buy. Of course I can't, I'm just garbage after all. I just yelled all that because I didn't want to die. Even if I put the past to rest, of course I'm gonna stay invisible. I was just tryna find a scapegoat, wasn't I?"
He spotted Anthony walking towards the building and quickly scrambled to hide, but it was obvious he'd already been spotted.
"Oi, Riko. Should you really be moving around?"
"Uh… don't start yelling again. Please."
"...So what are you thinking about?"
Riko lowered his guard, being surprised at the lack of a lecture. "Nothing."
"You climbed up a roof while injured and started to meaningfully stare at the moon while thinking about nothing."
"...Yeah."
"You're always pushing other people away, you know that?"
Riko completely froze.
"I mean, seriously. Even after telling me your whole deal with Kam, you think I'm just gonna expect you to walk out of it fine? I mean mentally of course, all the injuries are another thing. Still, have a little faith in me."
"It's… not like, I didn't not have faith in you, it's just that I didn't think you'd bother."
"Why?"
"B-because. Who would?"
"I just did."
"That's…"
"But like I said, you don't really ever wanna open up to anyone, do you? I'm the only one you seem to trust, so I guess I'm lucky, but the rest dunno anything about you other than you being good at swinging around swords."
"Look, you're an exception. Talking to others is hard. Besides, how am I supposed to uphold my angsty swordsman character if I go around telling people about myself all the time?"
"Those kinds of characters are built for revealing gradually what their deal is, though! Besides, who cares about that, those went outta date years ago. You're you, not a character."
"Opening up is still difficult. It's more comfortable to just stay in the background."
"But are you happy that way?"
"...Can you give me the chance to argue back?"
"No. Anyways…" Anthony started trying to grab at the roof that Riko was on. He couldn't get a proper grip on it, so after a few seconds Riko pulled him up.
"Thanks. How'd an injured guy even manage to do that? You really are way stronger than me, huh?"
Riko didn't respond.
"Well still, even if you're ridiculously strong you can't just isolate yourself, got it?"
"I get that, but…"
"I probably went a little overboard back there, I mean I'm not good enough myself to be able to get along with everyone and anyone so it's not like I can talk. But in the end, all you really need are a few people to trust, right? So, you might as well start with me. We'll see where you can go from there."
Riko took a while to process this. Then it suddenly hit him like a bomb going off in his head. Unfortunately the destruction of his brain meant he couldn't find a single smart thing to say in response.
"...Wait, so you're over me injuring myself super badly?"
"How did you get that out of it? Of course I'm still mad. But the reason I was mad is cause I was worried about you, idiot. Those guys might not show it, but they were worried too. If they weren't they wouldn't have stayed around here until you woke, would they? So look, there's more people you can trust."
"Even if I trust others, it'll probably just hurt them, right? Look at what happened to Kam."
"It was the hunters, not you."
"Yeah sure, but it's all cause I'm the one who dragged him out hiding."
"Going by the story, you didn't really drag him out at all, did you? It seemed more like he spent time with you cause you got each other."
"But, I'm still-"
"He chose to be there of his own will, you weren't keeping him there against his will. Sure, what happened was unfortunate. If he had been somewhere else, things would've gone differently. But it was his decision to be there, not yours. So, not your fault. Got it?"
Riko's brain still wasn't functioning properly, but he recognised something. This roof was the place he always isolated himself. The space had been invaded. Those walls of isolation had been completely broken down by one person's stubbornness.
"Ok, fine, fine. You win."
Anthony smirked.
"Do you really mean that? Cause the last time I heard something like that you almost died the very next day."
"...I mean it. I do wanna live, you know. So… thanks. For giving me a reason to do that."
"Its fine. But now you've actually gotta do it."
Riko suddenly had an idea. "One condition first."
Anthony took a long pause of fear. "What?"
"We've gotta visit Kotoko at some point in the next year."
"I was expecting something… way different, even if I dunno what I was expecting. Why?"
"Well cause, I just had this massive arc about facing my regret. And you're here now on your high horse looking all wise. So, it's only fair if you've gotta deal with your regret too."
Anthony's looked away "I mean that's fine and all, but I need money first, so like-"
"Then we'll just get it. I can pay too."
"...Oi, this is supposed to be the part where I'm guiding you. Don't turn it around and try to fix my problems too."
"No, it's equal that way. You help me and I help you."
"F-fine then. We'll go with that. When we've got money."
The conversation between the pair under the moon continued a while longer.
Riko took another glance at the moon as he thought.
"Hey, Kam. You still there? I guess I should apologise. After all, I'm still the one who killed you. I guess I should also thank you. You were the one who saved me from my loneliness, the only one who got me. So I have to thank you. You were irreplaceable. That also makes it even worse how things turned out, doesn't it? I'm unforgivable. I should be dead. But I'm living anyways. I'm stupidly blessed. Everyone around me is too damn good for me, I really can't believe it. So I'm gonna continue living. So, thank you for being there for me."
TO BE CONTINUED